Could D’Antoni Walk Away?
When Donnie Walsh got the job of vice president of basketball operations of the New York Knicks almost two years ago, his plan was to try moving as many bad contracts from the Isiah Thomas’ era as he could, wait for time to pass on those that he couldn’t move and clear as much cap space as possible, mostly aiming for the super free agent summer of 2010. In other words, he was selling hope. The first one that he sold it to was Mike D’Antoni.
Mike D’Antoni was the architect of the run and gun Suns, a team built for the regular season but that never had success on the playoffs. When Steve Kerr became Phoenix’s GM, D’Antoni was let go because of philosophical differences. He was then hired by the Knicks and became Walsh’s first recruit. Apparently, players like to play for D’Antoni because of his style of offense.
But D’Antoni knew it would be two tough seasons. Last season the Knicks sucked, won only 32 games. This season hasn’t been different either. New York is currently 24-44 and got to a point where they are simply evaluating players.
Although it’s unfair to judge D’Antoni’s work, Knicks beat writers have been killing him lately. Marc Berman of the New York Post wrote about D’Antoni’s ego and how he made Nate Robinson sit for 14 games and how Darko Milicic never actually got a chance in NY, also pointed that D’Antoni and Walsh may not be on the same page because Mike wanted to start building something now by winning a number of games so he could campaign something for the free agents, while Walsh never even considered that and wanted more playing time for draft picks; Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas.
The Knicks did go on a nice stretch before the trade deadline when D’Antoni proved why he is a good coach. NY played slower, Nate was back on the rotation, a shorten rotation and a little bit of defense. With the trade deadline, the roster was reshaped, the Knicks suck again and D’Antoni looks frustrated. Also, NY lost control of their daft for the next three seasons.
If it looks like a trap, sounds like a trap and smells like a trap, it must be a trap. The Knicks have all this cap space and have been telling fans that help is coming and now that the summer of 2010 is almost here, we came to realize that New York’s chances on free agency aren’t as good as people thought.
D’Antoni’s look lately and the Knicks unsure future made me wonder if he could walk away to a better situation like Chicago for example. According to ESPN’s Ric Bucher and John Hollinger, that won’t happen because D’Antoni is making too much money in NY. Bucher also add that his star isn’t shinning all that bright at the moment for him to land elsewhere, while Hollinger is more optimistic than I’m and believe that help is in fact coming.
Although I thought it should be easy for D’Antoni to simply go to Chicago where they are on pace to build an All Star team, truth is that he bought into this program + there’s the money thing. He was the first one there and now that it may be time to collect, he wouldn’t just walk away like I think he should. I hope it’s not a mistake.
