Knicks Land Mike D'Antoni

As the summer comes along and the sun treats us with it's warm and shining light, the atmosphere around Madison Square Garden is getting better by the day. Yesterday wasn't just another day of evaluation for Donnie Walsh, the new boss of the New York Knicks. He added another piece to the puzzle of rebuilding the once so proud franchise and man, what an important piece it can be. The Knicks signed former Phoenix Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni to a four year deal worth 24 million dollars and gave him the tough assignment to turn the struggling mess of a team around. Of course there were other names in the mix like former Knicks point guard Mark Jackson but the final decision fell on D'Antoni, who grew restless in Phoenix after a recent first round exit and some inner house struggles with general manager Steve Kerr. It would be easy to praise the signing just because the former point guard after all isn't Isiah Thomas, the man who is responsible for many of the Knicks' problems today. But that approach would not only be too easy, it's would also sell the new man on the bench short. In Mike D'Antoni the Knicks land an excellent head coach with an even more excellent knowledge of the game of basketball.

D'Antoni has spend many many years overseas, first as a player and then as a coach. He won numerous titles in Italy and along the way, he developed a great understanding and a brighter approach to the game of basketball which helped him tremendously in his recent stint with the Phoenix Suns. His winning ways also continued in the desert after he formed an offensive powerhouse around two time MVP Steve Nash.
Even though he won over 250 games with the Suns and reaching the Conference Finals in consecutive years, many people are critical of D'Antoni time in Phoenix, especially in the States. His style of a team oriented, fast paced game isn't known to be very successful in the playoffs. Well, he didn't reach the Finals but you hardly can call "Mike D" unsuccessful in postseason play. Another often mentioned misconception about D'Antoni's teams is that they don't play any defense. First of all a faster pace also gives the opponent more opportunities to score. Then, you can't overlook that D'Antoni coached some very poor defenders in Phoenix like Steve Nash or a young Amare Stoudemire (who actually developed really nice in that department recently). With all the talk of the Suns being soft and horrible defensively, they never finished worse than 16th in the league in opponents' field goal percentage. Where I come from, this is average and not terrible. Without Stoudemire, who missed a big part of the 2005/2006 season due to a knee injury, the Suns even spent a long time in the top five in that certain category. These things give me no reason to believe that D'Antoni will punish his teams for playing both ends of the court.

All records and numbers aside, which in this case are just outstanding for D'Antoni, he is a coach with a system and he knows what he wants. He will give the players a direction and teach them the importance of the team's game. Unselfish, well structured basketball have only been played by visitors in recent years at the Garden. On top of his strategic and on court abilities, D'Antoni is widely regarded as a good character, respectful guy. He will give the team a direction and he will have a plan in place how to turn this Knicks team around. Many people already see the Knicks just running and gunning up and down the court. But nobody knows if this is truly D'Antoni's idea. All we know is that everyhwere he has been, he has been a proven winner and his teams always got better when he arrived (not counting his 50 game stint with the Denver Nuggets in the late 90s). He will work on fundamentals and bring a positive approach to the locker room and to the Knicks organization, something which is desperately needed on a team that has gone through nightmarish experiences in recent years. Sure, D'Antoni has his flaws (please don't whine so much in NYC, Mike) but so has any other coach in the world. In the end and under the current circumstances, with the state of the franchise and the team, the New York Knicks can only be extremely happy that they got a basketball mind like Mike D'Antoni...