The vultures are circling in New York. After a blowout 120-102 defeat to the lowly Bulls, the 2-9 Knicks are still reeling from press conference comments made by president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry on Sunday. Head coach David Fizdale‘s days in New York appear to be numbered.
On ESPN’s SportsCenter today, Adrian Wojnarowski speculated to Stephen A. Smith that a Fizdale firing felt like a fait accompli. Wojnarowski elaborated, noting that Fizdale could be the first member of the New York brain trust to be shown the door by owner James Dolan amidst this disastrous — though hardly surprising — start to the Knicks’ season.
Marc Berman of the New York Post postulates that Fizdale could be gone within the Knicks’ next 10 games if they don’t make a drastic improvement in the win column. ESPN Insider scribe Kevin Pelton suggests that the Knicks front office leaders, who were so quick to blame Fizdale for stumbling out of the gate, need to recognize the limitations of the team’s disjointed roster.
There’s more from New York:
- About that roster — one of the Knicks’ best backcourt prospects, Dennis Smith Jr., has missed seven of the team’s past eight games due to the death of his stepmother. He returned to action yesterday, scoring zero points on 0-for-3 shooting from the floor. Once Smith settles in, the Post’s Greg Joyce thinks that his presence could positively affect the team’s dire point guard situation. Frank Ntilikina remained the starter yesterday in Chicago, but Smith could be a helpful scorer and facilitator in a bench capacity. Elfrid Payton, the starting point guard when the season began, remains out of commission with a hamstring injury.
- An NBA personnel man who spoke to Marc Berman believes the Knicks are making a tactical mistake in treating Julius Randle like a No. 1 option. Berman observes that Randle, a good scorer and the team’s highest-paid player, lacks the chops to be a good team’s lead ball-handler. Fizdale himself addressed the big man’s decision-making, as Ian Begley of SNY reports. “For him, we’re just trying to build that habit of having more balance and when you decide to go and when you decide to work with getting someone else involved,” Fizdale said.
- The Knicks’ depleted backcourt could eventually get some more help in the form of shooting guard Reggie Bullock, whom the team signed to a two-year, $8.2MM contract over the summer. According to Chris Iseman of NorthJersey.com (Twitter link), Bullock has been progressing in his rehabilitation enough to partake in non-contact drills in team practice. He will be re-evaluated in early December. Bullock, a career 39.4% three-point shooter, underwent surgery for a cervical disc herniation in July.
Many times you can be great in one chair but not so good in the chair one seat over….
I don’t care who is in the first chair, they ain’t succeeding with this roster. Fizdale hasn’t been given a fair shot to be successful. When you give a coach a lousy roster, you need to consider that before you decide to fire him.
He knew what he was getting into lols
$ well-grabbed
He hasn’t shown any signs of consistency. This is his 2nd gig. He pissed off Marc Gasol of all people. I’m still not sure why the Knicks gave him a chance. Fizdale needs to go back to a player development position
If Fizdale goes, so should Mills and Perry. I’d toss Dolan in there, but that’s a given no matter who, when, etc.
Bottom line is, Steve Mills coming out and saying the roster isn’t performing as well as they expected, just shows how completely and utterly delusional he and Scott Perry are. Everyone knew this Team would be a dumpster fire, except them apparently.
Take some responsibility and admit the Team you’ve put together, is bad.
“Listen folks ten games twenty game thirty games idc this team isnt gonna win many games” that would be music to ears.
Considering they’re not expected to compete for the postseason, they should start PG Ntilikina, SG Barrett, SF Knox, and C Robinson every night, and juggle the remaining ridiculous roster of PFs. Considering that Ntilikina & Smith are, what, both 21, let the two of them battle it out at PG and trade the other, along with most of those foolishly signed PFs. What an organization.
The PFs were all good signings. One of the few things they did right. All of them are tradeable. Need a veteran leader? They’ve got Gibson. Need a vet pf/sf with some range! Here’s Morris. How bout a guy with some spunk and leadership ability? Well we’ve got Portis. Need a young developing PF? Here’s Randle. If you can’t trade them, the all but Randle are on expiring contracts and will be off the books next year.
I agree. The signings don’t make sense in terms of winning games, but each player is a good asset come February.
Not really, in the sense that for some reason Dolan and/or the front office were expecting to win with this roster.
It’s fine wanting to sign guys as eventual tradeable assets. It’s not fine when you think that sort of poor roster construction would put a credible team on the floor, especially with a terrible head coach.
The Plan is simple:
A-Team payton-ellington-bullock-Morris-portis + gibson
F-team dsj-rj-knox-randle-mitch + frank
A-Team is only a shop, availables for contenders in exchange of assets
F-team is the future + 1st 2020
They all suck. That’s all there is to it.