I thought the Knicks were gonna wait til after the Pacers game to do this, but either way I didn't see him making it to the West Coast. A lot of us didn't think he'd make it to the new year anyway.
Fizdale's demise here is gonna be why guys will stay away from this job. His record was what, 21-83? The Knicks took a guy with a good reputation, years of winning in Miami as an assistant, did a
good job to the point where everyone felt he got railroaded by Marc Gasol in Memphis when he got fired and was universally praised when he got hired by NY, and now got his resume looking terrible. When you ask someone to take this job, wins and losses, you throw it out the window. Their record can be this and I woulda said keep him as long as the players showed signs. They didn't let him go because the team looks the way it does. They got rid of him because the record sucks. Mills and Perry aren't connecting with the objective of this team. The Hawks have a trash record too, but their coach isn't getting fired. Why? Because at least the youngins are playing and there's no expectations other than being a fun team that's growing. The Knicks are seemingly doing everything they can not to give people a heavy heavy dose of Robinson/Knox/Morris/Barrett/Ntilkina. That's a huge problem. On top of that, they're not developing. I've seen a couple of G League games and Iggy Brazdeikis is learning more there than up with the big boy ballclub. That's a fact. So Fizdale deserved to go, but the team is diseased and continue to prove that they're so resistant on actually rebuilding.
The team stopped playing for Fizdale because his system sucked. He's so paranoid about guarding the paint that it leads teams to have a field day from the perimeter. A real team shot 21-39 from 3 last night. Do that in a 2K game. They signed a bunch of 4's and a bunch of shooters yet don't let that rock fly. Randle gets used like a superstar which is just terrible, but a lot of that is Mills and Perry trying to justify his existence. They have to move him the first chance they get because what's happening now is that Knox feels like he ain't shyt. When Payton played, Frank felt like he wasn't shyt. Those kids gotta play. Here, Westchester, Antarctica, but play. This franchise doesn't get that because they don't think y'all can handle a rebuild. Mills and Perry don't know y'all. Y'all will dikkride anything, so why would y'all object to a young and fun team that will naturally lose? Iggy makes 3 3's he'll get Iggy chants at MSG. Jeremy Lin had 2 hot weeks and y'all threw Melo in the bushes. Point is, if the kids play with effort and show signs of growth, you'll rock with it as long as there's an upward trajectory. Mills and Perry are very short sighted in that regard.
Lastly, Mills is unqualified for basketball related work. I'd hire
@Houston911 as a Euro scout before I let Mills handle basketball shyt. Let Herb do that. Let Allan Houston be GM. Y'all got hungry people in Westchester hoping for a look, but Mills and Perry think y'all would scoff at the hire. Meanwhile, Kenny Atkinson (former Knick asst) is doing well in BK, Steve Clifford is getting good results in Orlando and Michael Malone waxed y'all by 37.
Hire Mike Miller as the interim. See what happens. I'd stay away from the college route and if Miller ain't the guy, hire someone who has a good track record at player development. They're out there. I'll suggest more names later. Another possible candidate: David Vanterpol. Becky Hammon. Someone fresh. At this rate though, the Knicks don't seem to wanna really start the process right.
