[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: If Anybody Beats the Pacers, It Might Be an Assistant Coach (Sunday, April 15, 2018 4:08:04 AM)
They are the surprise team in the NBA playoffs. Two newcomers may be the key to success — and a training coach who put on pads to rough players up a little.
[NYTimes] Warriors Shake Off Their Late-Season Stumbles and Thrash the Spurs in Game 1 (Sunday, April 15, 2018 7:45:15 AM)
Golden State picked up its defense and beat San Antonio, 113-92, on Saturday in the N.B.A. playoffs. In other games, Philadelphia romped and Toronto ended a losing streak.
[NYTimes] 2018 N.B.A. Playoff Preview: As the Playoffs Begin, the N.B.A.’s Biggest Stars Are Going Ring Hunting (Sunday, April 15, 2018 9:00:39 AM)
The Rockets, Warriors and Cavaliers all think they have an edge in the league’s annual contest for the jewelry that tends to dominate the conversation.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 8:12:00 PM)
Kristaps Porzingis did not blow off his exit interview this year.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 7:50:00 PM)
They’ve spoken to agents for Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, David Fizdale and Jerry Stackhouse, source says.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 7:21:45 PM)
Another important offseason has begun for the Knicks after a fifth straight year of missing the playoffs, a fourth consecutive season with at least 50 losses and a roster that probably won’t be built to win next season, either.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 6:59:01 PM)
GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Kristaps Porzingis deflected most questions about the future of the Knicks on Saturday, saying his only focus is on returning from a torn left ACL.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 1:26:39 PM)
All-Star forward Kristaps Porzingis says he’ll put his trust in the Knicks’ front office to hire the next head coach, and that he wants to remain in New York long term.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 10:01:35 PM)
Former Knicks coach Mike Woodson chuckled when he was told David Fizdale had an interview scheduled next week with president Steve Mills for the team’s open head-coaching job. “I gave him his first job in Atlanta,’’ Woodson mused about hiring Fizdale in 2004 — though Frizdale worked as a Warriors assistant under Eric Musselman the…
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 7:55:16 PM)
We should take note that we live in a time of danger for sporting droughts. It’s almost as if the sporting deities who legislate such things finally wearied of listening to the whining of self-styled “long-suffering” fans, threw up their arms and said enough is enough. Since 2004, the Red Sox ended a World Series…
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 4:52:37 PM)
Miracles do happen. After years of frostiness following his resignation in 2001, Jeff Van Gundy could yet be in the mix for the Knicks’ job. Though Van Gundy appears a long shot, multiple sources told The Post that Knicks president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry spoke to his representatives Saturday. It is unclear,…
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 8:56:00 AM)
Kristaps Porzingis is now headed back to Latvia to continue his rehab, saying Saturday he can’t focus on the Knicks’ coaching search or their rebuilding plan — just rehabbing his knee. And Porzingis still couldn’t come close to answering when he will play his next game during a guarded 8-minute interview with Knicks beat writers…
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 7:41:42 AM)
David Fizdale, the former Grizzlies head coach and longtime Heat assistant, told reporters Friday in Oakland, Calif., he would speak with the Knicks and Suns about their vacancies next week. Charlotte, after firing Steve Clifford, also reportedly has major interest. Fizdale was visiting the Warriors’ practice facility Friday — he is friends with Golden State…
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 12:10:40 PM)
Oklahoma point guard Trae Young is expected to work out for the Knicks once NBA Draft workouts begin, his father told SNY.tv.
(Saturday, April 14, 2018 7:17:06 AM)
The Daily News reported that David Fizdale will interview with the Knicks for their vacant head coaching position.
[NYDN] Metta World Peace throws name into mix for Knicks’ head coach (Saturday, April 14, 2018 4:41:53 PM)
If Steve Mills and Scott Perry opt for an out-of-the-box hire, this would certainly classify as one.
[NYDN] Knicks officially reach out to both Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson (Saturday, April 14, 2018 2:33:52 PM)
The Knicks have contacted the representatives of both Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, the Daily News has learned.
[NYDN] Porzingis says focus is on his knee not Knicks’ coaching search (Saturday, April 14, 2018 11:15:53 AM)
A year ago Kristaps Porzingis made the ultimate power move by skipping his exit meeting.
[NYDN] Things aren’t changing with the Knicks while fans keep buying in (Saturday, April 14, 2018 9:17:51 AM)
A TV commercial for Knicks 2018-19 season tickets ends with the following words: “Experience the next chapter.”
69 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.04.15)”
when we’ve reached the point where a good coach like spoelstra plays whiteside 12 minutes in a playoff game against an opponent who played amir johnson 22 minutes and whose stretch 5 was ersan ilyasova not kevin love, you have to wonder whether kanter is even worth the mid level to a good team.
Jrue Holiday is really good.
Ptmilo, your post reminds me of something Steve Kerr said. In one of the articles about yesterday’s games he was quoted as saying he decided to start his best defensive line up against the Spurs, because that’s what you need to win championships. He was responding to a question about how they did so well against the Spurs. He’s another coach who probably wouldn’t play Kanter much in the playoffs. Hornacek’s not that kind of coach. He would play Kanter a lot. It’s one reason I can’t get worked that he’s gone.
It’s an open question whether there are GMs out there who will play Kanter top dollar .
I chuckled when I heard MWP wants in on the gig. But now that I think about it, having him on the new staff as an assistant would be pretty cool.
I don’t know if it’s automatic like that. Whiteside is a lazy ass player, it wasn’t only about matchups, he just doesn’t give a fuck and Spoelstra is one of those guys who won’t tolerate that. Olynyk played 30 and Adebayo played 20 minutes.
Whiteside is a pretty good defender when he cares about it, but he generally just won’t give a fuck 80% of the time. That probably means we are trading for him next season.
I think Spo is a good coach but considering his team got blown the fuck out he might have made a mistake.
Maybe but I don’t think so. They were -16 in whiteside’s 12 minutes and were 5 per 100 worse when he was on the court this year. the pace and space gods are real. this year the clips were also worse with Jordan and the pistons were worse with Drummond (and it’s not circumstantial all 3 had negative on offs adjusted for teammates and opponents, though of course it could always be noise).
and whiteside is a far better defender than kanter on his laziest sunday.
Dragic got eaten up by the Sixers very underrated defense and Spo had no answer to Ben Simmons to be honest. As soon as Brown figured out that he needed to keep 4 shooters around Simmons and removed Johnson / Holmes for Ilyasova, they kept getting open look after open look.
If Whiteside cared about playing he could have destroyed on offense and forced a matchup problem but then again, he’s just the laziest dude I’ve ever seen.
@7
Yeah, it makes sense definitely. I just think it’s also got to do with Whiteside specifically and the Sixers offense too. Not many teams have a ball handler of Simmons caliber and shooters like Redick, Belinelli, Covington, Saric and Ilyasova.
Toronto matched up against Washington in the opposite way, always having Valanciunas, Poeltl or Nogueira out there and it worked really well defensively as the Wizards are nowhere the shooting team Philly is.
Not defending Kanter per se, I think he is a big liability on defense and it severely limits his impact, just that I don’t think it’s 100% the trend but mote the way the matchup worked.
I would put Kanter’s game as similar to Nurcic on Portland, who got 40 mins yesterday in a 2 pts loss. I think Kanter is better offensively, Nurcic is probably a little better defensively because he’s more physical. I think the difference is Nurcic was playing against Davis and you can’t go small.
Plus, not a lazy head case.
Nurkic is a million miles better defensively than Kanter. For one thing he had these useful things attached to his torso that can extend outward.
Admittedly he’s hardly a pace and spacer but he’s a hell of a lot more mobile than Kanter, actually much more similar to KOQ defensively.
Man, the Bucks really do kind of suck.
This Boston lineup right now is crazy. Larkin, Morris ojeleye Monroe Tatum. Not good.
The Bucks are the one team where I will admit having a good coach would make a big difference.
Like 3 players of Boston’s playoff rotation should probably be in the G-league and they still look like the better team.
Knicks interviewing Mike Woodson!!
Lmao we’re talking to Mike Woodson
Is the east still big?
mike woodson would be the perfect knickensian ending. Shocking yet inevitable.
Sadly I miss the surprisingly successful Mike Woodson era.
Come on……..
This is insanity.
Weren’t there a bunch of stories about how mills wanted to fire Woodson earlier and Dolan stopped him?
Hey, Woodson did coach the best Knicks team of this century. He just refused to accept the reasons for why that team was good and went back to Neanderthal coaching right after.
And I’d still prefer him to Jackson.
I mean, I’d prefer Metta World Peace to Jackson.
Meanwhile the Hornets are interviewing Messina……
Woj:
More promising.
I think we need to relax a little. Sounds like we’re going to be interviewing a bunch of guys.
What, is Derek Fisher not interested? No Larry Brown? Maybe a reunited Indiana FO with Woody and Isiah? Hopefully!
(Or maybe Dolan just can’t stand that D’Antoni’s team is #1 and doesn’t want to see another one of his firees go off and have success on another team…)
Mark Jackson? Woodson?
It’s may be a long dark winter.
I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but it’s certainly not a good thing. Same thing with them even interviewing Mark Jackson. It shows a true lack of intelligence to even seriously consider hiring either Jackson or Woodson. The other guys are fine, normal interviewees.
ptmilo, I’m not so sure Nurcic is that much better defensively than Kanter. He blocks more shots, but he’s such a foul machine that he can’t stay on the floor. I saw him live last week in Denver; in the 2nd half, Portland was better with him on the bench.
@29 Agreed. It’s basically goes against everything they’ve said they wanted in a coach in the presser.
The fact hat they consulted the Warriors GM and still consider Jackson an option is truly dumb.
not to be a dick because you’re more than entitled to a different view but I don’t even think this is even in the universe of debatable; and since you’re a Knick fan who watches a ton of kanter I’m amazed you can think this. maybe you’re not appreciating that kanter might be the single worst defender in the nba given his position?
every team nurkic has played on has been better defensively when he plays than when he sits, including Portland his year, which was a pretty good defensive team with him in the game and a poor defensive team without him. the Knicks with kanter were a g league level defense and with kanter but without porzingis more like NIT level.
nurkic does commit a lot of fouls per minute but far fewer than KOQ, which is one reason I said it was a more interesting comparison. both nurkic and kanter struggle in space but nurkic can also be a disruptive presence and a rim protector and kanter is literally a worse rim protector than Beasley — and I’m not just talking about shot blocking. the guy is a rebounding monster and an efficient inside scorer but you’re just not seeing what I saw every night. he’s outlier bad.
#BlameBeno
There are always political reasons for interviewing people for high-profile jobs, even if you’re not really planning to hire them.
But that said, there is no political move that I can see with Woodson, and what could Mike Woodson possibly say in an interview that the Knicks don’t already know about him??
I’ve been saying Kanter is a problem since the beginning of the season when people and models were still defending him as more valuable than Porzingis because he gets offensive rebounds and scores efficiently around the basket. smh
He’s not versatile enough to go out on the perimeter to defend stretch 5s. He’s not long and athletic enough to depend the paint. He can’t switch and be effective on anyone. If he was Shaq, Kareem, Hakeem etc.. on offense, he would be a net positive player. But in today’s game he has a giant bull’s eye on his back. The moment he’s on the court a good coach will target him.
Porzingis is terrific defending the paint and he’s good enough on the perimeter to stay with stretch 5s and most PFs. He’s not a target at all. Plus, he can take the slower footed big 5s outside with 3s (which he is only going to keep getting better at). Porzingis is the perfect 5, but he has to get stronger so he can bang without getting hurt every time he take a big hit or bad step. As soon as he improves his shot selection (or we have a competent coach telling him what to do), gets stronger, and passes a little better out of double teams, he’s going to be an elite two-way player.
Kanter is a backup.
Woodson seems like bad idea. He got good results with the Knicks, but it was mostly because injuries forced him into using a lineup he did not understand was the very reason he was being successful. As soon as they were healthy he abandoned it.
Pretty interesting that with Embiid out, the players that have made a huge impact and improved their offense have been Redick, Belinelli & Ilyasova. All Colangelo players.
The FO did say a bunch about looking for someone who recognizes their past failures and was willing to basically coach by committee to a degree, to cover their own lapses. Which I guess means you can’t rule out anyone until you’ve talked to them. The only candidates that would surprise me at this point are people without prior head coach experience. They’ll probably interview Pitino at some point.
PT, maybe you’re right. I do agree Kanter sucks on D. I might just be anti Nurkic due to the eye test. I’ve seen him live probably 5 times; the only time he impressed me was as a rookie. I wonder if I’m putting too much on his shitty attitude than his actual play.
The Denver crowd had absolute hatred for him that I haven’t seen since, well, the night Melo came back there. And this is a crowd that for the most part was high.
@37
Well, that’s really underselling how dominant Simmons was in the game hahaha. Saric was also pretty good.
The process never excluded the idea of finding value in team-friendly deals for veterans when the team got better, just that those same guys would have been liabilities without real young talent like Simmons or Embiid or Saric.
Those were good moves by Colangelo, but we’re also kind of no brainers too. Playoff teams have went for the Ilyasovas and Belinellis of the world for years now and gotten good production from niche veterans. He deserves credit for actually picking them up as they must have received other offers, but yeah.
It goes more to show that the whole losing culture argument or cloud of toxicity etc. is a load of crap then it’s a glowing review of Colangelo as a GM imo.
I initially replied based on that, but I think Strat is talking overall since Embiid went down and not just in Game 1, because Game 1 really was all about Simmons (the Heat built their entire defense plan around stopping him and he ended up with 14 assists). But yeah, even beyond Game 1, the team’s offense is still built around Simmons without Embiid out there.
I cannot get over how pure Middleton’s form was on the rushed three pointer to tie the game at the end of regulation against the Celtics.
The best thing that can happen to LeBron (long-term, legacy-wise) is a first round exit. Gives him the high road to leave town and join an actual contender. If he carries them to 7 against the Raps or Sixers/Celts, he’ll get the Durant treatment all over again.
Oladipo is so damn good, he’s got to be all-defense first team right?
@41
That’s my point, Simmons has been otherworldly in this last stretch, almost averaging a triple double. His passing and court vision are legitimately insane, to a point where it breaks the usual “players are mostly responsible for their own production”, which I believe in, to reach a level where he actively makes them better.
I might be getting caught in some hyperbole but this guy is absolutely special.
two very nice interior assists favors to Gobert early. Favors not exactly known for his passing but okc is all over the place out there.
Paul George came to play
This probably ends up being the best first round series
I doubt it. He delivered a championship – that matters. And anyone can see that he just doesn’t have the players around him… He’s played with enough players elsewhere that even the fans would have to recognize that.
Could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s a NY- kind of fanbase.
George is 8-11 from 3
Woodson, Jesus… that’s like drunk-texting an old girlfriend “how u been?”
Houston looks unstoppable, somehow minny is hanging close. BIt the capela vs Kat is a one sided slaughter
It’s actually a fireable offense to play Derrick Rose over Tyus Jones in a playoff series
hire Blatt as head coach and Fizdale as assistant
Anyone could do what Capela does next to Harden.
🙂
“I don’t want to hide the fact I’d love to be back,’’ Woodson said. “I’d like to finish what I started. At the end of the day, you want to come to New York, based on my body of work there. I want it to be mutual. I want them to want me. I hope they call me.’’
Blech.
You should change your screen name to “Mission Accomplished.” 🙂
I can’t believe Harden can play like this and still move Capela’s limbs like a puppetmaster at the same time, he is truly the MVP!
Rose with 16 points on 14 shots with terrible defense and no contributions elsewhere, when have I watched this? Time for reddit NBA to call him a star again!
Thibs….wow…some shitty ass coaching on display tonight. And Wiggins…man, you make me so mad.
OKC would be winning their sixth title in a row if they hadn’t traded Harden.
It’s fucking wild.
Karl Towns has 8 shots! 8 fucking shots! I don’t know if there are 8 players in the NBA I’d rather have taking shots than Karl Towns.
A dream scenario would be Kanter opting out and signing Capela while Houston makes space for Lebron.
that was such a strange game. I can’t believe Chris Paul threw that ball away and almost gave up the lead. D’antoni was begging them to foul on that last play but they wouldn’t.
You know it’s bad when Marv is just flat out shit-talking you. “Towns has had numerous mismatches all game long!”
The game was summed up by Wiggins dribbling the ball out of bounds while trying to get beyond the three point arc to hoist up a desperation three.
Wiggins. nuff said. trade him. I’d rather have Jamal at 2 and Jimmy at 3.
Capela outplays Towns, Harden goes off for 44, Butler shoots 4-11… and the Rockets squeak out a victory.
Weird game.
I mean, literally every single role player for the Rockets was a no show on offense today, between Ariza, Green, Johnson, Tucker and Gordon, plus CP3 didn’t play well at all. It’s actually a big statement on how dominant Harden can be that he won this game.
Not having Mbah a Moute is quite bad for the Rockets too, even worse than I thought.
I still think Houston has zero chance in a series against a healthy Warriors team. The “deep” Rockets ain’t so deep and all that dancing James Harden likes to do isn’t going to work for 7 games against the Warriors’ defense. The Wolves could actually beat the Rockets if Thibs wasn’t an idiot.
Multiple people in Twitter suggested that the reason Towns wasn’t getting the ball much is that no one on the T-Wolves is very good at making entry passes into the post. I don’t watch enough of them to know if that’s true, but if it is, that’s a pretty big flaw. Maybe now that no one plays inside out basketball that skill is not as developed.