Uncle Nalod digress fable: When I coached kids I once had a god awful bunch. The year before won all our games. Im talking 8 year olds.
About one quarter thru the season I knew I had a group that could not win. Since I was not coaching for a contract and Baby Zion was not my prize for the next year I made a decision to "Coach/Teach". I had a parent ask me why im not coaching to "win". His kid was the only one I had from the year before besides my son. He knew I had shifted my methoed. I explained: These are a good bunch of kids, good athletes, but I can't teach them team concept until they are confident in what they can do. So we are going to do a lot of small things. Last week notice the kids did not "travel" as much. Actually I kept a tally of what we did week to week and were down by 35%. During the game I told them this is our victory and the were good. They liked that a lot. Better than just yelling "what are you doing, stop it". This week we practiced rebounding and what to do when we get the ball. We never get fast break points, today If we get one, or two I will be a victory...." Etc. Small quantifiable results.

From what I read Fiz was working on things and its why he never lost his team, they seemed together and motivated. It seemed as if he wanted the rookies to acclimate and for the young one year guys to work on aspects of their game to make them more NBA ready. Obvious they were not getting love from the teams that drafted them. From a selfish point he also elevated Vonleh, Mudiay and Marios value as they showed new skills. They were promised opportunity if they came to NY. Mario was a late bloomer but playing the two was actually quite revealing. He has shown flashes of stats before but HOW HE GOT THEM was different. If you follow the team and players you see some of that. Mudiay became a different player. Maybe he still has more to go but he has a confidence now because he got a lot of reps in where he did well. Building blocks that need to be instinctive. Perhaps once installed he can work on passing better. Perhaps with better talent that happens easier. I thought knox from the start to the finish had a road he had to got thru that had ups and downs but he finished strong and with a confidence. I think this is huge. Not starphuch huge but if Durant wants to think about playing with talent there was quantifiable results beyond wins and losses and a metrik of improvement.

So I don't think it was a lost season or a lost tank. Its the kind of season that a bad team depleted after years of starphuch neglect needed to happen.
The proof? Can't see it now. Maybe Im wrong. Maybe its not just one thing but they add up. Draft picks, Free agents and Development of players.

When we talk about how bad knicks are at drafting, developing and no FA's want to play here can we not see all of it is evolving into something better?
So David Fizdale gets a pass on a 17 win season. Does he get another one? Lets see how things look in 60 days before we set any reasonable expectations.

KP? I don't think Fiz had any chance with him. He did go out to see him in Lithuania but the kid never played a lick. Not sure Fiz was part of KP leaving.
Frank? Frank grew over the last summer, and his shot went to shyt. If fiz does not see him as a PG that's his prerogative. Moving him off the ball? I thought there was an effort to get him to attack the rim and be more aggressive. Off the ball puts him in a position to do this. He had a few good spots, and when he seemed to be making progress the shoulder thing became an issue. It might have been for most of the season and why his shot regressed. Given his contract and its effect on the team I reiterate the tone of Fiz that he seemed to say "Its a shame". To me he likes the kid but did not prove himself. If pragmatic and have to choose between Dot and Trier I pick them over frank. Sometimes you have to move on. Lots of top 10 picks don't work out. Knicks will have others.

Mitch grew and provided some nice hope this season. All under the Fiz regime. Fiz is the head coach, he gets the accolades and the heat. What ever under his regime the team did a good job bringing him along. Knox? Yeah, could have been tough but then Fiz let him hit the wall and see how he bounced. Strong finish was a bit telling. Chucking might have been permitted this season. Why not, its not like it was a problem?

knicks1248 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Actually He gets big pass from me as this team was not to be coached but it was to be developed. Not sure if some fans really understand a concept beyond tanking for the draft.
The team morphed to an NBA apprentice experience. That's my take at least.
There are plenty of good coaches that had bad win seasons for a myriad of reasons.

Uncle Nalod digress fable: When I coached kids I once had a god awful bunch. The year before won all our games. Im talking 8 year olds.
About one quarter thru the season I knew I had a group that could not win. Since I was not coaching for a contract and Baby Zion was not my prize for the next year I made a decision to "Coach/Teach". I had a parent ask me why im not coaching to "win". His kid was the only one I had from the year before besides my son. He knew I had shifted my methoed. I explained: These are a good bunch of kids, good athletes, but I can't teach them team concept until they are confident in what they can do. So we are going to do a lot of small things. Last week notice the kids did not "travel" as much. Actually I kept a tally of what we did week to week and were down by 35%. During the game I told them this is our victory and the were good. They liked that a lot. Better than just yelling "what are you doing, stop it". This week we practiced rebounding and what to do when we get the ball. We never get fast break points, today If we get one, or two I will be a victory...." Etc. Small quantifiable results.

From what I read Fiz was working on things and its why he never lost his team, they seemed together and motivated. It seemed as if he wanted the rookies to acclimate and for the young one year guys to work on aspects of their game to make them more NBA ready. Obvious they were not getting love from the teams that drafted them. From a selfish point he also elevated Vonleh, Mudiay and Marios value as they showed new skills. They were promised opportunity if they came to NY. Mario was a late bloomer but playing the two was actually quite revealing. He has shown flashes of stats before but HOW HE GOT THEM was different. If you follow the team and players you see some of that. Mudiay became a different player. Maybe he still has more to go but he has a confidence now because he got a lot of reps in where he did well. Building blocks that need to be instinctive. Perhaps once installed he can work on passing better. Perhaps with better talent that happens easier. I thought knox from the start to the finish had a road he had to got thru that had ups and downs but he finished strong and with a confidence. I think this is huge. Not starphuch huge but if Durant wants to think about playing with talent there was quantifiable results beyond wins and losses and a metrik of improvement.

So I don't think it was a lost season or a lost tank. Its the kind of season that a bad team depleted after years of starphuch neglect needed to happen.
The proof? Can't see it now. Maybe Im wrong. Maybe its not just one thing but they add up. Draft picks, Free agents and Development of players.

When we talk about how bad knicks are at drafting, developing and no FA's want to play here can we not see all of it is evolving into something better?
So David Fizdale gets a pass on a 17 win season. Does he get another one? Lets see how things look in 60 days before we set any reasonable expectations.

You pretty much describe the role of an ASSISTANT COACH, which fits FIZDALE perfectly