Dan D’Antoni, brother of New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni and himself a Knicks assistant at the time, discussed Jeremy Lin‘s sudden rise and fall in 2012.
“We had won 10 out of 13 games and Jeremy was the boat’s main propeller,” he said. “But you can’t make Mike’s system work – and I’m not blaming Carmelo [Anthony]. It was like Carmel’s game was at the time. He got his rep as a mid-range jumping shooter. He had every right because he won many games in Denver like an elbow. But we had that elbow guy [in Amar’e Stoudemire]. If you haven’t spaced the floor, stop what Jeremy was doing. He went back to Melo and it was a difficult situation.
“It was difficult to merge everything,” added Dan. “You must have room. [Anthony] wanted to go back to where he would have asked for the ball in a certain area. The offense that Jeremy was running is a freer flow, attacking out from pick and roll and kicking shooters. Two different styles. Mike had a hard time … It wasn’t Melo’s fault because Amar’e is there. You have to have excellent support from the owner, to GM, to the coach, to the top players. If those three don’t line up, it’s hard. “