Phil Jackson has run the New York Knicks for three years. The Knicks have gone 76-159 (.323) over that span. Only the Sixers and Lakers have been substantially worse since 2014. Both of those teams’ front offices have been shaken up in the past year.

The state of the Knicks is not all Jackson’s fault. Trades made deep in the past continue to hobble the franchise. The Knicks were bad enough to earn a top 10 pick last season, but had to convey that choice to the Raptors because of the Andrea Bargnani trade that predates Jackson. That hurts.

But it doesn’t absolve Jackson, who has made a series of blunders speckled with a few positive achievements. One of those positive achievements — drafting Kristaps Porzingis in 2015 — was brilliant enough to blind us from seeing all the failure. Just put on your sunglasses and you’ll see all the grimy detail of Jackson’s New York tenure.

He hired Derek Fisher, who he then had to fire in his second season because of the Matt Barnes saga and a general lack of success. He seriously auditioned Kurt Rambis, who has proven before that he is not an NBA head coach. In 2016, he hired Jeff Hornacek, who has a strong reputation among young head coaches with limited actual success. But he has spent the season kneecapping Hornacek’s authority by grousing about Carmelo Anthony’s style of play and that damn Triangle offense.

Yes, the cold war with Carmelo matters here, too. Don’t forget that one of Jackson’s first acts in New York was to re-sign Anthony to a five-year max deal with a no-trade clause, something that has ruined the Knicks’ options in terms of moving on from Melo in the years since.

Melo takes flack for re-signing in New York when he had opportunities to join better clubs. That’s fair. Anthony knew what the Knicks were.

But Jackson deserves similar flack for paying a player who didn’t fit whatever grand design he has. We all knew who Melo was. It’s not like Jackson arrived from outer space. He coached against Melo for darn near a decade in the Western Conference.

Jackson’s lack of vision is most troubling. Does anyone know where the Knicks are headed at any given moment? After Porzingis’ heart-swelling rookie season, it appeared New York would build organically around the Latvian, even if it meant losing more games and slowly transitioning out of the Melo-centric era. Instead, Jackson spent his summer signing Joakim Noah to the worst contract in the NBA (four years, $72 million), trading for a ball-dominant basket of troubles named Derrick Rose, and signing veteran Courtney Lee.

Instead of focusing on the future, Jackson bet on the now. The Knicks are 27-44. Melo is miserable, Porzingis is confused, and the fans are still suffering.

No team president has a spotless record. Plenty of Jackson’s decisions fall into the category of rational moves that didn’t work out. The Tyson Chandler trade — one that really did not work as Chandler thrived in Dallas while the Knicks bottomed out — is such a move.

Lee’s contract is actually fine. Arron Afflalo’s deal was not, but it didn’t really cost the Knicks anything long-term. You can fault Jackson for letting Langston Galloway walk, but then you have to credit Jackson’s crew for bringing Galloway to the NBA in the first place. The trade sending J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert brought essentially no tangible long-term benefit to the Knicks, but keeping Smith and Shump around would have similarly had no tangible long-term benefit.

This all adds up to create the portrait of a middling team making middling moves. In this transaction sense, Jackson is not spectacular in any real way. He’s not spectacularly awful or anywhere near good. His record with the Knicks is rather mediocre.

It’s the lack of vision that stings. It’s the alienation of Melo. It’s the anachronistic, almost unbelievable bet on Rose and especially Noah. Most importantly, it’s the stunting of Porzingis’s growth.

If drafting Porzingis is the best reason to keep Jackson, especially as the Knicks look forward to another lottery pick, then what the Knicks have done to Porzingis in Year 2 is the biggest reason to fire Jackson.

The Zen Master, long considered a savant who could coax the most out of his charges with book lists and psychology, has completely lost the team. Maybe he never had them?

Jackson once had incredible credibility among NBA players, but he’s a suit now, not a coach. He isn’t traveling with the team and grinding through practices. He’s not in the proverbial trenches with them. So the challenges he could issue as motivational techniques as a coach just don’t work when he’s the team president.

Take Jackson’s absurd personality war with his veteran star. Melo doesn’t exactly have the best rep for working with coaches and being pliable, but Porzingis looks up to Anthony in some fashion and it’s only natural that Porzingis would empathize with Melo. You can’t do that with a 21-year-old superstar-in-waiting.

Yet, Jackson has persisted in sniping at Melo, both on the record and probably through his pal Charley Rosen. He valued his own gratification over Porzingis’ development. That’s unforgivable in Jackson’s position. And so, he must go.

The main argument against releasing Jackson is that more turnover for a turnstile franchise destroys any semblance of stability. But Jackson has already destroyed that anyway. The other rationale for keeping him is that lottery pick coming just three months away. It’s an important pick, for sure. But do you want the guy who gave Joakim Noah $72 million in the year 2016 anywhere near July 1?

Phil Jackson knows better than most that success in one aspect of pro basketball does not necessarily translate to success in all aspects. He was a fringe basketball player who became one of the greatest coaches ever. That success as a coach doesn’t guarantee success as a team executive. Perhaps he’ll see reality and make the Knicks’ decision easy by quitting.

If not, New York needs to be decisive. Good thing they have an engaged, smart franchise owner — oh wait. Damn.

Moonangie wrote:Yet another hater thread. The forum is getting abused by this. Why start yet another one?

My answer...NO. Don't fire anyone. That's the Dolanesque corporatist approach to building. And it accomplishes nothing but a turnstile of mediocrity. Let Phil do his effing job and get us young talent through the draft. Let him build the team. He has not wasted our cap space (Noah has intangible value to the franchise, but is certainly his most questionable move), he has not traded draft picks, he has found young talent and has the team heading in a solid direction. The only problem is that restless NYK fans don't have enough patience to see this through.

How is the forum being abused by 'haters'?

I thought this was a discussion board, not an agreement board?

I think my biggest criticism of Phil is he wants his coach to run an offense that is not his (Hornecek's).

Second, just about all of Phil's off season moves this past summer have turned out to be 100% completely wrong.

Yes, I have hindsight, but Phil should have known Noah was a horrible risk. I did! And I don't get paid $12M a year for my basketball opinion.

Now, we're headed to the lottery, and where is Phil tonight? Is he scouting talent?

No, he is off to see Shaq get a statue outside staples.

Where's Magic Johnson? At a college basketball game scouting- and there is a good chance they end up without a pick this year!

I don't hate Phil. I hate Dolan.

And it scares me to think that if Dolan fires Phil, we could end up worse off. But that isn't a reason to change my assessment of what Phil has accomplished in 3 years - turned the roster 3x during that time, however many coaches, players- and the end result is what?

The only positive I hear from people is Phil hasn't traded our future, he hasn't traded any first round future picks.

That's not a real accomplishment.

Outside of drafting Porzingas & Willy, all of his moves have been mediocre to below average.

And I don't buy this thought that Phil made these off season moves to prove to Dolan that he has to rebuild through the draft. Phil with his eleven rings could drop them on Dolan's table, and say we need to rebuild through the draft - give me 5 years.

Phil inherits woodson, with Bargnani and no pick, Amare, and pending free agent Melo, along with Shump and JR.
Phil should have stuck around and waited it out with Jeannie.

Moonangie wrote:Yet another hater thread. The forum is getting abused by this. Why start yet another one?

My answer...NO. Don't fire anyone. That's the Dolanesque corporatist approach to building. And it accomplishes nothing but a turnstile of mediocrity. Let Phil do his effing job and get us young talent through the draft. Let him build the team. He has not wasted our cap space (Noah has intangible value to the franchise, but is certainly his most questionable move), he has not traded draft picks, he has found young talent and has the team heading in a solid direction. The only problem is that restless NYK fans don't have enough patience to see this through.

newyorknewyork wrote:Was a good article.

Things that bug me though is its easy to whine about stuff without actually offering solutions or gauging circumstance.

Yes, the cold war with Carmelo matters here, too. Don’t forget that one of Jackson’s first acts in New York was to re-sign Anthony to a five-year max deal with a no-trade clause, something that has ruined the Knicks’ options in terms of moving on from Melo in the years since.

Again I ask, after we let Melo walk for nothing who do we add to rebuild this team? We have one draft pick over a 3 year span. What FA are we adding with the cap space that Melo freed up?

After Porzingis’ heart-swelling rookie season, it appeared New York would build organically around the Latvian, even if it meant losing more games and slowly transitioning out of the Melo-centric era. Instead, Jackson spent his summer signing Joakim Noah to the worst contract in the NBA (four years, $72 million), trading for a ball-dominant basket of troubles named Derrick Rose, and signing veteran Courtney Lee.
Instead of focusing on the future, Jackson bet on the now. The Knicks are 27-44. Melo is miserable, Porzingis is confused, and the fans are still suffering.

KP is getting blasted by fans right now that he isn't able to keep up with NBA talent going into his 2nd year in the league. So imagine if he was given the keys like this article suggest. Adding NBA vets the caliber of Rose which we got for peanuts, and had an expiring contract, and Lee, and Noah(though overpaid) wasn't a bad idea. At the same time say we were to hand the keys over to KP. Who do we add instead of Rose, Lee and Noah? We had Lopez, Grant and Calderon who have all sucked this season and like 20+mil in cap space. What young options were available to be had? Did we not also bring along multiple rookies this season to pair with the vets brought in. Yea they aren't the cream of the crop but that's what happens when you don't have premium draft picks to work with.

The funny thing about the Rose trade is that it has brought us a 2nd 2nd round round pick in this draft class. While the odds a low, if it becomes a Ellis, Green, Ginobli, Isiah Thomas type of 2nd round hit then it all of a sudden becomes an amazing deal.

The article stated the most important point throughout all this early in the article.

Trades made deep in the past continue to hobble the franchise. The Knicks were bad enough to earn a top 10 pick last season, but had to convey that choice to the Raptors because of the Andrea Bargnani trade that predates Jackson. That hurts.

Other then flat out pure luck. Given the circumstance the Knicks have put themselves in dating back to the Walsh era, snowballing all the way through until Jackson came in. There is no way that the Knicks could have successfully built a contender or successfully rebuilt over these last 3 years. We had 1 draft pick and our core group was on the decline. Or do you think that Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton coming off a 37 win season and playing like crap could have netting us the picks that Boston got by trading KG & Pierce? Or that Philly got by trading Jrue Holiday? Jackson could have continued trading future assets. Continuing the snowball in order to make himself look like he was making things happen. But instead we practically have been on rehab. Suffering through as the mistakes dating back to Walsh finally ran it course.

I totally disagree, Phil traded away Hardaway, Jerian Grant and rejected Jae Crowder in the Tyson Chandler for Jose Calderon trade opting instead for two second round pick that became Cleanthony and Thanasis. Hardaway, Jerian Grant and Jae Crowder are three young players and any of them could have been part of the Knicks future so opportunity was there, Phil just preferred the Jose Calderon, Noah, Lee and Rose type players.

knicks1248 wrote:I say let him continue to humiliate himself, let him continue to make us a laughing stock, as long we have kp and willy, we can watch them develop, losing 60 games a yr

WOW! This is a very dishonest post. You know we have 3 picks in this draft and will have other options to improve the team this summer and beyond.

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:I say let him continue to humiliate himself, let him continue to make us a laughing stock, as long we have kp and willy, we can watch them develop, losing 60 games a yr

WOW! This is a very dishonest post. You know we have 3 picks in this draft and will have other options to improve the team this summer and beyond.

They have the 44th and 58th pick. Are you expecting the roster to be remade with those two picks? I think you have to hope something good comes from one or both but I don't see them as saving Phil's legacy etc.

Now why are you focusing on the two 2nd rd picks? The 1st pick in addition to the 2nd rd picks and possible trade or FA signings! All of the available options are part of this. It's not all on the draft and doesn't stop after this summer.