Danilo Fuzaro and Patrick McCaw look interesting.

Beasley won't be there for us. Jones looks intriguing.

fwk00 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

fwk00 wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

dk7th wrote:

fwk00 wrote:

dk7th wrote:

fwk00 wrote:

dk7th wrote:I loved everything Jackson said during the news conference. He said he came here to install a system and that is what he doing. He wants to develop players into complete players with the requisite basketball skills. He told the press to back off so players will want to come play in New York. He wants a coach he knows so there is continuity from top to bottom, and I imagine from continuity will spring cohesion, coherence, and a healthy, synergistic culture.

He's tuning out and infuriating the yahoos who want "names" and expect results right away. Good!

Excellent post and spot on. After listening to all the available exit interviews its obvious Phil and Melo are here to stay. It's also obvious that Thibs will not be coaching the Knicks for two reasons; 1.) Thibs has a reputation of tangling with management in unproductive ways and 2.) the Knicks have a 10+ year superstar on their hands with Porzingus who might last four years without injury with Thibs.

Also obvious was the fact that Jerian Grant had not earned playing time in Phil's eyes which means Rambis wasn't playing to win to pad his record as is widely speculated. The entire narrative that veterans needed to step in and insist Rambis play youth is only partially true. They may have asked but Rambis was sending an important message - "get with the program [e.g. system]". It's a message that makes sense and demonstrates, contrary to the popular belief that Rambis is a shill, that Rambis instead listens closely to Jackson's directives and tailor's the minute management and player chemistry to maximize learning. Reluctant learners [say, Afflalo and others] likely consider this commitment to system and learning "condescending".

Carmelo's closing comments were instructive. He thought the Knicks coulda/shoulda won a dozen or so more games and that's worth repeating because he [supporting my own point of view] thinks the Knicks had the talent to do that. They do. But as Jackson pointed out in his own interview, the Knicks lacked tensile strength. This is a function of team and player maturity rather than pure talent. Aside from this being the end of the Jackson Knicks Year One experience, it marks the beginning of a sophomore year for Galloway, Porzingis, Early, and Grant. All these players are going to continue to mature and become dominant.

Williams and Thomas were prominently mentioned in glowing remarks by Jackson. He'll likely reach out to both men with offers to stay.

Given Phil's pattern from last summer I expect him to trade for at least a second-round pick - Gaines probably already has an idea or two along those lines. And his Free agent signings will be low-profile, blue collar players along the lines of Matt Barnes, Evan Turner, Rondo, Teletovic, Pachulia, and Mahinmi.

yeah don't get me started on afflalo. he's a bit of a sulker. i really made a mistake in my estimation of him as a player and a teammate. but anybody who plays for the knicks has to, as you say, get with the program.

you can't win without a plan, and the dolan era has been defined by a lack of a plan and in my opinion dolan's sociopathic impulsivity.

that said, phil made a mistake with afflalo and i think cleanthony early as well. no gm is going to bat a thousand, especially in rebuilding.

I think Afflalo has a touch of manic-depression. His on again/off again performances cost the Knicks 5-10 games. If he stays I hope he gets some counseling. He does sulk and did not at all like taking any corrective guidance from Rambis. The press played this up as a Rambis failure to communicate but honestly Afflalo who is getting paid multi-millions to be a professional acted like a child with recriminations and festering tweets about the coach. He needs a change of scenery.

It should also be mentioned that Phil brought in Afflalo because he and Anthony were kindred spirits - presumably both rowing in the same direction. There was occasional evidence of that but by mid-season Afflalo was MIA. This is not on Melo or Phil. Both had reason to believe Afflalo would be a better JR Smith. Melo in defending Afflalo is being a loyal friend but a foolish teammate. Rambis is not the problem, Afflalo is and it may not be fixable since behavior and emotional stability are not a matter of improving skill. counseling and medication could help assuming a millionaire, occasional prima donna can do what's right.

This folds into the broader discussion that Phil has been making mistakes and blundering his way through his management duties. That is inaccurate. Identifying players and signing FAs is an exercise in risk assessment. Like stock picking, sometimes you win big and other times not. From a bird's eye view, today Phil has won far more than he's lost - but he has lost. That's a function of being in the game.

An example of a loss that's never talked about and is only apparent at this season's end was the decision to let Cole Aldrich walk. Aldrich played and continues to play a much better backup last year and this than either O'Quinn or Seraphin have for the Knicks. And Aldrich had no problem fitting into the system. Signing O'Quinn and Seraphin remains defensible but it also exposes an example of risk mitigation. Aldrich was associated with the 17 win season while O'Quinn and Seraphin looked to be potential steals.

CleAnthony Early is a different example of risk. Early was projected as a first-rounder and dropped through to a position the Knicks could draft him at in the second-round. He didn't arrive a superstar or even a rotation player so its easy to criticize his presence on the team. But again, players like Galloway, Grant, Early and others routinely take 3-5 years to mature. That's just the way things work. Fans who roast the Knicks for letting youth get away need to take a deep breath because in the name of trashing Phil, they are advocating the same thing.

perfectly stated! posts don't get any better than this one.

while all this make some sense, Rambis, like Fisher, will not attract FA. I felt the entire roster was miss manage, and you absolutely have to take that into consideration, we don't know what phil promised AA when he signed him as a FA, and if he was mostly responsible for 5 to 10 loses, Sasha double that with half the minutes. Sasha did absolutely nothing to deserve a starting spot AND PHIL HAD THE AUDACITY TO SAY GRANT DIDN'T DESERVE MINUTES, in fact(sasha) did everything to get his minutes reduce. But he was their little triangle pet.

This team fell apart because the way guys where being rotated in and out of the line up. We went 7-3 with a 9 man rotation leading up to the 22-22 mark, then we went back to 13, 14 players.

Everything wrong is phils fualt, and everything right is phils doing, so when he starts jabbering about players not bonding, think about why, these dudes where enjoying each other months before the season started.

Cash is king in the NBA. Players and agents chase money not warm and fuzzy coaching comfort.

I disagree that the roster was mismanaged. Fisher was criticised early that he played so many players for so long but by mid-seasomn the team was at .500 ball.

Once injuries and the disruption of Fisher's firing took hold, the season and the team chemistry dissolved. You can continue to blame Rambis but like Fisher before him, Kurt had every right to manage as he saw fit and the team played better, more cohesive ball.

The management and players all agree that the season was a letdown.No amount of finger-pointing changes that.

Guys want to get paid but why did Aldridge go to the Spurs? He could have resigned in Portland for more money. Guys want to get paid but they want to win and be in good situations. See the Nets in the summer of 2010 if you think cash is king. See the Heat in 2010 if you think a little more cash is better than a winning situation. Guys on the Knicks don't like Rambis. No one endorsed him. Even Sam Mitchell as an interim got endorsed. Mike Woodson was endorsed and he drew Rasheed back. Is there a guy from Rambis's past that wants to play for him? Do you really think the only guy that could possibly go to the press about Rambis talking down to the team is Afflalo? Your take that Afflalo has psychological issues is pretty far out there. No player on the Knicks endorsed Rambis. Here is a number line showing how many players endoresed RAmbis out of fifteen -0-. I will be psyched if Afflalo doesn't resign but lets not pretend that Afflalo is some rare freak that doesn't like the way Rambis coached. Guys like to win. Rambis doesn't do that.

Let me refresh your memory about Aldrich. He was out of Portland no matter what. If NBA lore is to be believed he would have considered the Knicks had Phil not insisted he play center. As for signing with the Spurs, Golden State, Cleveland, or any of the obvious contenders - the playoff money and exposure more than compensate for minor contractual compromises. And let's be clear, Melo dodged a bullet by signing with the Knicks instead of Chicago.

Your argument has many holes in it. Players who want to win by your definition are joining teams with strong, no compromise systems of play which, BTW, are shockingly similar to what Phil advocates and some of our knuckleheads still resist. You refer to "good situations" as if Rambis were an unaccountable, incompetent tyrant, Jackson a fool, and Dolan interfering like he did for over a decade. NONE of that is true or even credible. Every player who Jackson has moved, moved to great situations for them. Rambis didn't take us to the playoffs - that was a monumental task to begin with given what he inherited.

League-wide, announcers commented how lazy and unconvincingly the Knicks were cutting and executing just before Rambis took over. We weren't winning much this year no matter what.

But yeah, as a Knicks fan it stings not being in the playoffs - but I don't lay that at Rambis's doorstep.

Quite frankly, Rambis is exactly the coach the Knicks need next year because chances are that whoever takes the reigns will still have a midling win-loss record. Rambis has the temperament to weather that storm. Any other coach will be accused of either being incompetent, becoming a shill for Jackson, not becoming a shill for Jackson, not having the players "like" them and so on. That's one of the fears I would have with bringing in, say, Luke Walton who i think could do a great job but might get rolled by the New York media the minute the record wasn't matching the irrational expectations the ticket scalpers demand.

And let's be adults here, Rambis isn't here to be "liked". He's here to get the player's asses in gear. He's not here to have millionaires sit in his lap and tel them how much they want to the the positive experience of winning without actually playing the game to win. I have zero sympathy for the whiner alibis - "it was the coach's fault". Show the idiot the way out please.

BTW, how many players endorsed Phil or Dolan or the Knicks City Dancers? What kind of metric is that? Will they win if they like the coach? No practice, discipline, or application of talent required?

I hate to pick on Afflalo but he faded like a pair of blue jeans after three wash cycles. *Something* is up with that.

And your last statement is bizarre, "Rambis" doesn't do that????? I guess Phil doesn't do that either. Nor Anthony. Winning should be second-hand play with a team full of rookies in the NBA... I have trouble understanding the record myself... Golden State did it overnight...

Marquee players generally don't leave their teams because they make more if they stay. However, the guys that have left have gone to situations where they had a chance to compete for a title. Having a guy that wins at a 28% rate for over 200+ games doesn't help draw guys in my opinion.
Two things that I really take issue with, your diagnosis of Afflalo and then later referring to your diagnosis of Afflalo in an attempt to make your point. The other is this,

League-wide, announcers commented how lazy and unconvincingly the Knicks were cutting and executing just before Rambis took over. We weren't winning much this year no matter what.

I watched almost every game and I don't recall this as a league wide phenomenon when Fisher was coaching. I actually don't recall it at all during Fisher's tenure but there may have been a couple of games where an announcer made a comment. Can you provide a link or something showing this league wide phenomenon that you speak of. Also, I don't think guys played harder under Rambis. They may have executed a purer version of the triangle but they also lost a lot more. One last thing, I don't think Rambis is a stern task master as I think you are implying. I do think he is a bit inept at as a head coach and his players would prefer someone different. They haven't come out and trashed the guy, possibly for self preservation as he will be in ny next year, or because as an assistant they respected him.

Crush,

Rambis hasn't coached 200 games here. And many of the coaches who have great winning records refuse to coach teams that aren't already in positions to win - JVG comes to mind. Phil, Thibs,and so on. When winning coaches come here and lose because of the talent they get the treatment you're giving Rambis. NBA pros with impeccable credentials all leave tarnished. In fact that's what Phil was trying to impress upon the media. A media that is perpetuously trashing and denigrating the team create a self-fulfilling prophesy that keeps talent away.

My point with Afflalo is not based on my diagnosis but on his inexplicable performances and his demeanor throughout the second half of the season. In fact I remember watching him being interviewed after a particularly bad outing saying how much he wanted to win as if it was on the coach to score baskets while he wrestled with his personal issues. I don't have an axe to grind with the guy but he has to put the ball in the basket at least as often as JR did. Affalo will not succeed here IMO, regardless of the coach because it will always be on the coach. I've seen enough.

I remember Reggie Miller calling them out saying that nobody falls for their motion because they run through plays with no compelling expectation to get the ball or be part of the play. The opposing team can play tag all game without getting scored upon. Frazier calls them out routinely.