Thursday, February 28, 2008

Playoffs, here we come!

Somehow the Knicks had the good fortune to play a team whose defense is more porous than the Knicks efense. Much of the game looked like a layup line with guards Crawford, Robinson, and Jones getting to the hoop at will. Even Renaldo Balkman got into the act late in the game.

Random observations and questions:

- Wilson Chandler sighting. He got a whopping 6 minutes of burn along with Mardy Collins.

- Michael Jordan. G.O.A.T as a player, absolute mess as an executive. Isiah Thomas, arguably the best player at 6' tall ever, horrible executive, horrible coach.

Both were tremendous competitors, workaholics and extremely talented. It would seem they would also have a really good understanding of the game of basketball and what it takes to be a champion.

Perhaps the talent part of the equation was a much bigger factor in their success as players than all the other factors. Avery Johnson isn't in the same league as MJ and Zeke in terms of talent but it seems he is much better at getting his players to buy into a philosophy and preparing them to execute.

It does make complete sense that the skillsets and tempermant required to be a superstar athlete has only a little in common with what it takes to be a great coach or executive.

- The last rumour to emerge from the ever churning mill in NY is that James Dolan is considering installing Kiki Vandeweghe (I'm hoping I spelled that right from memory. Which would be kind of scary, no?) as GM while retaining Isiah as coach.

Why?

Throughout this season I have witnessed and heard about numerous things that would point to coaching being woefully inadequate:

1. 18 wins - 39 losses

2. Players unsure of what their roles are

3. Lackadaisical pre-game shooting routines. It's not like this team is in a position to take any part of pre-game preparation lightly.

4. A tendency to self destruct in the stretch..when execution counts

5. Too many incidents like 24 second violations AFTER a timeout.

6. Feel free to pile on here.

I would pay $500 to be on a televised panel of Knicks fans just asking James Dolan questions on live TV. There could even be a moderator to make sure the entire session doesn't consist of name-calling. One question to start with:

" With the highest payroll and one of the worst records in the league, how could you define this season as anything other than a disaster? If it is a disaster why does Isiah still have a job?"

There you go. Civilized question I would love an answer to.

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