IS JEFF MAKING FINAL MARCH?
Hornacek knows Knick future uncertain
With no assurances that he’ll last in New York beyond these final 13 games, Jeff Hornacek has been compliant with the rebuild while his record and reputation have suffered.
The wins (rare) and losses (aplenty) are stuck on Hornacek’s resume, which is much harder to swallow if he’s looking for another job in the offseason while Mark Jackson, Doc Rivers, David Blatt or whomever else is on the Knicks sideline.
“At the end of the season I’m sure we’ll sit down with (president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry) and figure out what we’re doing,” said Hornacek, whose two-season coaching record with the Knicks fell to 55-96 following Thursday’s loss to the Sixers. “As a coach you’d like to know if you’re going to be here next year. But our job right now is take the guys that we have on this team and try to get them better.”
Hornacek then acknowledged that the conversation with the front office about his future has not yet happened. It was really the first time the coach publicly talked as if he may not return for the final year of his contract, although that uncertainty was established long ago — the moment Phil Jackson was fired.
It hasn’t helped Hornacek’s security that the Knicks (24-45) went into the tank over the last two months, losing 17 of their last 18 games while satiating the lottery balls advocates. In an attempt to stop the bleeding, Hornacek went with a different exercise during Friday’s practice — asking players, “Do you like to win or do you hate to lose?” There was a wrong answer. “Everybody loves to win. But who are those guys that really hate to lose?” Hornacek said. “I think when you talk to some of the coaches and the mentality of a Kobe Bryant, a Michael Jordan, a LeBron James, I think they hate to lose more than they love to win.
“When you hate to lose, you’ll do anything it takes. Whether it’s taking a charge, diving on a ball, taking no play for granted. When you love to win and you don’t it’s like, ‘OK, well maybe we’ll win the next game.’”
Hornacek wasn’t singling out players with that speech but you got the feeling he was thinking about Emmanuel Mudiay. A day after calling out the point guard for failing to take a charge on Joel Embiid, the coach said he’s open to shaking up the lineup and was noncommittal when asked if winning intangibles are important to Mudiay.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out — who are those guys who will give us winning plays?” Hornacek said. “Who will be the guys who really care about it? Nothing is guaranteed next year for anybody. So they should be out there trying to show Scott and Steve and myself to be worthy of coming back because we know they can do that.”
On Thursday, Hornacek said Mudiay failed to make one of those “winning plays” by playing matador defense when Embiid drove to the basket in the fourth quarter. Mudiay’s response — that Embiid’s immense size was the deterrent to taking a charge — wasn’t exactly reassuring.
“(Hornacek’s) upset about it, but I can’t go back in time,” the 22-year-old said. “That’s a big guy. So stepping in front of that. …yeah.
“But you know what, he said it could’ve been a winning play and I agree with him. It could’ve been a winning play. But at the time, I wasn’t thinking charge.”
Mudiay’s contract is guaranteed next season, so his audition is more about assessing whether the Knicks have a starting caliber point guard on their roster, or if they need to find another in the summer. Hornacek’s contract is also guaranteed next season at about $5 million, but releasing him wouldn’t count against the cap. So his audition has been about something else.
“You can sometimes think of that,” Hornacek said, “but really as coaches you can’t concern yourself.”