Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek was visibly upset at the team’s defensive effort in Friday’s loss to the Clippers, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News writes. In particular, Hornacek was frustrated the Knicks’ lack of physicality against Clippers center DeAndre Jordan and guard Austin Rivers.
“It was terrible,” Hornacek said. “It was a terrible defensive effort. Defensively, it’s disappointing. The (Clippers) just kind of line it up. You saw (Austin) Rivers just made two 3s (in the third quarter) and we’re just going let him line it up and shoot another one. You get all over guys. That’s a pride thing.”
The Knicks are in the midst of another disappointing season, sporting a 24-39 record. New York has also dropped 11 of their last 12 games. With the head coach openly questioning the team’s effort, it’s plausible to question whether or not the team’s remaining games are part of Hornacek’s farewell tour.
Check out other Knicks news and notes below:
- The Knicks were playing well and seemed to be headed in the right direction before Tim Hardaway Jr. suffered a stress injury that sidelined him for 20 games. Bondy relays in a separate story that Hardaway wants to use the rest of the year to prove his worth. “I had a solid preseason, struggled the first four games of the regular season and then was just cruising after that,” Hardaway said. “We were winning. We had a winning streak here and there. I felt confident, I felt great — and then, the injury. The injury I think was a blow to the team. I was very disappointed. I really felt like if I didn’t have that injury we wouldn’t be in the position we’d be in right now. And it sucks. But it’s life.”
- The Knicks drafted Frank Ntilikina as their hopeful point guard of the future but his play since the All-Star break indicates he may be playing the wrong position, Bondy writes in another article. In his increased minutes, Ntilikina has played off the ball and seen his assists decrease and that could signal his future being more of a shooting guard than a true playmaker, Bondy notes.
- Emmanuel Mudiay is adjusting to a new system with the Knicks but he is also looking to improve his physical conditioning, Newsday’s Al Iannazzone writes.
Forgot to finish that paragraph?
I think “Knicks Notes” account for 5% of all articles posted. Same drama, different day.
As for Ntilikina, he’s just God awful. If they think he’s a shooting guard, they may as well stay looking for his replacement. That was the one thing he couldn’t do according to the scoring reports, and based on his rookie year performance, the scouts were being kind.
Mudiay is another bust as well.
And fire Hornacek while you’re at it…along with Perry and Mills.
Well they are 3% of the NBA so that seems pretty spot on.
True but notes means there’s a bunch of news all in one article. Other teams have like one story per article and don’t need bullet points to describe everything that’s gone wrong the past week
I think you could hire a random commenter on this website and they’d be able to do a better job than Hornacek
So Frank is now a shooting guard who can’t score, Dennis Smith Jr……we could of had a real PG what a waste. We used the 8th pick for a poor mans Andre Roberson smh