when the time finally comes to answer for my life – i’ll argue time spent as a knick fan should count against any imposed time in purgatory i might receive for my numerous transgressions…

Mike Miller ran a very successful program in the G league. I don’t know a ton about him, but based on that – even more meaningful given how bad the organization is otherwise – I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to establishing a system.

this franchise would be sitting pretty in a couple years

forever it seems we’re at least a couple of years away from being a couple of years away…

ugh, when it comes to caring about this team – nobody’s fault but mine

If they think they can get make a succesful hire midseason who will make real developmental strides and start putting in place a real system

They’re incapable of doing this. That’s probably why they haven’t made a move. They can promote Smart or Miller, but those guys probably suck, too. They can hire Mark Jackson. He’s available and he would buy them time. Maybe they’re smart enough not to do that. I don’t know.

With extremely comparable roster quality, Mike D’antoni won 62 games in his first two seasons while instilling direction and identity. Our young players got to learn a system and had a structure to develop within. And, lo and behold, suddenly we were a destination for Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, and Tyson Chandler.

I think a good coach could do a lot. Fizdale is doing damage.

It still seems like we’re talking past each other. You’re talking about what’s best for the franchise (where we’re in total agreement) and I’m talking about what I think Mills/Perry will do assuming their primary interest is in preserving their jobs/making sure they don’t get blamed.

I don’t have much faith that Dolan is looking closely at player development and system/structure when evaluating whether his GM/POBO is doing a good job. I think he knows that he was told this team was going to be some degree of competitive, he knows that they suck and the two most important questions are A. how far short of expectations we are, and B.who gets blamed for that. So in my model of the world Perry/Mills should only risk taking a larger share of the blame if they think there will be significantly less blame to go around, which I’m doubtful of.

If they think they can get make a succesful hire midseason who will make real developmental strides and start putting in place a real system and that the progress made on those fronts will change Dolan’s evaluation of the situation then that changes the calculation. Further if they care about doing a good job (and not just avoiding getting canned) that also changes the calculation. Probably both are true to at least some small extent but as a simple model of what’s likely to happen (not what should happen) I’ll stick with my prediction that Fiz lasts longer than most seem to expect.

Isn’t the ability to draw fouls a pretty good indicator of future offensive success? That’s one reason I am not concerned about RJ. Another is that, at least to the eye test, he seems an adequate defender, not the sieve he was supposed to be. Finally, he has a good motor, an assertion supported by his secondary stats. He’s going to be a solid starter at worst, and a star at best. Just so long as Keith Smart doesn’t get his hands on him….

No one here doubts whether Mitch has the POTENTIAL to be great, right? Forget the argument about whether he’s great now – bigger question is whether the potential is there. It is.

With real coaching, then, we’d all agree we have two prospective good starters?

The other thing we can all agree on is the cap is in good shape. The offseason deals were generally asinine but not crippling. So, that’s another positive.

And very likely (odds are different, so not definite) we will have a good draft pick this year. That’s another good thing!

Just sayin – all is not lost. If Dolan finally cleaned house and a Ujiri or someone 75% as good as him came through the door, this franchise would be sitting pretty in a couple years.

So let’s say they fire Fiz today and hire a new coach. What’s a reasonable expectation for what a good coach might get out of this roster? 35 wins seems like it would be pretty darn impressive.

With extremely comparable roster quality, Mike D’antoni won 62 games in his first two seasons while instilling direction and identity. Our young players got to learn a system and had a structure to develop within. And, lo and behold, suddenly we were a destination for Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, and Tyson Chandler.

I think a good coach could do a lot. Fizdale is doing damage.

I posed this question many threads ago: what would James Dolan be doing today if he wasn’t a Dolan?

I think the consensus was gym teacher

I think it’s important to recognize that Dolan is in large part who he is because he was born on third base and has never had to work for anything or even bother to rub two braincells together at any moment in his life. His repeated and acute failures have been consistently rewarded until he amassed more money, prestige and power than any of us will ever even vaguely approach – that’s just how the system is set up. Under that learning environment why would he ever figure out how to succeed?

If Dolan wasn’t a Dolan I think there’s every chance he’d be a perfectly normal, maybe even accomplished guy. I don’t know too much about Charles Dolan but he obviously was a pretty succesful entrepreneur at least. There’s a reason JD’s exact archetype is so common among the sons of the overly wealthy. It’s not a coincidence – the money actively shapes them to be dumb, lazy and arrogant.

Dolan is in fact really, really, really fucking stupid but as the Rangers show, he’s not *inherently* inconsistent with a well-run, successful sports organization. If he gets Ujiri and Ujiri is permitted to clean out Mills and his hacks, the Knicks may finally have their president-for-life-who-Dolan-actually-respects-and-will-leave-alone analogue to Sather and Davidson. Two “ifs” there to be sure, but it’s not inconceivable. It’s the scenario we all should be rooting for.