With the Lakers playing the Knicks on Tuesday, Luke Walton was asked about his old coach, Phil Jackson, and admitted that Jackson’s ouster in New York didn’t sit particularly well with him, per Al Iannazzone of Newsday.
“I don’t know all the details of what was going on here, obviously, but a mentor to me like that and someone that means as much to me as Phil does, I’m not in favor of it happening,” the current Lakers head coach said of Jackson. “There’s people out here that I wanted to see succeed. I love the triangle offense. I wanted to see that work. But for whatever reasons it didn’t.”
Here’s more out of New York:
- Kristaps Porzingis and Frank Ntilikina are showing Knicks fans that it’s okay to be optimistic about the club’s future, says ESPN’s Ian Begley. In praising Ntilikina, Begley notes that the rookie point guard is “low maintenance,” adding that there were some in the Knicks organization who had serious concerns before the draft about LaVar Ball’s impact in the event that the team had a chance to pick Lonzo Ball.
- Sources tell Brian Lewis of The New York Post that the Nets‘ deal to have Joseph Tsai buy a 49% stake in the franchise could be done by the end of the month. Although it’s not finalized yet, controlling owner Mikhail Prokhorov referred to Tsai as “a great partner” who “will help the game and help the NBA.”
- While Jahlil Okafor was the primary piece in last week’s trade between the Nets and the Sixers, the deal also gave Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson another reclamation project to work on. As Lewis writes for The Post, it will be interesting to see what Atkinson – who has a reputation as a “guard whisperer” – can get out of Nik Stauskas.
Phil would still be in NY if he didn’t resign Melo to that dumb deal.
Just an opinion but what I’ve seen Kenny Atkinson is an angel. Don’t know how he can stay normal headed with such a crap team but he seems to be making head way with reclamation project after reclamation projection. As a cavs fan that would like a lottery pick, I’m pulling for them to do well Partly bc they are a bunch of players other teams gave up on and partly bc the coach is doing a great job with little to work with. For once I’d like to see the nba reward coaches that truly are COY instead of simply picking a coach in California or Boston as coaches bc their very talented teams won a lot of games.
My observation is that he has the perimeter defenders hand off opponents to teammates, using their length, instead of having them screw themselves into the ground stopping opponents man-on. This saves their strength, esp since they’re tall, for offense and fullcourt action. It’s not a full zone; IDK if there’s a term for it; IDK if it’s even true!– or anyway intentional. I mean, being tall guards, they might do that regardless.
The skill is in “swelling up” and taking space, usually more of a big-man skill. Confidence and teamwork helps.
Guard whisperer. I think he may need a guard sledge hammer to get through to Stauskas.
Phil was booted for one reason. He indicated to Dolan, only a week or so after Dolan and he both opted in to the last 2 years of the deal, that he was not going to stay beyond those last 2 years. Nothing to do with Porzingis (who he never seriously made available) or Carmelo situation. Dolan is an idiot, and should have discussed this prior to opting in (would have saved him 30 mm), but with the condition of team, there was no way he could stay with that short of a time horizon.