FiveThirtyEight.com computers predict the Knicks finish 13th in the EC with only the 76'ers and Bucks being worse. Didn't that Bucks team just put the whupass on us and score like 120 pts like they were All-Stars.
Geez it might be a long year.
Check out the icons in the player ratings. Paris401 ought to love the ratings on Bargnani. No strengths and all weaknesses and that icon of an ambulance for Injuy Prone player killed me.
Last year’s New York Knicks were an overpaid, overrated mediocrity with a nominally disappointing 37-45 record[SUP]2[/SUP] that would ultimately cost coach Mike Woodson his job. What followed was an offseason of upheaval; legendary coach — and former Knick — Phil Jackson signed on as the team’s new president of basketball operations, and after a dalliance with Steve Kerr (his former point guard with the Chicago Bulls) Jackson eventually hired Derek Fisher (his former point guard with the LA Lakers) as the Knicks’ 26th head coach.
An acolyte of Jackson and his longtime assistant Tex Winter, Fisher is bringing the fabled triangle offense to New York, emphasizing ball movement, court spacing and unselfish decision-making. Those are all good ideas (for any offense), and historically speaking Jackson-coached teams were perennially above the NBA average in assist rate.[SUP]3[/SUP] But only one member of Jackson’s coaching tree — Bill Cartwright — has successfully convinced his players to share the ball anywhere near as much[SUP]4[/SUP] as Jackson did when he was a coach.
It remains to be seen if Fisher’s version of the offense can buck this trend and promote the kind of passing to which triangle coaches always seem to pay lip service. But he’ll have his work cut out for him with these Knicks. The 2013-14 version of the team finished 27th out of 30 teams in assist rate, with frequent complaints about the lack of ball movement hurled in Woodson’s direction by the New York press. These were not your Red Holzman-era Knicks.
Jackson has mentioned that “the ball can’t stop” if the triangle is going to be successful. While the team acquired veteran point guard Jose Calderon — one of the game’s elite passers when he was in his prime — over the offseason, that position isn’t nearly as crucial to the passing game in the triangle as in other offenses. Ultimately, it may come down to (properly rated?) star forward Carmelo Anthony, alternately a willing passer and total black hole at various points in his career, to share enough touches for the triangle to flourish in Fisher’s coaching debut. — Neil Paine
Geez it might be a long year.
Check out the icons in the player ratings. Paris401 ought to love the ratings on Bargnani. No strengths and all weaknesses and that icon of an ambulance for Injuy Prone player killed me.
Last year’s New York Knicks were an overpaid, overrated mediocrity with a nominally disappointing 37-45 record[SUP]2[/SUP] that would ultimately cost coach Mike Woodson his job. What followed was an offseason of upheaval; legendary coach — and former Knick — Phil Jackson signed on as the team’s new president of basketball operations, and after a dalliance with Steve Kerr (his former point guard with the Chicago Bulls) Jackson eventually hired Derek Fisher (his former point guard with the LA Lakers) as the Knicks’ 26th head coach.
An acolyte of Jackson and his longtime assistant Tex Winter, Fisher is bringing the fabled triangle offense to New York, emphasizing ball movement, court spacing and unselfish decision-making. Those are all good ideas (for any offense), and historically speaking Jackson-coached teams were perennially above the NBA average in assist rate.[SUP]3[/SUP] But only one member of Jackson’s coaching tree — Bill Cartwright — has successfully convinced his players to share the ball anywhere near as much[SUP]4[/SUP] as Jackson did when he was a coach.
It remains to be seen if Fisher’s version of the offense can buck this trend and promote the kind of passing to which triangle coaches always seem to pay lip service. But he’ll have his work cut out for him with these Knicks. The 2013-14 version of the team finished 27th out of 30 teams in assist rate, with frequent complaints about the lack of ball movement hurled in Woodson’s direction by the New York press. These were not your Red Holzman-era Knicks.
Jackson has mentioned that “the ball can’t stop” if the triangle is going to be successful. While the team acquired veteran point guard Jose Calderon — one of the game’s elite passers when he was in his prime — over the offseason, that position isn’t nearly as crucial to the passing game in the triangle as in other offenses. Ultimately, it may come down to (properly rated?) star forward Carmelo Anthony, alternately a willing passer and total black hole at various points in his career, to share enough touches for the triangle to flourish in Fisher’s coaching debut. — Neil Paine
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