Mike Woodson and Mike D’Antoni held a powwow Monday in New York as the former Hawks coach’s candidacy to become a Knicks assistant has picked up steam with sentiment he is not the leading candidate for the head-coaching job in Minnesota.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, after the labor meeting Monday, told The Post Woodson “is in the mix”, having interviewed last week. But Taylor said he still is interviewing two more candidates.
Because of speculation the lockout is going to be a long one, the Knicks are in no hurry to make a hire for D’Antoni’s defense-minded assistant. Woodson, who coached Atlanta from 2004-2010, was a key assistant on Larry Brown’s staff with the Pistons’ 2003-04 NBA championship squad.
But Woodson’s Atlanta teams did not have the defensive personnel to become one of the league’s elite defensive teams, never having a defense-oriented point guard who could stop penetration. Therefore, Woodson, according to an associate, resorted to a style over-reliant on switching that occasionally drew criticism.
But Woodson, a former Knicks first-round pick, is regarded as having good defensive principles, having learned from Brown and Bobby Knight at Indiana.
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Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul restated they would consider China if there is no resolution to the NBA lockout. Anthony, Paul and Dwyane Wade finished their weeklong promotional tour of China. Anthony did not close the door on returning to China.
“As far as coming over here, we’ve always said this whole trip that our options are open,” the 27-year-old Anthony told the AP after playing Chinese teenagers at a promotional event. “Hopefully, we won’t have to take that route, coming over here. Hopefully, we have a season, but who knows — we shall see.”
However, the Chinese Basketball Association reportedly may not allow NBA stars to play in the league if they require an opt-out clause when the lockout ends. If the Chinese league passes that rule, that would eliminate Anthony’s chances of signing until the 2011-12 NBA season is declared dead.