Knicks brass may try to force Mike D'Antoni to bring on a defensive-minded assistant

[niko]

Yeah, I was just making a point. You really don't want to force an assistant coach down the head coach's throat. D'antoni is not just an "employee". He's not an office clerk. He's your $5 million a year Head Coach.

I believe MDA will be here one more year. No extension. But I'm not convinced he will definitely be gone after that.

It's a suggestion, one MDA would be wise to take. If it were something ridiculous like "i'm hiring a second coach to be your co-coach and approve your moves" it's one thing. But he is being asked (if this is true) to get an assistant to help him in an area he does not excel. That's reasonable, and if MDA declines it shows me he is more worried about hsi system than improvement. This is not about his ego, this is about our team and their success and if he cannot push his ego down to accomplish this than he can go **** himself.

[Scoooter]

damn just fire Mike


why do they want Lawrence Frank as their assistant when he can just be their head coach?

0-18 or whatever horrible thing he did the last time he was a head coach.

[Scoooter]

I hope they do something because i enjoy watching the knicks play, but its just pathetic in the 4th quarter when the other team just scores at will

Not sure they could still run there run n gun offence and focus on D though. If anything they need some bigs and just replace Dantoni IMO...
Not sure why anyone is really even that high on him, he hasnt won shit, and his game plan has been proven to lose against all the elite teams

Ditto Rick Adelman and Jerry Sloan and other career losers.

[Crown&Coke]

You can hire the greatest defensive mind the world has ever seen but if D'antoni doesn't give them practice time to practice defense what good does that do?

STAT said himself while in Phx that they didn't even touch defense in practice, the entire time they worked on offense. Which makes me when I hear D'antoni in press conferences saying they need to play better on defense. HOW MIKE? You don't have a defense except "don't let the guy score" mantra you tell your guys you idiot.

D'antoni is a gonner imo. He was only hired to lure free agnts to NY due to his great offensive mind and ability to hide players weaknesses, we all saw how that went... you get STAT who not many teams really went hard at because NY was knocking on his door with a 100mil at 12:01. Then you got..... Anthony Randolph, Buke and Ronny Turiaf, wow, such a great haul

[MeLO MvP 15]

Great idea, but didn't Phoenix ask him to do the same thing and he re-signed lol...

I think he's smart enough to realize he's not a defensive coach and needs one to win playoff games.

Mike Brown and Lawrence Franks are two recent coaches who could be great additions, but would they leave their respective jobs (ESPN analyst and Celtics assistant/potential college coach) to be a guy who will have to teach all the defense on a team. Honestly, I think it depends on the person. If you want to coach basketball but don't want the pressure of being head coach, then assistant is perfect.

[KevinNYC]

That would be a good combo though.

Actually wouldn't Mr. Potato Head live in fear of the Pringles Man. The man who lives to cut him up, fry him and eat him.

[bagelred]

Actually wouldn't Mr. Potato Head live in fear of the Pringles Man. The man who lives to cut him up, fry him and eat him.

Nice.

[clayton]

D'Antoni for offense, Mike Brown for defense.

[Blue&Orange]

And what if D'Antoni says no?

Saying no to your boss, i wonder what happens

Yeah, I was just making a point. You really don't want to force an assistant coach down the head coach's throat. D'antoni is not just an "employee". He's not an office clerk. He's your $5 million a year Head Coach.

Earning $5 millions while working for someone that have the money Dolan have, makes you just that, a clerk. I really don't understand how D’Antoni have any saying in the Knicks hiring or not anybody. He is the coach that's it.

I guessed everyone forgot about Larry Brown already. D’Antoni saying no would only means Knicks saving money.

Same thing with Carmelo thinking he have any saying in bringing players in, maybe he should have taken less money so the knicks had more money to bring in players.

[Faberg]

Actually wouldn't Mr. Potato Head live in fear of the Pringles Man. The man who lives to cut him up, fry him and eat him.

[NewYorkNoPicks]

He is from New York

And I wouldn't mind to see him as a coach instead of D'Antoni.

Listen, Frank is a pretty good coach.... but our coaching needs fall in a very specific niche:

We need a coach who is still offensive dominant, but still places a strong emphasis on defense.... think a 65/35 or 60/40 ratio. THEN the most important characteristic our coach must have is a STRONG PRESENCE. We have 2 dominant alpha male superstars on our team, they're not going to just listen to anyone.

No offense to Frank but he doesn't really exude strength or command respect from his physical characteristics. Sounds shallow but it's legit. We need a guy who has either won before, or is a former player they can relate to.

[ICanDunk]

What they really need is an expert blackmailer to convince Melo and Stat to play the defense they are capable of playing.

In that Celtics series it looked like everytime a wing player scored it was the guy Melo was guarding, whether it was his assignment or someone he was supposed to switch to on a screen.

[2LeTTeRS]

I don't understand the concept of Knicks "trying" to bring a defensive-minded assistant. D'Antoni is just a employee, all the Knicks have to do is hire one and tell D'Antoni to use him.

The impression I got from reading that is D'Antoni must have been given final say in determining who will be on his coaching staff when he was hired. I could be wrong though.

[bagelred]

Saying no to your boss, i wonder what happens

What would happen?

[ICanDunk]

The impression I got from reading that is D'Antoni must have been given final say in determining who will be on his coaching staff when he was hired. I could be wrong though.

That would make the most sense because if they try to give him someone he didn't have a say on it's very possible that he could shut that person out/ not use him at all.