Three weeks ago, Knicks president Phil Jackson cautioned the coaching staff about a potential rough start to the 2014-15 season. Jackson correctly assessed a schedule that featured three back-to-back sets and six games in eight nights right out of the gate for a squad attempting to learn completely new schemes on both sides of the floor.
Despite New York’s record, Jackson is pleased and at the same time preaching patience to the massive fan base and members of this team inside the locker room.
“I think you are going to see progress and I think you are going to enjoy it,” Jackson confidently stated on Monday night prior to the contest against the Hawks. He added, “I think the coaching staff is doing a great job. We have to start a variety of players in this situation with injuries to Jose [Calderon] and Pablo [Prigioni].”
Calderon and Andrea Bargnani have not suited up in a regular season game thus far and Prigioni suffered a sprained ankle in the loss to Detroit. The injuries have forced rookie head coach Derek Fisher to shuffle the starting lineups and rotations in search of an ideal group that can thrive for 48 minutes.
In the midst of the first month of the season, the Knicks have prospered in some adverse moments. New York spoiled King James’ home opener, narrowly defeated a 2014 playoff team, and put together the best 24 minutes of the season in Atlanta on Saturday night by scoring 61 first half points.
“I see growth on this team and I’m optimistic that it’s not always the final score sometimes, it’s how you play,” Jackson reiterated.
Throughout his tenure in New York, the 13-time champion has emphasized the need for all five players on the floor to own a complete understanding of the offense in order for all five to be participant in the Triangle. The expectation is the players will begin to master the basics of the offense to allow the coaching staff to layer intricate sets onto the base Triangle and the Knicks will look less robotic and more fluid.
“They’re still quite a ways from their execution capabilities as a team and this is going to happen,” Jackson acknowledged. “It’s all part of the process. I think we think in terms of basketball wise, Thanksgiving and December as times when you really will say if you haven’t gotten it by now, we’ll have to think about if you are a learner or if you are not a learner as individual ball players at that time.
Jackson pointed to his former player and now coach as a strong individual that will not waver when faced with mounting pressure for a first-year man on the sidelines.
“I think he [Fisher] is understanding the complexity of thinking in terms of 1-15 instead of how to get my game to work with the team or how do I help these guys out as a guard. You have to think about all the players as a group, so I think that’s important,” Jackson reassured.
The Knicks schedule will ease up and impactful players should return to the lineup in the near future. One thing is for sure; Jackson is not feeling anxiety at this early juncture of the season with an eye on a short-term turnaround and a focus on the long-term success for the franchise.