Why the Mike D'Antoni-New York Knicks Experiment Must End

Think we might be a little too hasty to declare the Mike D'Antoni tenure a failure?

Well, we're not because this experiment has been a failure since it started. You would think that the New York Knicks would have learned from the Phoenix Suns that D'Antoni's coaching methods doesn't translate to deep postseason success. Sure you'll have the exciting team, but it won't mean much when the Knicks win 45 games every year and then get ousted in the first or second round.

D'Antoni's Phoenix Suns were far better than the Knicks that he's coached thus far. Whether it was the Knicks in the pre-Melo or post-Melo era, neither of those teams were better than the Suns when D'Antoni was still coaching them. Those teams had an amazing point guard in Steve Nash, pure scorer Amare Stoudemire, versatile Shawn Marion and a plethora of three-point shooters.

The Knicks today haven't even been the best team that D'Antoni's coached. The squad with Chauncey Billups on it was the best Knicks team of the past decade. Rather than having a lone post defender in Tyson Chandler, the Knicks had a facilitator who set the tone and rhythm of the offense who could also score at crucial moments. In pressure situations, the Knicks had it set with Billups and Anthony.

At 6-8 and four games back of first place Philadelphia, the Knicks haven't exactly gotten off to the start we expected them to. It was believed that the Knicks would have some trouble due to their lack of consistency in the backcourt and off the bench, but we didn't want to believe that Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire would still struggle.

With injuries playing a small factor, Anthony and Stoudemire have been horrible to start the season. They can't coexist, aren't running the offense well at all without a pure point guard leading the way and still aren't playing the team basketball that we envisioned them playing by this time. Right now, the Knicks look like a lost team with five individuals running all over the court like chickens with their heads cut off.

What a team like this needs is discipline. Not behavioral discipline, but rather offensive and defensive discipline. It's difficult enough to have two scorers like Anthony and Stoudemire play as teammates, but it makes it even worse when there's no point guard to direct them and no set offense to truly rely on for an entire season.

D'Antoni runs the basketball game like a track meet. It's not as wild and out of control as the Golden State Warriors under Don Nelson, but it is to that extent. It's general knowledge that D'Antoni likes to see his teams run and give an all out effort on offense, and then proceed to do the exact opposite on the defensive end.

That doesn't work. Championship teams don't constantly run and gun. Why do you think a team as "boring" as the San Antonio Spurs have won four titles since 1999 and have been perennial championship contender for over a decade? It's because they play the game right, use fundamentals rather than flash and know how to play as a team. That team committed heavily to the defensive end during their 'ship runs.

Under D'Antoni, the Suns won 60 plus wins twice and never got as far as the Conference Finals. They lost to the Spurs twice, mostly because their unstoppable force of an offense met the immovable object of the San Antonio Spurs defense. They also happened to make the Conference Finals in 2006 and 2010, only to come away with two losses.

The playoffs aren't a friendly environment for teams that focus solely on offense. You need to have a team that's built on defense and committed to the art of playing extremely tough on that end of the floor. The Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, L.A. Lakers, Spurs, Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons all had terrific defense—or at least a few stellar defenders who could compensate for the shortcomings of others.

The New York Knicks aren't going anywhere with D'Antoni. They could go and win every game through the rest of the regular season and they still wouldn't get past the second round of the playoffs. They'd have to run into the Chicago Bulls or Miami Heat at some point and they're surely not going to use offense to defeat those two stingy defenses.

With the Atlantic Division as weak as it has been, the Knicks should be the one taking advantage, not the Sixers. The fact that they're 3-4 at home and have lost to the likes of Phoenix, Charlotte and Toronto in the past three weeks speaks volumes of what this team has become. Those three games are losses that we cannot chalk up to an extended lockout.

Don't think that J.R. Smith or Baron Davis could save this team either. Both players are hothead's, take ill-advised shots and are well known for disrupting the rhythm and flow of an offense. Denver Nuggets coach George Karl despised some of the antics that Smith pulled. His three-point shooting wasn't nearly worth it.

As for Davis, are we actually supposed to suspect that he's going to turn this team around? There's a big difference between point guard's like Raymond Felton and Chauncey Billups and one like Davis. Those two are smart enough to play the game right. Davis plays the game at his own pace and seems to play as if there are no repercussions to shooting three-pointers five seconds into the shot clock.

What the Knicks need is a coach that will preach and reward quality play on both sides of the court. They don't need a coach who is too focused on playing with an exciting offense, instead of being focused on the primary goal of winning championships. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships and any past NBA champion will tell you the same exact thing.