Fire Chaney!

Please. This team needs a new start. Chaney isn't a bad guy, but they need a new system. I think their big problem is that certain players aren't playing when needed, or incorrectly used,

 

Whatever they decide to do with Chaney, they need to make a decision soon, either fire him or give him a vote of confidence.
Players won't respond to a coach whose future's uncertain. Granted, they don't have anyone who can defend or the perimeter or consistently score in the low post, but they might actually put in an effort with the right coach.

When Isiah was hired, there were rumors that he would replace Chaney with Brendan Malone, current Knicks assistant and former Raptors head coach/Pistons teammate. It could still happen.

 

According to the ESPN Bottom Line ticker, the Knicks are firing Chaney and hiring the czar of the telestrator, Mike Fratello


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1708140

 

The fire Chaney chants are ridiculous. He's been handed a painfully slow and unathletic team with no post up presence and he's supposed to turn them into winners? They now have a good, not great, starting five and no bench.

He's no genius as a coach, and didn't deserve the numerous extensions, but this team, as constructed, at best will never get out of the first round of the playoffs.

 

I think it`s great news for Knicks and the East coast. Because if east ever wants to compete with the west, the only way is to build defensive minded teams. When you watch the Knicks, you can`t understand what they want to do. They play like 2002 Celtics. Trying 3 pointers whenever they are free in the perimeter and if they miss then players like undersized Kurt Thomas trying to rebound. I wonder what would happen if Sloan coached them. Free motion offence and a stable defence with that kind of talent would probably make them the best team in the East. I am going to give the Jazz as an example once again to prove the Knicks are not painfully unathletic than most of the teams in the league. Look at the Jazz, the only player whom you can say athletic is Kirilenko and look where they are. You cannot underestimate a coaches value to build a succesful team. It is not always about the players. Maybe Chaney was a good guy but he couldn`t manage to build a winner from one of the biggest franchises in the league and he deserves to be sacked. I almost hate the Knicks but for the sake of the league they should be better than they are. And btw, I don`t understand why Fratello is so underrated as a head coach (maybe because all the years he spent on broadcasting). He did a great job in Cavs and then he was fired. And do any of you know what happened between him and Van Gundy?

 

Lenny Wilkens, not Mike Fratello, is hired as Nick's new coach.

 

It`s just weird.

 

Wilkins was the coach that eliminated the Knicks from the playoffs the last time they were there. I think this will work for the Knicks. Like a I said before, Chaney's a "nice" guy, but doesn't fit with this team. Maybe if he started his own team, but thats not the case.

Knicks won tonight, with Starbury getting yet another double-double: 26 points, 10 assists. KVH also got his double-double: 22 points, 10 boards. Looks like the Knicks will be able to share the ball between Starbury, Houston and KVH and be productive.

 

So I got the "soon" part but I was way off on the replacement

 

Retread.

So who is Isiah bringing in from Toronto next?

 

There was a rumor that he contacted Denver on Jan 7th to get Camby back, so that answers the Toronto refugee question. I don't think it will happen, but Isiah clearly isn't done switching pieces around. KVH, while playing better of late, could still be on the trading block- right now he's doing the Knicks wonders by playing so well but I don't think anyone actually expects the guy to hit 22 and 10 for an entire season. I watched the game last night and the Knicks hit 63% from the field in the first half- a truly stunning display.

I don't know if Wilkens is the right coach for this team, I thought they needed someone a bit tougher than Cheney and Wilkens is not that guy, but he knows the game and he will be able to teach the guys some sorely lacking fundamentals. This team still needs to get some better, taller players, but you can't dislike what Isiah is trying to do. I will agree that Cheney got handed a bunch of stiffs, but he had almost 2 complete seasons worth of games spread out over 3 years and even if you want to blame the team's record on injuries and poor player selection, no one on the team really got any better while he was here- which is another sign of a good coach. You look at a guy like Parcells in football and he comes in and takes average guys to the next level, so even in a season where he's got injuries and isn't winning there are players that improve individually. Cheney didn't do that for anyone, and frankly might have hurt the chances of a number of younger players like Williams by not playing them more.

In less than 30 days Isiah has put this team back on the map, something Cheney and Leyden couldn't do in 3 years. Nice guys or not, they both had to go.

 

The consensus (if the talking heads at ESPN and Yahoo! constitute as such) is that Wilkens isn't the answer.

I know recyling old ass coaches is in vogue right now, but we're not talking about a Parcells or a Gibbs who have histories of turning around hopeless causes into champions. In fact, Wilkens' last two stops didn't have particularly happy endings.

 

You know, this reminds me of that episode of The Simpsons with the monorail. A fast talking charmer sells the virtues of the monorail to Springield, boasting "I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook. And, by gum, it put them on the map."
We later find that in each case, the monorail did indeed put those towns on the map - by bringing them to ruins - and it will do the same to Springfield unless Homer can stop it in time.

Isiah Thomas is that fast talking charmer. And by gum, Toronto, CBA, Indiana and now New York are on the map. But in Toronto, Isiah fired Brendan Malone after just one season and his exit led to a mass exodus of players. He ran CBA into the ground. At Indiana, he coached a young, athletic team that had a disturbing habit of falling apart down the stretch.

Now, Isiah brings his monorail to New York and Knicks fans are excited because now, they're finally back on the map. The Knicks now have a shiny, speedy monorail - but it is also defective and has a history of failure.

Unfortunately for the Knicks, neither a solar eclipse nor a giant donut will stop the monorail and at the end of the day, Isiah will fly out of town with a suitcase full of cash, leaving Knicks fans to wonder why they were so easily duped by that catchy song.

Of course, I could be wrong about Isiah. He could very well be the cure for what ails the Knicks. But to paraphrase Bell Biv DeVoe, never trust a big ego and a smile.

 

I don't really see this as bad as Skip does. Some are saying Zeke is going to make this team worse. I don't think so. He's doing basically everything almost every Knick fan has been asking for since the 2001-2002 season. He's brought in a new coach, a bling blingin' star who wants to win, and desire to win. Knicks haven't had this emotion in a really long time. They were up by like 30 tonight versus the Sonics. Do you know who many times this happened under Layden? Not many. This team can't get any worse then what is now.

 

I will grant Skip that Isiah isn't the best GM in the league or even the best man for the job, but he's brought a sense of accountability for winning to this team that it has lost since the height of the Van Gundy era, but really since Riley left. No more are we stuck with the empty suits of guys like Checketts or Leyden telling us that this piece of sh!t team is going to compete for anything. We have a guy who has actually won something himself saying that he going to try to turn us into a winner. He might not do it, I'm certainly not expecting a championship or anything, but I have to love him for trying, and I have to be glad he is here. Certainly part of our adulation seems as great as it does when contrasted to the hate we had for the previous regime.

I don't think even the most ardent anti-Isiah guys can doubt the psychological change of this team in a month, and from someone who grew tired of watching a soft team bore you to sleep watching them play, the fact that they go out and try is a big factor. This team was a joke. It is now not a joke. That doesn't make it a winner, and I have no doubt that in 3 or 4 years we very well could see Isiah run out of town on a rail with a $6 million golden parachute in his back pocket, but as for giving us a monorail, compare it to what we were getting before.

There is no doubt he is better. No doubt.

 

This had to be on the 2nd page

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