Amid speculation that Jeff Hornacek’s job could be jeopardized by what appears to be another lost season, Knicks GM Scott Perry offered a vote of confidence today, writes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
Already five games out of a playoff spot, New York suffered a crushing blow Tuesday night when star forward Kristaps Porzingis tore his left ACL. Perry says he understands the situation and plans to judge Hornacek and his staff by more than just their won-loss record.
“No, we’re not looking to make any changes,” Perry said. “We’re evaluating the entire season. Jeff and his group are working really hard with this basketball team and doing the very best they can and obviously this is an adversity for them to deal with [Kristaps Porzingis] being out, but I’m confident that they’ll be able to do a good job of keeping this team playing hard and playing together. That’s what we’ll be looking at moving forward.”
Hornacek has one season remaining on the three-year deal he signed when he was hired in 2016. He has a 54-83 record during his time in New York and hasn’t developed the Knicks into a playoff contender.
Former Cavaliers coach David Blatt, a longtime friend of team president Steve Mills, has been mentioned as a possible replacement, along with ex-Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who spent nearly seven seasons with the Knicks as a player.
In the wake of Porzingis’ injury, Hornacek plans to devote more minutes to younger players for the rest of the season.
“We’re still trying to win games,” he said. “We’re still trying to develop our guys. This is going to give them an opportunity to get some minutes and see what they can do against NBA guys. We’ve seen some of it, because they practice with us, and we see what they can do against our guys.”
Vote of confidence = Kiss of death
Scott Perry…making one great decision after another.
Hornacek was a very good player.
I wish I could say the same for his coaching.
Seems like he can’t close out games. I’ve seen more games lost, in the final moments this year, than I could count.
He’s still light years better than Mike Woodson, Derek Fisher, and Kurt Rambis (Rambis is 65-164 overall, 9-19 with NYK)
It’s hard to coach in NY. NYKers are just impatient but compared to what they’ve had, Jeff Hornacek isn’t so bad.
Derek Fisher (off-court incident, took a while to set his seemingly endless rotations, often played 12-13 players in one game)
Mike Woodson (Most ISO- ball heavy offense I’ve seen in my life, and I’ve been watching this game since Day-1 with Carmelo
Kurt Rambis (Seems like a great basketball mind guy, and I think the players love him, but just a loser as a Head coach)
I don’t think it’s the coaching it is the front office. Phil through kept trying quick fixes and alienated his best player which hurt the return for that player and the Knicks simply need a few seasons and patients building a team.