Coach of the Year

In case you haven't been paying attention, the NY Knicks are playing tough, gritty, inspired basketball of late. News flash: they have kept 11 teams in a row under 100 points. And, with a win in NJ tonight, they will have their first winning month of the regular season since 2003. While they certainly aren't the Pat Riley Knicks of the 90's, they are getting close to being watchable and have a real crack at losing to the Celts or Cavs in the first round of the playoffs.

This is resurgence is a total credit to the coaching job being done by Mike D'Antoni. Too often coaches try to fit talent into their system versus building a system to suit their talent. D'Antoni was guilty of this offense last season by force-feeding his "7 seconds or less" approach on a group of players ill equipped to run that system. It looked as though he would continue down the wrong path as the Knicks looked awful offensively and even worse defensively the first month of this season. Since that time, D'Antoni has slowed it down, employs a pick and roll offense and benched anyone who can't play a lick of defense (see Nate Robinson and Eddy Curry - "The DNP Brothers"). The results speak for themselves. It was easy to win with all that talent in Phoenix. Now, D'Antoni is doing the best coaching job of his career. Let the campaign begin - D'Antoni for coach of the year!

(Doesn't hurt that he's a fellow Paesan)