Another coach off the market - D'Antoni signs with Knicks

[mohammed10]

For those wishing/hoping for a coaching change in DC...biggest name left is Avery Johnson

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3389987

But you have to wonder what D'Antoni is thinking. NY is a MAJOR rebuilding project as opposed to Chicago (or DC, for that matter).

[Induveca]

Knicks were willing to pay him at least twice what anyone else would pay. It's much more stable in NYC though with Donnie Walsh as the GM. The circus is over in New York with Isiah sent home.

Expect Marbury, Curry and Randolph all to be sent packing via trade for role players/picks, or in the case of Marbury just outright sent home.

The Knicks could easily become a fastbreak team with something like....

PG: Robinson
SG: Crawford
SF: Chandler
PF: Lee
C: Balkman

Will it win a ton of games? No, but with D'Antoni's system it is fastbreak all day with those guys, and hustle. We've seen a major changing of the guard in NY.

[JWizmentality]

IBTL...did anybody here really want him? Although it would be sweet to actually run an offense. That's not our biggest problem.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Balkman at center?

[Induveca]

Balkman at center?

Sounds like what people said when Diaw went from PG to center under D'Antoni. Yeah, I could see Balkman or Lee at C under his system.

[DCZards]

Knicks were willing to pay him at least twice what anyone else would pay. It's much more stable in NYC though with Donnie Walsh as the GM. The circus is over in New York with Isiah sent home.

Expect Marbury, Curry and Randolph all to be sent packing via trade for role players/picks, or in the case of Marbury just outright sent home.

The Knicks could easily become a fastbreak team with something like....

PG: Robinson
SG: Crawford
SF: Chandler
PF: Lee
C: Balkman

Will it win a ton of games? No, but with D'Antoni's system it is fastbreak all day with those guys, and hustle. We've seen a major changing of the guard in NY.

D'Antoni would lose his job with that lineup. Where are the points coming from? The only consistent scorer is Crawford, and opponents would stack up on him. They'd be lucky to average 70 pts. a game.

I doubt the Knicks trade Curry AND Randolph.

[DCZards]

Sounds like what people said when Diaw went from PG to center under D'Antoni. Yeah, I could see Balkman or Lee at C under his system.

Phoenix could get away with Diaw at center because they had a beast named Stoudemire at PF and a stud rebounder named Marion at the other forward.

[closg00]

Knicks should get a decent draft pick this. I wonder how long it will take D Antoni to turn the Knicks around, he does have talent to work with.

[Dat2U]

I put up my plan to starting rebuilding the Knicks a while back, it went like this:

Trade Zach Randolph to Cleveland for Wally Szczerbiak.

Trade Eddy Curry to Dallas for Jason Terry.

Tell Stephon Marbury to make like Michael Jackson and "beat it"

Sign DeSagna Diop to a one year deal at the MLE. Make sure its one year only, he's simply a stopgap.

Draft either O.J. Mayo (preference) or Jerryd Bayless (2nd choice).

New lineup:

PF David Lee > Renaldo Balkman > Malik Rose
SF Wally Szczerbiak > Wilson Chandler > Quentin Richardson
C DeSagna Diop > Jared Jeffries > Jerome James
SG Jamal Crawford > O.J. Mayo > Mardy Collins
PG Jason Terry > Nate Robinson

Goals: Field a relatively competitive, hard working team that fans can appreciate. Cut off the fat (literally) and clean out the locker room. Create a positive atmosphere. Avoid adding long term salary to create cap room flexibility down the road.

You can't turn around the Knicks completely in one year. The best thing to do is to change direction from adding salary and questionable atttitudes to clearing out salary, letting the expirings actually expire and creating a positive environment within the organization.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Why would Dallas trade a fairly solid player for a fat turd like Curry?

[DCZards]

Dub post

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Knicks were willing to pay him at least twice what anyone else would pay. It's much more stable in NYC though with Donnie Walsh as the GM. The circus is over in New York with Isiah sent home.

Expect Marbury, Curry and Randolph all to be sent packing via trade for role players/picks, or in the case of Marbury just outright sent home.

The Knicks could easily become a fastbreak team with something like....

PG: Robinson
SG: Crawford
SF: Chandler
PF: Lee
C: Balkman

Will it win a ton of games? No, but with D'Antoni's system it is fastbreak all day with those guys, and hustle. We've seen a major changing of the guard in NY.

I could see them winning a lot of games with that lineup, too.

Balkman rebounds way better than Eddie Curry. He's also a very good defender. Lee is a tremendous rebounder, who if not for Isaih Thomas would average a double double.

Combine rebounders with guys who fill it up and are explosive scorers like Robinson, Crawford, and another guy who can really score, Wilson Chandler; and I believe the Knicks can at least win 30-35 games, if not better.

[LyricalRico]

Sounds like what people said when Diaw went from PG to center under D'Antoni. Yeah, I could see Balkman or Lee at C under his system.

Phoenix could get away with Diaw at center because they had a beast named Stoudemire at PF and a stud rebounder named Marion at the other forward.

Actually that was the year Amare was hurt. Both Diaw and Tim Thomas played lots of minutes at C for the Suns and were effective. The thing is that both of those guys were able to play in the high post because of their offensive skills. Neither Lee nor Balkman have the skillset to do that IMO.

[Induveca]

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Actually that was the year Amare was hurt. Both Diaw and Tim Thomas played lots of minutes at C for the Suns and were effective. The thing is that both of those guys were able to play in the high post because of their offensive skills. Neither Lee nor Balkman have the skillset to do that IMO.

Balkman no, Lee most definitely...........

[Induveca]

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I could see them winning a lot of games with that lineup, too.

Balkman rebounds way better than Eddie Curry. He's also a very good defender. Lee is a tremendous rebounder, who if not for Isaih Thomas would average a double double.

Combine rebounders with guys who fill it up and are explosive scorers like Robinson, Crawford, and another guy who can really score, Wilson Chandler; and I believe the Knicks can at least win 30-35 games, if not better.

Rumblings up here is they are already angling for a package involving Calderon and Curry.

PG: Calderon (Poor man's Nash)
SG: Robinson (Poor man's Barbosa)
SF: Crawford (no valid comparison)
PF: Chandler (Very poor man's Diaw)
C: Lee (Kurt Thomas)

If you have an OJ Mayo off the bench, Balkman, Jeffries, Morris......it's not a championship squad but it's young and willing to learn. I think it could work, and anything is better than watching Isiah.

Again I make no claims that is a winning/contending team. But it's a team that will work in D'Antoni's system, very small ballish and actually has a direction.

[gil2good]

IBTL...did anybody here really want him? Although it would be sweet to actually run an offense. That's not our biggest problem.

uhh yea, i think at this point a coach that knows how to run a fluid offense, (we claim to be experts of the princeton, but all i ever see is one on one basketball) that consistently can get you 50 wins would be a pretty good replacement to EJ

[LyricalRico]

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Balkman no, Lee most definitely...........

Lee? Really?

I see him as more of a Nick Collison type - great rebounder and decent defender (although lacking the size to block a lot of shots) but not having the passing skills or the consistent mid-range jumpshot to be a C in a high post offense.

What I'm saying is that David Lee could absolutely be a small ball center, just not in the way Diaw/Thomas were used by D'Antoni. Of course that's not to say that D'Antoni doesn't have schemes that could use a player of Lee's talents but I don't think he can use Lee like he used Diaw/Thomas.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

Why would Dallas trade a fairly solid player for a fat turd like Curry?

Seriously. Why would anybody trade for Eddy Curry, period? When Buck mentioned he average FOUR rebounds a game from the center position my brain almost spontaneously combusted. What a bum.

[Kanyewest]

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Seriously. Why would anybody trade for Eddy Curry, period? When Buck mentioned he average FOUR rebounds a game from the center position my brain almost spontaneously combusted. What a bum.

4.7 rebounds per game in 25.9 minutes per game is not very good at all.

[LyricalRico]

Rumblings up here is they are already angling for a package involving Calderon and Curry.

Seriously. Why would anybody trade for Eddy Curry, period?

I agree that Curry isn't the best center in the league but Toronto lacks size and post scoring. Curry has both so I can see why they'd be interested, but not for Calderon. I could see them trading TJ Ford though. That allows them to commit to Calderon and use their draft pick on a shooting guard of the future.

Curry/Nesterovic
Bosh/Bargnani
Moon/Kapono
Parker/CDR(#17)
Calderon/FA

Ford gives D'Antoni a pure PG to run his offense and he's already familiar with QRich's game. If they took nate's idea and traded Zach Randolph for Ben Wallace and drafted Mayo they'd be an interesting team.

Wallace/James
Lee/Rose/Jeffries
QRich/Balkman
Crawford/Mayo(#5)
Ford/Robinson

Both of them would give the Wizards fits IMO.