New York, NY (WFAN) -- Mike D'Antoni is a fine coach with a solid resume. He has had great regular season success with the Suns and great all round success while coaching in Europe. Mike seems like a nice guy, who I'm sure we'd all love to have a beer with. With that said, I don't think the D'Antoni hiring is the best decision the Knicks could have made.
Anything...and I mean ANYTHING is and was better then the mistake that was Isiah Thomas. They could have hired me, Benigno, Rey Ordonez or anyone else you could name, and that would have been an upgrade in competence compared to the Isiah years. But this move leaves me very skeptical. Donnie Walsh came to New York promising to change the atmosphere around Madison Square Garden. He promised to change the KGB media policy and so far that doesn't seem to have changed. He denied offering a contract to D'Antoni when it turned out to be true. He made Mark Jackson feel as if the job was his, and it turned out not to be. So far in the early going of the Walsh era he has been very misleading. Again, anything he can do is still better than Isiah, but that won't stop the fair criticism of him. Donnie has promised that he will get under the cap, but just because you say your going to do something doesn't mean you are going to do it. I'd love to take Walsh at his word, but why should we!
The philosophy with the hiring of D'Antoni seems to be an idea that Mike can make the Knicks competitive while they wait on the chance to sign LeBron James. But here is the question. Can Mike D'Antoni lead the Knicks to a championship someday? The answer to that to me depends on if D'Antoni will change the philosophy he used in Phoenix. You cannot win a title without a commitment to defense. Mike's teams had great talent in Phoenix, and they certainly had a large amount of win totals during the regular season, but they consistently did not play enough defense to get over the top and win the whole thing. I think D'Antoni can help make the Knicks somewhat competitive in the near future, but if they aren't going to be able to win a title with him as coach then what is the point! To me its all about winning a championship...and building towards winning a championship. I'm not convinced that D'Antoni will ever be apart of the building blocks towards that third Knicks world championship.
But the spot light points back towards Walsh. He is the key to the Knicks future success. He needs to show patience and not get caught in the hype of D'Antoni's thirst for break neck basketball. As much as D'Antoni loves Boris Diow and Leandro Barbosa, Walsh cannot lose his eye on the prize and trade expiring contracts for hefty contracts, even if those numbers are attached to D'Antoni guys. Donnie needs to be a man of his word....REBUILD! Only time will tell.
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