Mike D'Antoni
The New York Post Reports: "Amare Stoudemire is expected to be dealt by the Feb. 19 trading deadline, perhaps to Chicago, but his new team will be renting his services. Though the Knicks are extreme long shots in the current Stoudemire sweepstakes, New York won't be in 2010 when the star power forward is a free agent. '2010, would I entertain New York?' Stoudemire said, repeating a question. 'Absolutely. Absolutely. [Mike] D'Antoni is a positive. He's a guy I played with and he is a pretty good coach. Great offensive coach, lets you go out and play.'" Again and again one of the first things you hear from one of the potential 2010 free agents is about D'Antoni: Nash, Amare, LeBron, Kobe, Wade (and the list goes on), have all spoken about how much they love his style. |
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In the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated they ask 190 NBA Players: Who is the best all-around athlete in the NBA? Here are the results: Josh Smith, Hawks F 7% Kobe Bryant, Lakers G 6% Dwight Howard, Magic C 4% Amar'e Stoudemire, Suns F-C 3% These are always the most telling polls to me. When you ask the players and they don’t have to put a quote with it, but rather just get to give their objective answer without fear of a follow up question or offending a teammate. These are the polls where frustrated players and teammates vote Kwame Brown and Tim Thomas as the top 2 players who get the least out of the most talent (Jan. 08 poll) and where players admit they would most like to play for Mike D’Antoni and Phil Jackson (21% each in Jan. 08). Even with this unabashed honesty, its rare that players are this unanimous on anything. It speaks to how dominant LeBron has become this season and put the League on notice in the process. In fact, only 11 months ago Sports Illustrated asked, “Which opposing player scares you the most to play against?” Kobe won at 34% and LeBron finished 4th with a measly 4%. Something tells me if we poll that one again next month, we’ll get some different answers. What a difference a year makes… |
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As Steve Nash and the Suns come to the Garden tonight I hear that constant reminder of how much players love D'Antoni's system. By now it's no secret that players aspire to play in a fast paced open court system like D'Antoni's, I don't think you could go out there and find even a handful of players that will tell you otherwise. One of the most notable draws D'Antoni could have is on Steve Nash- who has been quoted about how he misses playing for him. Back in May when asked about D'Antoni moving on to NY Nash not only said how he liked him as a coach, but how he wished he could give it one more go with him, “I’m definitely sad to see him go. It was four of the most memorable and fun years of my career. Mike is a great person and a great coach. I thought we could come together for another try..." Lets be completely honest, these Knicks are no better than a .500 team at the absolute best with the talent they have right now, so why would guys like Nash, Kidd, LeBron, etc. all allude to the fact that they have interest?- one of the main draws is Mike D'Antoni. The post even reported today: "Nash, the Suns' star point guard, was a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien last night, and in the much-anticipated summer of 2010, Nash could be a major Knicks target.This offseason, Jason Kidd will be a free agent and he's expressed interest in the Knicks, even acknowledging he would have to accept the mid-level exception. If that doesn't happen, Nash could potentially join someone like LeBron James here in 2010, since the Knicks should have enough cap room for two stars." Lets hope the stars align.
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