I'd like to see what's posted in this thread as I've asked this for yrs. Remember there was a time Zeke was defended while Marbury was being defended
What covers up MDA's many deficiencies?
straw man argument. Noone is saying mda should go soley for the playoffs. It's just a small part of a much larger body of work.
The problem with booing players is it hurts their feelings, and as a result they don't perform as well. I remember a couple of years ago, the Knicks were regularly booed, and did not make the playoffs.
I also remember an episode of Seinfeld (The eighty-fourth episode, entitled "The Fire") when Jerry was booed, it hurt his performance. Also, when Jerry took revenge on Toby by heckling her at her office, she ran from the room crying. So, I think it has been empirically established that booing is counterproductive.
What is needed is more positive reinforcement, and unconditional support. When players do poorly, we should say "That's okay, you did your best." and offer them more money as an inducement to perform better. (I've long been concerned that our players are feeling unmotivated by their paltry salaries.)
Mike D'Antoni is surely not as much a Joy-thief as Larry Brown, but he can be mean sometimes, and I've actually seen him yell at guys. He totally de-motivated Marbury, and almost destroyed the confidence of guys like Jordan Hill. What is needed is a kinder, gentler coach who can understand these guys, help and support them with their problems, and motivate them to be the very best they can be.
After all, I think we can all agree - they are good enough, they are smart enough, and - doggone it- people like them (or at least should pretend they do).
islesfan wrote:What covers up MDA's many deficiencies?
when you can illustrate that his deficiencies are why we are losing games lets discuss it then.
Whats the knock on MDA? Defense? Too short a rotation? Doesnt play bigs? Too many 3's? Which one of those lost us this playoff series?
Nobody to blame. I expected more, but losing to the Celt's is part of the learning process.
We sent a shell of a team out on the floor in every game except one. The team needs depth and a stopper at one of the gaurd positions.
If the intent is to bring Billups back on a year deal (which I fully believe will happen), we need to upgrade the SG spot. I'm not sure how, but the combo of Fields/Douglas was awful.
The team clearly needs a active 7-footer as well, capable of rebounding and playing some help defense (for Amare). Asking for any more then that is a stretch...
Vmart wrote:fishmike wrote:islesfan wrote:What covers up MDA's many deficiencies?
when you can illustrate that his deficiencies are why we are losing games lets discuss it then. Whats the knock on MDA? Defense? Too short a rotation? Doesnt play bigs? Too many 3's? Which one of those lost us this playoff series?
All of it.
since your the leader you want to add anything? Would a better coach, or a better *job* of coaching won us that series? I know your so blindly in love with our players its difficult to see how they could possibly fail unless of course its coaching or officiating but would you care to elaborate?
gr33d wrote:Nobody to blame. I expected more, but losing to the Celt's is part of the learning process.We sent a shell of a team out on the floor in every game except one. The team needs depth and a stopper at one of the gaurd positions.
If the intent is to bring Billups back on a year deal (which I fully believe will happen), we need to upgrade the SG spot. I'm not sure how, but the combo of Fields/Douglas was awful.
The team clearly needs a active 7-footer as well, capable of rebounding and playing some help defense (for Amare). Asking for any more then that is a stretch...
I agree 100% Fields does not look like a good fit next to Melo (and is overrated here), and Douglas was way to tentative.
Your right... our roster isnt good enough and Melo/Stat, while both being great players are not as talented as Wade/Lebron and putting junk around them isnt going to get it done.
When MDA was in Phoenix he had Raja Bell there and Bell was first team NBA defense and its easy to see how MDA would lean on a guy like that. Part of the reason I suggested a trade for OK4 was I thought Ariza could fit that role for us... high caliber wing defender, athletic, rebounds, can hit some big shots...
Do we remember if Knicks won the two games when Bernard hung 50 pts back to back? I saw both games and don't remember.
Melo and Stat did their jobs so it must be others who faulter.
Seems like the knee jerk response is consistant.
Get a star and wish for the moon!
Briggy got it right along with others that OK city is doing it the right way.
Knick fans are primarily Starphuchers.
Gotta be someones fault!
Dolan loves starphuchers. They celebrate bravado but not the game.
i don't think anybody failed this postseason, coach nor players. injuries to a team lacking depth isn't going to bode well.
fishmike wrote:islesfan wrote:What covers up MDA's many deficiencies?
when you can illustrate that his deficiencies are why we are losing games lets discuss it then. Whats the knock on MDA? Defense? Too short a rotation? Doesnt play bigs? Too many 3's? Which one of those lost us this playoff series?
I'll take this one and run with it. A bunch of things lost us the series. First game was the refs. Second game was MDA leaving JJ in to make a game winning play. Third game was when the wheels came off in the 3rd quarter and MDA waited until we got blown out before calling a timeout. Forth game, I did not watch because I knew we were gonna lose. Now, if I may, i'd like to take a dump on MDA. He gets no respect from the refs, his plays off of timeouts are atrocious, he does not have a single curl play in his playbook, his late game control is garbage(no clue as to what the other team might do, i mean alley hoop to KG is something that should be defended at the end of the game, telling his guys that C's MIGHT inbound the ball into the backcourt are only 2 examples, but they are defensive lapses so i guess he gets a get out of jail free card there), oh oh, one more thing before I forget where was the pick-and-roll ? We probably should have seen more of it and the fact that noone on the damn team could run the most basic play in BBall is on the coach. Oh, and he never complained to the league about the refs even tho they raped us every other game in the regular season and that translated to the playoffs as well. There is more and this is just the recent stuff from this series, which still hurts.
Injuries, shminjuries. When you are in a position to win but you fail to win you cannot blame it on the players that didn't play that game.
ramtour420 wrote:Injuries, shminjuries. When you are in a position to win but you fail to win you cannot blame it on the players that didn't play that game.
Can we blame it on Boston having too many HOFs and all-stars in their starting lineup and depth on their bench? Gotta know my options.
ramtour420 wrote:fishmike wrote:islesfan wrote:What covers up MDA's many deficiencies?
when you can illustrate that his deficiencies are why we are losing games lets discuss it then. Whats the knock on MDA? Defense? Too short a rotation? Doesnt play bigs? Too many 3's? Which one of those lost us this playoff series?
I'll take this one and run with it. A bunch of things lost us the series. First game was the refs. Second game was MDA leaving JJ in to make a game winning play. Third game was when the wheels came off in the 3rd quarter and MDA waited until we got blown out before calling a timeout. Forth game, I did not watch because I knew we were gonna lose. Now, if I may, i'd like to take a dump on MDA. He gets no respect from the refs, his plays off of timeouts are atrocious, he does not have a single curl play in his playbook, his late game control is garbage(no clue as to what the other team might do, i mean alley hoop to KG is something that should be defended at the end of the game, telling his guys that C's MIGHT inbound the ball into the backcourt are only 2 examples, but they are defensive lapses so i guess he gets a get out of jail free card there), oh oh, one more thing before I forget where was the pick-and-roll ? We probably should have seen more of it and the fact that noone on the damn team could run the most basic play in BBall is on the coach. Oh, and he never complained to the league about the refs even tho they raped us every other game in the regular season and that translated to the playoffs as well. There is more and this is just the recent stuff from this series, which still hurts.
When Bos won a title 3 years ago and went to game 7 of the finals with this group last year did they ever get an honest win? Or did they only get that far because of poor coaching from the opposition and lucky calls? Were the Knicks the better team in this series? Even close to it?
I'm not trying to be an schmuck (happens natually) but if I'm a Celtic fan and you tell me this I laugh at you.
If I'm a Celtics fan I'm telling you we lost this series because our best player had ONE good game and shot 32% the rest of the series, our other best player had ONE good game and was broken the rest of the series and the rest of our rotation would lose to St Johns.
Lucky Celtics fans! 
ramtour420 wrote:Injuries, shminjuries. When you are in a position to win but you fail to win you cannot blame it on the players that didn't play that game.
mine was too wordy... I like yours better
ramtour420 wrote:Injuries, shminjuries. When you are in a position to win but you fail to win you cannot blame it on the players that didn't play that game.
obviously injuries are no excuse but when your team has no depth and two of your best three players go down, you can't realistically expect to do well going against a team that is known for their chemistry and cohesion amongst their Big4.
You really think the problem was Melo? I'm not that big a fan of his, but he was clearly our best player and perhaps the best player on the court for that series. Want to pick on his shooting percentage -- who would you have preferred taking contested shots?
We lost because they're better. We got swept because we were injured and the guys who were forced into bigger roles than they normally play did not step up.
That's the most disappointing part for me. I really thought Fields would break out at some point. He sucked. As did TD. We needed more from them to make it respectable; we needed to be fully healthy and really lucky to win.
Nah, I think this board here holds players accountable. We go above and beyond that with fingering the front office personnel who also screw up and we pinpoint exactly what they did wrong and what they could do better. Ultimateknicks is probably the best at cutting to the chase with minimal sugarcoating and fuss.
Generalization indeed. I see you didn't bother to mention Melo's teams losing to the Spurs, I believe, three times and the Lakers. You also fail (or purposely) dont mention that the Nuggs only had homecourt advantage twice in the playoffs, once they advanced.
As far as MDA is concerned, his in game coaching leaves alot to be desired. This is accumulative, of course, not just this past playoff series.
Players are definitely held accountable by most here (see what you wrote about Melo, which is echoed by other here), Amare has been bashed for lack of rebounding and defense, Billups chucks too much, Fields digression....its all been covered here. But the coach has to take his share of the blame aswell.
bernard wrote:You really think the problem was Melo? I'm not that big a fan of his, but he was clearly our best player and perhaps the best player on the court for that series. Want to pick on his shooting percentage -- who would you have preferred taking contested shots?We lost because they're better. We got swept because we were injured and the guys who were forced into bigger roles than they normally play did not step up.
That's the most disappointing part for me. I really thought Fields would break out at some point. He sucked. As did TD. We needed more from them to make it respectable; we needed to be fully healthy and really lucky to win.
I think your missing the point a bit... the PROBLEM was the Celtics. The Knicks were overmatched. Thats really my point to all this. The coach wasnt winning us this series, and any chance we hoped to have of winning this series was based around (the hope of) game changing performances from BOTH our star players. We got those performances from Melo in game 2 and Amare in game 1 but never together and 1-4 for each isnt getting it done.
I'm not picking on Melo's shooting %. Its an observation. Melo cost us game one, no doubt. Easy scapegoat there, because the effort was lacking, but he played his ass off the rest of the series. Of course with Amare out there is a lot less pressure isnt there? Melo's an easy target here with his 16-34 postseason record, but Melo didnt cost us anything if your being realistic. We lost because Boston so far superior to us right now its not even funny. What is funny (to me) is posters crying about some time out calls or poor coaching strategies when we got plastered by a clearly superior team.
We lost because Boston's players were better. A lot better.
