The New York Knicks brought in Phil Jackson to oversee all major activities as the president of the team last season. Jackson then brought in his former player Derek Fisher over the summer to be the new head coach moving forward. Put the two together and what we can expect from the Knicks is this: a good amount of the Triangle offense and plenty of movement without the ball.
At least that would seem to have been the plan heading into training camp, and much was made of how newly re-signed Carmelo Anthony would adjust to the change in style of play. Through three preseason games so far, things are not looking so good for the orange and blue. The team is averaging just 86 points on 43.7 percent shooting from the field, including an atrocious 23.5 percent from beyond the arc. Things got especially ugly on Monday, when they shot just three-of-23 from the 3-point line and went on to lose 81-76 to the Toronto Raptors.
Team analysts Alan Hahn and Wally Szczerbiak saw the ugly shooting display and had the following to say:
I’m ready RT“@alanhahn: After watching that 12-12 first quarter between the Knicks and Raptors, somebody get @wallyball a 10-day!!”
— Wally Szczerbiak (@wallyball) October 14, 2014
The two are obviously joking around, but it’s hard to blame them for the sarcasm. Offense doesn’t get much uglier than what the Knicks have displayed, and it’s certainly a cause for concern as the season approaches near. The good thing is that this is what the preseason is for, and they have a couple more weeks to iron out the kinks as much as possible.
As for the Triangle, color commentator Tommy Heinsohn of the Boston Celtics said it best after watching his team play the Knicks in consecutive games last week. “I have not seen them run the Triangle one time. All I’ve seen them do is run around in circles with the ball.” To be fair, it’s not a simple system to pick up on, so the Knicks will have to continue to get acclimated through the course of this season and could go through some rough patches along the way.
Tweet of the Night: Leandro Barbosa shares a clip showing a victim of one of his crossover moves
James Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.