Knicks chairman James Dolan told New York players in a meeting Thursday that there are no trades or changes to the coaching staff forthcoming, ESPN.com has learned.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that Dolan gathered the team before the first practice in the wake of New York's embarrassing 29-point home loss to Oklahoma City on Christmas Day largely in an attempt to hush the growing speculation about coach Mike Woodson's job security following the Knicks' 9-19 start.
The discussion came amid increasing signs the Knicks' effort and focus under Woodson is waning on top of the significant injury issues that have plagued them all season.

It's believed Dolan took the step in an attempt to persuade Woodson's players to band together and throw their full support behind the embattled coach to help dig New York out of the sizable hole it finds itself with essentially one-third of the regular season in the books, the sources said.

When an emboldened Woodson met reporters after Thursday's practice, he promptly announced he still thinks New York can rally from its poor start to win the Atlantic Division.

"We won it last year, and I expect us to win it this year," he said.

Anything seems possible in the Atlantic Division, which is currently topped by the 11-15 Toronto Raptors. The Knicks are just three games back of Toronto and play the Raptors in a weekend back-to-back starting Friday night at home.

"The beauty about all of this that we're going through is nobody's running away with it in our division," Woodson said, "and I'm pushing our team to win our division still."

"Eventually we'll get healthy, and we'll see how it all plays out," he added.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/10200351/james-dolan-told-new-york-knicks-no-trades-coach-firings

smackeddog wrote:

H1AND1 wrote:This is actually good news. Dont want to see picks, THjr, and Shump even as disappointing as he's been, to be dealt for lateral moves or bloated contracts...Let this ****show continue, let Melo walk, and lets get the #1 pick in 2015. As depressing as that sounds, its the best way forward. Of course, Dolan will likely find _some_ way to **** it up.

I know, but wondering whether Woody will be fired or not is really the only excitement I get from watching Knick games lately!

LOL!

Glad to hear as nothing outside of improved play is gonna save this team. We have Tyson back. We need a PG but need to get creative there.
Seriously, we should have signed Seth Curry. But we can find another.

Clean wrote:This is amazing news! If he is telling the truth that means we will not lose any trades this season! It also means woody will still be here but this season is lost anyway.

Im not a Woody fan but realistically who would come here if we canned him? Phil? Sloan? Van Gundy? I dont see any of them wanting to come here and have some MSG lackey following them around. Were stuck with Woody but does it really matter? Cant turn $h!t to shinola!

Clean wrote:

H1AND1 wrote:

Clean wrote:This is amazing news! If he is telling the truth that means we will not lose any trades this season! It also means woody will still be here but this season is lost anyway.

Im not a Woody fan but realistically who would come here if we canned him? Phil? Sloan? Van Gundy? I dont see any of them wanting to come here and have some MSG lackey following them around. Were stuck with Woody but does it really matter? Cant turn $h!t to shinola!

Good point about the MSG PR guys. I would say lets try a young high IQ college coach like the Celtics guy. The problem is that these low IQ diva players will not "respect" him.

Exactly. Sigh.

Perhaps McKinsey telling dolan to be more hands on, talk to the team, talk to the press. Be a human being not the "Wiz" and hide behind the curtain.

Panic emotionally based moves never helped this team.

This is a good sign. Don't be depressed as no starphuch move can help this team. Best move is to figure it out.

We might not read about what goes on with Melo and his contract status but we'll know soon as we need to.

djsunyc wrote:btw, why is dolan talking to the team and not mills? isn't he the pres/gm?

He doesn't have the juice card...