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Tuesday, December 11
 
Chaney has the job, but Dolan has the final say

By Mitch Lawrence
Special to ESPN.com

NEW YORK -- After Jeff Van Gundy walked out of New York and Don Chaney was installed as the Knicks' head coach -- for this season at least -- the names you heard for the head coaching position for next season were Mike Fratello and Mike Dunleavy.

Don Chaney will guide the high-priced Knicks for the rest of the season.
But the only name you need to know now is Jim Dolan, the man now firmly in charge at Madison Square Garden. And a real X-factor in terms of what's going to happen in the future.

Dolan is the new Dave Checketts. He is team president Scott Layden's boss. If there's a new coach to be hired for next season, Jim Dolan will make the decision.

So while Fratello has always been a Layden favorite and Dunleavy has the resume and coaching smarts to come home to New York, it might not be either, if Layden follows Dave Checketts and Jeff Van Gundy out the door this spring.

Dolan is expecting an improvement on last season, when the Knicks were KO'd in the first round of the playoffs by Toronto. If Chaney can't get this team that far, the first post to be filled will probably be that of president and general manager.

Then, the Jersey-born Fratello and the Brooklyn-bred Dunleavy might not even be considered. At that point, the Knicks could be looking at bringing in a Larry Brown to do both jobs -- if he is available -- or someone else, entirely.

Few around the Knicks know what Dolan is thinking because he's only taken on a bigger presence in basketball matters since he fired Checketts last May. Dolan is considered a bigger hockey fan by Garden insiders. But he's quickly made an impact on the Knicks.

"Our goal is still the same -- to have winning teams at Madison Square Garden," Dolan said. "I think we have a very talented team."

This is where Dolan and Van Gundy had fundamental differences. After Toronto defeated the Knicks in five games, Van Gundy was convinced that this is a rebuilding team, without any chance of competing for the title. In truth, long before Patrick Ewing was traded, the Knicks stopped being a championship-caliber team. But now, they have no chance to compete for a title because their best players (Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston) are not true superstars. They just can't carry a team on a nightly basis. Sometimes, not even on a weekly basis. They're old at point guard, undersized across the front and in need of a miracle to land the players it will take to get them back to championship contention.

Dolan, however, looks at a league-high $85.5 million payroll and a salary cap that far exceeds the league's cap for years to come. He looks at Houston's new $100 million deal. He looks at the money Layden has showered on backup types like Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson, and he sees things differently. He doesn't see a 45-win team, tops, which might need to fight to finish in seventh place in the East.

Dolan might be a bit deluded, but the son of Cablevision magnate and billionaire Charles Dolan still pays the bills.

"We are confident we still will be able to continue to put a great basketball product on the court," he said.

The Knicks haven't been great for a long time and won't be great again until they can somehow find a franchise talent who can man the middle. Marcus Camby isn't that player, no matter what his friends in the media want to believe, and never will be, no matter how many passes he converts into dunks. Camby still lacks a game.

Chaney knew what Dolan is looking for from this team long before he met with him before Saturday's win against Indiana, when he was told the job was his.

"My goals are to win and make the playoffs," Chaney said.

Even then, this team will probably have to get to the second round for Chaney to have a chance to return. Then there's the question of whether Chaney has the kind of personality and the box office juice to get the job on a permanent basis. Dolan is looking for sizzle, along with a coach who will schmooze with corporate sponsors and let them do things like attend training camp practices.

That's where Dolan's philosophy clashed with Van Gundy's. Van Gundy made enemies in the Knicks marketing department for having the audacity to care only about one thing: Winning basketball games. All that other peripheral stuff was a waste of Van Gundy's time.

Don is more reassuring than Jeff, which I think is important for us now ... It'll be more relaxed, but Don isn't afraid to kick your butt if you need it. He won't slam doors, but he'll tell you what he thinks.
Allan Houston

"Jeff was a ferocious competitor," said Mark Jackson. "To be around him -- whether it was practice or games -- was always very intense, because he wanted to win so badly."

Under Chaney, the atmosphere will be more relaxed. Usually that doesn't translate into more wins. Sometimes, it can mean more losses, if players start slacking off and taking advantage of a laid-back leader. That's something they never could do under Van Gundy, who rode herd on the Knicks even when they were winning.

"Don is more reassuring than Jeff, which I think is important for us now," said Allan Houston, who played as a rookie for Chaney when the two were together in Detroit. "He'll use Latrell and I to play more off of each other. It'll be more relaxed, but Don isn't afraid to kick your butt if you need it. He won't slam doors, but he'll tell you what he thinks."

Chaney favors pushing the ball, although he's also been around long enough to realize that no one ever ran to a world championship. He's going to ride his two best players, Houston and Sprewell. He'll continue to stress defense and rebounding, although who knows what he'll get on those two fronts. In the final seconds of his debut against the Pacers, the Knicks allowed two open layups and gave Reggie Miller a wide-open three. Luckily for Chaney, they resulted in misses.

"I've won championships as a player," said Chaney, the only player in history to play both with Bill Russell and Larry Bird, and a member of the Celtics' championship teams in 1969 and 1974. "I'd like to win a championship as a coach before I sail away."

No matter what Jim Dolan, described in the Knicks media guide as a "dedicated yachtsman," thinks, Don Chaney doesn't have the boat to get the job done.

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.





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