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First task for D'Antoni should be player personnel

By Max J. Dickstein, amNewYork Sports Editor | mdickstein@am-ny.com

May 9, 2008

The Knicks' hiring of coveted coach Mike D'Antoni continues a positive spring trend for a franchise that just completed its seventh straight losing season last month.

The coach's four-year, $24 million deal is apparently not yet sealed. Knicks spokesman Jonathan Supranowitz wrote in an e-mail yesterday that an introductory news conference for D'Antoni would likely occur tomorrow or Wednesday, when the contract is finalized.

Now that team president Donnie Walsh outbid Chicago for the former Phoenix coach's services -- and ended a three-week search to replace deposed former coach and president Isiah Thomas -- the spotlight is shining on the most difficult project of all: overhauling the mismatched Knicks roster Thomas built.

Here are a few areas that media members are likely to question Walsh and D'Antoni about when the new coach publicly discusses the Knicks' future this week.

Playmakers

Unfortunately for the Knicks and D'Antoni, Suns point guard Steve Nash isn't coming to New York along with his coach. The two-time Most Valuable Player may no longer be the league's top playmaker (that title belongs to Chris Paul), but the D'Antoni system was perfectly suited to him, and vice-versa.

Right now, the Knicks' options at the most important position in basketball are the shoot-first, 5-foot-9 point guard Nate Robinson and, in the final year of his contract, $21.9 million malignancy Stephon Marbury, who came to New York in 2004 after clashing with D'Antoni in Phoenix -- an early trade by Thomas.

The good news for Walsh and D'Antoni is the glut of point guards available in June's NBA draft, in which the Knicks have the fifth-best shot at the top pick. The best point guards and combo guards are Memphis' Derrick Rose, USC's O.J. Mayo, Arizona's Jerryd Bayless, Indiana's Eric Gordon and Texas' D.J. Augustin.

If the Knicks don't luck into the No. 1 pick and nab Rose, then Augustin, the most traditional point guard of the bunch, would be a fine consolation prize.

While handing the floor generalship to a rookie is not ideal, such a decision would allow D'Antoni to immediately set about shaping the leader of an exciting and effective new Knicks offense with a leader in place.

Big men

Amare Stoudamire, Shaquille O'Neal and Boris Diaw gave D'Antoni's Suns the sort of frontline talent Thomas mistakenly believed the Knicks had assembled when he acquired forward Zach Randolph via trade last summer to pair with center Eddie Curry.

Rather than try to make sweet lemonade from sour lemons, Walsh will likely unload one or both of the plodding big men, neither of whom is quick or athletic enough to fill running lanes in the up-tempo offense D'Antoni brings with him.

Energetic and resourceful Knicks power forward David Lee, 25, (along with 28-year-old perimeter scorer Jamal Crawford) is a much better fit for D'Antoni's plans.

Unfortunately, Lee and Crawford are also the only Knicks personnel that might be considered trade bait.

Expectations

D'Antoni probably need not worry about chafing under high expectations in New York during an undetermined grace period; fans here are convinced the Knicks could never be more hellish than they were under Thomas.

Things were different for D'Antoni in Phoenix, where despite four 50-plus-win seasons, Suns fans tired of watching their team underachieve in each postseason.

D'Antoni joined the Suns in 2003, but he didn't debut his famously eye-pleasing offense in Phoenix until 2004-05, when Nash rejoined the team that drafted him. The Suns averaged 110.4 points that year, and D'Antoni was named coach of the year.

And yet, rather than being heralded as part of an NBA paradigm shift, Phoenix's success in the ensuing years was only appreciated as a telegenic alternative to the predominately stagnant playing style of the NBA, in the tradition of the Sacramento Kings in the previous half-decade. That's because D'Antoni's irresistibly watchable teams never even reached the NBA Finals.

In the past four seasons, D'Antoni's Suns won five playoff series and twice reached the Western Conference finals. But they were just 26-25 in the playoffs, including a first-round loss last month to San Antonio in five games.

With such a lowly roster in New York, D'Antoni won't be weighted with nearly the pressure he was in Arizona.