It has been an interesting season for Mike D'Antoni.
For much of the season, he had a roster that perfectly fit his desired approach to basketball. They played aggressively on offense, moved the ball up the court quickly and largely ignored the defensive side of things in the process.
Then came the Carmelo Anthony trade and that dreamy roster became a set of parts that no longer fit D'Antoni's vision of what basketball was supposed to look like. There were plenty of problems integrating everyone and the team's record suffered as a result of those difficulties.
Something strange happened toward the end of the season and in the playoffs, however. The Knicks started to play defense and they started to figure out a way to make the offense, disjointed though it may be, succeed often enough to compete at a high level.
D'Antoni might have been forced into altering his approach, but he deserves credit for doing it well enough that the Knicks really didn't miss much more than a beat after the Anthony trade. The team is still a work in progress, but, like their home arena, it is still useful while those renovations are taking place.
That willingness to take a hands-on role with the team makes it hard to understand what D'Antoni did down the stretch of Game Two against the Celtics, however. Leaving Jared Jeffries on the court for the final offensive possession is a move that defies all basketball logic, even with Jeffries playing the offensive game of his life.
Everyone knew the Celtics would leave Jeffries open to double Carmelo Anthony which meant there was a pretty good chance Jeffries would wind up with the ball in his hands. It should have been the more offensively gifted Shawne Williams, especially when you knew there would be a timeout to get Jeffries back in the game if the Knicks made a basket.
Sports
That error has plenty of company. The first two games have featured plenty of moments that make you wonder what D'Antoni is doing on the sideline.
You had the choice to take Jeffries off the inbounder at the end of Game One after the Celtics were forced to use a timeout because they couldn't get the ball in play on their first attempt. And Game Two saw the team come out of timeouts totally unprepared for a Celtics alley oop and the backcourt pass to Delonte West that wound up running out the clock.
We could go on, but we'll cut to the quick. D'Antoni's failings on the play-by-play level matter, but do they matter more than the way he has gotten every ounce out of an overmatched team that clearly plays its heart out for him?
The answer to that question probably varies from respondent to respondent. For us, it basically comes down to the same condundrum that covers everything having to do with the Knicks at this point.
It's brutal to watch them lose games like this, but it's impossible to expect much more from a team as deeply flawed as this one. It's hard to accept D'Antoni's often lackadaisacal approach to actually coaching, but it is hard not to be impressed by what he's coaxed out of his team.
More than anything else, it would be nice if they'd just figure out a way to win a game so that we can stop thinking about these kinds of questions.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
