New York Knicks Won't Contend Unless They Make a Change with Mike D'Antoni

I have always been the one to give New York Knicks head coach Mike D'antoni the benefit of the doubt.

He hasn't exactly had the greatest talent in the world upon arriving in the Big Apple, but beginning with last season's playoffs and continuing into this season, one thing is apparent.

The Knicks won't contend as long as Mike D'Antoni is their head coach.

For the sake of at least trying to contend, a change needs to be made.

His style may be fun to watch, but ultimately this isn't about fun highlights, it's about winning and winning consistently.

The Knicks can't accomplish that under D'Antoni.

It's about the system and adjustments. The system won't change and that's a problem, but the coach has to be capable of adjusting. Both to his personnel and on the fly during games. D'Antoni very well could be the worst coach in the league when it comes to making adjustments late in games.

Whether that be on the defensive end of the floor or doing something different on offense, the Knicks are very predictable under D'Antoni.

Calling a play for Jared Jeffries in the playoffs because you thought Carmelo Anthony was going to be double-teamed isn't exactly what I mean by adjusting.

When they say "Defense Wins Championships," it's more than just a slogan. In this league you have to be able to get stops and that all begins with a commitment to defense. That commitment requires an effort from everyone on the roster, including the coach.

A change in philosophy is needed.

If they aren't going to be a team committed at both ends of the floor, then they won't have success in the postseason. Also, if that commitment isn't there, why even bother throwing the type of money they did at Tyson Chandler?

It's the coach's job to get the players to commit. Eventually it has to fall all on D'Antoni.

Offensively his system doesn't work, primarily because it's tough to be on as a team every night when you have to score over 100 points every game to win.

That would require great shooting night in and night out and this Knicks team doesn't exactly have Ray Allen and Stephen Curry in the backcourt.

Again. Adjustments.

It has to be on D'Antoni to adjust the offense to his personnel.

When you don't have a very good backcourt, as this Knicks team doesn't, you can't live and die by the three-point shot. You need shooters to do that.

The Knicks possibly have the best frontcourt in the league. Has the thought ever crossed his mind to use them that way?

He either isn't capable of making the necessary adjustments or is too stubborn to do so.

There have been teams in this league that could live off the pick-and-roll, which would be better off than the current out of sync Knicks offense we are looking at.

Sometimes a coach has to make decisions late in games. Sometimes a coach has to steal his team a victory. That man isn't D'Antoni. He's not capable.

If the three-pointers are falling, then the Knicks have a chance every night. If they aren't, their coach isn't going to do anything else to help them.

Even worse are his players' bad habits.

For instance, how many times does Amar'e Stoudemire have to dribble the ball above the foul line? How many turnovers does it take before D'Antoni gets that out of his system? That's what good NBA coaches do.

Even worse than that is the fact that he doesn't appear to see things during the game. Why does he even have assistant coaches? Nothing ever changes.

Did D'Antoni see how much trouble his team had with the Warriors' (without Curry) double-teaming and trapping defense? If so, did he think to do anything about it? Another ball handler perhaps?

After the games, the typical "We made mistakes," line doesn't fly anymore.

Really? Of course you made mistakes. Good coaches fix them, though. What are the Knicks paying him $6 million per season to do?

Any Knicks fan has to be extremely happy where this team is compared to five years ago, but realistically it's not going to get much better unless a coaching change is eventually made.