I’m fairly flummoxed. What compelled Knicks team president Donnie Walsh to speak up for coach Mike D’Antoni, who appears to need a few sessions with Ray Handley on how to handle the New York media?
Why the sudden compulsion to blame himself for the Knicks’ 21-39 record and all-too familiar submissiveness? It’s kinda been apparent they have been in comprehensive tank mode since Zach Randolph (All-Star) and Jamal Crawford (leading sixth-man candidate) were given away.
What, D’Antoni wasn’t really on board with Walsh’s “master plan” when he accepted $24 million for four years? Why is he acting like the consummate sore loser, as if he didn’t know the first two seasons were going to get fragged? Why so grumpy when his tactics and techniques, or lack thereof, is questioned, as if he’s Phil Jackson and is above being challenged?
OK, so D’Antoni takes losing awfully bad and surrenders even worse. We get it. Good for him.
Coaching Steve Nash evidently spoiled him, and the assembled case seems beneath him. From the looks of things, if he doesn’t like a player’s style or personality, damned if he will try to coach them, an attitude that has forced the Knicks to buy out or kiss off devalued players.
D’Antoni should be docked proportionally, it says here, depending on how many players he condescends to coach.
As for Walsh, 11 days ago, during the tribute to the Knicks’ 1969-70 championship team, his approval rating was near unanimous. Upon introduction, the Garden’s sellout crowd enthusiastically applauded the franchise’s personnel decision-maker.
Judging by their reaction, Walsh’s latest moves had gone over big with New York’s renowned “sophisticated” fans. Potentially, he had traded three pristine picks to the Rockets for a micro-surgically repaired 30-year-old (Tracy McGrady) in order to build for the future, yet they anointed him with oil.
In sustaining his “master plan” (create cap space galore) at the trade deadline, Walsh unburdened Camp Cablevision’s pending payroll by $8,598,931 million. Hence, he further mitigated the Knicks’ already unaffordable odds to be competitive even on an irregular basis, much less struggle for a sniff of a playoff party.
Accordingly, that puts the Knicks $39.1 million below the NBA’s current $57.7 million cap — expected to dip several million or more come July 1 since league decimals are dropping like crazy.
Nevertheless, Walsh’s maneuverings will allow the Knicks to bid to the league limit for the services of LeBron James and/or Dwyane Wade. Yet, what if their master plans conflict with Walsh’s? Well, the operative word he’s wearing out is “flexibility.”
Plan B is to lower sights and overpay Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Manu Ginobili, restricted free agent Rudy Gay, whomever — CBA rules, of course, permit parent teams to squander abundantly more should they desire.
Plan C is to drop back, punt and desecrate another set of downs in anticipation of the 2011 free-agent class and beyond.
Again, given his Feb. 22 ovation and my daily e-mails, Walsh has the animated endorsement of many fans . . .
Despite the reality, had Walsh selected his draft picks more prudently and chosen a path of resistance vs. concession, the Knicks’ current starters would be Randolph, David Lee, Brook Lopez, Brandon Jennings and Crawford . . . and they would own their own first-rounders in 2011 and 2012 instead of the distant hope of landing James, Wade or both.
Despite the fact Walsh’s “master plan” is built on nothing more concrete than a dream and a dollar.
And thus, a dissenter’s opinion: “We haven’t even dealt with the pain of watching Utah take our unprotected No. 1 this summer, and Donnie does the same thing, yet again packaging the future for a hope and a dream,” column contributor Adam Ross gags.
“I work in sales, the leader of my $5 billion business often says, ‘If my plan is that I have to hope, I probably need to get another plan.’
“I pray, as a die-hard Knicks fan, that somehow, someway, we have a plan that involves more than hope. Right now, the only guarantee I see is that we are still ‘hoping.’
“I hope not.”
It gets scarier. Any dimwit knows enough to offer LeBron and Wade max contracts. What happens if they are off the market? Walsh is 0-2 in the draft and D’Antoni, when doubling as Suns general manager, gifted Marcus Banks $4.5 million per guaranteed for five years.
These are the two Knicks in charge of evaluating free-agent talent.
And should all this book-cooking, cap-clearing and shaking-and-baking not result in the signing of commanding genius Walsh will be beaten like a red-headed stepchild by fans and media alike, submits column contributor Brian McGunigle.
Walsh, of course, already told us he knows what lies ahead. There’s an old investment banking adage “IBG, YBG.”
Translation: When this all falls apart, “I’ll be gone, and you’ll be gone.”