After Fizz-ling with Grizzlies, a clean slate in NY
David Fizdale’s first victory as Knicks head coach will come very soon. It will come the day he boards a plane and heads to Europe to visit Kristaps Porzingis. It may not seem like a big deal but it is precisely that for both the new head coach and the 22-year-old All-Star forward. It’s a trip Phil Jackson and Jeff Hornacek never bothered to make. Steve Mills and Scott Perry have yet to do it but it is essential for Fizdale, who was hired on Thursday, to snap the Knicks out of a two-decade funk.
It is common practice among newly hired head coaches to connect with all of their current players even if it’s by phone. By going that extra mile, or in Fizdale’s case a few extra thousand miles, that small gesture will go a long way.
As of now no meeting has been arranged but according to ESPN, Fizdale wants to meet with Porzingis, who spends most of his offseason in Latvia but is currently in Spain.
So give Fizdale credit for being proactive in wanting to develop a partnership
David Fizdale is a rare case of a coach emerging from a firing as the clear victor, with both his money and reputation in place.
Not only did Fizdale escape that uncomfortable rebuild in Memphis, the 43-year-old resurfaced as, perhaps, the hottest coaching candidate in an offseason full of vacancies. And as the Knicks are set to introduce the 43-year-old as their new coach next week on a four-year deal, it’s worth examining exactly what happened in Memphis. Why did a team that overachieved in Fizdale’s first season suddenly pull the plug just 19 games into his second?
The short answer is that he and Marc Gasol didn’t get along. The complex reason, as league sources laid out, is that the partnership was doomed from the start.
Carrying a mantra Fizdale liked to repeat — “the Miami Heat way” – he tried to completely overhaul a system and core that’d been successful for seven seasons and peaked with an appearance in the Western Conference finals.
The “Grit n Grind” Grizzlies had become a brand in Memphis, and Fizdale’s objective was to with Porzingis, whose trust and confidence in the Knicks organization hasn’t been very high the last few years. It’s not Phil Jackson-level bad but it could certainly be better.
This is not unlike when Pat Riley became Knicks head coach in 1991 and his first order of business was building a relationship with Patrick Ewing, who was considering a move out of New York. That partnership came within one win of an NBA title.
Coincidentally, Fizdale comes from the Ri- ley coaching tree, having worked under Erik Spoelstra in Miami. Clearly, Fizdale was paying attention during those eight seasons with the Heat, which included four trips to the NBA Finals and two NBA championships.
Porzingis was said to be in Spain when he learned of Fizdale’s hiring. He’s already played for Derek Fisher, Kurt Rambis, Hornacek and now Fizdale. Porzingis blow it up.
“He wanted his own locker room,” a Grizzlies source told the Daily News. “And he basically convinced management to get rid of Zach (Randolph), to get rid of Tony Allen.”
Trying to morph the Grizzlies was always going to strain a relationship with Gasol, and the toxicity reached a pivotal moment when, according to a source, Fizdale confronted the team about its lack of desire following a defeat. The coach went around the locker room asking each player if he believed he could win a championship. If they lacked belief, they didn’t belong on the Grizzlies.
The younger players went along. Gasol, however, answered, “No.” Then when asked for an explanation, Gasol replied, “We don’t have the right leader.”
Fizdale had a solid comeback, but it couldn’t have helped his future with Gasol.
“I get it, you want Gregg Popovich, and I want LeBron James,” the coach told his star player, according to a source.
The frosty relationship carried on for almost a year before Fizdale was fired in the middle of an eight-game losing streak. By that was improving last season. He became an All-Star under Hornacek before suffering a season-ending injury in February that may sideline Porzingis for the entire 201819 season.
The 7-foot-3 Latvian has only scratched the surface in regards to how good he can become. Staying healthy is part of it. But it’s also about having a head coach who believes in him, pushes him and demands accountability on both ends of the court.
LeBron James has repeatedly thrown his support behind Fizdale and considers him a demanding coach who will get the best out of his players. But LeBron only dealt with Fizdale as an assistant coach. Fizdale’s first head-coaching stint with the Memphis Grizzlies ended abruptly because he was feuding with his best player, Marc Gasol.
Fizdale went from making the playoffs in his rookie season to out of a job after 19 games in Year 2. And time, according to sources, Fizdale had alienated Gasol by disregarding the Spaniard’s accomplishments — both in the NBA and overseas — and casting away Randolph and Allen. In pushing away Randolph, Fizdale even told the media that the two-time AllStar was no longer an NBA starter and moved him to the bench to audition for his next job. Privately, that didn’t play well. The firing came a day after Fizdale benched Gasol for the entire fourth quarter of a defeat in Brooklyn.
“I don’t like it one bit,” Gasol said at the time. “I’m more (angry) than I can show, and frustrated.”
In reality, that was just a breaking point. Fizdale had been trying to change Gasol’s game – to turn a 32-year-old into an his reputation took a hit.
“That’s the league. The best player and the coach aren’t always going to get along and that’s just how it goes sometimes,” Fizdale said told ESPN earlier this year. “He was the best player on teams and I’m sure he didn’t always love his coach. It’s just unfortunate circumstances how it all played out on the stage. But that’s just normal stuff. Whether we like each or not it’s not about that, it’s about winning games.”
Consider it a learning experience for Fizdale, who gets a clean slate in New York as well as a second chance. He will do the same with Porzingis, who wants to be great and should be excited to work with a coach linked to both the Miami Heat and LeBron.
As much as Porzingis needs Fizdale, the new coach needs his young star. It’s a about building trust and starting a partnership.
And the way you do it is by getting on a plane to prove you’re serious about making this work. That’s Fizdale’s first win. aggressive scorer and perimeter shooter – and it didn’t work.
“He had it in where Marc was going to be a certain way and he didn’t care who Marc was and he didn’t care how the offense was, he didn’t care about the style we were playing. It was going to be about – ‘This is a new era. The Memphis stuff is over. That Grit n Grind is done,’ ” a source said. “Then he turns around and says, ‘We’re going to do it the Miami Way.’
“The players didn’t respect that. If you’re going to talk about Miami, we should be able to talk about Memphis.”
In many ways Fizdale was absolutely correct, even if his tactics weren’t received well by Gasol. The Grizzlies core was aging out and their style of play didn’t jibe with the pace-and-space direction of the NBA. In Miami as an assistant during the Big-3 Era, Fizdale earned a reputation of establishing great relationships with the players – notably LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
In his lone full season with the Grizzlies, Fizdale demonstrated his coaching ability as a solid tactician. But if anything, the stint in Memphis showed that the Knicks are a much better fit.
At the Garden there’s nothing in place to demolish – no system, no culture, no core of players. It’s Fizdale’s obstacle and opportunity. A clean slate muddied only by the failures of everybody before him. Fizdale should be free to build from the ground up, and, as he said soon after getting fired, utilize the Memphis mess as a learning experience.