GustavBahler wrote:Great, another yes man.
That's not how I see it at all
In the NBA, even moreso than MLB and the NFL, the head coach becomes the fall guy when thing go wrong. Easier to dump the coach or manager than to replace players who are harder to get rid of and an entrenched front office who have the ear of the owner.
Hornacek is essentially interviewing for his next job right now. He knows he's a dead man walking here. Eventually he'll get fired because coaches on losing teams that keep losing get fired. Eventually Jackson or Dolan or Melo will run a train on Hornacek in the press, blaming him for everything and anything, to deflect any kind of responsibility for the Knicks situation.
What is Hornacek really saying?
1) I'm loyal, the chain of command overruled me, so I'm going to run the offense I've been told to run. Other teams don't want to hire a guy who will completely go off the reservation whenever he wants
2) He tried to push a modern offense unto this team, but he was overruled, this coincides when the team was playing better earlier in the season
3) No one can succeed with this level of talent on the roster. It's already established that Rose and Melo are problem players. They do what they want to do, the team and team basketball be damned.
4) He got the team playing close games, which is all he could do given the limitations imposed on him
5) The roster had injuries, which can impact any team in any situation, but highlights Jackson going after aging veteran players and overpaying them.
I don't see a "Yes, man", I see a guy letting it out in the press that he did the best he could in a situation that was clearly a lose/lose scenario. And that no coach could succeed in this situation. But despite that, he's going to be positive and continue to do his job and follow the orders he was given.
I think he handled the situation pretty well given the circumstances. There is no "win" here for Hornacek. This is damage control for the future of his possible coaching career. I actually think he's a pretty damn good coach, but you can't force a player in the NBA to behave like a professional. The system leans too far in favor of the selfish diva player.
What the end result will be is that ANY COACH WITH OPTIONS, will avoid the Knicks. Any front office guy with OPTIONS will avoid the Knicks. Sure they can get a guy desperate as hell to coach anyone, or to make their bones knowing this is like a "starter job" and that they are gaining experience for the 2nd job they hope to get.
If Melo and Rose don't play hard, it's not because they don't respect the coach, it's because they don't respect themselves. They don't even respect themselves enough to act like professionals. Sometimes I see people push that tired agenda, like it's someone elses fault that Melo won't even try on defense. I think to myself - Do any of these people have kids? Is this the kind of **** people teach their kids? If you don't like your coach or how you are told to play, dog it, it's not your fault, you have no obligation to your team, your sense of honor, your sense of dignity, your sense of team work, your sense of respect for how you conduct yourself.
It's like some people don't really understand why Linsanity was something heard literally around the world. Do you think it's just because he was Asian? I think it has to do with a guy who was relentless, and win or lose, would play the right way, would play the team game, would commit to win at all costs. And it must have been embarrassing for a selfish mercenary like Melo to see basically an undrafted player, pretty much a rookie, conduct himself with poise like a veteran player, without fear, and would simply lead his team to victory.
Hornacek is saying what is going to go unspoken but understood around the league, the Knicks are a toxic situation. No one can win in this type of environment as it stands currently. You will, like Pringles and Lin, be punished in some way or another, simply for trying to actually play real team basketball.
Yes, yes, tell your kid playing Little League he can dog it because he doesn't have to respect anyone, not even himself and not even his coach, because he simply is not getting what he wants when he wants it. Way to set the bar so motherf**king low.