Xavier Chisum
September 28 2015
After a distasteful season from the New York Knicks and undeniable promise Phil Jackson made to Knicks fans and the NBA saying that he still believed that they could be a playoff contending team that year, Derrick Fisher requested the voice of Phil more this 2015-2016 season. Allowing Phil to have more authority of this basketball team I believe will ultimately create tension between the two which will then leak into the locker room and affect the identity of this team.
“Maybe I stepped back too far last year,” spilled Jackson. He talks about how he desired Derek to be himself and basically feel this new position as head coach out transitioning from being a player. Well indeed it works both ways. This will the second year for Phil Jackson as the Knicks President of Operations and one may argue that he still has a lot of feeling out to do himself with his decision making this offseason passing up Small Forward Justin Winslow, Point Guard Emmanuel Mudiay who would have filled the void of a potential franchise Point Guard for years to come as well as the departure of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert, but also Willie Cauley-Stein Center from Kentucky with a tremendous upside and athletic ability similar to former Knick and Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler, just to get Kristapas Porzingis scoring Power Forward leaning at 7 foot 2 and weighing at 230 pounds. With this particular card play it shows that the Zen Master not only is confident in his moves, but also that he will exercise whatever right he has to the team in assuring that his moves will not be seen to be done in vein at the end of the season.
“Not in the aspect of whatever coaching but just in being around, talking basketball, influential in observations,” vows Phil. The only basketball one in the NBA especially a Knicks fans, wants Phil Jackson to talk about is Knicks basketball, and to assume that the 11-ring rewarding coach’s observation will just be observational not authoritative is hard to believe. Phil compared young scorer Porzingis to former big slender big man Sean Bradley and how much of a factor his height could restrict him from getting into a prime defensive position in battling other big men in the post and on the block whether it is on offense and defense. This comparison factors into the coaching of Derrick Fisher and how he will use this tender rookie in the Triangle offense, which we all know was mastered and handled by Phil and conveyed by play with Fisher. Will the decision-making of Fisher be later praised by Phil or frowned upon.
In 164 games played, the Knicks have only won 54 of them. The make-up of this team was changed when the Knicks fired Mike Woodson who originally coached this team to a number #2 seed in the Eastern Conference and to the second round of the playoffs based off a defensive paradigm. Hiring Phil Jackson and bringing in Derrick Fisher places more infuses on the offensive side of the game. Andrea Bargani was taken by the Toronto Raptors in 2006 in the first round and later traded to the New York Knicks. The legend of him being the next Dirk Nowitki was hushed by his inability to stay healthy and his lack of progression as a Knicks player. Phil Jackson has to earn his credibility as a President of Operations before trying to take on other roles in the organization. Allow Derrick Fisher to do the job he was paid to do and pray that the investments he made this offseason were good ones.
