D’Antoni to the Knicks?
Will Steph play for Mike D in NYC?The news out of Jim Dolan’s office is that the Knicks are ready and willing to make a “staggering” offer to lure Mike D’Antoni away from the Bulls and into Madison Square Garden. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Knicks are prepared to offer D’Antoni roughly $6 million per year - a figure too high to be considered just a ploy to get Chicago to up their offer.
But the Knicks aren’t going to wait around forever, according to Stein.
One source told ESPN.com that the Knicks are likely to move quickly if they can’t get D’Antoni by following up with an offer to Mark Jackson or the recently fired Avery Johnson, with Jackson believed to hold a considerable edge given his extended status as the front-runner in New York before D’Antoni became available.
While the Knicks can offer significantly more coin, their roster sounds something like D’Antoni’s worst nightmare. Steph is a point guard who didn’t quite work out in Phoenix, and their two slow-footed big men don’t know what a fast break is. On the flipside, there are some pieces in Chicago that D’Antoni’s actually had a part in drafting. (Luol Deng was shipped to the Bulls after being drafted by the Suns.)
If you’re D’Antoni, do you get paid to try to be the savior in the Big Apple, or do you take a couple million less and try to figure things out in Chicago?
May 8th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Craig says:
Didnt larry brown teach you anything, screw a winning record when you can get paid money by the boatfull
May 8th, 2008 at 8:56 am
gary says:
big knicks fan….wtf i want avery and some D! not d’antoni
May 8th, 2008 at 9:01 am
GEE...Met Clint Eastwood and slapped his momma! says:
Styles make fights. Dolan wants that style, where if they are losing they still are fun to watch in doing so.
D’Anthony just ain’t gone look right at the Garden.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Kobeef says:
The chance to be part of a big turnaround in NY has got to be attractive to D’Antoni there are just too many big, bad contracts in NY to do anything positive next year.
Chicago, on the other hand, could really make a nice return to the playoffs next year with some luck in the draft and the right personnel moves. They finished this year with some nice looking games and the frontcourt of Gooden, Noah and Deng seems to be clicking.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:21 am
hahns says:
i really think larry hughes is overlooked w/ the d’antoni/chitown thing-
i think hughes could do really well in d’antoni’s system. hughes was ballin on the wiz when he was able to play a quicker tempo game. i think it could be a good match.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:30 am
nbaroundtable says:
I don’t know what the appeal is in Chicago. They’re the better team but they’re in that mediocrity phase that’s extremely difficult to get out of. There’s nobody on that roster outside of Deng who’d really be good enough to get a good player in return trading wise. Very difficult situation.
Would Deng start at power forward for D’Antoni? He plays the position when Chicago goes small and does a really nice job.
Noah was a player Phoenix wanted badly in the draft also, hoping to get him with the Hawks pick that they never got. Then tried to move up in the draft but failed.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:32 am
nbaroundtable says:
I’d like to see D’Antoni go to Atlanta. I think he could add 10-15 wins to that roster instantly. It’s the perfect team for his system.
Imagine how good the Hawks would be if they actually ran for a whole game? (18th in pace factor this season, below average)
May 8th, 2008 at 9:38 am
GEE...Met Clint Eastwood and slapped his momma! says:
D’Anthony to Atl!!! Yea I am in agreement with that. That would be real nice!
They got a real nice squad, especially if they pick up an agile 7 footer who can run the floor.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Big V says:
This is going to be a nightmare if it happens. The roster is unathletic at best, and lacks defene. D’Antoni will basically have Nate, Crawford, and D-Lee running while the rest of the team holds it down. Not that I have any reason to believe that Mark Jackson is going to be any better, but I really wish we’d at least make a play for Avery before shelling out this much loot for D’Antoni.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
fiyaman says:
Walsh made one bad move by keeping Isiah he’s gonna make another 1 if he hires Antoni. u dont want to start ur new job with 2strikes cmon walsh get a clue we need DEFENSE. The last thing we need is to give Starbust the greenlight to jack shots..
Hawks for Antoni sounds gd to me
May 8th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Celts Fan says:
D’Antoni to ATL would be a PERFECT fit and really scary to the East.
He might actually be able to resurrect the Knicks too. Sure their bigs are slow as dirt, but the PGs and wings can run and if they get slowed down, then you dump it in to Randolph and Curry. At least it couldn’t (well, shouldn’t, with these guys, you never know) get any worse!
May 8th, 2008 at 10:06 am
rangerjohn says:
i keep hearing everyone assuming den and gordon will be bulls next year those guys have to “accept” the teams qualifying offers or resign with the bulls 1st. both guys turned down contracts last season in hopes of making more money elsewhere so they MAY decide to try the market. and if d’antoni or avery go elsewhere i would expect both to try the waters.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:08 am
djkianoosh says:
knicks will suck until they dump all their wack contracts. that whole team has to go. there’s nobody worth keeping and D’Antoni would ONLY go to NY for the money. if he wants to keep his sanity and still make millions, he goes to CHI or ATL or even stays in PHX. the only reason to go to NY is to pull a larry brown and fleece Dolan some more.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Icy says:
Hahahahahaha
I would love to see D’Antoni try to motivate eddy curry, coach Zach Randolf and run his offense through Stephon Marbury. THe man is one of the best out there but that roster is NOT built for him.
I could see them make major overhauls in the next few years though.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am
DaPro says:
Yeah D’Antoni in ATL would be perfect, I said that like 5 dime blogs ago but its good. Perfect fit for his style as long as the players learn the sets it’s a no-brainer.
D’Antoni would also be a good fit in Chi-town. We have the athletes and the effort to play solid D has been seen in years past, we just need to dedicate ourselves to playing hard again.
@nbaroundtable-I might have missed this but I don’t remember seeing Deng play the 4, usually when they go small Nocioni plays the 4 man or Thomas.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Celts Fan says:
RangerJohn, I think Deng and Gordon will be Restricted FAs this summer, so the Bulls will have the option of matching any offer they take. I’d keep Deng and let Ben walk personally (unless of course, he wants to stay and sign for less than he turned down last summer, in which case, how is his attitude going to be?) Worst case scenario is they decide they don’t want to stay in Chicago and force their hand, sign a 1 year qualifying deal, then become Unrestricted FAs next summer. So if the Bulls want to keep them and are willing to spend the $$$ (which will most likely end up being less than they were offering last year) they can.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
OMNIpotent1 says:
As a Knick fan I don’t D’Antoni anywhere near the Garden. We don’t play any defense as it is and I doubt he would improve the team defensively. The high octane offense will look nice until we get 150 points scored on us regularly at home and end up missing the playoffs again. Then the NY media will have D’Antoni’s head.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
doc says:
If he aint bringin Stat and Nash with him who gives a rats ass.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
yallallreadyknow says:
mike d’antoni can’t coach a defense. so what the fuck difference does it make where he goes?
mark jackson is going to coach ny. finally the knicks will do something right. avery johnson is going to the pistons (either this upcoming yr or the following yr). jeff van gundy is going to phoenix
May 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Stiletto says:
the knicks are dead till 2010 when LeBron will rock in NY till then it doesn’t matter which coach there is they will loose and look miserable
May 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
BxBaller says:
I don’t want his whiny ass in NYC.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
nbarountable says:
“@nbaroundtable-I might have missed this but I don’t remember seeing Deng play the 4, usually when they go small Nocioni plays the 4 man or Thomas.”
Yeah it’s Nocioni or Deng. They flip it about depending on the matchup. Deng doesn’t get many minutes there, only about 10% of his minutes at PF each season for the last three years. That went down this year after they got Drew Gooden also.
Last season (06-07) Deng played almost 20% of his minutes at PF (most of his career) - his numbers were way up on his SF numbers (per 48 minutes, he had 30 and 11 at PF versus 23 and 8.5 at SF, while shooting 59% versus 50%) and he did very well defensively, as usual, against the bigger more phyiscal PF’s too.
I think it’d be something D’Antoni would consider. Deng has shown some ability there and it’s an instant way to up the tempo.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
snook says:
not like he can win with either team, might as well take the money and go to NY