go away, jose!
Sitting vet Calderon may be first choice for lineup shake-up
Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis admitted one of the obvious points of NBA life. If you are losing, you look to change. And that change could mean tweaking lineups.
Suffice to say the Knicks qualify under the losing part.
With the Knicks having dropped 12 of their past 14 heading into Wednesday’s game at Indiana, Rambis did not name names and the strongest stance he took is that lineup changes always are under consideration and will be discussed. But even without Rambis naming anyone, the obvious choice appears to be guard Jose Calderon, whose struggles against quicker, livelier point guards were reviewed by the coach before the AllStar break.
“Always when you’re losing, you are considering a lot of things. We’ll see,” Rambis said Tuesday after practice in Tarrytown regarding a possible lineup change. “We’ll have some conversations with the coaching staff, management and players. We’ve got to find a way to play at a much higher level, and more intense level and for longer periods of time.”
The veteran Calderon, having his worst shooting month (.391) of the season in February, is always the first guy fans jump on when they want change. Some want more pointguard minutes for rookie Jerian Grant, who played the entire garbagetime fourth quarter in the hammering by Toronto on Monday. Some want Langston Galloway starting. Rambis has the deciding vote and what he seemed to want above all Tuesday was something resembling consistency.
The Knicks watched film of the Monday massacre and saw good mixed in with the bad. Face it, there was a lot more bad.
“The players know they’ve got to start holding each other accountable, they’ve got to start holding themselves accountable,” Rambis said. “We’ve just got to start doing the right things.”
Or change will be more than discussed.
Rambis was sure to stress the positives he has seen, noting frequently the Knicks do the right thing and still get burned. By a contested shot. By a tipped pass. By bad luck. But there are just as many times when developments arise and the Knicks are clueless. So he wants more gamelike practices and scrimmages.
“If the other team is making a run and we can’t figure out how to score or get stops, then you can see the confidence going with the team. We can’t figure out how to get things done, turn things around,” Rambis said. “That, to me, is the mark of an immature team in terms of we haven’t spent enough time together and we’ve just got to get better at that.”
The Knicks have used six different starting lineups this season. Calderon has started all 54 games he has played and Rambis has employed the same set five — Calderon, Arron Afflalo, Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis and Robin Lopez — in the four games he has coached since replacing Derek Fisher.
Galloway starting could weaken the bench, but it hasn’t been all that great recently anyway. Porzingis would seem safe even though the rookie has had his struggles in February and maybe — huge maybe — the Knicks would like to see him in a sixthman role. Porzingis admitted Tuesday his rebounding has disappointed of late. And offensively, he feels he could be a little more assertive.
“I do want to be more aggressive, but I want to be more efficient as well,” Porzingis said. “I don’t want to just take shots. I want to be in the rhythm of the team and take the shots I need to take and be effective.”
Porzingis had two rebounds Tuesday in what has been his worst rebounding month. Porzingis averages 7. 5 rebounds overall, 6.1 in February.
“I have to step up my rebounding,” said Porzingis. “I’ve still got to get in and get those rebounds and help the team and [Monday] was not a good game in that aspect. We didn’t do that well and I take a lot of responsibility for that.”