Jimmy’s guy
Fizdale says he gets regualr vote of confidence from Dolan
As speculation continues to swirl about David Fizdale’s job security, the coach said the ultimate decisionmaker — James Dolan — is a consistent source of encouragement.
“Every game, every game. Jim Dolan comes in and gives me a vote of confidence, a pat on my back and really has just been incredibly encouraging over the last year and a half or whatever it’s been,” Fizdale said. “All we talk about is just sticking to the process of making these guys better and building for a future of sustainable winning.”
The Knicks have stumbled to a 4-10 record heading into tonight’s game in Philly and the front office held an impromptu press conference last week to express its disappointment.
That press conference placed Fizdale firmly on the hot seat and was accompanied by an
ESPN report stating president Steve Mills has been “laying the groundwork” to fire the coach.
Not coincidentally, Mills had met with Dolan just before speaking with the media. The owner relayed his unhappiness as the Knicks were getting blown out by the Cavaliers, pressuring Mills into talking. It was bizarre even for Knicks standards. The front office addressing the media is not uncommon and can be constructive, but doing so just directly after a blowout loss was unprecedented and signaled an alarm.
Mills went all of last season without holding a formal press conference.
Fizdale said he was unaware of the plans. He then held his standard postgame presser and agreed the team’s play was unacceptable.
“I wasn’t disappointed or shocked or anything like that (by Mills’ decision to hold a press conference),” Fizdale said. “It was like, ‘We got to play better basketball. We do got to get to a place where we start to trust each other and do the things necessary to give ourselves a chance to win every night.’ So we spoke immediately after that and, like I said, I’m in the trench with those guys.”
Since the press conference on Nov. 10, the Knicks have improved with a 2-2 mark and just one noncompetitive defeat. Fizdale reiterated that the mandate from the front office was less about the record and more about effort. In other words, blowout losses are the trigger and Knicks had five in their opening 10 games.
“We’re still developing kids. I know we added some veterans, but we still got a 19-year-old (RJ Barrett), couple 20-year-olds (Kevin Knox), 21-year-olds (Frank Ntilikina, Dennis Smith Jr). Julius Randle is 24 and hasn’t played on a playoff team yet. Now he’s learning how to play winning basketball,” Fizdale said. “I think you can see over the last two games, I think he’s had two turnovers. He’s handling the ball and doing all of these different things. So we’re still growing a young team. …These guys are kids still. Although we’re developing them, we just feel like we’re trying to fast-track them a little more now. We’re trying to put more accountability on what it takes to win. Whether you win the game or not, you can’t control all of that. But are we getting closer to doing the things necessary to give ourselves a chance.”
As much as Fizdale wants to work in the player development bubble, the reality is the front office traded its lone All-Star — Kristaps Porzingis — for the cap space to build this roster. Mills set a goal of signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and watched them go across the Manhattan Bridge. Then Mills spent $70 million of Dolan’s money on mostly shortterm pieces, selling the owner on the idea that his latest roster concoction will be competitive. The Knicks haven’t been to the playoffs since 2013.
“You gotta remember something: I signed on to come here to contribute to building a culture. The building of a culture is not an easy thing,” said Fizdale, whose record is 21-75 since taking over prior to last season. “What usually happens is teams fragment when things get tough. But what we’ve done is we’ve gotten more connected. We’ve come together more. That is the first sign of a real culture starting to develop. We understood that this process was going to be difficult . ... We just felt like our effort was becoming inconsistent. That’s the first thing we wanted to address as a group and I think we’re getting there.”