Overlooked in my flurry of music posts lately was the very excellent news out of MSG - Mike D'Antoni will be leading the Knickerbockers next year. I've been a great admirer of D'Antoni's Phoenix teams - they played a style that was always entertaining, and when they were hitting on all cylinders, captivating. I don't think D'Antoni makes the Knicks a contender anytime soon, nor do most people, I gather. But he will make them play a brand of basketball that won't be sleep inducing. He'll also probably make better use of David Lee and Renaldo Balkman. I am, for the first time in a long time, excited to see some Knicks basketball.
Now, the downside is that for D'Antoni's system to work, it needs the right pieces, most of which the Knicks don't have (I count Lee, Balkman, Marbury, Robinson, and maybe Quentin Richardson, who used to play for D'Antoni but has a bad back, as fitting in). Moreover, D'Antoni never got the Suns to the finals - yeah, they came close, and maybe the Suns front office is to blame for making some bad decisions, but the other great offensive guru, Don Nelson, has never won a title either.
Here's an interesting question: if you could have a coach who would guarantee entertaining basketball, with some success but no title, or a coach who produced boring but efficient winners, which would you pick? Would you rather be the Suns or the Spurs?
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