"Several Pacers afterward likened playing the Knicks to a carefree game of pickup at the playground. But the Pacers, still clinging to playoff hopes, will take it."

Cosmic raised this point in an earlier post, and I think it's a good one. What are the young guys learning? Can we get some gosh darn leaders in here so we don't set ourselves back another season.

Yeah I really just don't think this is a good learning experience for them. Any time to get out on the court is a good one but there is no leadership. They just do what the lazy vets did all year. Go out there, go through the motions, go 1-1, get no guidance from the coach, nothing.

So to me it's not a valuable learning experience. If it were me I'd tell Isiah right now to just go retreat to the GM post (until I, stupid Dolan, finally fires him) - and then I'd get Dave Hanners in my office, tell him he's our new Head Coach, and get out there and do what you did with Summer League - which was something that was VERY positive.

That's what I would do. Then again, I have no power, so that kinda puts the kibosh on that.

Oh they're learning all right. They're learning bad habits.

All year, Knicks games have been nothing more than glorified pick up games. There's no structure, no team offense and no team defense. It's every man for himself. That's why I'm so incredulous when people bring up individual stats. They're so meaningless in the context of what they should be trying to accomplish and hasn't done anything to change the only number that matters, which is their win total.

Posted by Bippity10:

During the Atlanta game it was pretty noticeable. We would give up an easy lay-up and then with know emotion immediately inbound the ball to someone who would speed up court to try to get his. Just like on the friggin playground. One pass shoot, one pass shoot. These kids are going to pick up some horrible habits, just like some of them did during the LB season when they learned it was okay to quit if you hate your coach.

It's noticeable in every game. Crawford, Zach, Curry and Nate will always look to take their man one on one and get theirs. That's the only offensive set that they know and the only one that Isiah runs. The players are completely clueless when it comes to running plays. Have you ever seen a team get so many shot clock violations and take so many bad shots coming out of timeouts?

Of course, this is what happens when:

You rarely practice.
When you do practice, they're really short with the players more interested in avoiding the media afterwards.
Opposing teams coaches and players notice how lackluster your pregame preparation is.
Most of your team, including the head coach, take the late bus to games.
There's no discipline, work ethic or accountability.

Speaking from experience playing under a "Dead Man Walking" is a pretty shytty environment to play in. Unless the team is ridiculous good and filled with very solid vetran these situations usually turn into a glorified playground team.