1. How Steve Nash Shines in Basketball — and Business

The gimmick throughout this Fast Company article by Chuck Salter is pretty dumb, but the content itself is pretty good. Basically, it breaks down how Steve Nash has gone from reluctant celebrity who turned up his nose at corporate endorsements and celebrity appearances to a guy who has embraced becoming a revenue-generator since realizing that he can do a ton of good in this world if he just had more capital and a bigger platform.

It’s basically the same philosophy that Jay-Z breaks down in “Moment of Clarity”:

I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them
So I got rich and gave back, to me, that’s the win/win

Obviously, “poor” is a relative term here but the basic premise is that while a guy like Steve Nash may seem ungodly rich to day-laborers like us, his basketball salary and status alone isn’t ever going to allow him to make the type of difference on this planet that he hopes he can. He needs Vitaminwater’s corporate backing. He needs to mold and then leverage the type of celebrity that things like playing in the NBA can’t offer alone. So he needs to go on Entourage and David Letterman. He needs to make movies for ESPN. Basically — and I know it sounds cheesy — he needs to turn himself into a recognizable brand that will entice people to open their wallets and corporate budgets to help support his causes (with the environment and fitness seeming to lead his agenda).

To quote Jay-Z again (he’s so wise), Steve Nash has started to look at his post-NBA life from a broader, more ambitious perspective:

I’m not a businessman; I’m a business, man

And this is why Nash is not only the funniest dude in the league — at least in public — he is also one of the few who might actually be worth looking up to. No, he’s not Dikembe Mutombo. But he seems to be try to do as much for other people as he has time for in between, ya know, that whole being an NBA All-Star thing.

To get to where he wants to be once his playing days are over, he will also be consciously making himself into a much bigger mainstream figure — but that’s just collateral damage.

That might be hard to believe in this cynical world where we presume everyone wants to be famous, but I believe the guy when he says he doesn’t really want to be in the spotlight.

What perplexes me more is why anyone would.

(AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)

2. A Lament for Tall Guy

Matt Moore had a great conversation with his wife about Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Here’s the set-up:

Me: “I have great news!”

Paroxi-Wife: “You canceled League Pass and will now actually spend time and attention on me?!”

Me: “…”

Paroxi-Wife: “What is your good news? If this involves the word ‘trade exemption’ I’m going to stop listening now.”

Me: “The Cavs traded for Antawn Jamison!”

Paroxi-Wife: “…”

Me: “You know, the guy on the Wizards I’ve been ranting about? 20 and 8? Aaaan-TAWN Jamison?”

Paroxi-Wife: “….”

They go back and forth a little more and we find out that Paroxi-Wife is devastated to hear that Tall Guy, aka Big Z, got dealt. And then Matt skillfully puts what Ilgauskas means to the Cavs franchise all into perspective. I have to imagine that Zydrunas will be bought out by Washington and return to Cleveland for their Playoff run.

But, man, what if he doesn’t?

That would just suck.

3. Is Donnie Walsh Too Old For Us to Change His Nickname to “Zeke”?

To me, a Pacers fan and a Donnie Walsh apologist, I saw the unfortunate yet somewhat necessary inclusion of future draft picks to dump Jared Jeffries and acquire TMac’s expiring contract as something Donnie had to do. He was brought in before the 2008-09 season to fix a sinking ship, and he and the other powers that be decided that they were going to do whatever they could to fix the franchise’s salary cap situation, which was oh-so-memorably and colossally burnt to the ground via fiscal arson by Isiah Thomas. And this seemingly insolvable riddle of bloated albatrosses, nonproductive players and low-level assets all needed to be transformed into roster flexibility by May 2010. When Walsh was hired, it seemed like the only thing that could turn such turd into gold that quickly was alchemy.

As an outsider and an Indy fan who is genetically predisposed to hating the Knicks, even I was a little squeamish upon learning how much New York gave up just to dump Jared Jeffries and get far enough under the cap to be able to sign two max players this summer. But, still, Donnie Walsh was just doing his job. He was in a no-win situation, but had already committed to at least giving the team the possibility of being better aligned towards a 2011 resurgence. After going so far in the direction of “cap space or bust,” he had to go all in no matter the cost, right?

Well, even if the Knicks are now better off financially than at any other time in the last decade, some Knicks fans aren’t exactly willing to give management a pat on the back for mortgaging the future on a pipe dream.

Or at least not for the way they got there.

In this article, Kenneth Paul Drews of the inimitable Free Darko Presents: The Disciples of Clyde NBA Podcast (which is the best NBA podcast there is in my book) breaks down how the Knicks got to this position and notes a few perhaps major missteps along the way.

If you don’t care how the sausage is made then this is a good day to be a Knick fan.  They have lots of cap space for a deep free agent class, Eddy Curry’s expiring contract (for next year) to trade, two young quality rotation players (Chandler, Gallo), threetalented young wild cards (Sergio Rodriguez, Toney Douglas, Bill Walker), and a top tier coach (Mr. Pringles). For the first time in a decade, the Knicks are in good (if precarious) shape.

But as Ken shows, the way the sausage was made isn’t necessarily pleasant.

My condolences to KPD. Although more than anything, I’m just really looking forward to a Knick Summer of Discontent, during which they use all their cap space on TMac, Carlos Boozer and Rudy Gay.

It’s going to be glorious.

(Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

4. Does LeBron Take Too Many 3’s? — An Analysis

Vince Grzegorek breaks down the main criticism against the one player that the Knicks certainly will not be signing this summer.

LeBron ranks 5th in the NBA in most 3’s attempted with 286 so far this year. Only Danilo Gallinari, Aaron Brooks, Peja Stojakovich, and Travor Ariza have more. 25.7% of LeBron’s field goal attempts are 3’s. 286 out of 1110.

His 35.3 shooting % on 3’s, however, ranks 77th in the league among qualified players. Make sense? Probably not, especially when you have Boobie Gibson (ranked 2nd in %), Anthony Parker (ranked 6th), and Mo Williams (ranked 8th) on your roster.

For what it’s worth, in the Cleveland’s 12 losses, LeBron averages 6.5 3-point attempts per game (season average of 5.2 attempts per game), and is connecting on only 33% of them (season average of 35.3%).

I’m definitely with Vince fundamentally here and do wish that LeBron would either penetrate or post up every time he touches the ball. This is a thoughtful, well-researched and level-headed way of showing why he should shoot fewer long jumpers. It’s a fact that’s pretty much impossible to dispute at this point. He takes too many long jumpers. Perhaps way too many.

Unfortunately, this same argument in the hands of most others just turns into “LEBRON SHOOTS TOO MUCH TREYS, BRO. KOBE’Z WAAY AWESOMEER. WIN A RING, LEBRICK, THAN WE TAALK. BUM.” Or, even worse, we get a slightly more high-level English version of the same “LeBron isn’t that good really” argument that people might actually take seriously for some reason.

We should all know that LeBron isn’t perfect. No player is or was. Not Bill Russell or MJ.

Look, I love me some Mamba, some CP3 and some Dwyane Wade, but LeBron is by far the best player on this planet. And while his minor flaws (let’s be honest — he’s shooting 35% from three, which is ultimately not killing a team) are worth discussing, let’s not over-magnify them to the degree that we lose sight of what’s really important: There is no other player in the world that gives you a better chance to win a basketball game than LeBron. And it’s not even remotely close.

We’re watching Haley’s Comet on a nightly basis. Let’s try to enjoy it, folks. Because I’m pretty sure that those of us who just sit back and gaze in amazement are having a much better time watching the best player dominate a league that is better than it has been in at least 20 years.

UPDATE: Kelly Dwyer has more to say on the issue. And much like Vince, very good stuff from KD, too.

5. In It to Win It

This month’s GQ has a great, must-read cover story on Kobe Bryant by JR Moehringer. Unlike the gimmicky format of the Nash piece, the one in this profile totally works. Honestly, it’s one of the better things I’ve ever read about Mamba (even if it’s a little over-flowery in a few places for my taste from a technical standpoint).

Since you made your way to this little site, you probably know most of the stuff that is discussed here about Kobe. Still, you should head over there and read all 4,000 words.

For those of you too lazy to do that, however,  here are the passages I enjoyed the most.

On his commute to work:

The second he’s aboard [the aircraft], seat belt clicked, the box with the pretty beige bow tucked beside him, the pilot lifts off. He gets vertical fast, banks hard at a forty-five-degree angle, soars north at 140 miles an hour. Bryant squints into the lowering sun, then looks down at all the teeming life below, the sprawling, striving, smog-shouldered city of Los Angeles. His city. From up here he could palm it like a basketball.

This is how the 31-year-old co-captain of the Lakers, the eleven-time All-Star, the four-time world champion, the most prolific and accomplished scorer currently drawing breath and an NBA paycheck, commutes. He takes a private helicopter from Orange County, where he lives with his wife and two children, to every home game. It’s a nice dash of glitz, a touch of showbiz that goes well with the Hollywood sign in the hazy distance. But sexy as it might seem, Bryant says the helicopter is just another tool for maintaining his body. It’s no different than his weights or his whirlpool tubs or his custom-made Nikes. Given his broken finger, his fragile knees, his sore back and achy feet, not to mention his chronic agita, Bryant can’t sit in a car for two hours. The helicopter, therefore, ensures that he gets to Staples Center feeling fresh, that his body is warm and loose and fluid as mercury when he steps onto the court.

If you make $23 million a year with your body, taking a helicopter to work is actually quite practical.

On his injuries:

With all its scars and aches, spasms and pulls, stingers and inflammations and hyperextensions, his body is a living record of his journey. From boy to man. From ball hog to team leader. From alleged narcissist to tormented perfectionist to apparent masochist. Every athlete knows pain, but Bryant’s body charts his unique combination of pain, passion, and virtuosic skill. His body explains him. Maybe better than he can.

The Redeem Team:

He haunted the Olympic Village, stared at the fastest and the strongest the way people stare at him. For once he didn’t feel alone with his priestly devotion to craft. He felt like a nomad reunited with his long-lost tribe.

On his “desire for privacy”:

His reticence, his desire for privacy, extends to the good stuff about himself as well as the bad. His reps urge him to speak more about his charitable works, like his fund to help victims of natural disasters in China or his partnership with After-School All-Stars, a program that tutors and mentors schoolchildren. You can be with Bryant for hours and hours and he won’t tell you about the cancer-stricken boy he took to Disneyland. They spent most of the day together, and when the boy died soon after, his mother phoned to say that the last time she saw her son smile was that magic afternoon with his idol.

On the ESP between him and Phil:

Bryant has become an “extension” of Jackson on the court. During one recent practice, Bryant told teammate Adam Morrison to take a higher position. “Not even point-five seconds after I said that, Phil says: ‘Adam, make sure you’re higher!’ Adam just kind of looks at me. I’m like, ‘We been together for a while.’ “

On his sleeping habits:

Every night he passes out around ten, then wakes feeling fully refreshed. He yawns, looks at the clock. Midnight. What the-? He’s been asleep only two hours. He’d love to sleep more, but his body is up, raring to go.

What does he do?

Watch TV, maybe a movie. He’s mad for Tarantino. (Especially the Kill Bill movies; he sees himself as a samurai, though he’s a kamikaze with his body.) Sometimes he goofs around on the computer…Around 4 a.m., he says, he’ll go back to bed and sleep until six, when his daughters get up. He likes to make them breakfast, and make them laugh, before heading to practice. Despite just two naps a night, he swears that he starts his days feeling rested.

There’s plenty more really good stuff in here. Go read it.

]]> http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/2010/02/23/stuff-i-read-and-enjoyed-featuring-steve-nash-as-a-business-man/feed/ 0 http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/2010/02/16/daryl-morey-and-donnie-walsh-negotiate/ http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/2010/02/16/daryl-morey-and-donnie-walsh-negotiate/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:49:51 +0000 Jared Wade http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/?p=6462 I have long operated under the assumption that trade rumors are probably the dumbest thing about the NBA — and most likely all of sports. The nonproductive nature of all the discussion and writing centered around things that will probably never happen both bores me to tears and sort of disappoints me since all the people involved could certainly doing more enjoyable things than collectively wasting everyone’s time.

But this all goes out the window when I see this “video” from found by Skeets and the Ball Don’t Lie crew (UPDATE: that was actually created by smoothie of the Houston Clutch Fans forum) featuring Rockets GM Daryl Morey and Knicks GM Donnie Walsh negotiating the rumored TMac for Jordan Hill, 47 first-round picks, Al Harrington and Jared Jeffries deal.

And it goes about as well as for Donnie as the negotiation at the end of Michael Clayton goes for Tilda Swinton.

After morning reports that a “whoopty fuck” deal of Al Harrington for Malik Rose was about to go down, the Knicks have instead traded their best two players, Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph (plus end-of-the-bench fodder Mardy Collins), for the craptacular package that is the aforementioned Al Harrington, the I-was-good-four-years-ago Cuttino Mobley, and the soon-to-be-staple-at-Scores Tim Thomas. Thomas and Cuttino come from the Clippers, who will get Zach, and Baby Al comes from the Warriors, who will get Jamal. Nobody, not even his mom, cares who got Mardy Collins.

Lot of action.

This is all clearly a cap-space move and now, as Tom Ziller notes, the Knicks only have four players under contract for the 2010 summer free agent bonanza: known nacho aficionado Eddy Curry, the promising Wilson Chandler, the whatever Jared Jeffries, and the Italian Rooster Danilo Galinari. Combined they are scheduled to make a meager $23 million, which is a ridiculous more than $35 million under the current salary cap. (And $5 million of that is actually non-guaranteed since Wilson and Rooster are team options.) (Hat tip to Baller Blogger)

In short, they will have a shitload of coin.

Knicks GM Donnie Walsh sure is putting a lot of faith in the fact that LeBron (or at least Dwayne Wade) will come to MSG in 2010 — but then again, why wouldn’t he? Of course someone will come. It’s New York and MSG is the Mecca. So even if it’s not LeBron, they’ll definitely get one of these beasts.

Regardless, have fun watching this abomination of a roster for the next 150 games, Knickerbocker fans. And just to show that I’m not entirely heartless, here’s something to help keep your spirits up until 2010. More importantly, cop that new Q-Tip album. It’s good. (video via Straight Bangin’)

The basic story running throughout NYC today is that neither Mike D’Antoni nor Donnie Walsh are going to let this guy see the court. But it sounds like he doesn’t want to take anything less than the full $21 million remaining on his deal in a buy-out.

So if he’s not going to take a few million less, Walsh/James Dolan hope to set up a “Tinsley Agreement” where he just stays away from MSG until they can find a trading partner and ship him out of town.

D’Antoni, at least publicly, has not ruled out playing him still.

“He could play the next game. I don’t want to close doors. You can’t play six, seven, eight guards. If you do play him, you have to sit Mardy (Collins) and other people and they had good preseasons, too.”

Says Starbury:

“Whatever they want to do is fine with me.”

Of course it is. More in the New York Post.

“You got to speak to them about (being waived),” Marbury said. “Of course I want to play. I have no control over that. I’m under contract – when my contract is up I can go forward from there.”

Some Knicks fans, for their part, actually for once wanted Starbury out there on the court, even chanting for him during the team’s opening game. Mike D’Antoni was not impressed. **

With some in the Garden crowd surprisingly chanting “We Want Steph” with 11:10 remaining in the fourth (others booed the chant), a stewing D’Antoni was caught on MSG Network cameras Wednesday in a tirade, mouthing:

“You’ve got to be (fucking) kidding me. You’ve got to be (fucking) kidding me. What a bunch of (assholes).”

Whoops. But, later, after he had some time to think things over he responded better right?

“Sometimes I don’t think the fans quite get it,” D’Antoni said.

Nice.

It’s hard to say where all this is headed (Here’s Peter Vecsey’s take). One thing I’m pretty sure of, however, is that it shall be entertaining.

** The Post had “(bleeping),” “(bleeping)’ and “(bleep)” instead of cusses. I guessed.

Here’s new GM Donnie Walsh’s sentiments on the the cut.

“It’s painful,” Walsh said. “You want people who people like.”

So why not just keep him?

For more on Walsh, who I think is a great executive, check this great article from New York magazine.

UPDATE: DIme caught up with Spike Lee down at the Kia NBA Tip-Off in New York’s Union Square today, and he is not so thrilled with the decision to cut young Ewing neither.

“I’m totally disgusted with the Knicks cutting Patrick Ewing, Jr. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand it. The guy can play. I mean he can play, he wants to play. You can’t teach that – somebody who wants to play, somebody who would go through a brick wall to help their team. And I don’t think that people count the fact that he’s Patrick Ewing’s son. Come on.

“I don’t understand that move. I’m not trying to blast Donnie Walsh of Coach D’Antoni, I’m not looking to blow up their spot. But it seems to me they could have found a space for him.”

Spike also sounds optimistic that LeBron will come to MSG instead of joining the NJ/Brooklyn Nets in 2010.

He wants to come to New York. He told me people are putting this stuff about him coming to Brooklyn because of Jay-Z. First of all, this Brooklyn thing is no wrap. That’s not a done deal. Hova’s his boy, but that’s going to determine where he leaves, if he chooses to do so.

JO summed up this sentiment in this succinct Yahoo! Sports article by Johnny Ludden yesterday:

“It was like a morgue,” O’Neal said last weekend. “You walk into that arena every day, and people just knew it was a bad situation. They knew that it wasn’t going to get better anytime soon. I was just worn … I was begging for a change.”

Things got so bad that the once-proud Pacers could only draw a League-worst 12,500 fans per night in the most basketball-crazed state in the Union (some 1,000 fewer than the preparing-to-abandon-the-city Sonics). By the All Star Break, it had become painfully obvious that the only solution for everyone — Jermaine, the Pacers front office, Indiana’s players and the fans populating the Hoosier state — was for JO to be moved this summer. It was an answer years in the making and the only way to lift the pervasive malaise of the post-Malice at the Palace Era and all the absurdity, bad luck and lawlessness that it entailed.

According to Ludden, Jermaine knew his time in Indy was over from the minute he stepped foot out of Conseco Fieldhouse after the team’s last game.

His season over, his career at a crossroads, Jermaine O’Neal walked out of Conseco Fieldhouse and into the night. He lingered outside the exit just long enough for his wife, Mesha, to see the nostalgia flicker in his eyes. O’Neal knew this much: He wasn’t coming back.

A draft-day trade to Toronto gave Jermaine the change he was begging for and although it wasn’t an ideal situation for either front office — Bryan Colangelo now owes the creaky kneed vet $44 million for the next two seasons and the Pacers have a point guard who, while a great fit for Jim O’Brien’s three-point-barrage offense, has an incurable spine disorder — it was about as good a scenario as either team could expect.

For the Pacers, JO’s departure is the magnum opus of Larry Bird’s great purge. Though the transition of power in the front office from long-time franchise patriarch Donnie Walsh to Bird had been underway for years, Larry Legend first flexed his complete control of the organization with this move. Earlier this week, he spoke to Marc Spears of the Boston Globe about his new outlook on the organization.

“Now I have my opportunity, so let’s see what I can do. Donnie had his opportunity for a lot of years. And not only was he was a great basketball man, but a great man, period. I admired him. I learned a lot from him. But we just had different styles. Now I get my opportunity to do what I want to do with the team.

“It ain’t going to happen overnight. We have a plan. We have to stick to it. In two or three years, we’ll have a team that is going to compete at the highest level.”

For his part, Jermaine’s continual stumping on his leadership abilities to the media in addition to the occasional cacology never helped raise his standing amongst the fan base. These public pronouncements without on-court production — fairly or not — gave many fans the impression of JO as a failed leader and flawed player whose commitment to the team waned further with every passing day folllowing the brawl.

To many, Jermaine was all talk, no walk.

His long-contentious rapport with Bird was also problematic, but, ironically, it was the decision to part was that finally provided something on which they could see eye-to-eye. (via Ludden)

“Everybody knows me and Larry didn’t have the best relationship,” O’Neal said. “We just didn’t have an open line of communication…but this summer we knew exactly what was the best situation and we worked pretty well together. We had some phone conversations that went very, very well, we kind of laughed and joked about some things, and that’s something we hadn’t done ever in my stay there.”

Finally, they agreed.

But for both JO and the Pacers, that is all in the past. And for both, it is this legacy of disappointment that they will spend the next seven to eight months — and, really, much longer — trying to escape.

With the unreasonable burden of recent history lifted, Jermaine can begin anew in Canada. Similarly, the Pacers can end their water-treading charade of faux-contending and begin anew with a strategic rebuilding plan to return the franchise to its 1990s glory.

Despite the temporary reprieve gained by shedding the final symbols of an era the franchise would like to forget (Jamaal Tinsley, who has been effectively quarantined from the NBA until he can be traded, being the final relic), the Pacers have a long way to go.

The franchise is bankrupt of A-list talent and, other than Danny Granger, has a rotation of: (A) cast-offs who were unsuccessful or unwelcome elsewhere (Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Troy Murphy, TJ Ford, Jarrett Jack), (B) promising, yet unspectacular, rookies (Brandon Rush, Roy Hibbert), and (C) flawed, if mostly dependable, filler (Rasho Nesterovic, Marquis Daniels). Plus, as always, there is rebounding savant Jeff Foster, who represents the sole survivor of what has to be among the swiftest roster overhauls in the history of profession sports and, incredibly, the only player remaining from the team Indiana put on the court in May 2005.

None of this is particularly promising for the upcoming season, but it is at least different — and for now, that is enough in Indianapolis.

For the Raptors and Jermaine, there is much more potential. A Bosh/JO interior could be truly dynamic, but the team’s perimeter players aside from Jose Calderon remain too dubious for the team to realistically expect much beyond another 1st or 2nd Round Playoff exit.

And what if JO and Bosh, who both have eerily similar styles, can’t coexist offensively? While putting the two bigs on the block would seem like a can’t-fail proposition, there are doubters. When talking about the possibility of playing Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol together in the Lakers front court, for example, Tex Winters recently questioned the Twin Towers philosophy altogether.

“I don’t know if the twin towers has ever been effective, has it?” he asked. “It kind of puts one of ‘em (Bynum or Gasol) out of position, particularly defensively. That’s what makes it tough.”

Obviously, Hakeem and Sampson had some success as dual bigs, and The Admiral and Groundhog Day won a title. And neither JO nor CB4 are really even centers — rather, they are agile, slender power forwards who both like to play in the midrange offensively. So the same skepticism may not even rightly apply.

Regardless, the real question isn’t about style; it is about Jermaine’s body.

He rehabbed and trained rigorously this summer with a strength guru, slenderized thanks to two months without sugar or dairy, and has been generally talking like he’s as healthy as he’s been since he was terrorizing the League and finishing third in MVP voting in 2004. Nobody expects that JO to ever return, of course, but if the Raptors can simply get the JO who brings a nightly intimidating paint presence on defense and provides enough offensive firepower to exploit the opposing team’s weaker post defender, that should be enough to push this squad to the next level.

But it’s all predicated on staying healthy, of course. For us Pacer fans, that “if” had become a yearly mantra and is something none will believe without seeing.

Ultimately, I believe most Pacer fans hope that “if” comes true, however.

What happened to that Pacer team, which had won 61 games and lost in the Eastern Conference Finals the previous year, on November 19, 2004 was truly devastating to both the franchise and Jermaine.

The fate of the Indiana Pacer franchise at large affects many more people, so it is the true tragedy in all this, but the Malice in the Palace was the trigger that began a downward spiral of JO’s career that culminated with him becoming an albatross contract shipped to the highest bidder.

In Indiana, despite its early promise, the JO Era will never be remembered fondly. Nonetheless, many Pacer fans still hope that, when it’s all said and done, Jermaine’s career is, and that in its waning moments, he will never be seen riding in the back of a cab, reminiscing on the brawl and telling Ron Artest that he could have had class; that he could have been a contender.

Still, no one expected Mr. Seven Seconds or Less to wind up on 34th Street when the situation in Chi-Town seemed so ready-made for success. Many though Hinrich, Gordon and Luol could have been a quality JV replica of Nash, Barbosa and Marion, with uber-athlete Tyrus Thomas doing his best Amare impression and human pinball Joakim Noah fitting in just fine. Put Larry Hughes in the Raja Bell role and you pretty much have Phoenix Lite. Plus you have Drew Gooden to stick jumpers, rebound and defend a little, and you have Andris Nocioni to add some blue-collar grit simply by being his douchebaggy self.

Trying to fit D’Antoni’s style into the Knicks roster is a little more square-peg-round-hole-ish. There are definitely a few things D’Antoni can work with. Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson and Q, who led the NBA in three-pointers made under Mike, will all fit in well (when healthy, in Quentin’s case). David Lee can fit in anywhere. Balkman couldn’t hit water from a boat with his jumper, so that hurts, but he can play some defense and he can certainly fly around in transition. Wilson Chandler looked promising towards the end of the year and may fit in.

“Top Gun rules of engagement are written for your safety and for that of your team.They are not flexible…Nor am I. Is that clear?”

None of these guys are ideal for D’Antoni, honesly, but they can be servicable one would think. The real problem will be the three bozos: Starbury, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry.

Steph has to be out, right? I mean, it wouldn’t matter who was coaching, I would hope. Donnie Walsh needs to trade his expiring contract away this summer or just suck it up and buy him out. Those are the only two options, right? You can’t let him suit up.

Eddy Curry, while still a good low-block scorer, can’t play in a D’Antoni system. His scoring would probably entice a few other clubs some considering his contract isn’t that bad…but he also can’t rebound. Still, they should be able to ship him somewhere out West, where even non-contenders are going to have to start thinking about how to compete with the Lakers frontcourt, Yao and even a few more seasons of Duncan.

The real problem — per usual — will be Zach Randolph.

Nobody’s taking this guy — not at $47 million over the next four years anyway. So it looks like they’ll be stuck with him. That said, and even with all the negatives understood, he can make 18-footers for days and he, even more than Curry can certainly score in the post. And it’s even possible he can even get up and down the floor a little bit if — a HUUUUGE if — he can be motivated.

Much like this sight, D’Antoni in New York will not be pretty. But it will at least be an improvement and bring hope back to MSG.

Nobody is going to mistake the Knicks upcoming season for the concerto of offense that D’Antoni and Nash orchestrated in Arizona. And those who thought Phoenix’s defense was porous are about to learn a whole new meaning of “soft interior.” But if they can package Curry and Lee or maybe Balkman and Stephon’s expiring deal, they could probably find another piece or two that can be part of the solution.

Anyone hoping for a big one-year turnaround is certainly deluding themselves, but this was a great move for New York. Kudos to Donnie Walsh and even if they are still struggling to make the East Playoffs come next April, at least those New Yorkers paying top-dollar for MSG tickets will have something entertaining to watch.

It might still be ugly, but watching your team lose a 124-116 shootout is at least a little better than showing up only in hopes that you might find out what exactly it is that Stephon knows about Isiah.