N.Y. Knicks: Dolan's Rant Falls on Deaf Sneakers

From the desk of:  DUTCH PANTS CAN'T JUMP

Tuesday Final:

Bobcats  102

Knicks     98

I've Had It!  Get Isiah Thomas On The Phone!

NEW YORK KNICKS: Dolan Didn't Say That, But You Can Bet He's Thinking It.  After All Those Years Under Zeke, The Knicks Are Only Now Testing His Patience?  C'mon!  It's As If Dolan Is Almost Fabricating A Chain Of Events That Will Justify And Ultimately Pave The Way For Thomas' Return.

Knicks Lose 3rd Straight Game.

Charlotte Sticks It To Knicks Without Al Jefferson On The Floor.

Team Allows 64 Points In The First Half, And Get Destroyed On The Boards 51-38.

Has Anyone Seen The Owner?  Here's a better question - can the owner play perimeter defense?  If Sunday's loss didn't bode well for Steve Mills, then Tuesday night's continued poor defensive effort against the Bobcats must be an omen for Coach Woodson.

Prior to the season, Dolan fired former GM Glen Grunwald for no particular reason, then astonishingly brought Steve Mills back into the fold, and named him president and general manager of the Knicks.  Why?  I still don't know.  But after just ten quarters of real-time basketball, James Dolan reportedly did to Mills what he never contemplated with Isiah Thomas in all the years Zeke spent running MSG into the ground.  In fact, Steve Mills, who was the recipient of a Jimmy Dolan tongue lashing during Sunday's game, was present for the entire dark Zeke Era, and never once heard or witnessed Dolan reprimand or act badly towards Thomas during a decade's time - not even during the scandal which rocked, and inevitably brought down the House of Zeke, and cost the owner millions of dollars to defend.

Steve Mills didn't even assemble this current team, but took the heat for the Knicks pathetic play against the T-Wolves.  Or was the pathetic play of Dolan's prized acquisition, Carmelo Anthony, the root cause of his true ire?  Ever since Commissioner Stern took Zeke away from Dolan and forced Donnie Walsh on him, and through the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes, Dolan has been a one-man gang.  In fact, Dolan has never been the same since the Nets stepped foot in Brooklyn.  Faced with direct competition, he's riddled with anxiety, and has been reduced to finally becoming an impetuous owner who all of a sudden tries holding people, anyone, accountable - except his star that is.  He is the same star who is on record saying he can't wait to test free agency.

If I were paying said player's salary, hearing that would make the hair in my wig stand up too.  But, the reality is, if it weren't for Barclays Center, there would be no worries.  Such as life in today's big city.  So, along with a new billion dollar facelift for MSG, came new billion dollar expectations.  Yes folks, welcome to the new Garden indeed, where a double standard is always in fashion.

Carmelo was able to take a figurative night off against the Timberwolves, but Mills caught the heat when the Knicks lost.  Indifference apparently won the day, because the Knicks followed Sunday's loss this evening with a horrible defensive first half effort against the Charlotte Bobcats, and wound up losing by a 102-97 final.

So when does Coach Woodson get verbally accosted?  Tonight?  Tomorrow morning?  Over lunch?  After all, he was originally recruited to be Mike D'Antoni's so-called defensive assistant coach, right?  I like Mike Woodson.  It's just too bad he works for a now wanna-be unpredictable basketball magnate.

In the mean time, Carmelo Anthony played 44 minutes this evening! -  and scored 32-points.  But that didn't prevent the Knicks from losing their third straight game.  That should certainly cost someone in the marketing department their job for sure.  Yet another night like this, and the MSG  mail room staff could be toast.




Mike.BTB

N.Y. Knicks: Glen Grunwald Out, Steve Mills Back In - How George Steinbrennian

From the desk of:   DUTCH PANTS CAN'T JUMP

(Walton Street, Williamsburg)

NEW YORK KNICKS: The Heels At The Garden Go Round And Round.

There you go!  If life works in cycles, James Dolan is lapping the field.  History has taught him nothing.  His long list of failures as owner repeat themselves.  This is why I'm so down on the Knickerbockers.

I can understand, if only theoretically that is..., if Dolan felt as if Donnie Walsh was imposed upon him by Commissioner Stern, and that Walsh wasn't necessarily Jimmy's kind of guy.  Fine.  But the fact that Donnie Walsh recovered this organization after being reduced to rubble by the previous administration, and was then rewarded by being shoved in front of an oncoming train downstairs at Penn Station, and for what(?) - to replace him with lightweight Glen Grunwald(?) - is what got lost on me. 

If you really want to know how Dolan felt about Donnie Walsh, look no further than how the Carmelo Anthony deal went down.  For a decade plus, Dolan never ever came close to sticking his unlearned nose into Glen Sather's or Isiah Thomas' business.  At the same time he was facing direct competition or the first time via the Brooklyn Nets, Denver put Melo on the market, and Dolan didn't just step on Donnie's toes, he broke them with a nut cracker in order to acquire the Nuggets star forward.

Sather (still does) and Thomas enjoyed absolute reign over MSG's teams for as long as they lived, right up until the Anucha Brown Sanders debacle forced David Stern to effectively break up MSG's triumvirate led MSG cult, which include among the ranks, an albeit lesser known, Steve Mills.  He was right there, front and center for a decade, playing an equal part in the Fall of Knickerbocker.

I had no particular like for Glen Grunwald, but without knowing for sure why he is no longer the GM, the fact Steve Mills is back in the fold is ponderous to me.  We all know Isiah Thomas still has a key to the executive bathroom, and has never really gone away.  Mills had his fingerprints all over the decision to bring Zeke to the Knicks.  And now he's back for an encore.  Do you want more?  He's back as GM and President no less.  Happy days are here again.

Meanwhile, Glen Grunwald has been reassigned within the organization as an advisor.  Right - How George Steinbrennian, and absolutely ponderous!

All that aside, it appears as if Allan Houston will be taking on a larger role with the Knicks.  That's another conversation.



Mike.BTB

N.Y. Knicks: Series Over - Donnie Walsh Leaves Old Team In His Dust

From the desk of:   DUTCH PANTS CAN'T JUMP

NEW YORK KNICKS - Grunwald's Geezers Run Out Of Gas.

MELO SCORES THIRTY-NINE, BUT KNICKERBOCKERS FALL IN SIX

What started out a few years ago with Stephon Marbury being nailed to the bench for a grossly under-manned Knicks team, ended Saturday night in Indiana's field house, as Donnie Walsh's Pacers dismantled the Knicks, eliminating them from this year's playoffs, four games to two.  New York's off-season uncertainty starts....now.


The Indiana Pacers' executive man in charge sat quietly absorbed, triumphantly observing his newest creation defeat the team Jim Dolan hijacked from him.  How does an NBA owner hijack his own team you ask?  When Commissioner Stern orders him to hire Donnie Walsh in order to halt one of the league's marquee franchise's decade long free fall into basketball Tartaros.  For with blind love, devotion and negligence, Jim Dolan allowed Isiah Thomas to put the Knickerbockers organization through hell.


Fast forward to the signing of Amare Stoudemire.  Donnie Walsh did everything that needed getting done in order to gain salary cap relief, regardless of LeBron James' pending free agency.  Personally, I felt securing Stoudemire was the owner's knee jerk reaction for failing to secure James, but more, a desperate last minute signing mandated by Dolan before the market closed.  If the Phoenix Suns were only willing to offer Amare three years, I had, and still have zero reason to believe Donnie Walsh wanted to pay him a day longer or a dollar more, especially under an uninsurable contract.  Only owners do that, not GMs, and certainly not the Donnie Walsh of a reasonable mind.


Fast forward to the Carmelo Anthony trade.  In direct conflict with Dolan's preference for the star system, Donnie Walsh effectively got fired because he tried building a team.  When Melo trade talks between Denver and the Nets picked up , Jim Dolan succumbed to the threat of direct competition from Brooklyn, and swooped in to kidnap Anthony.  Shortly thereafter, Dolan pushed Walsh out the door.


Let's be clear - all things considered, the Knicks do not reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons without Donnie Walsh's prior ground work, or without Carmelo Anthony for that matter.  These days, Donnie walks needing the assistance of a cane, but the man knows how to run an organization.  As it pertains to Saturday night, the Indiana Pacers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals before the Knicks did - two franchises that began at the same starting line after the Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller days passed them by.  Donnie Walsh had a hand in the Pacers of that era, and will now face the Miami Heat - the team, and an era, the Knicks are still chasing ever since Pat Riley split town via fax.

Game Six Final

Knicks       99

Pacers      106

If the Knicks were guilty of anything, the post-Walsh Knicks stamped their luggage with NBA Finals stickers months ago, not coincidentally, around the same time gas mileage on present GM Glen Grunwald's Geezers started registering true.  During the season's most important minutes, in the team's most important games, Rasheed Wallace, Kurt Thomas, Marcus Camby, Jason Kidd, and Kenyon Martin were all out of leaded gasoline.


The Knicks were surviving Game Six largely on the strength of Melo's usual star performance  and  Iman Shumpert's hot hand.  Was Iman really the plan?  Hardly.  Truth is, no one showed up in support of the team's star.  Ray Felton scored two points - Tyson Chandler had two points - Pablo Prigioni had six points - Kenyon Martin had five points - Camby and Novack did not play.  And lastly, Jason Kidd failed to score a point in any of the six games - not one.


Fact is, the Pacers represented a horrible match-up for the Knicks.  Tyson Chandler was flat out  deleted by Roy Hibbert inside.  Hibbert dropped twenty-one points on Chandler, pulled down twelve rebounds, and blocked five shots, one of which became an instant ESPN classic against Melo.  How much of Roy's performance was due to Chandler's bulging disc problem is still, and may remain  unknown.  Roy Hibbert however, was only the beginning.  Lance Stephenson scored twenty-five, and pulled down another ten rebounds.  For the game, Indiana cleaned up 43-36 on the glass.


The Pacers also scored fifty-two of their 106 points in the paint, while the Knicks only managed twenty.  By relentlessly pounding the Knicks interior, they additionally put themselves in the bonus early.  Indiana pummelled the Knicks from the line, sinking thirty-four of forty-six attempts.  The Knicks only made it to the stripe eighteen times.  Tyson Chandler was one of three Knicks to foul out of the game.  Shumpert and Kenyon Martin joined him.  Carmelo Anthony ended the game with five fouls.


J.R.Smith contributed fifteen points and ten rebounds an otherwise nice game.  Let's be honest though.  Ever since his ill-fated elbow and suspension in round one, his game has effectively disappeared.


When Mike Woodson took over as head coach, he made it very clear that Carmelo Anthony was his star player, clearly in line with the Dolan Doctrine, and that he was going to ride Melo like a mule for all he's worth.  Compared to Mike D'Antoni, that was probably the smart way to go.  For the first three quarters of the game, Melo took care of business, with Shump and Smith providing points as well.  Carmelo finished with a game-high thirty-nine points, pulled down seven rebounds and had two assists.


What of the fourth quarter then - closing time?  Melo tied the game 81-81 with a layup in the last seconds of the third quarter.  So, this game was there for their taking.  But after allowing thirty-four points in the third quarter, Indiana clamped down on defense, limiting the Knicks to just eighteen points in the final twelve minutes.  Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith both only shot two of seven from the field during the quarter.  And in a game in which Iman Shumpert had already scored  nineteen points, and was five of six from beyond the three-point line, he failed to take a single shot in the fourth quarter.  That's hard to understand.  Ponderous!


On the heels of an abrupt ending such as this, there will be those looking to cast blame.  Which ever way you size this up, the local story will read how a bunch of no-names overcame Carmelo Anthony.  Did Melo come up small in crunch time?  Has he reaffirmed his playoff legacy?  Did Mike Woodson mismanage the Knicks this series?  Was the Knick relying too heavily on Glen Grunwald's geriatrics a huge mistake?  Does Ray Felton get a chunk of blame, who, as the primary point guard, failed to orchestrate?  Is there more?


In the immortal word of former Knicks broadcaster Marv Albert - YES!




Mike.BTB