How Mike D'Antoni Was Set Up to Fail with New York Knicks

The New York Knicks lost last night to the short-handed Bulls in a game that featured a contrast in styles, teams and coaches, as well as an exciting matchup between the exciting young Jeremy Lin and the reigning MVP Derrick Rose. An understated story though was the matchup between GMs. 

With the Bulls you have a team that has only one real superstar in Derrick Rose, who was surrounded by role players who play well together, buy into a system and execute it. With the Knicks you have at minimum two superstars, arguably three. 

You also have a team that was almost randomly put together without thought as to how the pieces fit each other or the system they are playing in. This is in contrast to the Chicago Bulls, who, although they have far less superstar talent, are far more successful because the pieces fit together and fit the system they are in. 

The first thing to point to is that Carmelo Anthony, as talented as he is, is not a player that complements D'Antoni's coaching style. I'm hardly the first person to point to this, nor is this the first time I've mentioned it. That doesn't make it untrue though. 

It's also not D'Antoni's fault. It's like handing an electrician a pipe wrench and a tire iron and telling him to get to work. You can't expect a plumber to do the job of a plumber if he doesn't have a plumber's tools. 

D'Antoni wasn't given the right tools to succeed in his system. He was asked to change his system to fit the tools. The fault doesn't lie with him. Nor does it lie with the "tools" like Carmelo Anthony or to a degree, Tyson Chandler. 

Chandler is doing what he came there to do. He's playing great defense. He's grabbing rebounds. He's just not the type of player who fits the system. He is not a great pick and roll center. 

Anthony is scoring the way he's always scored and tried to adapt his game to fit the system. You can't blame him for not being what he wasn't signed to be though. 

The fault has to lie with the likes of James Dolan, who, in an effort to get Anthony gave little regard to who he was getting and how he would fit in the system because he was all wrapped up in who he was getting. He wasn't worried about the way Anthony played his whole life and was just concerned about the star power. 

It was Dolan who failed to recognize the importance of role players. It was Dolan who failed to recognize that the way you build champions is by assembling players who outperform their contracts.

Now D'Antoni is left holding the bag filled with mismatched tools for the wrong job, and the world wants to blame him for not being a plumber. That's not where the blame belongs though. Not even McGyver and a roll of duct tape can fix this mess.