[caption id="attachment_63" align="alignleft" width="176" caption="A face all too familiar for Knicks fans"]
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Former Nets head coach and assistant for the Boston Celtics, Lawrence Frank has been rumored to be one of the candidates for the "defensive coordinator" job. Frank replaced Tom Thibodeau as Boston's defensive assistant last year and is currently a free agent. Other possible candidates include Chicago assistant Ron Adams, Orlando assistant Steve Clifford, and Portland assistant Bill Bayno. Adams is a former college head coach and has served as a defensive assistant with the Spurs, Bucks, 76ers, and Thunder. Clifford has had some experience on the Knicks bench in the past; he was an assistant from 2001-2003. Clifford also spent time with the Rockets before settling down with the Magic in 2007. Current Portland assistant Bill Bayno also has ties to New York. He was born and raised in Goshen, Orange County and was actually invited to attend Knicks rookie camp in 1985 after playing his college ball at Massachusetts and Sacred Heart.
Personally, I like all of these potential candidates equally and don't really prefer one over the other. If I had to choose oneI'd take Frank just because he's had some head coaching experience in the NBA. However, I don't think any assistant coach is going to have a profound effect on the way the Knicks play defense next season. Assistants can preach defense all they want, but when push comes to shove players look towards the head coach and D'Antoni is just not going to all of a sudden change his ways. He's solely an offensive-minded coach. He believes that his team will win as long as they score a lot of points, and he's right to a certain extent. The Knicks can win 50-plus games next season with Melo and Amare at the helm, just like D'Antoni's Phoenix teams did time and time again only to be bounced out early in the playoffs every year but one. It's defense that wins games in the playoffs, we've seen that over and over during the history of the NBA. The Knicks have to have a head coach that preaches defense 24/7, who slaps the floor and gets into a defensive stance on the sidelines a la Doc Rivers or even Erik Spoelstra (yes, I went there). The fact of the matter is that D'Antoni is not the coach who can return the Knicks to the promised land. The Knicks need a defensive-minded head coach, but by the looks of it that won't happen until at least 2012. Until then, let's enjoy the greatness of Amare and Melo while keeping our dreams and aspirations of an NBA Championship on hold for at least one more season.
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