Without Triangle, Jeff gets Knicks squared away
CHARLOTTE — The Knicks are NBA misfits who found relief for their careers. Nobody wanted their starting point guard. Jarrett Jack couldn’t get a guaranteed contract.
Michael Beasley is on his sixth team in six years, lugging with him a history of marijuana arrests and distracted play. Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott were such liabilities on defense it canceled out their produc- tion on offense.
Courtney Lee? Just a role player. Frank Ntilikina? A mistake. Kyle O’Quinn? Trade bait. Tim Hardaway Jr.? An inexplicable signing. Ron Baker? Ditto. Yet this is the group, minus the injured Hardaway, that led the Knicks to a victory over OKC’s Super Team Saturday night. This is the group, minus injured star Kristaps Porzingis, that had the Knicks in sixth in the Eastern Conference before Monday’s ugly 109-91 loss to the Hornets.
Much of the credit belongs to Jeff Hornacek, who is demonstrat- ing his capabilities as a coach when freed from Trian- gle shackles and the obligations of building a system around Carmelo Anthony’s 35 minutes per game.
In a matter of one month, Hornacek went from the hot seat to orchestrating a start worthy of Coach of the Year consideration.
“He just has more freedom,” Porzingis said. “He’s running the stuff he wants to run and what he sees for us. And you can tell he’s more comfortable. He’s not balancing between different things. So that’s a good thing. We also feel confidence from that. They’re 100% confident in what they’re doing. We also feel that. Players always feel that. And there’s a difference between last year and this year.”
Hornacek was set up to fail by Phil Jackson, just like his predecessor, Derek Fisher. The idea that an executive could force a coach to run the Triangle was folly. For the first time Monday, Porzingis acknowledged it undermined Hornacek in the locker room.
“He was maybe forced to run a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Do this, do that. And that’s when you can tell. As a player, you feel that. And when things are not going well, there are a lot of players who are saying, ‘Why are we doing this?’” Porzingis said. “When you believe in something — even if you’re not doing well — sooner or later those things start to work out.”
Now? The Knicks are wellrounded and clutch while running a system that is heavy on pick-and-rolls and 3-pointers. Heading into Monday, they were in the top half of the league in offensive and defensive efficiency. They carried the league’s fourth-best scoring margin in the fourth quarter. They’re pulling out the close games.
All this with a group of misfits who were supposed to bring the Knicks a great lottery pick, not a shot at the playoffs. The coach arrived at this success by emphasizing defense — giving the players a way to chart and study their rotations — while installing an offense more similar to the one he ran in Phoenix.
“It’s different stuff we’re doing (from last season), probably more typical of what NBA guys play now,” Hornacek said. “So that’s what they’re used to, that’s what they grew up playing. So I think they’re more comfortable playing.” ranslation: the Triangle was too difficult to learn. But we already knew that.
What we didn’t know was how good of a coach Hornacek could be without Jackson’s intrusions. The answer has been encouraging.
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