Knicks coach David Fizdale is already feeling the heat after a 1-5 start, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post writes. “Fire Fizdale” chants were heard from the home crowd as the team was getting blown out by Sacramento on Sunday. While the team plays hard, its interior defense is lacking and there are long stretches of inefficiency on both ends, Vaccaro adds. However, a coaching move would be costly. Fizdale has two more years remaining on his contract after this season.
We have more on the Knicks:
- Fizdale is making a mistake by prioritizing free agent signee Julius Randle over second-year center Mitchell Robinson, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News argues. Robinson is averaging just 19.2 MPG through six games, more than 10 minutes fewer than he averaged in the final 11 games of last season, Bondy notes. Fizdale moved Bobby Portis into the lineup at Robinson’s expense on Sunday in an effort to get the slumping Randle going offensively.
- Fizdale bristled when reporters questioned why lottery pick RJ Barrett played 41 minutes in the blowout loss to the Kings, Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. “We’ve got to get off this load-management (nonsense),” he said. “Latrell Sprewell averaged 42 minutes for a season. This kid is 19. Drop it already.” Barrett has quickly established himself as a serious contender for the Rookie of the Year award by averaging 18.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 3.3 APG in 35.7 MPG.
- Silver Lake Partners — a firm known for its investments in Tesla and Alibaba — is seeking a big stake in the Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers before they’re spun off into a publicly-traded company, Josh Kosman of the New York Post reports. Silver Lake owns close to 10% of Madison Square Garden and wants a bigger stake but only in its sports teams, Kosman continues. James Dolan will continue to control both teams for the foreseeable future, even as MSG spins off a majority of the teams’ value to current shareholders.
Blaming Fizdale for their issues sounds about Knicks.
They moved Portis into the starting lineup, not Randle.
Who said anything about moving Randle into the starting lineup?
The post up above. It was Portis that they moved into the lineup. Randle has always been a starter.
They are saying the Portis move was to compliment Randle and help his offense
They signed like 5 power forwards and the coach is to blame?
Yes.
LeBron and Wade going to throw a fit when the Knicks fire him?
Fizzdale is a moron. Latrell sprewell played 42 mins a game, what like 20 years ago, so that makes it okay to play RJ 40+ now?? How about advances in medical science showing us that there’s a clear correlation between stress/work load on a player and injuries. Fizzdale absolutely needs to go, a chimp could do the same job he’s doing right now.
Tell that to Nolan Ryan.
Losing isn’t the problem for Fizdale. Not playing his young guys so they can develop and over playing Barrett while citing how people played 20+ years ago is bad. What an overrated coach.
Barrett is the Knicks best asset. Only play him 30 minutes a game with all his minutes on ball as the de facto point guard. Sit him 10 games for load management. Let him hunt good shots and improve his assist game while putting up gaudy rookie numbers. He’s good enough that other talented players may actually want to come to NYC to play with him. Also, give steady consistent playing time and well defined roles to Mitchell Robinson and Kevin Knox. Make Ntilikina shoot 10,000 3 point shots a day if he wants any playing time. Long term, Ntilikina could be a solid backcourt partner for Barrett if Ntilikina can shoot 40% on uncontested 3 pointers.
The Stooges don’t appear to be on the same page, and haven’t been since they struck out (collectively) with the elite FAs. But that doesn’t mean they all get a pass. Fizdale is the HC, and he has to stop trying to please everyone (including the other two Stooges) and just do his job – coach the guys he has – if he’s up to it. The decisions before him are NOT really that hard. But they will become that if he spends all his time trying to avoid them. He made lots of noise last year, and accomplished very little. If he goes down the same road again, he can’t complain when he’s let go.
The best part about this is that the Knicks actually thought they had a chance to bring in the elite FA. Laughable
I have had several lengthy conversations with friends regarding the Porzingis trade, and they were all convinced it was the right move in order to free up the two max slots. Granted, the front office didn’t have much to work with following Porzingis’s demands, but I knew better than to think the Knicks could land any of the guys they were hoping to land.
MSG is amazing. NYC is amazing. Free agents know that. But that still wouldn’t be enough to lure them to what has been one of the most dysfunctional and inept franchies in all of sports over the last few decades. So long as Dolan continues to remain at the helm, no star free agent who cares about winning would dare to come here. Plus, it’s not like there aren’t other franchises in large metropolitan areas, so that one selling point doesn’t carry enough weight.