Peep Carmelo’s expression. A portrait of befuddlement.
From Leandro Barbosa in Toronto to Boris Diaw, now with the Charlotte club, we are watching Mike D’Antoni’s former charges from the desert leave him high and dry as the Knicks coach. The countdown to his coaching tenure is ringing like an alarm clock and the Knicks management dare not hit the snooze button again.
The team was summarily smoked by the Charlotte Bobcats on the MSG floor lastnite. It wouldn’t have felt as bad had I watched the contest on television so that maybe the Garden crowd’s discontent might could have been filtered away from my ears. Instead I sat in the stands courtesy of some generous Swedish internets.
“We Want Shumpert! We Want Shumpert!”
When this cheer broke out late in the 3rd quarter you could understand the desperation of the MSG attendees for something, anything, yet still nothing came forward. The Knicks were uninspired to play and maybe that is even wishful thinking. Maybe these Knicks are incapable of playing at a middling mediocre level?
There were sloppy turnovers and far too many three point shots. Amar’e had too many three point shot attempts by himself. Shots seemingly thrown at the rim on a line with no arc or rotation and then long rebounds leading to Bobcat breaks which no one was particularly interested in defending. Who are THESE Knicks?
These Knicks are Mike D’Antoni’s creation of a longshot to contend in the East. And of late the longshot has looked like NO SHOT. Under 35% from downtown and less than 10 foul shots from your superstar battery will doom any team. So I’m not saying we should change D’Antoni because the teams shots have been clanging off the rim.
We should remove D’Antoni because these Knicks don’t respect the value of being a good defensive team. This is OUR legacy as a basketball team. Not Showtime or Run-n-Gun basketball. For disrespecting the everlasting heritage of the New Yorks Knicks defense Mike D’Antoni must go.
