WaltLongmire wrote:From the Herring article posted above...

Aside from potentially alienating Anthony, who said he’d like the Knicks to at least talk with outside coaching candidates, removing Rambis’ interim tag without a real search would only amplify the charge that Jackson cares most about proving the virtues of his triangle offense in today’s NBA, and promoting his own guys.

“I have to see if this team moves or doesn’t move [under Rambis],” Jackson said last month when asked about the possibility of hiring Rambis permanently. “There’s a lot more season.”

Not anymore. With three games to play, the team clearly hasn’t moved forward. Most others would be exploring an array of outside options right now. If Jackson fails to consider those options in favor of doing what’s comfortable by quickly hiring Rambis at season’s end, it would suggest his priorities are misplaced. And if that’s the case, he may be doing the organization more harm than good at this point.

If Rambis had done what Woodson did when he took over from MDA, or even if the team was .500 since Fisher left, and we witnessed some positive changes that we all could see, I doubt if I would feel the same way about hiring Rambis without a search...

...This has not been the case, though, so Jackson is wrong if he believes that Rambis has somehow earned the right to be brought back without any consideration of other candidates.

StarksEwing1 wrote:

WaltLongmire wrote:From the Herring article posted above...

Aside from potentially alienating Anthony, who said he’d like the Knicks to at least talk with outside coaching candidates, removing Rambis’ interim tag without a real search would only amplify the charge that Jackson cares most about proving the virtues of his triangle offense in today’s NBA, and promoting his own guys.

“I have to see if this team moves or doesn’t move [under Rambis],” Jackson said last month when asked about the possibility of hiring Rambis permanently. “There’s a lot more season.”

Not anymore. With three games to play, the team clearly hasn’t moved forward. Most others would be exploring an array of outside options right now. If Jackson fails to consider those options in favor of doing what’s comfortable by quickly hiring Rambis at season’s end, it would suggest his priorities are misplaced. And if that’s the case, he may be doing the organization more harm than good at this point.

If Rambis had done what Woodson did when he took over from MDA, or even if the team was .500 since Fisher left, and we witnessed some positive changes that we all could see, I doubt if I would feel the same way about hiring Rambis without a search...

...This has not been the case, though, so Jackson is wrong if he believes that Rambis has somehow earned the right to be brought back without any consideration of other candidates.

i still think phil wants to control the coaching without having to sit on the bench. Like i have said before if phil wants to coach then coach. Otherwise its his job to hire the best coach possible and give him his freedom

Positives

1) Got KP and Grant to play better. Both have had strong moments with him. Inititally when Rambis came in he really took it to KP to step up on his shot selection and defensive effort. KP struggled at first but then had a great 2-3 weeks before he got hurt. Grant as well has played well and with confidence under Rambis.

2) Benching Afflalo, Starting Sasha. Very few coaches would have the guts to make this move and he did so, and improved the team's execution on both ends. Sasha has proved to be a better starter than Afflalo. This is not to say Sasha should start next year, he is a 3rd unit/backup player in the league, at best. However it showed clearly that Afflalo does not belong with the starters, something I doubt Fisher would have seen. We dodged a bullet here. Inititally there was talk that we should sign Afflalo for a 3 year/30M type of deal. Now we know that's a mistake. We can let Afflalo walk, or keep him for 1 more year if he opts in, as a backup. This is what you want from a head coach, to get the players in line with what you want longterm. Afflalo is not a starter for us longterm.

3) Continuity. He's been consistent and continues to try the young players and team to play a certain way. Fisher was very inconsistent with rotations, and how the players were trying to play. Fish was a better talker, very good at that aspect, but his actual strategic message was all over the place. Rambis has been very consistent. Even with losses piling up, he's been focused on the gameplan and I saw it work well for KP and Grant.

Negatives

1) He doesn't have a good record as coach. It's about the wins and losses. His record in Minnesota, poor. In NY he's lost two times the games he's won. You can't say this is not relevant. It is. He was brought in to get the team into the playoffs and failed.

2) Overplays Melo, Lopez and other veteran starters. Was going with Jose for long minutes as well. Yes they are the best at their respective positions that we have, but way too many minutes for veterans.

3) Offense in late 4th Quarter situations was too stagnant. Now this may not be his fault, as we just rely on Melo too much in that situation. But it was a problem. This was a problem even before with Fish. We lost 5 games under Rambis where it was very close in the 4th and we had a real shot at winning it and just couldn't score a basket.

Overall, I think he's done a B- or C grade job. Not impressive, not horrible. Considering the team was on a downward spiral when he got them, they had lost 8 out of 9 games and looked horrible, he didn't let things get worse, he did stabilize them. However in the end he didn't get enough wins.

My take is if he's willing to take a cheap head coaching deal - 2.5 million a year for 3 years with a 3rd year being a team option, it may be wise to go with him over a 30 million in another rookie head coach like Luke Walton or to pay a coach who would ultimately clash with Phil. Phil is here for 1 more year for sure, and it may be wise to just let him run it his way until then. If the team can not get 41+ wins next year, Phil should step down or move on to LA. And his coach goes with him. I think this coming season is a big year for Phil Jackson and the Knicks marriage. If I'm Dolan, I let Phil make the call on who should coach. You paid a man with 11 rings to make these decisions for a reason. Worst case, we hit the lottery, get another lottery pick in 2017, Porzingis/Grant develop well under Rambis for a year and then Phil moves on to LA in 2017. This is hardly a bad situation for the Knicks for the longrun.

knicks1248 wrote:

newyorker4ever wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

fitzfarm wrote:Come on guys Greg pop couldn't win with this group esp the worst backcourt in the league. It's like we are playing 3 vs 5 ... Frontcourt is championship caliber while the backcourt would have a hard time in the dleague getting minutes...

If Phil solves our backcourt then give Kurt the year to prove his worth ... What's the worst that can happen we do poorly and get a high draft pick.

It's not fair to say Kurt is a terrible coach when he doesn't have a backcourt to put on the floor.

Also in minny he might have had one of the worst teams in nba history to coach. Let's not forget how injury riddled those teams were.

If Kurt is allowing the zen master to run the at home practices he is the right man for the job. And again Greg pop couldn't win with this backcourt... We need a nba level backcourt before we can say this guy stinks.

wrong again, ESPN showed the spurs record when they rest Duncun, parker and leanord..5-0 take out ginobli and west too, and thier west 4-1..in fact when they rested all their top players 3-0

if you think talent matters more than coaching, you have no idea about basketball..

Talent absolutely matters more than coaching and i would happily put my basketball knowledge up against yours with confidence.

please do..... I already prove to you that coaching trumps talent. Give me an example of a terrible or average coach winning a championship.

You think Kurt can take the spurs as far as pop has.

Don't get me wrong, every coach needs talent, but a really good coach should elevate a player, and if he's not, he should be fired

S.Kerr, E.Spoelstra, Doc Rivers and M.Brown took the Cavs to the NBA finals and to the eastern conference finals a couple of times if my memory is correct and the guy was absolutely horrible everywhere else he coached without Lebron.

Anything else you need please let me know.

WaltLongmire wrote:From the Herring article posted above...

Aside from potentially alienating Anthony, who said he’d like the Knicks to at least talk with outside coaching candidates, removing Rambis’ interim tag without a real search would only amplify the charge that Jackson cares most about proving the virtues of his triangle offense in today’s NBA, and promoting his own guys.

“I have to see if this team moves or doesn’t move [under Rambis],” Jackson said last month when asked about the possibility of hiring Rambis permanently. “There’s a lot more season.”

Not anymore. With three games to play, the team clearly hasn’t moved forward. Most others would be exploring an array of outside options right now. If Jackson fails to consider those options in favor of doing what’s comfortable by quickly hiring Rambis at season’s end, it would suggest his priorities are misplaced. And if that’s the case, he may be doing the organization more harm than good at this point.

If Rambis had done what Woodson did when he took over from MDA, or even if the team was .500 since Fisher left, and we witnessed some positive changes that we all could see, I doubt if I would feel the same way about hiring Rambis without a search...

...This has not been the case, though, so Jackson is wrong if he believes that Rambis has somehow earned the right to be brought back without any consideration of other candidates.

Kurt Rambis is 8-17 since taking the reins as Knick head coach. New York is 1-8 in games when they enter the final five minutes with a lead or deficit of 5 points or fewer; that's a .111 winning percentage, well below the .429 the recently fired Derek Fisher had in such spots. Rambis has aliented people over how he's treated the rookies, how he's treated the veterans, for being too close to Phil Jackson and not being close enough to Tom Thibodeau. All understandable. All unfair.

That's when you know you are a really really bad coach, because the last 5 minutes (you can ask any coach) is when coaching matters the most in a game

knicks1248 wrote:

WaltLongmire wrote:From the Herring article posted above...

Aside from potentially alienating Anthony, who said he’d like the Knicks to at least talk with outside coaching candidates, removing Rambis’ interim tag without a real search would only amplify the charge that Jackson cares most about proving the virtues of his triangle offense in today’s NBA, and promoting his own guys.

“I have to see if this team moves or doesn’t move [under Rambis],” Jackson said last month when asked about the possibility of hiring Rambis permanently. “There’s a lot more season.”

Not anymore. With three games to play, the team clearly hasn’t moved forward. Most others would be exploring an array of outside options right now. If Jackson fails to consider those options in favor of doing what’s comfortable by quickly hiring Rambis at season’s end, it would suggest his priorities are misplaced. And if that’s the case, he may be doing the organization more harm than good at this point.

If Rambis had done what Woodson did when he took over from MDA, or even if the team was .500 since Fisher left, and we witnessed some positive changes that we all could see, I doubt if I would feel the same way about hiring Rambis without a search...

...This has not been the case, though, so Jackson is wrong if he believes that Rambis has somehow earned the right to be brought back without any consideration of other candidates.

Kurt Rambis is 8-17 since taking the reins as Knick head coach. New York is 1-8 in games when they enter the final five minutes with a lead or deficit of 5 points or fewer; that's a .111 winning percentage, well below the .429 the recently fired Derek Fisher had in such spots. Rambis has aliented people over how he's treated the rookies, how he's treated the veterans, for being too close to Phil Jackson and not being close enough to Tom Thibodeau. All understandable. All unfair.

That's when you know you are a really really bad coach, because the last 5 minutes (you can ask any coach) is when coaching matters the most in a game

I think watching the games that it wasn't all about the coaching in those games! You really think you could back up this claim with some kind of proof? I know for a fact that I can prove missed shots were a problem much easier than some tactical mistake being the reason for losses.

WaltLongmire wrote:From the Herring article posted above...

Aside from potentially alienating Anthony, who said he’d like the Knicks to at least talk with outside coaching candidates, removing Rambis’ interim tag without a real search would only amplify the charge that Jackson cares most about proving the virtues of his triangle offense in today’s NBA, and promoting his own guys.

“I have to see if this team moves or doesn’t move [under Rambis],” Jackson said last month when asked about the possibility of hiring Rambis permanently. “There’s a lot more season.”

Not anymore. With three games to play, the team clearly hasn’t moved forward. Most others would be exploring an array of outside options right now. If Jackson fails to consider those options in favor of doing what’s comfortable by quickly hiring Rambis at season’s end, it would suggest his priorities are misplaced. And if that’s the case, he may be doing the organization more harm than good at this point.

If Rambis had done what Woodson did when he took over from MDA, or even if the team was .500 since Fisher left, and we witnessed some positive changes that we all could see, I doubt if I would feel the same way about hiring Rambis without a search...

...This has not been the case, though, so Jackson is wrong if he believes that Rambis has somehow earned the right to be brought back without any consideration of other candidates.

Heck, if Rambis had been good, I'd be excited about him. But he's been mediocre and a step back from Fisher. I thought Fisher was a much better coach overall. And Rambis had the benefit of seeing Fisher handle the rotations for 50 games ahead of him. Fisher had to create the rotations on his own - it took him a while too long, but he gave almost everyone on the team a chance to make the rotation. Then he settled on one and the team looked great, until the Melo ref trip moment.

Anyway, Rambis has not inspired but at this point I would honestly be SHOCKED if the head coach were anyone else next season.

knicks1248 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

WaltLongmire wrote:From the Herring article posted above...

Aside from potentially alienating Anthony, who said he’d like the Knicks to at least talk with outside coaching candidates, removing Rambis’ interim tag without a real search would only amplify the charge that Jackson cares most about proving the virtues of his triangle offense in today’s NBA, and promoting his own guys.

“I have to see if this team moves or doesn’t move [under Rambis],” Jackson said last month when asked about the possibility of hiring Rambis permanently. “There’s a lot more season.”

Not anymore. With three games to play, the team clearly hasn’t moved forward. Most others would be exploring an array of outside options right now. If Jackson fails to consider those options in favor of doing what’s comfortable by quickly hiring Rambis at season’s end, it would suggest his priorities are misplaced. And if that’s the case, he may be doing the organization more harm than good at this point.

If Rambis had done what Woodson did when he took over from MDA, or even if the team was .500 since Fisher left, and we witnessed some positive changes that we all could see, I doubt if I would feel the same way about hiring Rambis without a search...

...This has not been the case, though, so Jackson is wrong if he believes that Rambis has somehow earned the right to be brought back without any consideration of other candidates.

Kurt Rambis is 8-17 since taking the reins as Knick head coach. New York is 1-8 in games when they enter the final five minutes with a lead or deficit of 5 points or fewer; that's a .111 winning percentage, well below the .429 the recently fired Derek Fisher had in such spots. Rambis has aliented people over how he's treated the rookies, how he's treated the veterans, for being too close to Phil Jackson and not being close enough to Tom Thibodeau. All understandable. All unfair.

That's when you know you are a really really bad coach, because the last 5 minutes (you can ask any coach) is when coaching matters the most in a game

I think watching the games that it wasn't all about the coaching in those games! You really think you could back up this claim with some kind of proof? I know for a fact that I can prove missed shots were a problem much easier than some tactical mistake being the reason for losses.

what ever dude, lets just forget about the, poor play calling, poor execution, poor adjustments, Turnovers, bad rotation.

Of course there missing 19 foot jump shots.. your legs are not the same after 3 1/2 qtrs.

I guess it's just this great big coincidence that one coach has a higher winning pct at the same juncture of the game with the same roster..wow..talk about denial..NIX

he's a bad coach Nix accept it..

I never said Rambis was a good coach, just as I never said Fish was! I'm just saying they lose games based on what the players do or fail to do more than what Rambis does or fails to do! If guys are hitting shots it doesn't matter much what the coach is doing!!!

Most teams win mostly based on talent more so than the in game tweaks of the coach. When a Kemba Walker takes over for his team it's not about coaching. Dude just has the talent to make plays for his team. When we lost to other teams where their guards turned it up who did we have to match them in that regard? There were a litany of PG's that trounced us this year. We had nothing to fight back with. At the end of games especially is when you need a quality PG or SG to create and make plays.

Phil's doing plenty good for the team. Rambis hasn't been very impressive, but he hasn't shown to be incompetent either. I rate his job as a C or B-. I don't think Fisher was a better coach. Rambis didn't have the team when healthy, or when Afflalo was playing very well. He inherited the team when they were already on a downward spiral, many players were unhealthy and Afflalo totally lost what he was bringing early on in the season.

Question we should ask is if Fisher had stayed on finished with 32 or 33 wins, would we all be so hot if Phil kept him another season? I don't think so. I think Fisher and Rambis are on the same level, but I trust Rambis a little more because of experience and his consistency in strategic methods. When you break down our Knicks talent wise, 32 or 33 wins is right about where they should be. Coaching this season hasn't added value, but I don't think they've lost value. Look at the Kings, they have 31 wins and far more talent than us with a proven good coach in George Karl. Just because Thibs had success in Chicago, doesn't automatically mean he'll translate that success to NY. Chicago was built on very good defensive base. Knicks don't have the same quality defenders. Jimmy Butler, Noah, Gibson, Deng. Obviously I'd rate him a better coach than Rambis, but I question whether any coach can make the current Knicks set up more more competitive than Fisher/Rambis did. Huge holes at point guard, shooting guard, and also no consistent 2nd all-star or scoring option to Melo (KP is that sometimes, but not consistently yet). This was a 35 win team at best, in my opinion, guys.

One thing being overlooked is that with Rambis in charge, Phil Jackson himself is adding some value as a coach instead of just an executive. This is an area where there can be no dispute on how great he was. He was the greatest coach in the NBA ever. He'll be attending practices, taking a more vocal part of all the aspects. Already mentioned how Phil is more involved in the practices since Rambis took over. I think in a year we'll have a different take on this if it happens. I am not upset because I think either way we're in a good position. If Rambis works out with Phil being the shadow coach, we'll be in the playoffs and a better FA destination in 2017. If it doesn't work out, Phil's back in LA, we'll have a high lottery pick in 2017 and Porzingis nearing the prime of his career with lots of capspace and a new executive to take Phil's spot. Longterm we're in a good place either way. Worst thing we can do right now is try to cash in on veteran free agents on longterm deals, hire a proven coach and become the Sacramento Kings type of franchise, or the type of franchise we've been before so many times.