With all due respect to Chuck Wipple…

bringing in Mike D’Antoni to coach the Knicks is just another in a long line of quick fixes that will make us only marginally better and, needless to say, won’t get us any closer to winning a championship in the near future. Now I know Chuck didn’t make the claim that D’Antoni would lead us to a title anyway, but isn’t that the point? Yeah, us Knick fans are all beaten down like a first-time convict in the state penitentiary, and our goals are pretty modest these days, but the idea here is to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy, not brighten our spirits while we continue to piss away opportunities in the putrid Eastern Conference.

The fact of the matter is, the NBA is becoming an awful lot like the NFL, where coaches need specific types of players to fit their “system,” unless they are elite ones like Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, or Greg Popovich (and even those guys need a “prime mover,” i.e. MJ & Kobe, Dwayne Wade, and Tim Duncan to make it all work). Crazily enough, the Knicks do have a few players who would fit D’Antoni’s “Phoe-ast Break” scheme, namely Crawford, Little Nate, D-Lee, and Ro’ Balkman. The only problem is, the entire freakin’ roster will fit perfectly into his “Defense, what defense?” scheme as well and, last time I checked, letting the opposition drop 100-points a night wasn’t exactly getting the Knicks out of the Atlantic Division basement. Hmmm actually, there’s another problem too– the Knicks simply don’t have the talent to outscore their opponents on a nightly basis the way D’Antoni’s teams did for the last 5-years; this is probably stating the obvious, but Stephon Marbury isn’t Steve Nash, and while Eddie Curry could probably eat Amare Stoudemire, he can’t hold a candle to him on the b-ball court.

But that brings us to my “what if” disclaimer. Let’s say Donnie Walsh really is the mastermind we’ve all been told he is. Let’s believe for a minute or two that he has all his ducks lined up in a row, that he brought in D’Antoni knowing full-well that he could mold this roster to D’Antoni’s wishes. And let’s run with the rumors for a second, hoping that Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw really are on their way to MSG courtesy of Stephon Marbury’s expiring contract. (Update: Donnie Walsh torpedoed this rumor on “Mike and the Mad Dog” this afternoon.) And then– even more of a stretch– let’s dream that our lottery luck miraculously changes this year, that we end up with one of the top-two picks in this year’s draft… and that it yields either Derrick Rose (this generation’s Steve Nash, you heard it here first) or Mike Beasely (remind you a little of Amare Stoudemire, right?). Well then everything changes. Then hiring D’Antoni goes from mismatch to perfect fit… then we really do pull a Celtic-esque overnight turnaround (and that’s forgetting Donnie Walsh’s goal to be under the cap by 2010 so we can go after LeBron) and challenge for the Eastern crown next year.

Ultimately, I’ll say this– I do think we’ll be a borderline playoff team next year. Which, if you think about it, could put D’Antoni and Walsh up for Coach of the Year/Exec of the Year honors considering how bad things have been the last 7 seasons. Still, I just don’t think it gets us anywhere near the promised land as things currently sit. But if Donnie gets the goods, well then– take a deep breath– the Knicks could win a championship before the Yanks win their next one. Like I said, that’s all a BIG “what if,” but the intrigue that comes along with signing a big-name coach is obviously what Donnie Walsh shelled out Dolan’s $24 million for. For once, let’s just hope it’s money well spent.