The Knicks are one of the unique teams that can dominate headlines during a sub-.500 season, and they continue to generate buzz while the playoffs get going without them. Here’s the latest from New York:
- Phil Jackson spoke with the team after their season finale, promising there would be personnel changes, an unnamed player told Frank Isola of New York Daily News. “Phil was honest; he said it was a disappointing season,” the player said. “He told us that there will be changes in the locker room and that not all of us will be back.”
- Isola added that Jackson is trying to build a relationship with Carmelo Anthony, as the superstar decides whether to opt in or re-sign with the Knicks this summer.
- Toni Kukoc thinks his former Bulls teammate Steve Kerr would make a good coach, but said in an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio he worries that Kerr might not be up for the off-the-court demands of the job (transcription via Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com). “I know Steve Kerr well and his basketball IQ is really high. He knows everything about basketball. I am just concerned about his willingness to be a coach, travel, spend that time in the hotels, the locker rooms, the games. I don’t know if he’s ready to do that,” Kukoc said. “If he’s ready to do that I don’t see any problem with Steve being a good basketball coach.”
- Mike Woodson was left out of New York’s exit meetings, but has not been informed of his fate, a league source tells Marc Berman of The New York Post.
- Sources tell ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard and Marc Stein that Woodson is bracing for the worst.
- While Kerr is expected to take the Knicks coaching job, a source close to him tells Berman that “nothing is going on right now” between Kerr and the Knicks, as Berman writes in a separate piece.
- Anthony offered no comment on the looming Woodson decision, per Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.