Isiah not afraid of change
BY KEN BERGER
Newsday Staff Correspondent

November 7, 2006, 11:03 PM EST

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Saying he has "zero favorites," Knicks coach Isiah Thomas warned Tuesday that he will not hesitate to make lineup changes if the highest-paid team in the NBA continues to underperform.

"I'll bench anybody, and I think I showed you that night," Thomas said as the 1-3 Knicks packed for a grueling trip out West that begins tonight in Denver. "Whether it be Marbury, Francis, whoever. I won't relent."

This came about 18 hours after Thomas sat four starters for the start of the second half of a 105-93 loss to the Spurs. One of the backups who gave the kind of effort Thomas is seeking, Malik Rose, described the team as "shaken" and "intimidated" after only four games.

Even Thomas began to show signs of buckling, saying the first four games "feel like 25." And he admitted that even the more experienced members of his dysfunctional team were "in awe" of the Spurs Monday night

No one is in awe of the Knicks, who have three starters -- Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, and Channing Frye -- shooting a collective 26 percent through the first four games. And it only gets worse.

Steve Francis, who could miss tonight's game at Denver and perhaps several more with a sprained left ankle, said, "We real.ly don't know how to win yet."

The season isn't even a week old, and the Knicks already are in crisis mode. Or maybe, after last year's 59-loss debacle under Larry Brown, they never left.

"I guess guys are tired of getting our -- -- whupped," Francis said when asked for a theory on why four backups and Quentin Richardson finished the second quarter with a 12-2 run and started the third while the struggling Marbury, Eddy Curry and Channing Frye watched from the bench.

"They were basically coming out and putting it to us," Francis said. "We were very lackadaisical defensively. When that happens, I think at some point you have to put up some resistance."

The starters finally did, mounting a 20-2 fourth-quarter run minus the injured Francis and Frye, who sat the whole second half. But Thomas, whose threat of more benchings was served with a side of sympathy, said his team probably won't "catch up to the rest of the league" until after the All-Star break.

"I want us to play with great intensity, great concentration and great energy every night," Thomas said "And the players who are going to play that way will play for me. The players who don't play that way, won't play. That's as simple as I can put it.

"We're not to the point where we're going to make a lineup change," Thomas said. "We need to get a little bit more intensity about what we do. And if there needs to be a change then, then we'll make one."

Rose, who performed well and managed to defend Tim Duncan in his first significant minutes of the season, questioned the team's effort and said the Knicks lost confidence playing in front of the often-hostile Garden crowd.

"If we don't go out there and give effort, he could put 12 guys out there against five and it's not going to make a difference," Rose said. "We have to go out there and compete and play with effort to give him a chance to coach."

With games at Denver, Houston and San Antonio on this trip, it was no wonder Thomas continued to lower expectations.

"Out of our first 18 games, I don't think we're favored in any of the games that we play," Thomas said. " ... We'll catch up to the rest of these teams we're playing. That won't come until probably after the break."

But let's take it one crisis at a time. The Knicks easily could be 1-6 when they come home Monday to face LeBron James and the Cavaliers. If Rose thought the Garden was a tough place to face Indiana and San Antonio, wait until he sees that.

"You have a lot of guys who are kind of shaken right now," Rose said. "You guys do what you do, the fans do what they do, and it's kind of daunting going out there in light of all that. I'm not looking for sympathy or anything, I'm just calling it like I see it.

"Certain guys who arguably are top 10 talents in this league are shaken right now," said Rose, "and it's going to take a little bit of time for them to get that confidence back."

[Edited by - djsunyc on 11-07-2006 11:59 PM]

or maybe they should all read this book:



(send ARod a copy while we're at it)

Well, he did say he would trade his mother if the right deal came alone once. :)

Zeke is gonna snap. And it's not gonna be pretty.

DJ you make it sound like Isiah is calling his players stupid in the press??? I'm confused, either you hugg your players or you call them Dulsional, those are the only levels of coaching???? (Sigh!!!!)


[Edited by - anji on 11-08-2006 12:11 PM]

lets not split hairs here. Can we agree this team has driven Wilkens, Herb, Larry and Isiah all nuts?

Posted by fishmike:

The one consolation to watching Isiah's demise and his impending firing is we can finally chuck out all this BS about coaching, systems, coddling, joy and "improved talent" and finally focus on the problem here which is first and foremost the players. Isiah is the most delusional of all. He brings in a bunch of loafers and coach killers with a history of loafing and killing coaches then freaks when they loaf.

Its amazing following Larry Brown. 4 games and Isiah is talking about bench high paid guys, not getting effort, shuffling line ups and low low low expections. Amazing.

What's amazing is how Isiah let them slack through an easy training camp and then complains after 4 games that they aren't working hard enough.

If practice is so important that he needs to practice them after back to back games, then maybe he should have practiced them hard from the start.

But that was when he was doing the happy happy joy joy crap. Isiah the Coach changes plans almost as often as does Isiah the GM.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by BlueSeats:

lets not split hairs here. Can we agree this team has driven Wilkens, Herb, Larry and Isiah all nuts?

If you are being accurate then you'd have to say that THIS TEAM has only had problems with LB and after 4 games has not yet gotten on track. To make so much of a 4 game stretch is simply shortsighted. LB got his year and now you guys want to write Isiah off already. Did Isiah ever say that the team would come out great from the start? In fact he made it clear that the team would likely struggle early. Add in the opening schedule and it's just another factor in the slow start. Now I think very few would've expected Frye, Steph and Jamal to start off this bad. On the other hand I don't expect that they'll be this bad for the rest of the season either. In any season they're are bound to be ups and downs. Just looking around the league that is evident already.

I know, I know, this offense is gonna fix everything for us.

Of course I expect ups and downs, and I never said we've peaked. But that's as true for the rest of the league as it is for us. There are plenty of young teams who are already better than us who I expect to get better as well. It's not about getting "better", it's about building for a championship.

I've had it with our paper tiger talent. Who of our guys are mentally tough? Who are bball smart? Who knows how to win? Who are franchise caliber? do any guys fall in more than one category?

Great, run around, get your confidence back, learn to fight over a screen or get benched. That's all great, but abstract this a bit and imagine this isn't our roster. Imagine we have a hardworking youth like, say NO or Charlotte, and imagine this roster belongs to another team far removed from us (say Portland.)

I think you'd say of Portland's roster (this one) that their expensive talent are guys who demonstrated nothing but empty stats and mental futility, and their core of the future looks like nice complimentary players, but nowhere on the team is someone who can carry the team or provide leadership, and together they are a team with as much chance of imploding and being blown up as they do of sniffing the second round. In fact they have imploded and seem to be in the process as we speak.

Now as a fan I understand your need to wish for the best and cheer them on to be all they can be, but none of that negates the disaster they've been the last two seasons, and what we witness today.

I'm glad they make you proud. I wish they did the same for me.

Marbury has been here through all those coaches, and thats Isiah's big ticket. This is Crawford's 3rd year with the Knicks. Isiah's turned the roster over so much there isnt much of a body of work to draw on. You look at the player's pasts.
Your right.. its only 4 games and that is certainly very early. The problem is THIS team shows the exact same problems as its predecessors; lack of effort, lack of defense, dont share the ball well, bad in crunchtime, get blown out. After 4 games we have 3 double digit losses. When can we call it a trend? After 10 games? 20? You tell me amigo.

I think thats just a case of guys playing under a lot of pressure. I know exactly the play your talking about. I dont make much of it once or twice. I killed Marbury for that kind of stuff because he used to bark at guys during the game for not helping on D after he got beat off the dribble (on every possesion)

Well let's see. WE couldn't get on the players last year for not playing hard, because they hated their coach and it was within their rites to not play hard.

We couldn't get on them for not showing motivation and showing up for practice early because, well what team shows up early?

We couldn't get on them for not playing hard in pre-season because it's pre-season and nobody plays hard. Plus what happens if they play hard and get hurt?

Now we can't get on them for not playing hard through the first 5 games because it's early and they will play hard as the season goes on.

It's amazing how low the standards of some of the Knicks biggest fans have lowered. Are you guys actually listening to yourselves or have you forgotten what being a true fan is really about?

[Edited by - bippity10 on 11-08-2006 4:20 PM]