coaches find different ways to motivate their players, a guy like Parcell will go to the media in a heart beat to criticize a player poor performance, and the funny thing is this, all of the players that played for him 95% of them always want to play for him again. Sometimes, you have to know what button to push to make a guy react. After poor performances in the preseason and in the first two game, Lenny has to use a different approach with TT, after all we are allabout winning. If TT is as big a part of the puzzles as he has said, Lenny needs to start pointing him out by utilizing the louder voice. No one wants to see the media criticizing them. Larry Johnson from KC was verbally criticized openly through the media by his coach, he wasn't too happy about it, but he is performing much better now. All the great coaches has done it, why not Lenny?

Posted by Bippity10:

You judge a coach by what he says to the media? What he says to the media has nothing to do with what happens in the huddle and what happens in practice. I used to openly lie to the media after games. We fans like to pretend that we know what is going on with the coach's and the team because it makes us feel better about ourselves. But the truth is, sorry to say it, we have no idea. The things that used to anger me the most were the things I had to keep closest to the vest, normally because the players that ticked me off the most were also the most fragile and I could not criticize them to the media without losing them. I would spend every waking moment trying to figure out ways to fix this player(which took away from the rest of my team)but fans would walk around saying I was to stupid to know that this player was a problem. Give me a break.

Posted by fishmike:

seriously though... this is where the depth is so important. Let Jerome come in and fight, let Sweetney play more, let a 19 year old rookie from the 2nd round play more minutes than your starter..

This isnt bad rotations, its bad play. Its just called trying to find a combo of players that can do something positive. How can it possibly be Lenny's fault when TT goes 1-8 from the field with no rebounds?

How?

I'm 100% with you. It's not Lenny's fault. He's playing the hand he was dealt.

Posted by fishmike:

Crawford gets to slap twice because he's skinny

HAHAHAH!

Exactly, that is why I think that Lenny should use the media to motivat this young dude. If he is big enough to run his mouth through the media, I.E. talking about how he utilized the off season to box and toughing up his muscles, why is it that he is not using it. If I were in Lenny's shoes, that is exactly what I would have used to motivate him. Where is the toughness that he has been talking about, why is it that he keep on staying in the outside to do target practice? why no foul shots? etc. I don't see anything wrong with playing a little reverse psychology to motivate a player with a big mouth. Have him earn his argument through hard work.



Whining to the media is just exactly what *TT* would do!
And that's exactly what I don't like about this guy!
If he didn't have such a big mouth perhaps we, the fans,
would be cutting him a little slack right now after only 3 games.
But after all that BS last year, and the boxing, and then
failing to bring it now (including against NJ in the preseason),
he gets little sympathy.
He's just a big mouthed putz.

thats just the point... you dont know. You dont know how hard he's working, or what his coach with 25 years of experience is telling him. Lenny is a HOF player and a HOF coach. You dont think he's dealt with a player like TT before? Also we are talking about 3 games here. TT started like this with us last year, then he had one great game and just snapped out of it. Thats how sports are.

Dont micro analyze. Save it for football where they play once a week for 4 months. The NBA season is long...

NY has a chance to be ok , but one problem is the need of motivation to play hard from within or coaching staff. Playing in front of the garden crowd doesn't do it for some of the players anymore. Guys like Ariza don't need motivation he's only 19. What the knicks need are self starting Vets and players who are young and hungry, then and only then will the Garden bring a buzz that we are all accustommed to.