HOUSTON — On the eve of hosting the Knicks, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy questioned whether Isiah Thomas trusts Lenny Wilkens and ripped Knick management for making fired assistant Dick Helm a scapegoat.

It was a classic one-hour session with New York writers, the day after the Rockets' horrendous loss to the Hawks in which they blew a fourth-quarter lead and fell to 4-5. He was his "Van Grumpy" self yesterday, disheveled, sleep-deprived, miserable, beating himself up for the team's recent woes, saying he was as much to blame.

But while Van Gundy is amidst his own crisis in his new residence in the heart of Texas, the former Knicks coach also realizes it could be worse. Van Gundy could be coaching for a general manager who won't let him choose his own coaching staff and fires a trusted aide.

Helm's firing, coming after the Knicks' worst home-opening loss in their history — by 34 points to Boston — has been viewed as an indication of Thomas' heavy-handedness. Wilkens no longer has an assistant he selected.

"As a coach, you should have total control of who's on your staff," Van Gundy said. "If you're going to be judged on your result, if you don't have the ability to pick your coaching staff, then you don't have enough ability to coach.

"You can't half-trust your head coach," Van Gundy said. "You have to fully trust your head coach. If your head coach isn't getting the results with his staff, his style, then certainly management has the right to change. But to set somebody up and not give them full control of their staff, is not giving him full control of what he needs to have in order to have a chance to be ultimately successful.

"And I'm not [just] speaking about New York," Van Gundy said. "It happens in a number of places. It's critical."



Van Gundy believes the 72-year-old Helm's firing was unjust.

"He's one of the most wonderful guys you'd ever want to know," Van Gundy said. "A very good basketball coach. It's unfortunate it was him to take the burden of one bad game.

"I do feel badly that one man is made to pay the price of a bad loss, especially if it's not the head coach. If you're the head coach and you're in charge, that's one thing, that happens. But if we lose tomorrow, should our video coordinator be gone? Was it the tape that was wrong."

Van Gundy was just as angry at himself and indicated if the club continues to lose, he has as little security as anyone.

"Who even wants security?" Van Gundy asked. "It's not even that big a deal. You want to win. Security truly has never crossed my mind. One thing I know about our owner is, he's committed to winning. He's not going to watch a whole lot of what he's watching in nine games and be too happy about that."

Van Gundy believes the careless play in the last two losses is his fault.

"I'm as much a part of the problem and I want to be part of the solution. I'm so sick of losing I can't stand it," Van Gundy said.