"Scott and I are not happy..."
Oh.
It takes a lot for this franchise - the one that once traded two first round picks for Andrea Bargnani, gave $72 million to a lit Joakim Noah and tried to bar a local newspaper from team press conferences - to surprise me.
And yet…here we are.
The most confusing thing about last night’s impromptu front office press conference that served as equal parts vote of confidence, taxicab confessional, and final warning is how out of character it was.
For the better part of two decades, this organization has specialized in three things: overreacting, deflecting blame, and general ineptitude. Last night on the court, the later was on full display. When I saw Scott and Steve walk to the podium after the game, I immediately expected the first two to follow: them firing head coach David Fizdale and proclaiming the roster to be better than their effort last night and overall record showed.
Neither happened. That isn’t to say that neither will happen, or even that neither should happen, although as most anyone who covers this league will ask regarding Fizdale and what he is or isn’t doing, “Really, what did you expect?”
The answer to that question is what makes all this truly bizarre. Sure, there are people out there who expected performances like last night, and the sort of games we got last Sunday vs Sacrameto, Wednesday in Detroit, and in the home opener against Boston. On those nights, a team comprised partly of one-year vets with a proclivity for selfish play and partly of kids still learning the game looked at times sluggish, stagnant, disorganized and lacking a general sense of purpose.
But there were also people who expected what we saw in Brooklyn and Boston and Dallas, where the whole coalesced into something greater than the sum of its parts - a team of underdogs grabbing the opportunity to restore pride to a team that hasn’t had very much of it for a long time.
What few expected was to see both. I say “few” because the die-hards have seen versions of this Jekyll & Hyde act here before, but rarely has even a Knicks roster been this bipolar so early in a season, where the carryover from one game to the next is almost nonexistent.
You almost have to stop and remind yourself that last night’s slog in the mud came two nights after perhaps the most significant win the franchise has had since 2013.
For Knick fans waking up dazed and confused this morning, that 2012-13 season is the most encouraging sign that all is not lost, not because this motley crew resembles that one in any way, shape or form, but because 12-13 serves as a reminder that this franchise is capable of getting out of its own way.
The question now is “how",” and for that, we turn to…
One Big Thing
The offense is broken
The Knicks wake up this morning with the 21st ranked defense in the NBA, which is actually not terrible considering the players they have. They’re also sixth in rebound percentage. After starting the year second to last in turnover rate, they’ve been better than league average over the last seven games. They’re also ninth in passes made per game, showing at least a cursory attempt to share the ball and generate good looks.
All of these are markings of at least a decent NBA basketball team, and yet you wouldn’t for one second think of applying such a moniker because following last night, the Knicks have the worst offense in the league.
If you were to sum up the season in a sentence, it would be this: if the Knicks hit shots early, it emboldens their better offensive tendencies and invigorates their defense, but when they don’t, the opposite occurs on both ends.
There have been exceptions, like the game against Chicago when they couldn’t hit anything to start, and the home opener against Boston two nights earlier, when they came out firing on all cylinders and then got destroyed late. Overall though, this team runs too hot and cold, and when they can’t make shots, everything else suffers.
This is a problem when you can’t shoot (29th in eFG%) and don’t get easy buckets (according to Cleaning the Glass, the Knicks are 23rd in frequency of transition buckets and 17th in points per play on putbacks despite leading the league in putback plays per miss).
The result is that we see far too many plays like this:
…and this…
None of it is ok. Some of this is obviously on the players themselves, and some of it is on the front office who seemingly didn’t achieve the proper balance of creators and facilitators (there’s a reason the Bulls’ offseason was universally praised despite seeming overpays to Tomas Satoransky and Thad Young, two players who can’t match Julius Randle’s talent but who would cure a lot of what ails this team right now, whereas Randle is arguably the biggest culprit for their issues).
Ultimately though, as David Fizdale said himself last night, this falls on him. There have been calls for a more creative offense, or simply an offense more conducive to what works in the modern game. That requires things like hard screens and spacing. The former has clearly not been emphasized enough, while the latter is bunk as long as Randle starts in this configuration, as I wrote about on Friday.
With his job now clearly on the line, it’ll be curious to see what adjustments Fiz makes, if any.
Unpopular Opinion
We’re not talking about the biggest thing the coaching staff did wrong
Amidst all the conversation that is taking place about this team, swept under the rug has been the thing that troubled me more than anything else this season:
I mentioned this last week, said it needed to be addressed, and to date, it still hasn’t been. This organization has enough issues on its plate already. The last thing it needs is a reputation of one that doesn’t protect its players.
Whenever Robinson returns (he’s already been ruled out for Wednesday’s match-up with the Bulls), someone need to talk about how the above was allowed to happen.
Stat of the Night
50
Speaking of Mitchell Robinson and how much the Knicks miss him, that’s how many points in the paint the Cavs scored on Sunday. On several drives when Bobby Portis was in the game, he did his best Enes Kanter impersonation and made no attempt whatsoever to contest the man with the ball.
If you’re going to talk about being a dawg, you don’t get to pick and choose when it’s convenient to do so.
Made Me Smile
Frank. Again.
He didn’t score like he did on Friday night, only taking four shots and often did not get the ball back after starting the initial action on offensive sets, but we saw another two blocks and two steals from Ntilikina after four and three in Dallas. He also had six boards and six dimes, the later of which was twice as many as anyone else on the team.
He has been the Knicks’ best two-way player since being given the chance to play, and is doing little things at both ends that no one else on the roster has nearly as much interest in doing:
(Also checkout Spencer’s breakdown of Frank’s defense in the Mavs game, which was otherworldly)
Ntilikina is currently one of only three NBA players who have seen over 200 minutes this season to average over two steals and 1.5 blocks per 36 minutes. His eFG% is also a “just respectable enough given what else he brings” 46 percent.
There’s a lot of things broken with this team right now, but he isn’t one of them.
Final Thought
Marcus Morris, who Fizdale said after Friday’s win was the leader of this team, came out and had this to say after Sunday’s showing:
Listening to him begs the same question that has dogged this franchise for much of the last two decades: why does this always seem to happen here? We’ve been given so many answers - Dolan, Mills, Fiz, Player X, Player Y, you name it - but whatever it is, far too often, the pieces just don’t add up.
They shouldn’t be capable of playing like they did last night, not 48 hours after Friday at least. And yet it happened.
Wednesday can’t come soon enough.
And now a quick aside for a very special KFS announcement…
Say Hello to Prediction Strike!
You know what makes games like last night a lot easier to stomach? When you have another NBA-related thing in your life that doesn’t completely suck.
This, really, is the reason fantasy sports exist, right? That’s why before the season started, knowing that this might yet again be a long year for the Knicks, I decided I wanted to try my hand at DFS for the first time.
There was only one problem: I hated daily fantasy. For as much as I loved the idea of being able to have a stake in different players on a nightly basis, I didn’t like that it was often all or nothing, and I hated that you had to start anew every day. Basically, I was looking for the yearlong buy-in that regular fantasy brings without the drawbacks of being stuck with a crap team that’s out of it by Christmas and where you’re only paying attention to the same dozen guys for six months.
So when a Knicks Twitter buddy of mine told me about a way I could have my cake and eat it too with a fantasy concept called Prediction Strike, I was definitely intrigued. The idea was simple: you buy and sell players like stocks in the stock market. The value would go up or down based on how well each player performed relative to expectations, and you could get in or out anytime you wanted. If you bought a guy toiling on the bench right before he took off, you were golden. On the flip side, if you’re a Dallas fan who bought shares in KP thinking his value is going to increase as the season goes along, well…more power to you.
I started out simple – unsurprisingly with 100 shares of Frank Ntilikina at a tidy bargain of $0.17 per share. Since then, it’s gone up to $0.25 a share. I just bought myself a beer!
I also dipped my toe in the water on Jarrett Culver, Miles Bridges and Jaylen Brown. It’s great for me because I love being the guy who’s able to say that he scooped up all available stock on player before anyone else was on his scent. Now, I can literally buy stock in whoever I want, and I get the fun bonus of being able to check my portfolio every morning:
It is with this backdrop that I’m proud to name Prediction Strike as the first ever exclusive sponsor of Knicks Film School. The reason we waited a while to do something like this is simple: we never wanted to run ads for nonsense products, and we loathed the idea of pop ups and click bait. We knew when the right partnership presented itself, it would be obvious, and would be beneficial both to us and to our readers. If you’re anything like me, you’re going to love it.
So from now on, there will be an occasional “Stock Up, Stock Down” section in the newsletter, and anytime we mention a player, you’ll see how their value increased or decreased based on the previous game. It won’t get in the way of the analysis and commentary we provide, and if you’re not into it, it’ll be easy to skip right by.
If you do want to give it a whirl though, click here and type in KFS when signing up to get an extra $10 to play with once you deposit $10 or more.
I’m obviously biased, but I think if you give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.
Well…as long as you don’t invest heavily in a certain Latvian, that is.
Come drink & watch the Knicks for a good cause
Remember, a portion of all proceeds will go towards helping feed needy NYC families on Thanksgiving!
(Quote)Tweet of the Night
If you’re looking for the world’s thinnest silver lining…
News & Notes
compiled by Michael Schatz (@mschatz99)
Insightful and revealing look at the dissolution of the KP/Knicks marriage by Marc Berman, if you’re interested.
Posting and Toasting also has you covered with the recaps, both the good from Friday…
…and the bad.
Knicks Kicks
by Tiffany Salmon (@tiffstarr815)
On This Date: Knicks acquire Earl Monroe
by Vivek Dadhania (@vdadhania)
The Earl Monroe trade will forever be remembered as one of the greatest trades in Knicks history. Leading up to the moment, Monroe requested a trade from the team and preferred to be sent to one of the Lakers, Bulls, or 76ers. While away from the team, Monroe received a call from his agent stating that there was a deal with the Knicks.
That’s all for today…see everyone tomorrow!