With the Knicks an underachieving and underwhelming 7-13 coming into tonight’s game against the Pistons, it’s no shock Mike D’Antoni’s job security is being questioned. Even D’Antoni admitted himself with gallows humor that it’s cause for concern.
But Carmelo Anthony backed his coach Monday, and Amar’e Stoudemire insists the talk hasn’t crept into the locker room.
“We don’t talk about that,” Anthony said. “Any time teams are losing, that’s the first thing that comes to mind, the coach. But we don’t talk about that. We support Mike 100 percent.
“We deal with it. He’s here with us, we’re here with him, and we’re going to roll with that.’’
Anthony hasn’t always appeared to be a huge fan of D’Antoni’s speedball system, and hasn’t often offered such unconditional backing. But with Anthony (ankle) and point guard Baron Davis both missing practice yesterday and listed as doubtful for tonight, the Knicks have lost nine of their last 10 and are rapidly moving toward crisis mode.
When asked if he were worried about his job, D’Antoni passed a wan grin and responded, “I don’t know. Are you worried about yours?’’
When the questioner answered, “Yes, always,” D’Antoni replied, “Well, welcome to the club. It’s tough out there. Nah, my focus right now is trying to get us to win … Worry about how the chips fall? We can’t do that.’’
Stoudemire, who has consistently backed D’Antoni and his schemes, insisted the Knicks haven’t and won’t let chatter about their coach’s job status distract them.
“No, not at all,” Stoudemire said. “That’s something … you guys keep it going. We don’t feed into that. Our job is to go out there and try to perform and try to win. That’s our goal, is to play hard. We don’t really get into the he-said, she-said stuff.’’
D’Antoni acknowledged the danger of frustrations setting in and impacting the Knicks’ play.
“Yeah, if it hasn’t already, the frustration, that’s natural,” he said. “Nobody likes to lose. You get down a little bit. You’ve got to get a little bit of a swagger. But you get that by winning and playing well, and we haven’t done that yet. It’s kind of natural. But these are good guys, professional. They’re trying their best. That’s all I can ask for.’’
Stoudemire reiterated that his teammates — especially the younger ones — need to pay more attention to their game plan and the so-called white board in the locker room.
“It’s about knowing the personnel, your opponents and what teams like to do,” Stoudemire said. “Certain teams have different strategies. We have a specific game plan to a certain game and it’s up to us as players to go out and execute. If we’re not ready or mentally prepared to execute it, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘I’ve got to do a better job of studying and being prepared.’
“It’s just a matter of us having somewhat of a young team. It takes experience, it takes us as veterans to talk to the young guys about what it is to pay attention to the white board, and understand what the preparation is.
“All that comes with experience, and we’re trying to get these guys experience by teaching them on the fly.’’