FanHouse Mike Dantoni

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Knicks have slowly climbed their way out of salary cap hell -- but all that got them is a season in NBA purgatory.

Instead of making moves toward actual improvement, the Knicks are blatantly looking past this season to next summer when they hope to strike it rich with the famed free agent class of 2010. But while Donnie Walsh's long-term strategy may eventually pay dividends, it offers little hope in the interim that the Knicks might rise above last year's fifth-place finish in the Atlantic.

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Every Tuesday this offseason, two of our NBA experts will go at it with a Debate in the Paint. This week, the topic is which team did the least this summer to improve.

If the New York Knicks want to get their fans excited about the 2009-10 season, they better be planning some good halftime shows. Or maybe free beer at every home game. Or prizes to those who boo the loudest.

When the only additions to the roster are Darko Milicic and two rookies who will take a few years to develop, you need a creative marketing department.

It's hard to imagine a high-profile team doing less.

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In order for Mike D'Antoni to fully implement his vision, he needs a talented point guard -- and as a wise man jilted teenager once said, "Chris Duhon ain't getting it done." After watching the most talented free agent point guards either re-sign with their original teams (Jason Kidd, Mike Bibby) or commit elsewhere (Andre Miller), the Knicks are left to sift through the bargain bin.

On Wednesday, that entailed meeting with Jamaal Tinsley, who's so eager to reunite with Donnie Walsh, his former boss in Indiana, that he'd sign a one-year deal worth the veteran's minimum. The Knicks have also shown interest in the recently unretired Jason Williams, who'd also likely settle for a one-year deal, and Walsh has met with Allen Iverson's agent, although nothing is expected to come of that.

Grant Hill is still undecided as to which team he'll sign his next contract with, but it certainly won't be for a lack of offers. The Suns are interested in having Hill return at the right price, the Celtics are ready to give him the chance to contend for a title, and now the Knicks have reportedly offered a one-year deal to come to New York and reunite with one of his former coaches, Mike D'Antoni.

Stephon Marbury is one of those weird characters who has just the right mix of "crazy" and "keepin' it real" where you can't ever be sure whether to trust or distrust him. Personally, I think he's a bad apple who keeps getting too many chances, but some people feel differently.

After Marbury recently did a Knickerbocker-beat-down of an interview with the New York Post, I would imagine no one who plays professional basketball in the Big Apple is much of a fan either. Marbury's quotes are full of disparaging remarks, as he essentially urged any free agents to avoid Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni like the plague.

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Despite being limited to 53 games last season because of a detached retina that required surgery, Amar'e Stoudemire is not lacking confidence nor is he limiting his future to Phoenix. The Suns' big man was on ESPN 1050 in New York on Friday and said emphatically that he is a better player than Toronto's Chris Bosh, probably the player he is compared with the most.

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

There's been a movement of late, first spewed by David Friedman of Pro Basketball News and later parroted by Marc Berman of the New York Post, to assert Mike D'Antoni hasn't actually helped the Knicks improve at all. This, frankly, is contrarian garbage. The Knicks didn't end up in the playoffs, but the franchise has clearly seen a new dawn.

Steve Nash is known for being one the most honest and forthcoming NBA players when it comes to being interviewed, and in a 45-minute conversation with NBC's Graham Bensinger, he continues to hold up that reputaion. Nash discusses a variety of topics, but the one of most interest might be where he chooses to play out his next contract, when his current one is up after next season.


Nash is careful to say that Phoenix is the obvious choice, and is nice enough to give a shout out to his home land in Toronto. But a reunion with Mike D'Antoni in New York (and the chance to play alongside someone like LeBron James at the same time) might just be too tempting for him to pass up.

At the outset of the Knicks' 19-point loss to the Celtics yesterday, Boston got rolling by putting up 40 points in the first quarter. The champs finished the day with 124, so if you didn't know any better, you'd think that New York's head coach might spend at least some of his postgame remarks addressing the team's defensive deficiencies. Since their coach is Mike D'Antoni however, you should know better.

Marc Berman of The NY Post apparently did not know better though, based on his surprise that D'Antoni was focused on the team's offense, even after the horrific defensive game that his team had just played.

You could read my game story for the details, but one thing flabbergasted me in the post-game press conference.

The Knicks had just surrendered 124 points, allowed Boston to shoot 65 percent, permitted 40 points in the first quarter, couldn't contain Rajon Rondo from going to the rack for layups. And all Mike D'Antoni was talking about after the game was the Knicks weren't good enough offensively. Very telling. As if the coach admits he can have no effect on making them sounder defensively, only offensively.

Flabbergasted? Come on, now. I hate to state the obvious here, but D'Antoni has never been about defense, not even in the slightest. His unwillingness to even begin to care about what happens on that end of the floor was the basis for his departure from the Suns. Based on what we saw when he was running the show in Phoenix the last four seasons -- and as crazy as it might sound after a game like the one against Boston -- this isn't something that should come as even a little bit of a surprise.

A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Knicks faced the Suns on December 15th.

There was a piece on TrueHoop yesterday that took a look at each of the final games that led to the firings of six NBA head coaches this season. The New York Knicks ended up killing a coach in two of the six "sendoff games," which is something that Mike D'Antoni found to be a bit insulting.

When asked about the slew of early-season firings (and the one that involved Reggie Theus most recently), D'Antoni pretended to be insulted that coaches were losing their jobs after losing to his Knicks.

"I want to say something, and I hate that for Reggie, there's no doubt about it," D'Antoni said. "But just because the Knicks beat somebody they have to fire the coach the next day? That's the second one! I mean, come on! We're not that bad. You guys are spreading some rumors, 'well if the Knicks beat 'em, then we gotta do something.' "

Obviously D'Antoni was joking around here, but there's at least a little something to it. Even though he and his current roster of players may be giving it all they've got, the fact is that the team traded their best players away for an empty roster spot in the form of Cuttino Mobley, along with some lesser talent. It's perceived by many around the league that the Knicks are mailing it in until 2010, and perception is reality -- especially when we're talking about head coaching jobs in the NBA.