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This actually got me mad hyped for the season.
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The Works Season Previews: New York Knicks[/size]
When Mike D'Antoni took over as coach of the Knicks, we all expected stuff. Not necessarily profound, eventful, or positive stuff, but at least ... stuff.
So far, we haven't gotten much of it. However, with the 2010-11 plan having gone from "take over the world with awesome free agents" to "sign Amar'e Stoudemire and some other weird people," it's time for D'Antoni to earn his keep. Or at least do enough to keep Garden fans happy and the New York media off his back.
How is the reigning weirdo of NBA coaching going to pull that off? Duh, by listening to us and assembling line-ups so unusual and unholy that they defile the sport and send good sons and daughters to the hills screaming. These are a few of these line-ups.
No. 1: Real Talk
Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Amar'e Stoudemire, Ronny Turiaf
'Antoni started this line-up against Milan on Sunday, going rather mainstream in terms of postionality and sacrificing three-point shooting for size. Can it actually be the regular starting line-up when the games count? That depends on Stoudemire's defensive effort and Gallinari's rebounding, most likely; last year, Gallo spent all of his minutes at the two forward spots, but rebounded like a two-guard. If that continues, given Stoudemire's typical average-for-a-PF ways on the glass, D'Antoni might need Turiaf or another center (see No. 2) in the game.
The sad thing about the normalcy of the line-up is that it's kind of boring. Gallo and Amar'e provide the points, Turiaf and Chandler the defense (theoretically), Felton the ZZZZZZZZ. The only hope is in D'Antoni also realizing normalcy takes what's special about this Knicks roster completely away.
No. 2: Gravity's Rainbows
Felton, Kelenna Azubuike, Gallinari, Stoudemire, Timofey Mozgov
This is more like it! Azubuike is one of the most aggro players in the league, and Mozgov is either the Russian Channing Frye or Frederic Weis in an inordinately complex disguise. Actually, Mozgov plays a bit like Troy Murphy, and while that's not the right stylistic match for Stoudemire with winning as a goal, it fits D'Antoni's M.O. better.
Not that D'Antoni has always forsaken defense; he played Kurt Thomas and Raja Bell big playoff minutes, and always gave Shawn Marion copious amounts of credit. (Copious was never enough, sadly.) But in Phoenix, D'Antoni had the luxury of Steve Nash, who could make kitty litter look like C-4. Felton can't do it, and Stoudemire's excellence doesn't rub off. So more firepower could be needed to get New York's offense where D'Antoni needs it to be to compete any given night. Mozgov should be enough of an offensive upgrade over Turiaf to make this line-up make logical sense.
If not, it'll look enough like the 2004 Mavericks to be funny.
No. 3: Beyond Q-Rich
Felton, Andy Rautins, Azubuike, Chandler, Gallinari
Everybody knows D'Antoni loves the longball. His most three-crazy squad, the 2005-06 Suns, fielded four guys who hit reliably from the land of love and money, and Boris Diaw -- who passed for a center that season -- was used primarily as a passer who got the ball back in circulation. It was a hailstorm of threes, more threes than most men see in a lifetime, but it was also a highly rational system that flowed like a viscous blot of machinery.
Phooey to that. This time around, it's all shooters, all the time, premised on the belief that all rebounds are long, and gunslingers never die. It's nothing if not Quentin Richardson, circa 2004-05, reborn as an entire team. No regard for human life, no remorse, no conscience, and trusting only in their own strokes. This isn't about late-game heroics, or manufacturing the perfect opportunity for one more point. It's what you use when you need a 10-point run in a hurry, against a team too complacent to realize what hit them.
No. 4: Satan's Army
Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Shawne Williams, Randolph, Stoudemire
Some coaches spend their entire careers trying to ward off entropy. Others, like that rascal Don Nelson, find ways to harness it and use it to their tactical advantage. Since touching down in Phoenix those five long years ago, D'Antoni has experimented with varying degrees of chaos and mayhem, with the aim of forcing his opponents into even more difficult spots. It's like a vaccine in reverse.
Call it cheating death, or playing footsy with hell. There has always been a limit to how much D'Antoni would barter with the dark side -- in part because these are more maneuvers than anyone gives Mike D. credit for, but also because there's always the risk of going too far. As you should know well from analogies wrought in this language, once you go there, you might not ever come back. Except for the Knicks (and, by extension, the whole NBA, and the entire universe), this season is different from all other seasons, this line-up a beast that breaks free from the shackles of metaphor. In other words, this is "eff it, we're going in" approach that no team has yet tried on purpose, Slim Pickens riding down the bomb to guide it into the end of the world.
It's a calculated risk, to say the least. Unleash this kind of nightmare on some quiet evening and the game may never recover. Nor might the sport. However, in the darkest hour, with no light to guide to him, D'Antoni may well turn to this ultra-athletic, extremely volatile, deadly in all senses outlaw brigade. What's the worst that can happen, if the Knicks can't get anything remotely good and pure underway? As they say around the league, Shawne happens for a reason.
No. 5: Circles in the Sand
Felton, Douglas, Roger Mason, Jr., Gallinari, Randolph
There's passing to prove a point, passing to trick the other guy, and passing to get in rhythm. And there's this. D'Antoni may not have five Nashes to work with, but a line-up whose primary directive is to move the ball is quite the Trojan Horse. Here's that strange hole in time and space where the fast break meets pre-shot clock stalling, as a line-up with more than adequate ability to keep the ball jumping back and forth does so 'til it drives the other team absolutely insane. That is the only option, the only possible outcome, that matters. That or a shot clock violation that ends the experiment. For now.
This actually got me mad hyped for the season.