Sources: Knicks tuning out coach

[cruzg24]

After a remarkable Jeremy Lin-led run that made them the toast of the NBA, the Knicks have lost 8 of their past 10 games. There's plenty of blame to go around, but while some within the organization are questioning superstar Carmelo Anthony, most of the fingers are being pointed at coach Mike D'Antoni, according to several sources close to the situation.

D'Antoni, hailed as an offensive genius during his successful tenure in Phoenix, has lost the Knicks' locker room, the sources say.

"The players like Mike as a person," one source said. "They think he's a good guy. But he doesn't have the respect of the team anymore."

D'Antoni is in the last year of a four-year deal and all indications are that he will not be brought back after this season -- assuming he survives the rest of this season. The Knicks are expected to make a run at Phil Jackson, who retired from the Lakers last year with 11 NBA titles.

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But the Knicks, losers of six straight, still have 24 games left to get through this year, and according to numerous sources close to the team, the reeling club is as dysfunctional in the locker room as it is on the court.

In addition to questioning D'Antoni, players are complaining about playing time, and confused about the offensive and defensive schemes.

It is lost on no one that the Knicks' free-fall coincides precisely with the return of Anthony. While Anthony was out with a groin injury, the Knicks won 6 of 7 games, including victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and defending champion Dallas Mavericks. With Lin leading D'Antoni's offense, the Knicks played fast and free, spacing the floor, hitting the open man, and even improving defensively.

But the day Anthony returned, the Knicks lost to the struggling New Jersey Nets, starting a sorry stretch that has washed away all the feel-good emotions of Lin's emergence and left them on the verge of missing the playoffs.

Management, the coaching staff and the players know Anthony is hurting the offense and in turn, the defensive morale, according to the sources. While D'Antoni's offense calls for Anthony to plant himself on the wing at the 3-point line, he often creeps in to his favorite spot in the floor -- the area between the elbow, the arc and the post. That kills the Knicks' ability to run the high pick-and-roll and ruins the spacing that is so critical to D'Antoni's offense.

"That's at the very core of our problem," one person close to the situation said. "That messes up the fluidity of the offense. Melo could do it, but he's got to trust the offense."

When Anthony first returned -- and it still appears to be the case -- Lin would bring the ball upcourt and try to run D'Antoni's system. When Anthony would abandon the offense, Lin would not pass him the ball, which irritated Anthony, sources said. So when Lin tried to talk to Anthony on the court, Anthony would turn his back to the point guard and tune him out. The two never had heated exchanges, though, and the players tried to come to a compromise, agreeing to run D'Antoni's system while also mixing in post-ups for Anthony.

"But it's just a mess because D'Antoni's system is not designed for that," one source said.

Despite his often poor body language, many of the players believe Anthony is trying to adjust and sincerely wants to win. He has told people close to him that he is being asked to do things he's never done, saying that throughout his career he has always had plenty of post-up opportunities and that he is uncomfortable standing on the wing spacing the floor.

"Half the team is trying to do what coach says and the other half is doing something different," one source said. "Then it spills over to the defensive end because players are (ticked) off about somebody taking a bad shot."

With Anthony sapping the energy from the offense, the players often lose their incentive to play defense. But even when he's trying to play defense, Amare Stoudemire struggles. Having spent almost his entire career in D'Antoni's non-defensive system, Stoudemire has trouble making defensive reads and rotations. Anthony knows what to do defensively, but simply refuses to do it consistently, the sources said.

Some players believe D'Antoni had the leverage to force Anthony to adjust to his system when he first returned from injury. The Knicks were rolling, showing they could win without Anthony, and their fan base was believing in D'Antoni's system. If D'Antoni had checked Anthony, perhaps even benching him, when he strayed from the offense, the players and fans would have been behind the coach and Anthony would have had no choice but to conform. But D'Antoni, ever the one to avoid confrontation with his players, would not do it, and now it's too late. That's when he lost the locker room for good.

Now, the players believe they need a coach who will hold players, especially the stars like Anthony and Stoudemire, accountable, the sources said. They do not believe D'Antoni is willing or able to do it.

On top of that, Baron Davis, who just returned from a back injury, is unhappy with his limited role as Lin's backup. Davis, averaging just 17 minutes a game, has already spoken to D'Antoni about giving him more playing time, according to the sources. While Lin wants to run D'Antoni's system, Davis is more in line with running the offense through Anthony and Stoudemire, the sources said.

"The only way this is going to work is if we have a coach that will hold Melo accountable and teach Melo, Amare and Jeremy how to play winning basketball," a source said.

Source: Espn.com

Damn Chris Broussard going beast mode on the Knicks situation.

 

[Giantmetfan07]

Gee what a shocker. They have 3 SGs who all want playing time. And I absolutely wouldn't be shocked if the time complainers are JR Smith and another guard like Douglas or Bibby.

And I've said this too -- Amar'e doesn't give two shits on rebounds? bench him. Melo doesn't flow with the offense? bench him. Teach them they can be replaced.

But I also understand Melo's frustrations. When he came back from injury, I saw him taking a lot of quicker shots, in flow with the offense, and rarely posting up or going ISO -- and he was missing tons of those shots. He just does not fit in with the flow, and if D'Antoni does not adjust his gameplan to play to the strengths of Melo and Amar'e, he has to leave and let somebody else figure it out. Who will figure it out? I have no f-ing clue.

And Skip Bayless was saying it earlier on First Take, that this team has too much firepower for D'Antoni not to adjust his system. And I never agree with something Skip says, but him and Stephen A were spot on.


Ugh. What a disaster. And I'm going to be there tonight to get a close-up look of this disaster.

 

[cruzg24]

Mike D will be fired before this season is done, book it. Its no surprise that Mike Woodson was hired as a "defensive" coach.

 

[RipCity32]

Gee what a shocker. They have 3 SGs who all want playing time. And I absolutely wouldn't be shocked if the time complainers are JR Smith and another guard like Douglas or Bibby.

And I've said this too -- Amar'e doesn't give two shits on rebounds? bench him. Melo doesn't flow with the offense? bench him. Teach them they can be replaced.

But I also understand Melo's frustrations. When he came back from injury, I saw him taking a lot of quicker shots, in flow with the offense, and rarely posting up or going ISO -- and he was missing tons of those shots. He just does not fit in with the flow, and if D'Antoni does not adjust his gameplan to play to the strengths of Melo and Amar'e, he has to leave and let somebody else figure it out. Who will figure it out? I have no f-ing clue.

And Skip Bayless was saying it earlier on First Take, that this team has too much firepower for D'Antoni not to adjust his system. And I never agree with something Skip says, but him and Stephen A were spot on.


Ugh. What a disaster. And I'm going to be there tonight to get a close-up look of this disaster.

My thoughts exactly. I mean the team on paper is probably good enough to be a top 4 team in the East. D'Antoni has to go.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

They should have never signed JR Smith. He was just adding on to what they already struggle with.

 

[Giantmetfan07]

You know what, at this point, everyone is pointing blame between two people: Melo, or D'Antoni. In the end, I truly believe Melo wants to change. I feel like he's tried, that he's been taking quicker shots but they don't fall and he resorts to old habits. Instead of pointing at either of them, I'm going to do what most haven't thought of except for Ken Berger at CBS: I'm pointing the finger at Knicks owner James Dolan.

And I'll use Berger's story as my case:

Understand a few things about the mess the Knicks find themselves in, having lost eight of 10 games and six in a row since Anthony returned to the lineup after a groin injury following a seven-game winning streak during which his teammates had been playing joyous, winning basketball without him:

* It isn't so much the results and the struggles, but the reactions to them, the size of the microscope analyzing them and the aura that was destined to surround a star-laden roster trying to do what everyone else in the NBA is trying to do -- win and get along -- but doing it in the nation's largest media market. Preconceived notions about who's at fault are bound to be tainted by the agendas of those who have all the answers -- especially when those answers benefit their agendas.

* When you give up the kind of assets the Knicks gave up for Carmelo, and when you give him the keys to the franchise in the form of a $65 million max extension (which no other NBA player will ever receive again under Carmelo's circumstances thanks to rules changes in the new CBA and, presumably, all future CBAs), you reap what you sow. Garden chairman James Dolan, who championed the Carmelo trade, should have known this -- having owned an NBA team for years and having sat in his baseline seat at the Garden observing the human condition and psychology of power and control that has always, and will always, permeate the sport.

* When you do all of that, and then ask a powerless coach on the last year of his contract to rein in the egos and make everything hum like the engine of one of his players' Bentleys, then shame on you again. On top of leaving coach Mike D'Antoni with insufficient organizational clout to give Anthony the tough coaching he needs -- and, according to a person who has observed much of Anthony's career, the tough coaching he really wants -- the Knicks also pulled D'Antoni's biggest supporter out from under him by alienating former team president Donnie Walsh, leading to his departure into an undefined and absentee role as a consultant. There are players in the Knicks' locker room -- plenty of them, starting with Amar'e Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Baron Davis, Jared Jeffries and others -- who came to New York specifically to play for D'Antoni, are more galvanized than ever in their support for him and respect him regardless of his contract status. But the modern NBA star, for better or worse, equates power and respect with money and contract length. So you tell me how D'Antoni, without job security or the man that hired him having his back, was going to tell Anthony that the way he's played basketball for his entire life wasn't going to fly anymore.

* Anthony is not doing this on purpose. He doesn't want to be traded -- said so, in fact, on Wednesday -- and "doesn't have a mean bone in his body," according to the person who has been associated with him for several years. He honestly believes, because every coach and authority figure he's ever played for in basketball has told him, that demanding the ball and scoring a lot of points and taking the high-pressure shots is what he's supposed to do. Fulfilling all of those expectations, he believes, will help the team win. We in the media and in basketball fandom have only reinforced this belief among star players -- that they're supposed to embrace the challenge, the scoring load, the last shot -- because look what happens to LeBron James when he doesn't. But there's another edge to that sword. Look what happens to guys like Russell Westbrook and Anthony when they embrace it and don't deliver. It's the perfect storm for Anthony, really. He has arrived in the past few weeks at a defining moment in his career, when he needed a strong, credible, powerful voice to tell him he has to try something different. And at the very moment when Anthony needed to hear not what he wanted to hear, but what he needed to hear, there is no one around him with the voice or the clout to tell him. That's not his fault or D'Antoni's, but the fact is that if things don't turn around soon, Anthony will be widely blamed for the destruction of the Knicks' season and D'Antoni will pay, too, with his job. It's exactly what Anthony signed up for, however. And to a lesser degree, it's what D'Antoni accepted, too, along with the money and prestige of coaching in the Garden, long one of the most dysfunctional, agenda-ridden places to work in professional sports in America.

So what happens? Someone has to tell Anthony what is needed and expected from him in order for the Knicks to salvage whatever hope remains of making the playoffs and instilling some kind of hope that this assembly of stars can work. It should be D'Antoni; whether he's willing or able to do that without the power behind the message is unclear. So I nominate Chandler to put on his newly minted championship ring and get worked up in a frenzy the way he does after blocking a shot or throwing down an alley-oop dunk in a game. He, and we, may be surprised by how Anthony responds. I believe Anthony needs this. Even some of his staunchest supporters believe he wants it, too.

If not, the pressure will mount, the headlines will scream louder, and a coach that a vast majority of the team respects and wants to play for will be gone after the season. And the Knicks will be thrust into the eye of the storm that was inevitable once the power vortex formed by Creative Artists Agency delivered Anthony to New York -- for a king's ransom of assets and with a king's ransom of a contract.

And then the next coach will come in and confront the same problems that beguile D'Antoni. My money's on fellow CAA client John Calipari, who will have the contract and the clout but not the political freedom to help Anthony redefine his perception of how he needs to play basketball. Which will pry open a whole other Pandora's box of dysfunction, agendas and catastrophes.

Which is why the Knicks -- someone, anyone -- needs to fix this now. Though it may already be too late.
- CBS

Dolan has let CAA walk all over him, and if D'Antoni is fired, CAA might throw their next client into the fire.

By not giving D'Antoni any job security, alienating Donnie Walsh who had the Nuggets bent over last year and instead pushed the guy out of his wheelchair onto the floor and gave up way too much to get him and pushing him out of his job, D'Antoni has no one backing him up. It's almost like he's afraid to bench Melo or Amar'e and then get the axe. Idk. At this point, players around them like Jeffries & Chandler and Davis have to step up, be the leaders that they are, and right this ship before it's too late.

 

[dez]

They should have never signed JR Smith. He was just adding on to what they already struggle with.

Have you watched a game since JR became a member of this team?

Or do you just look at stats?