Knicks Get Melo: Did they give up too much?

[MaTH716]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I think it would be really unfair to blame the coach in this case. Remember, he and the gm really didn't want to make the trade. The trade took away a number of his better defenders also. The thing is you can't go into a lion's den and blame the lion for eating you. They knew what they were getting when they hired D'Antoni. He places no emphasis on defense. Bringing in Stoudamire didn't help. Bringing in Anthony made it worse. Teams take on the personalities of their leaders, be it a coach or star players. When none of the leaders believes in defense, you are in trouble. Add to that the fact that Anthony is not the type of player that helps an offense flow and you're looking at a very odd match. I also go back to what I said earlier, about Stoudamire being unhappy playing second star to Nash, and I doubt he's going to be happy with that role here.

The question NY fans and management have to ask is who can they get that will do better? Is there a strong enough coach out there that can get the two stars to play defense, something they've never done? I'm not sure there is. I think that as long as you have those two, the only way you win is by outscoring people and D'Antoni is a top offensive coach. Instead of replacing the coach, get him a couple of guys that can play some defense. I couldn't understand them buying out Brewer.

You bring up valid points. All I'm saying is that they end up missing the playoffs, there will be hell to pay. This was an organization that was all of a sudden re-incarnated and more important relavent again. Dolan and company then decides to bump ticket prices for next season, mind you a pretty good amount (Rangers tickets were bumped too, mostly due to the huge renovation that the Garden is going through). That's why there is even greater pressure on Dantoni to make the playoffs this season and if they continue to bomb, they will need a scapegoat Unfortunately for Dantoni he would probably be the favorite for that role.