OT: D'Antoni resigns as Knicks coach.
So the Knicks are 2-8 since Carmelo returned, he has been sulking visibibly on the court because he does not fit into D'Antoni's offense, and has had to deny he told the Knicks he wanted to be traded unless D'Antoni was fired. Whatever the story, he looks like he's wearing out his welcome with another team. D'Antoni wanted to build the entire offense around Lin, as he did in Phoenix with Nash, and that was unacceptable to Anthony. In any case, the coach resigns and player stays, as is common in the NBA.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/antoni_resigns_as_knicks_coach_re…
The issue at the root of all this is that Carmelo Anthony is much worse at basketball than he or ESPN thinks.
Agreed. He's one of the most overrated players in the NBA, if not the most.
hit a wall named Melo. As was easily anticipated.
Definitely true. It has always boggled my mind the way ESPN talking heads continually call him one of the best players in the NBA. If by one of the best you mean one of the top 50 then yes. This is yet another example of why I hate the NBA, to go along with the Dwight Howard thread yesterday. Used to be a team game.
I think by "top 50" you mean "top 150"
As a Knick fan I have to agree. Didn't like the trade at the time and even less now. I'll give him one thing - he has spectacular offensive skills - but that's where it ends. Rationalize it all they want but it's fairly obvious why everything went south once he returned.
When a team sucks with a player and plays great ball without him, you'd think the front office would have the intellect to do the math. Apparently, they don't. I feel sorry for Lin, but I would imagine he will get a chance somewhere soon enough.
I would write my real opinion, complete with crude metaphors, on the Knicks' front office and their relationship with Anthony, but it really isn't fit for a place like mgoblog.
I'm not a huge fan of Anthony's game, and I think the Knicks made a pretty big mistake trading for him. But it's not like he's terrible at basketball or anything. He can be infuriatingly lazy on defense, but he's always been one of the better rebounding wing forwards in basketball. And as much as he dominates the ball, he's also been a pretty efficient scorer throughout his career. His TS% is down this year, but he's generally been around 55% throughout his career, which is actually pretty good for a guy who shoots as much as he does -- the median team TS% is usually around 53-54%. There was also that business of him carrying an NCAA championship team on his back as a freshman -- the guy's at least won something.
All said, I agree that he's overrated, but it's defiitely possible to go too far in knocking his game.
He's lazy on defense or he's just bad at it and that is half the sport. I don't think anyone has said he's terrible at basketball, just that he has a terrible influence on his basketball team.
He might be the most talented guy on the Knicks, but this isn't tennis. It's a team game. And he has proven over the course of his career that he can't do what is necessary to lead or co-exist within a team that doesn't cater to his very specific skill set.
I mean seriously: Who do you think the Knicks fans, management, whoever wish that they had right now: Gallinari, Chandler and Mozgov or Carmelo? I'd bet 95% of them say the young role players rather than the star. And its because they fit towards a more cohesive unit. Can you imagine anyone saying that about Lebron James, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, etc.? No. Even though Wade and Lebron don't fit together so much as a team, they both are extremely talented two way players. Anthony is just a one dimensional scorer. Yet he frequently gets lumped into the above group as a top 10 player.
The Knicks were a very good/great point guard away from competing last year, not a prima donna SF who they'd have to gut their team to sign. They should have held out for Deron Williams or Paul. Now they'll toil away as a potential playoff team that has no chance of winning a title.
is a good player, but bad for team chemistry. He never bought into D'Antoni's system. When the so called star of the team doesn't buy in, it's only a matter of time before things implode.
I can't wait to watch the documentary Spike Lee directs in 10 years about Jeremy Lin and his two weeks of fame.
right now. I don't discount the fact that he may be a flash in the pan, but rather that Melo is way over-rated as a player and person.
March 15th, 2012 at 12:24 AM ^
Neither D'Antoni nor 'Melo knows anything about playing defense. In the NBA especially defense wins championships.
It 's not just defense for 'Melo, it's also playing offense without the ball in his hands 50% of the time. He's a poster child for how player's understanding of the game has gotten worse in the era of AAU ball and one and dones.
was top ten this year.
In Phoenix, they were right around average when you look at their points allowed per possession.
The fact is, D'Antoni has never had a lot of luck.
In Phoenix
2005: Joe Johnson gets hurt, Phoenix goes into a hole against the Spurs, Spurs win the series 4-1. Every game was decided by 10 points or less.
2006: Stoudamire injured for the season. Still makes the conference finals with absolutely no height.
2007: Series tied at two in the semifinals against the Spurs, the idiotic suspensions by David Stern of Stoudamire and Diaw for taking a single step onto the court cause the two to miss a game 5 which the Spurs win 88-85 in Phoenix. Also one of the series that Donaghy says certain games were rigged. Series goes back to SA, where the Spurs close it out.
2008: Team is in first place when Steve Kerr decides to blow it up and bring in Shaq. That was the end of the D'antoni era in Phoenix.
That's really 4 years where the team had a ton of success and always seemed to get screwed by circumstances out of their control (insert "good coaches find a way to win, blah blah blah" rebuttal here).
In New York, he's working with an incompetent leadership led by Dolan who just wants stars and doesn't care how they fit into the system. The fact that Deron Williams was signed by the Nets right after Melo went to the Knicks is just mind-boggling. How Williams wasn't the target all along (now we're hearing that's who D'Antoni wanted) when he was open to being signed away makes no sense, because he was the perfect fit for D'Antoni's system. Williams + Stoudamire > Anthony + Stoudamire even if Anthony might be more talented than Williams.
There better off w out him. He is what they call a ball stopper. Once he gets the ball all else stops!
Summer 2012
Toronto Raptors
Hello: Jeremy Lin
...going to coach up there? If ever there was an offensive scheme that suited a player it is the D'Antoni scheme with Lin running the point. Just like in the old days when a relative unknown named Nash showed up in Phoenix to play point for D'Antoni. Some NBA backwater, like Toronto I suppose, should hire D'Antoni, trade for Lin and just build from there.
is reason 1,367 why college sports > professional sports.
I hope MELOdrama enjoys eating his just desserts.
I've observed that you should never give a big contract to a perimeter player who does nothing but score and who needs 20-25 shots to get his 20-25 points. There are always a decent amount of those guys, and they often play in all star games, but they aren't worth losing cap space to.
Tell that to the many people in the Burke vs. Iverson thread who insisted that Iverson was a HoFer.
IMO, Dennis Rodman was one of the most valuable basketball players of the last generation (at least for awhile there). He could greatly influence the outcome of a game without taking shots. I was lucky enough to see him play a couple of games in person when he was with the Spurs, and he absolutely dominated both games while taking something like five shots per night. Give me a guy like that any day, feather boas and all...
Leave it to the Knicks (cough, hack Dolan) to let something this good die so quickly.
EDIT: Well summarized here
The truth is, the anger I feel toward Carmelo is really anger that should be directed at owner James Dolan. If ‘Melo is Paulie, then Dolan, to continue the Godfather analogy, is basically Fredo, if Fredo were twice as stupid and three times as jumpy. When Fredo panicked, all he did was fumble the gun, sit down, and cry. Dolan would’ve accidentally fired it, hitting his father another couple of times in the back, before running away and hiding.
Melo's agent/management team is as nasty as they come and they had a part in this.
March 15th, 2012 at 10:33 AM ^
Knicks management more likely. They shelled out a ton for 'Melo. They look like morons if it doesn't work out.
Just one more illustration of the importance of the soft skills - character/chemistry/attitude, whatever you want to call it.
With pics like this splashed across the front page of the newspapers, you knew something was going to change quickly. Doesn't exactly scream "Championships!"
Why does D'Antoni get a free press and it all comes down on Melo for some people? The guy is an average coach who had a hall of fame PG make him look like a million bucks. He sucked in NY before melo got there, he sucked before Amare got there and he sucked before Lin's 2 week miracle run.
When you have a coach who preaches chuck a shot any chance you get then this is the result of everything, the saving grace for D'Antoni was the fact that Nash is a much more willing passer than Lin is. Just look at the stats Lin is still getting his shots even with melo and amare back. They played a extremely crap part of their schedule when he lit it up and he has been average at best when the harder part of their schedule occured.
While I agree that D'antoni's career is largely built on Nash being Nash (though he wasn't entirely the Nash we know until he played for D'Antoni) and agree completely about his defensive shortcomings, his offense doesn't preach "chuck a shot." Rather, it seeks to force the defense to collapse on a PG freed by the high pick and then takes advantage as the defense scrambles to move the ball and free up a bunch of wing scorers or a diving big.
The problem with Melo's return has been that he has a spot that he loves, on the wing about 18-20 feet from the basket just below the foul line. It's where he scores from and he hasn't shown much willingness to move off of it. It totally screws up D'Antoni's offense, though, because with less spacing, the defense isn't forced to react across the same amount of space and everything gets constricted. It doesn't help that 'Melo's willing to hold the ball in that spot for 5-7 seconds trying to free himself up, so that if he does swing the ball, it's occurring with a run-down shot clock.
Lin's getting his shots because the PG is at the center of the offense. 'Melo would get shots in the offense too, particularly when the high pick is well defensed, but he'd have to play in a spot that's uncomfortable for him and so far, he hasn't done it for more than occasional spurts.
In the struggle between D'Antoni and Anthony I was rooting for the meteor.
Never fails to disappoint.
I love how EVERYONE on espn goes "Oh it isn't Carmelo's fault!" Horseshit. They played better with him not in the lineup. It happened with the nuggets and it's happening with the knicks. Idiots.
Lin is still getting his shots actually...fact is they were winning against the dog shit part of their schedule. Melo's #'s are down including shots taken so I'm not sure how he is the #1 reason for the losing. How about you ask guys like Lin and Amare to play a little D as well.
When they get a coach who might preach a little D and people stop falling over themselves cause Lin went on a 2 week chucky atkins run then the knicks might settle into what they are..an average team with to many "stars" and a chicken shit coach who has no voice in the lockerroom.
It is the respnsibility of the players to heed the coach's voice in the locker room and in the game. Man, talk about a "free pass." And I seem to remember the Knicks beating the Mavs and Lakers during the "dog shit" part of their schedule--without Melo. Were you there in the locker room when he supposedely did not ask Amare or Lin to play defense?
I get it, you don't like D'Antoni, and that's fine--but to say he got a free pass is silly. Also he is acknowledged around the NBA to be a superior offensive mind, and won 50+ games four years in Phoenix--so to say he is average "at best" is also silly. In your other comment you mentioned "he" was terrible before this year--how about the Knicks were terrible, with terrible management until recently as they recovered from Isiah?
Yes the same lakers that are an AWESOME 8-14 on the road and there is bunch load of in-fighting with Mike Brown...but i suppose that is Kobe's fault.
Yes the same Mavs that are 8-13 on the road and a big time 4 games over .500.
As usual offense only wins in the nba in the regular season and d'antoni despite his awesome offensive mind still never sniffed a finals appreance.
Amare didn't play defense in Phoenix either hence the reason Duncan ate him alive game after game, I mean he didn't even slow him down at all.
In the NBA with the ego's if you dont have a respected voice on the bench you have no chance at all. D'Antoni is a really good at offense much like a certain former coach here but his defense was always awful. If he cant get in the heads of stars in this league and wanted his offense to go through a guy who had a great 2 week span before the tape got out on him so be it.
March 15th, 2012 at 10:07 AM ^
The Lakers, and especially the Mavs, are not good teams? Maybe the Mavs weren't giving their all on national TV featured Sunday game? And as discussed above, D'Antoni's defensive stats are actually about average.
I never said this was all Melo's fault, I just agreed with others saying that he is over-rated. However--not only (like many NBS stars) does he not play defense, but he only can suceed in certain types of offense! That is my biggest knock on him. That and the fact that the Knicks are a winning team without him, and a losing team with him.
of his, but man I loved watching him his freshman year at Syracuse and winning the NCAA Championship. He was just happy and giddy back then. Just took over that tournament and I was sure he was better than Lebron and thought the Cavs were gonna regret not taking Carmelo first over James. Well dang times have changed, but to fair even in the early years in the NBA Carmelo owned Lebron head to head like 7-1.
SPARTY NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, D'Antoni. Carry on.
Any successful sports team needs to have not only a strong leader in coach (or very, very visible GM) but also in a player leader. The Knicks didn't have a strong leader in D'Antoni and his cast of characters (including Melo and Amare) have zero leadership ability. Melo has proved time and time again he's a whiny diva with marginal talent. Melo and Amare might be great in a Gus Macker tournament, but I don't want either one of them on my team.
People now telling me Lin may not be as good, that he is average. Don't tell me that, when Melo clearly was moping about the offense. The problem is Melo. It's no coincidence that the Knicks went 2-7 with him back in the lineup. He totally ruined everything that was going on.
March 15th, 2012 at 10:07 AM ^
I won't rehash 2003's convential wisdom on Darko, but what makes you think that GMs should have known to pick Wade or Bosh over Carmelo? Carmelo was clearly the best player in college basketball that year, turning Syracuse from an NIT team to a national champion as a freshman, putting up better numbers than Bosh or Wade (who he's a year younger than), and generally looking like the strongest pick at #3. It turns out that Wade and probably Bosh would have been better picks, but this was anything but obvious at the time.
*I highly recommend the Duncan Watts book.