One of the only NBA experts to predict a playoff appearance for the knicks this preseason, CNNSI’s Chris Mannix now sees Isiah Thomas getting the ax as soon as Christmas, having come back from a four-game west coast road trip winless with the Knicks now looking at 2-7. Isiah’s body language the last few games has reminded me of the title of the 1995 film starring Sean Penn, Dead Man Walking. Isiah has had enough time to win in New York, it hasn’t happened yet, and everyone is speculating how much more time Isiah will be given by James Dolan before a change is made.
Mannix also believes Crawford is not in the Knicks’ future and that minutes should go to the younger players on the Knicks–I can’t disagree there, the young players should play. Wilson Chandler should especially see some daylight with the threespot up for grabs. Balkman got into another confrontation during the Denver game with pseudo-tough guy Linas Klezia, who did his best impersonation of Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV against Balkman last night.
Video found through the big push.
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Steady,
I agree that it is too soon to tell but it aint lookin’ good. I was responding to Jazz statement that it was too soon to tell by x mas.
I feel that the next 18 games before x-mas should be enough to see if they have something actually wrong w/ this team, the coach or a particular player. The team is whole and hopefully on the same page. We are coming home to MSG to reset. There should be no reason not to go 11-7 til christmas.
13-14 sounds about right by then and will save Zeke’s job. 7-20 by then should be the nail in the coffin. He’s a good coach but he’s running out of time. I’m personally rooting for him.
GO NY GO NY GO NY GO
“Regarding Mannix, please have your facts correct. This guy has attack Zeke & the Knicks for 2-years. If the
Knicks win 2 in a row he will give props, but never has he promoted the Knicks. The other writer PREDICTED the
Knicks in the play-off. KNEE-DEEP the MSM distort the facts, please do not imitate. It is important
that your information is CURRENT & CORRECT.”
MSM my ass.
Please be sure you come correct before start with any accusations. I clearly remember posting this very link here last month and blogging on it. There are knicks fans, and there are Isiah loyalists, I submit to you here and now that they are not always the same thing. If Isiah can make the Knicks a winner that is great, if not, then he must eventually go. This 22-33% winning percentage can’t go on forever. Repeating the same circumstances and expecting different results is insanity.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/chris_mannix/10/12/randolph.knicks/index.html
Defenders
love the lively convo today. Many great points and I feel that spirits are still up and hope is still in the air.
Knicksdefense
It would be nice that you do not fall into the Alan Con man trap by sweeping all the people here as being Isiah loyalist.
Let me repeat what I and many here have said before. Lets play out the season before we decide whether to ax Isiah.
If that is an Isiah loyalist, then I’m guilty. But to define a loyalist as someone who would like to give this coach one year to right the ship– that year being this full year– is misconstruing a call for patience as a call for over extended loyalty.
I will be a Knick fan even if Isiah goes. I will whish the man well b/c the has faced many arrows and has been asailed and badly portrayed by many in the MSM who distort his profesional career past his palying days.
If a new GM were to come in and turn the the around and make it a “winner” I would applaud that GM and he would have my support. The roster however it would end up being would have my support and patience.
But that does not mean I want this current team to fail and this current coach to go down so quickly in anonymity.
Knicks fan and lover for life means regardless of who plays or coaches. I just hope we don’t ever have a return to the dead end Layden years. And I hope on that point you will agree with me.
Best to you and please think twice before you misconstrue patience for loyalty and catch a net so wide that even your friends are caught in its grasps.
Peac Out!
KNEE-DEEP,
MSM YOUR ASS. I thought that was reserved for DLEE, not MSM. Most rational fans and Dolan know 9-games are
not enough time to make a decision. Stay KNEE-DEEP in the SWAMP, it fits your personality.
Peace & Blessings
O & B
I am with you on this. If IT is cut tomorrow, I will still be a Knicks Fan but will his axing be a wise decision? I doubt it.
My 2 Cents!!!
LGK
Peaceman — I think there are LOTs of potential GMs and coaches who would willingly throw themselves into this “media snake pit,” as you put it. This is still MSG. It’s still the Knicks. It’s the best job in the business. Especially because a good basketball man would be smart enough to know that – despite public perception – this team already has a strong foundation of talent. It’s not very far away. Yet a new man would be credited with “saving the Knicks.” Who wouldn’t want that job?
Why do you assume “these guys will all be playing elsewhere if Zeke is replaced”? A new management team would be foolish to take this team apart. What they need to do is make the one or two right moves that will fill the holes in the roster. This team doesn’t need a great deal to rank among the elite. But they have to be the RIGHT moves. I can see a LOT of NBA veteran GMs and coaches lobbying hard for Isiah’s jobs.
I’m also curious why you think that “no one can coach this team but Zeke”? You suggest a coaching change would turn into every man for himself? I don’t know if you’re right. But I sure hope you’re wrong. It would be a pretty damning statement about the quality of athlete and the quality of man that Isiah has assembled here. These are professional athletes. Most, if not all of them will play for numerous other coaches before their careers are finished.
kenny smith on who’s wrong:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ks-marbury111907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
I’ll second O&B,
I like IT(no homo),I think he did his best to bring talented players to this team. If it all works….we don’t know yet.
But if IT is gone today, you can be sure that on tomorrow that DAVID LOVES THOSE KNICKS.IT had a hard job to start.The Knicks were over the cap when he came and had no talented players…that was Layden doing.Even with Layden,I was a Knicks fan. When Layden drafted Fredric Weiss over RonRon, I still believed that the Knicks were doing the right,and that it was I who did not know better.
Point being. IT vs Knicks,…….. Knicks, no question. AND I want IT to finish this, I believe he can.I want him to prove them wrong.
Trane,
Do you remember Herb’s short stint as head coach after Wilkins?? Do you rememeber the free for all
that happened every night with Marbury launching it from 4 foot beyond the trey line?
Crawford doing a W4th throw it against the Backboard and slam, even though we are down by 20?
These players are loyal to Thomas unless the Marbury incident really changed that!
Magic don’t want to Coach here! He was unsuccessful when he tried in LA! Who else could
command the respect of this team? Don’t say Kiki or I’ll throw up! Not one of these core players will want to play
here in this media Zoo if Zeke is fired! Whenever a new Coach comes in, you will always have at least half the
team loyal to the former Coach ( Larry Brown an Exception. ) It may be noted Trane, we’ve spit out Two HOF coach’s
you think we won’t do that to a third? It’s just the structure of this team! This team would have to be blown up!
It’s just business like anyother hostile take over! You fire people and bring your own in!
Peace — Zeke definitely had the loyalty of the team last year. Whether he still has it or not remains to be seen. Yet, that’s where things could have changed. If he’s lost them, then I’m not convinced you’re right that they’d reject a new coach. Your point that they’ve chewed up and spat out two HOF coaches is a good one. And if they’re still loyal to Isiah, it certainly could happen again. (Then again, if they’re still loyal to Isiah, he’s got a better chance of getting them all on the same page again . . . at which point he could be sticking around a while longer.) But I still say they’re professionals. Whether or not this same basic team could rally behind a new coach would probably come down to the same question that hangs over Isiah at the moment: How quickly can they be successful? You’d be surprised how fast the team would support a new coach . . . if they’re winning twice as many games as the’re losing . . .
good game tonight on league pass. magic (10-2) beat new orleans (9-3) in the second of a back to back after beating boston yesterday. they look great now that they have rashard lewis and hedo T. knocking down outside shots while howard does damage on the inside.
tyson chandler got hurt in the game, looked like his knee.
magic are undefeated on the road, one of the tell-tale signs they’re a playoff team.
knicks play golden state tomorrow at the garden. New York’s starting 5 for tomorrow’s game is a crapshoot.
DLT Knicks and Jazz
I appreciate the show of support.
We’ll see if the team can begin to climb out of the proverbial hole it digs itself into almost every early season.
Yo Blogzilla we need a ne post.
Hope you understood that my dissent was not meant to disrespect you. You know I’ve had your back on prior ocassions in the Alan Cohn KF days. I just wouldn’t want you to generalize. You ought to know that what draws us together on this splendid sight is our devotion to two things.
The NY Knicks
An our desire to see this team succeed.
The former will always be unconditionally, the latter depends on those who play and coach the game and no doubt that when those who do the playing and coaching are clearly shown to fall short of the tasks then we will join in speculating whether changes need to be made.
At the end of this season if there are no playoffs then Zeke may have to go. But untill let him and his players accept and undertake the arduous task of righting this ship!
See you boys tommorow.
Here’s to the weary and waylayed may they RISE UP AND RISE ABOVE!!!!!!!!!!
Next time the Knicks play Orlando
they ought to pull a Bruce Bowen on the Magic outside shooters and have them roll their ankles
All’s fair in love in war.
Jazz,
You said “You claim the players have stopped listening to him because they can’t execute his game plan for 48 minutes.”
I didn’t say execute. That would be impossible and no coach expects that. I said 48 minutes of EFFORT. No passing the ball on the inbounds hand to hand. You learn that playing as a kid. No wide open 3s. DEEEE-FENSE !!!! Focus. All 48 minutes.
They lack focus. Who’s job is it to motivate them ? I think we all agree its not a matter of talent. Our players have talent. When properly motivted I think they can achieve much more. Zeke needs to get this team to focus or move on.
D L T, It was Ed “the Saboteur” Tapscott who drafted Fredric Weiss over Ron Artest–he followed the ouster of Ernie Grunfeld. JVG won that corporate politrix battle between Coach and GM.
I support your formulation Peaceman about the loyalty factor and how players will be forgetting the team concept if the GM and coach are let go in the same season. GM coming in will say he wants his guys and guy who will “go to war” for him. Even if he says differently during the interview, he will be inclined to change people mid-stream. It is the nature of professional sports. Players perform for the guy who’s making their accountants count coins. Listen to JCraw. If the guy who brought them in leave, players will then be concerned about showing their net worth for their next work. It’s called self-preservation and only the home fans will blame them. Still, all this talk is too speculative and feeding fuelwood well into the MSM furnace trap. On this topic, the answer ought to be–we’ll cross that bridge if Dolan brings us to it.
@ Starburyfan/Knickdefense,
I can see where someone could read your broad stroke here about loyal IT vs. NYK (fan) and take issue with you. The reason I don’t take issue with you is because I know who I am here. I am Steady. You may want to look at the canvas here again and repaint that picture about IT fan versus NYK fan. I said it before,: some coach’s agent is “prolly rollin’” some articles about why IT should be fired. They have an agenda. They want another type of character to deal with at MSG. The MSM is hell bent on changing the media policy at MSG (and with the NYJ too). After those retreads mentioned over the weekend by the MSM, watch the MSM throw a name like Mike “the Czar” Frattelo. All these unemployed guys are angling for jobs through the MSM. They’re submitting job applications where there’s no announced vacancy.
We had one isolated individual go as far off the side of his neck (as one can go) to say that Glen Grunwald is the one who did the deal with Portland because no GMs likes to do business with IT. COULD YOU BELIEVE THAT MSM ABS? How many teams are there in the NBA? How many of their GMs did this basketball genius poll before typing that assertion. Writing that misleading and inflamatory bunk should be a fineable offense. Who’s going to call to judgement this DANGEROUS shaper of the public sentiment? DEFENDERS to the rescue. We read here and we think and therefore we are Defenders. That’s why we blog! Just bloggin’.
KFLL
Ya’ll may remember him as Frederic Weiss or the French Swiss Cheese who VC dunked over (which was a foul BTW). Typo. I liked the “prolly” from when Chuck FM and HarleminMD used it.
This thread has gone to “a whole nother level”. As JohnQ suggested, I’m moving on too.
KFLL
I’ve watched Isola on NBA-TV give his assessment on the Memphis Grizzlies.Get this.He says they should build their team around R.Gay and trade Gasol??? Do the words IMBECILLE,MORON,JERKOFF,HALFWIT mean anything here!!!!He should be fired from both of HIS JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!! He lost all credibility from this point on.He should do the honorable thing.Commit Hari Kiri!!!!!!!!!!How can anyone with any basketball knowledge take this douchebag seriously????Something needs to be done about him in all seriousness!!!!
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