New York Knicks Yet To Give Mike D'Antoni a Fair Shot

In his three-year tenure in New York, coach Mike D’Antoni has been the victim of a constantly changing Knicks roster and, up until this current campaign, a serious lack of talent.

Early into D’Antoni’s first season as Knicks coach, leading scorers Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford were shipped away for expiring contracts. From then until the summer of 2010, D’Antoni and the Knicks were treading water as they developed their young players for the (Denver Nuggets’) future.

This season, with the summer additions of Amar'e Stoudemire, Raymond Felton and rookie surprise Landry Fields, D’Antoni finally had a respectable squad at his disposal.

Just one month into the season, the Knicks were suddenly the hottest team in the NBA as they won 13 out of 14 games between Nov. 16 and Dec. 12.

Of course, they wavered from that blistering pace, and New York didn’t claim any major scalps in those 13 wins (New Orleans and Denver were the two toughest opponents). But the Knicks would go on to defeat the Thunder, the Bulls, the Spurs and the Suns in the month following that impressive run.

Things were looking up.

But as the season continued and the trade deadline approached, the Carmelo Anthony rumors that had been in the background began to come strongly to the fore. The Big Apple spotlight shined brightly on the once-fearless Knicks and the team’s performance began to suffer.

With the exception of Stoudemire, no player was safe from trade talk. This uncertainty began to manifest itself in New York’s play.

The final straw was when the MSG crowd took to chanting “We Want Melo” during a Feb. 9 loss to the Clippers. 

On Feb. 22—two days before the trade deadline—the big move finally came.

For D’Antoni, it was back to square one.

According to various league sources, both D’Antoni and Donnie Walsh were privately unhappy with the amount of talent shipped to Denver in the deal. It was Dolan, sources said, who pushed the deal through.

I am very much inclined to believe that is the truth, because (among other reasons) the post-trade Knicks team is very far from the typical run-and-gun teams that D’Antoni has coached in the past.

So now, D’Antoni has been presented with a serious challenge. It is perhaps the most daunting of his coaching career.

He must adjust his game plan to fit his new team, one that is heavily geared towards a half-court offense. He may have to put his famous “Seven Seconds or Less” offense on the shelf until his next coaching gig after New York. 

If impatient Knicks fans have as much input on the head coaching position as they did on the small forward spot, that next gig may be just a few months away.

But to fire D’Antoni before the summer of 2012, when his contract expires, would be terribly unfair to the coach.

First, the team needs a chance to gel. Only time can help there.

But still, the current Knicks team is very much incomplete. They are severely lacking a defensive presence down low (Turiaf and Jeffries are not cutting it). D’Antoni cannot be blamed for this fatal flaw.

Once these hurdles are cleared, then all eyes can rightfully shift to D’Antoni. Only then will he have a fair chance to prove himself.

But some don’t even want to let D’Antoni get that chance.

Harping back to his Phoenix days, they argue that he doesn’t coach defense and that he doesn’t have what it takes to win a championship. But all these arguments neglect one thing: the basic human ability to learn and adapt.

D’Antoni is no fool. He has, no doubt, spent countless days contemplating his five years in Phoenix and what went wrong. And he will have a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

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