The Bad: Knox Defense. 0-3 never looks or feels good. Payton looks as expected and Trier gives you offense on one side but not the defesnive goodness that we need to play uptempo. Morris and Randle are not winning games. David Fizdale is not looking very good.

The ugly: DSjr and Fans. WTF is up with DSjr? We get hoodwinked? Lost weight, playing loose in sumemr scrimmages and blah blah and this guy looks awful on both ends. While KP is doing his end of game fade thing, he is not the best player on the dallas, they are winning and its a bad look for us. Is he hurt? Does he really need to play into this? We not getting the story and as long as that happens fans will be on fire. Dennis is making Perry and Fiz look bad. Fans are getting ugly. Fans are ugly.

The cure. THe come backs against SAS and Nets were good. Randle and morris are not good closers. This was to Be Dennis' Job.

Fizdale is horrible. Offensive sets are non existent. Handling of roster is horrible. He obviously has favorites. He did this with Mudiay last year but he showed more than enough to warrant his starts and PT. Problem now is that DSJr is having his problems and Fizdale is not helping him at all. I don't know what Frank did to Fizdale but this is not acceptable. He is basically ruining 2 young players.

This is the talent strength we have. A coach with a brain would work in a system around this strength.

Instead we have fiz wishing for a collage of an all star team to appear, like dsj can be Westbrook, Randle can be Melo, RJ is Wade, trier is harden ... just keep waiting for it to click, “coach”

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/NYKFilmSchool/status/1188300862445228032

KnickDanger wrote:My take on the season was and still is we would get off to a slow start because of new players/rotations plus a challenging early schedule. This would in turn feed the trendy reactionary Knick hate, which is what is happening. Although the start is as bad as can be after the Celtic blow out at home, I do believe there will be progress and that is the main point of this season. That and improve our assets/talent base as much as possible.

That said, I do question Fizdale as a coach. I won't be one screaming for his head this season and definitely not after 3 freaking games, but he needs to show he has some sort of plan for a team identity and as a motivator.

Of course I expect the new age of fans and media gasbags and air heads to create a fuss that will ultimately push the team back into the same old quick fix s#!thole.

Thats on Dolan actually. Obviously we'd be better with a staritng line up of

Mitch
KP
Morris
RJ
Hardaway

No real point,

Bad things:
-Mitch shows way too much stupidity.
-Fiz is apparently unknowingly driving DSJs confidence into the ground. If he plays tomorrow I would be absolutely shocked. This is not going to improve his play and it’s only going to cause Frank to develop resentment. That was a prick move to put him in the closing seconds of the half, last night. Again, we don’t know how Frank is behind closed doors and in practice but I can’t imagine it’s this bad.
-Barrett had a good game last night but it could have been spectacular. He very frequently did not finish strong around the rim. He missed a lot of lay-ups.

The ugly:
-I can’t get over the Knicks refusing to attack Kyrie, the other night, when he had 5 fouls. That showed a complete lack of leadership and basic basketball common sense. It’s worrying to me. If they attacked him every single time, missed or turned the ball over from attacking him, I would have been much happier.

Allanfan20 wrote:Good things:
-When not used as a one on one player, Morris is quite reliable.
-Randle can actually be a pretty good passer if he keeps his head up. That’s not frequently the case though.
-RJ seems to be improving his 3 point shot when he gets himself set and his defense has been pretty decent.
-Trier can be a semi-reliable scorer.
-Mitch HAS to improve his stupidity because he can be a beast.

Bad things:
-Mitch shows way too much stupidity.
-Fiz is apparently unknowingly driving DSJs confidence into the ground. If he plays tomorrow I would be absolutely shocked. This is not going to improve his play and it’s only going to cause Frank to develop resentment. That was a prick move to put him in the closing seconds of the half, last night. Again, we don’t know how Frank is behind closed doors and in practice but I can’t imagine it’s this bad.
-Barrett had a good game last night but it could have been spectacular. He very frequently did not finish strong around the rim. He missed a lot of lay-ups.

The ugly:
-I can’t get over the Knicks refusing to attack Kyrie, the other night, when he had 5 fouls. That showed a complete lack of leadership and basic basketball common sense. It’s worrying to me. If they attacked him every single time, missed or turned the ball over from attacking him, I would have been much happier.

good post and observations

Putting aside my lack of confidence in Fizz fixing this, some of the issues seem relatively fixable

For example, as you note Morris and Randle can both contribute. I think the issue with both is they are pressing and there is no offensive structure in which they know they will touch the ball and do something with it. As a result, they have been pressing one-on-one ISO at times.

One minor disagreement is on Trier. There is an enigma in that when he has the ball you don't get that bad feeling you get when let's say DSJ has it. Yet our bad offense is actually worse with Trier. Puzzling

Nalod wrote:

Chandler wrote:The irony is that people criticized Phil for only being able to win with superstars

Fizz's claim to fame is being assistant coach on a team with the BIggest of Big 3s, and where they won 2 out of 4 finals they appeared in. Serious fn is that the first one the Celts got jobbed by the refs and should have been in

As a coach they tossed his ass in Memphis after a mediocre+ first season and a bad start the second.

What's wrong with this picture?

Your shallow assessment.

By Al Iannazzone
al.iannazzone@newsday.com  @Al_Iannazzone
Updated May 9, 2018 6:37 PM

Print Share 

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t always agree with David Fizdale’s suggestions and he joked that he threw him out of his office many times when the two worked together. But Spoelstra always appreciated Fizdale’s mind, viewpoint and ability to challenge him.

Spoelstra is widely considered one of the NBA’s best coaches. He wouldn’t be if not for the influence of the Knicks’ new coach.

“Fiz definitely made me better,” Spoelstra said during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “We had some epic, legendary fights. We would challenge each other all the time. Fiz was not afraid to share his opinion. I wanted him to challenge me, question things, make me look at things in a different lens. And he constantly did that.

“Because of our friendship we had that type of understanding that we could push boundaries to get the best possible result that we were looking for or to get something different that neither one of us thought. Some of those times were epic arguments. Other staff members would have to step in and thought that we were getting too personal about it. But neither one of us actually viewed it that way. It was more about trying to make each other better.

“Fiz made me a better coach. He thought the game differently than I did, from a different lens and I enjoyed coming to work every single day getting his perspective, which often made me look at things differently.”

Fizdale spent eight years working for Spoelstra as an assistant or associate head coach. Fizdale was a part of the Heat teams that reached four straight NBA Finals and won two titles. But their relationship goes back 21 years when Spoelstra and Fizdale worked together in the Heat’s video department.

Spoelstra said Fizdale isn’t much different. He just has more money now, but the Knicks are richer to have him as their coach.

“You’re going to have an incredibly passionate coach and teacher and motivator,” Spoelstra said. “I think Fiz is one of the best basketball minds out there. He’s extremely creative. He’s got a terrific work ethic to match. He’s a versatile coach. He can show that he’s effective in all the different levels, player development, coaching, player management, X’s and O’s, all of those things.

On the surface you ignore the years he spent working as one of Riley's crew. Naturally Spolestra will say nice things but its not like Fiz just popped up from nowhere and rode the Heatles coat tales to a head job. There were long hours and reputations to be built. This is Riley's tree. 0-3 sucks. 17 wins suck. The Job in Memphis? Much has been written about his mistakes and the growth from Conley and Gasol as well as Fiz. Not all on Fiz. He takes his share. Easy to say "lets replace him with......". Why? Its an open concept. How do we measure the job he did vs. another given the same circumstances? Some of which are not his. Assigning blame is easy. Fixing it is another.

Im not advocating for him. Im advocating that change for the sake of it, because fans are angry, because we love to assign blame, and think "well Buggs Bunny couldn't have done much worse" than its a good idea.

Spoelstra knows that as long as he keeps Fizdale in NY, Miami has nothing to worry about. Psych-ops at its finest.

Nalod wrote:

Chandler wrote:The irony is that people criticized Phil for only being able to win with superstars

Fizz's claim to fame is being assistant coach on a team with the BIggest of Big 3s, and where they won 2 out of 4 finals they appeared in. Serious fn is that the first one the Celts got jobbed by the refs and should have been in

As a coach they tossed his ass in Memphis after a mediocre+ first season and a bad start the second.

What's wrong with this picture?

Your shallow assessment.

By Al Iannazzone
al.iannazzone@newsday.com  @Al_Iannazzone
Updated May 9, 2018 6:37 PM

Print Share 

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t always agree with David Fizdale’s suggestions and he joked that he threw him out of his office many times when the two worked together. But Spoelstra always appreciated Fizdale’s mind, viewpoint and ability to challenge him.

Spoelstra is widely considered one of the NBA’s best coaches. He wouldn’t be if not for the influence of the Knicks’ new coach.

“Fiz definitely made me better,” Spoelstra said during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “We had some epic, legendary fights. We would challenge each other all the time. Fiz was not afraid to share his opinion. I wanted him to challenge me, question things, make me look at things in a different lens. And he constantly did that.

“Because of our friendship we had that type of understanding that we could push boundaries to get the best possible result that we were looking for or to get something different that neither one of us thought. Some of those times were epic arguments. Other staff members would have to step in and thought that we were getting too personal about it. But neither one of us actually viewed it that way. It was more about trying to make each other better.

“Fiz made me a better coach. He thought the game differently than I did, from a different lens and I enjoyed coming to work every single day getting his perspective, which often made me look at things differently.”

Fizdale spent eight years working for Spoelstra as an assistant or associate head coach. Fizdale was a part of the Heat teams that reached four straight NBA Finals and won two titles. But their relationship goes back 21 years when Spoelstra and Fizdale worked together in the Heat’s video department.

Spoelstra said Fizdale isn’t much different. He just has more money now, but the Knicks are richer to have him as their coach.

“You’re going to have an incredibly passionate coach and teacher and motivator,” Spoelstra said. “I think Fiz is one of the best basketball minds out there. He’s extremely creative. He’s got a terrific work ethic to match. He’s a versatile coach. He can show that he’s effective in all the different levels, player development, coaching, player management, X’s and O’s, all of those things.

On the surface you ignore the years he spent working as one of Riley's crew. Naturally Spolestra will say nice things but its not like Fiz just popped up from nowhere and rode the Heatles coat tales to a head job. There were long hours and reputations to be built. This is Riley's tree. 0-3 sucks. 17 wins suck. The Job in Memphis? Much has been written about his mistakes and the growth from Conley and Gasol as well as Fiz. Not all on Fiz. He takes his share. Easy to say "lets replace him with......". Why? Its an open concept. How do we measure the job he did vs. another given the same circumstances? Some of which are not his. Assigning blame is easy. Fixing it is another.

Im not advocating for him. Im advocating that change for the sake of it, because fans are angry, because we love to assign blame, and think "well Buggs Bunny couldn't have done much worse" than its a good idea.

With all due respect I don’t know what ur point is

Probably every coach from college up can claim long hours and hard work.

And Fizz is energetic. Whether he's a motivator is a mixed bag. Reports are people were grumbling even in pre season

The point I was making was the irony is his biggest accomplishment is similar but less than Phil’s; i.e., in each case we hope that someone could repeat some past success