New York State of Mind

Mike D’Antoni has agreed to become the new head coach of the New York Knicks. This is bigger headscratcher than the move by Phoenix to get rid of Mr. Seven Seconds or Less.

The logical move for D’Antoni wasn’t the Bulls and definitely wasn’t the Knicks. It was the Toronto Raptors. With Bosh on the inside, guys like Bargnani, Kapono, and Anthony Parker on the perimeter, Jamario Moon playing the role of “Matrix II” and Jose Calderon at point, D’Antoni would have a field day coaching this team.

He’d probably have to trade T.J. Ford, who would be pissed coming off the bench, perhaps to the Trail Blazers for James Jones and spare parts, but that wouldn’t be a big deal.

Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo should’ve fired Sam Mitchell the minute D’Antoni became available and threw all sorts of money at the jettisoned Phoenix coach. The fact that he didn’t leads me to believe that maybe they had a falling out during Colangelo’s last days in the desert. Either that or he’s not as smart as we think he is.

If not Toronto then definitely Chicago. The Bulls have a team full of run-and-gun guys, but not as discipline as the players in Toronto. Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Andres Nocioni, Chris Duhon and Thabo Sefolosha can all knock down the three.

Luol Deng is a slasher D’Antoni should’ve coached in Phoenix anyway, and Tyrus Thomas, Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah are perfect bigs for D’Antoni’s system.

Larry Hughes might be serviceable, but will probably help them better hurt and on the sideline, which is probably going to happen.

Instead, D’Antoni took the money and ran to New York. Four of the Knicks highest paid players are completely useless in this system: Eddy Curry and Jerome James are too slow and lazy, Zach Randolph is too selfish and lazy, and Stephon Marbury is too selfish.

Donnie Walsh can’t buy all of these guys out, and Stephon Marbury is the only expiring contract out of this bunch.

Their only decent three-point threat is Quentin Richardson, who might have a worse back than Steve Nash. Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson are gunners who will probably not pass the ball enough to make things work in New York, but they are young enough to make you think their bad habits could be broken.

Renaldo Balkman, David Lee, Fred Jones, Mardy Collins and Jared Jeffries will all be decent in this system and David Lee should thrive. Randolph Morris and Wilson Chandler are two question marks.

The morale of this story is that D’Antoni is going from feast to famine with this group and is probably making this move because of greed.

Yes, Steve Kerr did essentially force him out. However, he still should have at least gave the bulls to counter New York’s offer.

Perhaps D’Antoni thought the Bulls and Knicks had the same level of talent, forgetting about how horrendous the Knicks big men are. Maybe he didn’t really pay much attention to either team, as the Suns swept both teams during the regular season this past year.

It was one thing for his era in Phoenix to end out without a championship but D’Antoni leaving Phoenix for New York is downright painful.

NBA Trade Deadline Re-Cap

The trade deadline finally came and went with a few minor trades, two semi-important trades, and a huge deadline deal.

For the minor deals, Toronto traded Juan Dixon to the Pistons for Primoz Brezec. No comment about this one.

Houston traded Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round pick for the T’Wolves Gerald Green. Its bad news for Green when a team like the Timberwolves gives up on you.

Portland traded Taurean Green to the Nuggets for Von Wafer. Yawn.

In a very interesting move, the San Antonio Spurs acquired Kurt Thomas from the Supersonics for Francisco Elson, Brent Barry, and a 1st round pick. This is a big, big move for them. Thomas gives them depth and good shooting from the center position that the Spurs seem to reserve for players that provided defense and rebounding only.

Add to the fact that Brent Barry was bought out by the Sonics soon after the deal and could re-sign with the Spurs. If he does that, they would’ve upgraded from Elson to Thomas at backup center at the low cost of a low first round draft pick. Amazing.

Another interesting trade was New Orleans getting Bonzi Wells and Mike James from the Rockets for Bobby Jackson. Bonzi is an excellent role player for a team lacking depth, although he’s nuts. Playing with CP3 might keep him sane at least for the rest of the season.

However, I think Mike James is a downgrade from Bobby Jackson. The only thing that’s good about James is he’s a lot more durable than Jackson. For the Rockets, they continue to have one of the weirdest rosters around. They have no depth at the 2 or the 3, but seem to only acquire power forwards and point guards.

Of course the biggest deal was the three team trade between Seattle, Chicago and Cleveland. The Sonics received Adrian Griffin, Ira Newble, and Donyell Marshall; Chicago got Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, Shannon Brown, and Cedric Simmons; Cleveland got Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West.

For the Sonics, they continue to cut salary I guess to help make their move cheaper. This sucks for Seattle as the NBA is going to sit back and allow a franchise with loyal fans to be moved in the name of corporate welfare.

For Chicago, they got rid of Ben Wallace’s ugly contract and officially ushered in the Joakim Noah/Tyrus Thomas era. The move also suggests that Ben Gordon’s Bulls days are numbered, although I still think the Bulls should just buy Hughes out.

For Cleveland, LeBron finally has a decent supporting cast. I don’t know where Ben Wallace fits in, as he’s just a more expensive Anderson Varejao. Joe Smith is a smarter, although less athletic, Drew Gooden. Szcerbiak is not the catch and shoot guy he’s been made out to be, but he’s a hell of a lot better than Larry Hughes (and cheaper too).

He didn’t fit in with KG, which should be another red flag. Still, he has to fit in better with this team than Hughes.

My favorite part of this deal for the Cavs is the addition of Delonte West. I don’t know why nobody wants to keep this guy. He’s solid at all aspects of the game; he can shoot with range, play defense, rebound, and pass. Him and Boobie Gibson are a solid young point guard combination, comparable to the Lakers combo of Jordan Farmar and Sasah Vujacic.

Now that everything’s said and done, doesn’t this year’s playoffs seem like they will be epic? I can’t wait.