Knicks need to decide if they're all in
NEW YORK -- The rebuilding of the New York Knicks this summer provided the roster with a talented and accomplished group of players, but also could have included a warning label, urging head coach Jeff Hornacek – extremely fragile, please handle with care.
Carmelo Anthony is 32 years old and a year removed from major knee surgery, having sat out 10 games last season. Joakim Noah is 31, having missed 53 games last season after undergoing shoulder surgery. Derrick Rose is just 28, but has endured five seasons of devastating injuries. And even the youngest player, Kristaps Porzingis, maybe the most important piece going forward, is slightly built and 7 feet 3.
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While the early season has been marked by ups and downs, more losses than wins in the expected growing pains of tossing together a nearly brand new group. But as the Knicks hope to grow together, protecting those pieces is vital to actually having a chance to be around when those lessons are learned.
But Hornacek has put each of those players on the floor for every one of the first 11 games. The Knicks have played three sets of back-to-back games this season and have lost the second half of it every time, surrendering 118, 118 and 119 points in those losses. So if you’re going to lose anyway, is there any sense in risking the health of these key pieces?
“It takes a lot of effort, lot of energy,” Hornacek told reporters after Thursday’s 119-112 loss to the struggling Washington Wizards – who had dropped a game a night earlier to the even worse Philadelphia 76ers. “I think the guys played a lot of minutes [Wednesday] night. That probably didn’t help us much in terms of having that type of effort that we need to stop some guys. Again, [Washington was] a desperate team. When you’re playing a desperate team it makes it tougher.”
This was a strange notion, that the Wizards were a desperate team, just like the Celtics were a desperate team six nights earlier when they crushed the Knicks after entering the game with a similar three-game losing streak. Maybe no team should be more desperate than the Knicks, who have won just 49 games over the last two seasons, haven’t made the playoffs in three seasons and haven’t won a championship since team president Phil Jackson was playing for the organization in 1973.
Hornacek pointed out that he had played his core pieces big minutes in Wednesday’s win over Detroit while Washington limited John Wall that same night in Philadelphia and didn’t play Bradley Beal at all. But for the Knicks, some decision must come between playing desperate to win every possible game and resting players – rather than just watching them play with lackluster effort on the court.
“No excuses, we’re pros,” Rose said. “That’s what we get paid to do. If anything, if we are tired that’s when someone else is supposed to pick your teammate up. That’s what we were trying to do, but it just didn’t work for us.”
“At home everybody’s going to play hard at home,” Brandon Jennings said. “On the road you should be 10 times [as focused], it should be 10 times more important to go in somebody’s house and win. This is a team that was desperate for a win and they got one. They just lost to Philly and they come and beat us? Nah.
“We definitely need to be more desperate. Every game, from here on out we need to be desperate. We play for the New York Knicks. Everybody wants to beat us. It’s a known national team.”
That may be true, although what the Knicks are known for now is hardly anything to brag about. To change that, something has to give – more effort, more focus, more desperation or simply going all out one night and letting someone else get the minutes the next.
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“We haven’t been locking in well on the road,” Jennings added, with the Knicks just 1-5 away from home this season. “That’s one of our big problems. If we want to be the team that we think we’re going to be we got to play 10 times harder. Teams play better when they’re at home and we’re the Knicks. You gotta know what’s across your chest. It’s a bigger bull's-eye on you.
“Effort and trust. Effort and trust and communication. When the coaches are doing their game plan we’ve got to listen. When the coach is writing a play we’ve got to pay attention. There’s a lot at stake for us. We got to start locking in. This is bull. These are games we need to win.”
Email: popper@northjersey.com