[h1]Can the D'Antoni hire lure LeBron James to Knicks?[/h1]
If
the Knicks can get under the salary cap by 2010, they'll be in excellent position to sign Lebron James when hebecomes a free agent.
So the recruitment of one of the
NBA's brightest coaching minds was done with a tantalizing lure. Donnie Walsh couldn't sell the present to Mike D'Antoni, but because of the well-known
Madison Square Garden resources, the future always has unlimited potential.
Come hell or high loss totals along the way, Walsh will get
the Knicks under the salary cap by 2010. The Garden is always an attractive place for free agents and landing a players' coach only sweetens the pot. A person with knowledge of the situation said Bulls players were filling team executive John Paxson's inbox with text messages, begging him to bring D'Antoni to Chicago.
"They wanted to play for Mike," the person said. And Walsh is banking on this to be just another reason for
LeBron James to seriously consider making the Garden his home if he declines a player option and becomes a free agent in 2010.
It would take a lot of payroll maneuvering in the meantime and, perhaps, some tough decisions. As the roster stands, the Knicks will have just $28 million against the cap going into the 2010-11 season. It's the perfect storm; the best player on the planet is available and the richest team in the league has cap space.
"I think those thoughts are very prominent in the front office," said a person with knowledge of the situation.
D'Antoni, who will be officially introduced as Knicks coach either tomorrow or Wednesday, had a two-time MVP in
Steve Nash running his high-octane offense and all-stars
Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire as key pieces in his system with the Suns. And he is salivating at the mere potential of inserting the versatile James into his very versatile system on basketball's grandest stage.
One person with knowledge of D'Antoni's thinking suggested he "would probably use [James] at the four spot [power forward] ... He would fit in anywhere."
James is the mold of the ideal player for the D'Antoni system. "Ideally," the person said, "you would have a bunch of 6-9 guys who can handle the ball and shoot threes."
But this is all hypothetical. Right now, D'Antoni is taking over a team that won 23 games last season. There is a prevailing belief that D'Antoni's loose, freewheeling style is not the right fit for the Knicks as they are currently constructed. But those who have worked with D'Antoni over the years insist he can and will adjust to the personnel he has.
"It's a block of clay, and they're working the clay right now and trying to decide what the possibilities are," said Memphis Grizzlies coach Marc Iavarone, who spent the previous three-plus seasons as an assistant with D'Antoni on the Suns' coaching staff. "They are not married to anything as of right now, that I would think. They would probably be talking about what can we do that will move this one step at a time; whether it's a roster move, whether it's a style move, whatever it is."
Make no mistake, the style will eventually be what we've seen in Phoenix, where the team lived by the "Seven Seconds" mantra, which encouraged players to look for their shot in the first seven seconds of a possession. It is a philosophy that leads to more possessions and, therefore, more opportunities to score. It also means there are fewer passes within an offensive set, which results in fewer turnovers.
"Most coaches believe defenses are more vulnerable late in the shot clock, that you can get them out of position with a lot of passing," D'Antoni said in a Sports Illustrated feature in the Oct. 31, 2005 issue. "We think defenses are most vulnerable before they get set."
According to 82games.com, 43 percent of the Suns possessions this season resulted in a shot within the first 10 seconds of the 24-second shot clock. Only 10 percent came with more than 21 seconds left. By comparison, the Knicks took a shot in the first 10 seconds 37 percent of the time, and 15 percent of their offense resulted in a shot with more than 21 seconds left.
Opponents of this style say there is too much emphasis on offense, and defense is an afterthought. D'Antoni plays to outscore you, not to stop you, and, as shown by the Suns' playoff failures, that style doesn't win championships. Even Walsh had long believed the traditional way - half-court-based, inside-out offense and an in-your-face defense - was the way to go.
"He and I have had numerous philosophical conversations regarding the new Suns-like style versus the classic style; the Heat with Riley, the Spurs and Boston," said one league executive who has been a longtime Walsh confidant. "We usually ended up in the same place: the classic style teams seem to be sizing for rings.
"That said, the Pacers hired a new-style guy in [Jim] O'Brien last season. and I know that Donnie liked the selection."
As the story goes, D'Antoni came upon this hot new style out of basic need. During his first training camp as coach of the Suns in 2004-05, he looked at his roster and realized he did not have an experienced, traditional power forward. The only player who filled the role was a rookie named Jackson Vroman.
So D'Antoni thought that instead of inserting an inexperienced, somewhat overmatched player in his starting five, why not just add another swingman? So unwittingly began Marion's career as the smallest power forward in the NBA. But it worked like magic. With an extra athlete on the floor, the Suns scored a league-high 110.4 points per game that season.
"That's one of the things he believes in, and I don't think he would mind me saying this, is that you put your five best players on the floor," Iavarone said. "He's probably the antithesis of having that sixth-man concept. His theory is, why am I waiting to bring in one of my best players?"
Marion eventually soured on the idea of playing out of position - in reality, the Suns' offense doesn't have set positions, but on defense, Marion was often in difficult matchups - and that's where things began to crumble for D'Antoni in Phoenix. But despite his issues this past season with Marion, who was eventually traded for
Shaquille O'Neal, and Stoudemire, D'Antoni still is considered to be a players' coach.
