Posted by PresIke:

Posted by misterearl:

Elite - what do you think Isiah tells his players in practice?

Exactly, earl. How do we know what Isiah says to the team in practice, behind closed doors? What is said in public and in practice may not necessarily coincide. My suspicion, and it is a suspicion, is that Isiah tries to support the players in public, as to not embarass them -- as many felt Brown did -- and then PRIVATELY talk to players about their weaknesses.

If anyone here has studied teaching/education psychology (I have) you know most researches suggest that public humiliation does not produce positive effects. If you have a student who behaves badly in class, it is MUCH better to address them privately than to publically humiliate them. Traditionally, public humiliation and use of carcasm has been used on students by teachers. Yet, the research shows that MOST people (especially those who have shown to have problems with authority, or confidence issues) do/have not responded well to this approach, and in fact makes things worse, such as more subordination against the teacher/authority and less likelihood to listen.

Of course, the argument against this is that "Well, we shouldn't have players on a NY team who are 'emotionally weak!!'" But people can learn to get better with this if they feel higher levels of confidence from managers and authority figures. So guys like Curry and Marbury, who seemed to react negatively to the berading by Brown, are now being "coddled" in public by Isiah, but I'd be willing to bet that there is a good chance that he and the coaching staff work on their weaknesses all of the time in practice. Why has Marbury seemed better lately, especially on defense, and accepting being second fiddle? Why has Curry's free throw shooting improved (which we know is often a direct link to player confidence, if they can shoot/have a good stroke) and been much more consistent as a scorer? What about Lee's free throw shooting? Maybe that's just Lee, but maybe the coaches worked with him as well, and maybe he feels more a part of the team than he did last year. Isiah purged almost all of the real malcontents and now the team chemistry is clearly FAR better (as many reports have indicated...most recently Peter Vescey).

Does Isiah get ZERO credit for that? If youy suggest that he does not deserve credit then I'd suggest you take a strong look at what works with coaching/teaching now-a-days versus traditonal methods (especially with today's younger generations), and see the results. Sure, the Knicks still struggle in MANY areas, and some players have seemed to have regressed (Nate & Frye), but I'd say that it's too early to say they have officially regressed since they are only second year players. I've seen players/students come out really well early on, then struggle BIG TIME, and then later improve after some growing pains. This is not to say that this will definitively happen, but I think we lack enough information on the private side of his coaching to use his comments in public as a primary basis for passing jugement on Isiah as a coach. In the end it should be about the performance the team puts on the floor, and how that compares to last year, and what signs of hope or harm we can derive from that performance.

This would make some kind of sense if Isiah hadn't bashed the players free throw shooting, thus blaming their work ethic for our losses.

Posted by misterearl:

what million issues bip?

1) Why are Jamal,, Marbury, Frye and even Curry so inconsistent.
2) Why do we have bad individual defensive players who don't even try?
3) Why don't we have a point guard?
4) Why is Jamal in and out of the starting lineup?
5) Why isn't Lee starting without giving me your BS "B/c he belongs on the bench" excuse?
6) Why don't we have a shotblocker?
7) Why do we still have Francis?
8) Why are you still in bed with Marbury?
9) Why isn't Balkman getting anytime?
10) How do you justify all of your abyssmal moves after playing those players and still have a God awful record?
11) What do you think of Marcus Williams and Andrew Bynum? Do you think they could have made a nice tandem?

There's really a lot more, but I am off 4 hours of sleep so thinking isn't really my thing right now.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by misterearl:

Bashed the players for free throw shooting?

Did anyone see any players crying?

Misterearl: Once again you miss the point. Damn you should no my point of view by now. My point is that this isn't bashing. Keep reading, one day you will get sarcasm when you see it.I was saying how this post made no sense because he's explaining why Isiah never says anything negative about the players. He goes into his studies of psychology and a bunch of other blather. Yet today and yesterday Isiah acutally got on the guys in the media blaming their free throw shooting for our losses. Thus rendering PresIke's post as meaningless. This was not a critique of Isiah, but a critique of the post

As for the whining about bashing the players. Who is saying that? The problem with Isiah is he doesn't address the issues enough. We have a million issues and he targest the one issue that isn't his fault. Fans have a problem with that. Maybe I'm reading another board, but that seems to be closer to the consensus than anyone actually having a problem with Isiah "bashing" the players.

[Edited by - Bippity10 on 01-30-2007 3:36 PM]