Waiting and wondering
-
- May
- 9
I’m starting to wonder if Donnie Walsh isn’t suitably impressed by Mark Jackson or Mike D’Antoni.
He’s conducted enough interviews made enough hires over the years to recognize a good candidate. There has to be a reason why the Knicks don’t have a coach at this point. Maybe they are waiting for a chance to speak with Tom Thibodeau, but there’s no chance of that happening until at least next week. And the Celtics would likely have to win twice in Cleveland over the next three days to open a window.
I think it’s funny to see reports that Jackson would be able to reach Stephon Marbury. There is no way that’s a consideration. Walsh isn’t hiring a guy to coach a contoversial playmaker who’s in the final year of his contract.
So we’ll sit around, waiting.
Chicago might be able to help speed up the process by making a reasonable offer to D’Antoni, who risks sitting out a season or two if he doesn’t get a deal in place soon.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:12 am by Mike Dougherty.
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“I think it’s funny to see reports that Jackson would be able to reach Stephon Marbury. There is no way that’s a consideration. Walsh isn’t hiring a guy to coach a contoversial playmaker who’s in the final year of his contract.”
Donnie’s goal is make the knicks competitive while cutting salary. If this is indeed true, then the best cost cutting scenario for the knicks would be to sign Mark Jax at a small salary to coach the team. I believe that Marbury will be resigned for veterans’ min $1 million depending on who is drafted. If the knicks draft a PG, steph is done after his contract expires but if we draft another position, I can see Marbury staying with the knicks for a very small salary. This would still allow the knicks to be competitive whilst not taking any salary to get a decent PG.
I agree that Walsh must not be overly impressed with Mark Jackson, and possibly D’Antoni as well. At first I thought that Walsh wanted to give the impression of doing a complete search, rather than just hiring Jackson right away. That reduces criticism and raises Jackson’s perceived value to the media and fans. That is, if Jackson beats out everyone after a full search, then he must be the best for the job. But at this point, if Walsh really wanted Jackson all along, then he probably would have hired him already. Nevertheless, getting a name brand coach willing to oversee salary slashing will be difficult. That could be the problem with D’Antoni. He may not want to wait 2 years to field a quality roster. All of this does seem to point to Thibodeau. Isn’t it possible that Walsh has already communicated with Thibodeau in some fashion? If not directly, then through “mutual friends”?
Colordes just dont make good coaches.
D’Antoni is the new Knicks coach. Why haven’t you posted a blog about this yet, Mike?
He aint no Spik.
Woah, I didn’t post that previous message. Someone has an issue with me.
Yes he did, and posts on Rangers Report as Mike from AZ and as Teacher at Habs inside/out.