By MARC BERMAN
June 21, 2008
Mike D'Antoni hopes fewer assistant coaches will mean more victories.
In contrast to Isiah Thomas' massive stable of assistant coaches, D'Antoni is content to go with three, going against the league trend. The club officially announced D'Antoni's coaching staff with the hiring of former Suns assistants Phil Weber and Dan D'Antoni, Mike's brother, and the retaining of the ultimate survivor, Herb Williams.
Those three hires previously have been reported here, but the biggest news is D'Antoni is done adding assistants. Former assistant Alvin Gentry, who wanted no part of raising kids in New York, will remain in Phoenix on Terry Porter's staff and, no, Patrick Ewing was never considered.
Teams are allowed three bench coaches, but Thomas always pushed the envelope and had five assistants last year in trying to reinvent the wheel. Only Williams has been retained. He's been a Knicks assistant eight years and now serves under his fifth coach.
"We have three top quality assistant coaches that will be great assets as we work towards our goal of bringing winning basketball back to New York," Knicks president Donnie Walsh said in a statement. "Phil and Dan enjoyed tremendous success with Coach D'Antoni in Phoenix, while Herb has been a great part of our franchise for many years."
Thomas' best friend Mark Aguirre, whose work with Eddy Curry did not amount to continued growth last season, and George Glymph were fired.
Brendan Suhr also will not return to the bench. He's working on the draft in his other title as director of player personnel, but his status after the draft is unclear. Dave Hanners, brought in by Larry Brown, joined Brown's staff in Charlotte. Weber and Williams have been running the pre-draft workouts.
Weber, a Northport native, joins the Knicks after nine seasons as an assistant coach in Phoenix, which included 41/2 seasons as D'Antoni's assistant.
Weber has been branded the shooting coach and his specialty is skill development.
Weber also will be the Knicks' summer league coach in Las Vegas next month. The Long Island Lutheran graduate co-founded an academy for player development in Los Angeles with Nets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe. Weber played for Jim Valvano at North Carolina State.
Dan D'Antoni spent the past three seasons as an assistant under his brother in Phoenix. Phoenix management resented Dan D'Antoni's presence because he had served as a long-time high school coach. Dan D'Antoni played at Marshall University and began coaching as a senior when he guided the school's freshman team that featured his younger brother. He then embarked on a 30-year high school coaching career in South Carolina. D'Antoni may hire another fitness coach, though strength and conditioning coach Greg Brittenham, in his 18th season, will be retained.
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There are continued reports out of Arizona that the Suns are shopping D'Antoni favorite Leandro Barbosa to the Knicks as part of a draft-night deal. The problem is, Barbosa's contract extends past 2010, and the Knicks are trying to slide under the cap.
