OT: D'Antoni resigns as Knicks coach.

Agreed.  He's one of the most overrated players in the NBA, if not the most.

Definitely true. It has always boggled my mind the way ESPN talking heads continually call him one of the best players in the NBA.  If by one of the best you mean one of the top 50 then yes.  This is yet another example of why I hate the NBA, to go along with the Dwight Howard thread yesterday.  Used to be a team game.

As a Knick fan I have to agree.  Didn't like the trade at the time and even less now.  I'll give him one thing - he has spectacular offensive skills - but that's where it ends.  Rationalize it all they want but it's fairly obvious why everything went south once he returned.

I'm not a huge fan of Anthony's game, and I think the Knicks made a pretty big mistake trading for him. But it's not like he's terrible at basketball or anything. He can be infuriatingly lazy on defense, but he's always been one of the better rebounding wing forwards in basketball. And as much as he dominates the ball, he's also been a pretty efficient scorer throughout his career. His TS% is down this year, but he's generally been around 55% throughout his career, which is actually pretty good for a guy who shoots as much as he does -- the median team TS% is usually around 53-54%. There was also that business of him carrying an NCAA championship team on his back as a freshman -- the guy's at least won something.

All said, I agree that he's overrated, but it's defiitely possible to go too far in knocking his game.

right now. I don't discount the fact that he may be a flash in the pan, but rather that Melo is way over-rated as a player and person.

It 's not just defense for 'Melo, it's also playing offense without the ball in his hands 50% of the time. He's a poster child for how player's understanding of the game has gotten worse in the era of AAU ball and one and dones. 
 

was top ten this year. 

In Phoenix, they were right around average when you look at their points allowed per possession. 

The fact is, D'Antoni has never had a lot of luck. 

In Phoenix

2005: Joe Johnson gets hurt, Phoenix goes into a hole against the Spurs, Spurs win the series 4-1. Every game was decided by 10 points or less. 

2006: Stoudamire injured for the season. Still makes the conference finals with absolutely no height. 

2007: Series tied at two in the semifinals against the Spurs, the idiotic suspensions by David Stern of Stoudamire and Diaw for taking a single step onto the court cause the two to miss a game 5 which the Spurs win 88-85 in Phoenix. Also one of the series that Donaghy says certain games were rigged. Series goes back to SA, where the Spurs close it out. 

2008: Team is in first place when Steve Kerr decides to blow it up and bring in Shaq. That was the end of the D'antoni era in Phoenix. 

That's really 4 years where the team had a ton of success and always seemed to get screwed by circumstances out of their control (insert "good coaches find a way to win, blah blah blah" rebuttal here). 

In New York, he's working with an incompetent leadership led by Dolan who just wants stars and doesn't care how they fit into the system. The fact that Deron Williams was signed by the Nets right after Melo went to the Knicks is just mind-boggling. How Williams wasn't the target all along (now we're hearing that's who D'Antoni wanted) when he was open to being signed away makes no sense, because he was the perfect fit for D'Antoni's system. Williams + Stoudamire > Anthony + Stoudamire even if Anthony might be more talented than Williams. 

...going to coach up there? If ever there was an offensive scheme that suited a player it is the D'Antoni scheme with Lin running the point. Just like in the old days when a relative unknown named Nash showed up in Phoenix to play point for D'Antoni. Some NBA backwater, like Toronto I suppose, should hire D'Antoni, trade for Lin and just build from there.

Tell that to the many people in the Burke vs. Iverson thread who insisted that Iverson was a HoFer.

Knicks management more likely.  They shelled out a ton for 'Melo.  They look like morons if it doesn't work out. 

Just one more illustration of the importance of the soft skills - character/chemistry/attitude, whatever you want to call it. 

While I agree that D'antoni's career is largely built on Nash being Nash (though he wasn't entirely the Nash we know until he played for D'Antoni) and agree completely about his defensive shortcomings, his offense doesn't preach "chuck a shot." Rather, it seeks to force the defense to collapse on a PG freed by the high pick and then takes advantage as the defense scrambles to move the ball and free up a bunch of wing scorers or a diving big.

The problem with Melo's return has been that he has a spot that he loves, on the wing about 18-20 feet from the basket just below the foul line. It's where he scores from and he hasn't shown much willingness to move off of it. It totally screws up D'Antoni's offense, though, because with less spacing, the defense isn't forced to react across the same amount of space and everything gets constricted. It doesn't help that 'Melo's willing to hold the ball in that spot for 5-7 seconds trying to free himself up, so that if he does swing the ball, it's occurring with a run-down shot clock.

Lin's getting his shots because the PG is at the center of the offense. 'Melo would get shots in the offense too, particularly when the high pick is well defensed, but he'd have to play in a spot that's uncomfortable for him and so far, he hasn't done it for more than occasional spurts.

Lin is still getting his shots actually...fact is they were winning against the dog shit part of their schedule. Melo's #'s are down including shots taken so I'm not sure how he is the #1 reason for the losing. How about you ask guys like Lin and Amare to play a little D as well.

When they get a coach who might preach a little D and people stop falling over themselves cause Lin went on a 2 week chucky atkins run then the knicks might settle into what they are..an average team with to many "stars" and a chicken shit coach who has no voice in the lockerroom.

Went to the Nuggets and won a championship? It would never happen though, the nuggets are already set at point guard.

I won't rehash 2003's convential wisdom on Darko, but what makes you think that GMs should have known to pick Wade or Bosh over Carmelo? Carmelo was clearly the best player in college basketball that year, turning Syracuse from an NIT team to a national champion as a freshman, putting up better numbers than Bosh or Wade (who he's a year younger than), and generally looking like the strongest pick at #3. It turns out that Wade and probably Bosh would have been better picks, but this was anything but obvious at the time.

*I highly recommend the Duncan Watts book.