BROOKLYN, N.Y. — After the New York Knicks suffered a crushing 120-112 loss to a Nets team with the NBA’s worst record on Sunday, Kristaps Porzingis said a midseason change in the game plan has led to confusion “from top to bottom.”
Kristaps Porzingis on the Knicks’ season: ‘It’s been a lot of confusion’
The Knicks star described the confusion as “top to bottom,” and said “a lot of stuff is not clear” with the team this year.
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
“We’ve been switching things up. I never felt at any point of this season we’ve never played how we’ve wanted to,” Porzingis said. “It’s always been, ‘Maybe this will work, or maybe this will work.’ ... It’s been a lot of confusion.
“A lot of stuff is not clear. So, it’s hard to play like that.”
The Knicks emerged from the All-Star break with a renewed focus on hammering down the principles of the triangle offense — the system that Knicks team president Phil Jackson implemented to win 11 NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
The experiment has failed miserably, however, with New York losing seven of its last 10 and falling 15 games below .500. The team has virtually no road to the playoffs after starting the season with a 14-10 record. The Knicks ran many more high screen and rolls to begin the season, with triangle sets mainly on out-of-bounds plays.
Porzingis said the team runs Jackson’s offense 90 percent of the time after it was run on only about 10 percent of possessions earlier in the season.
“First of all, we don’t know the triangle that well. We’re really basic (with) what we do,” Porzingis said. “A lot of times it’s — especially one on one — whoever it is, myself, Carmelo (Anthony), Derrick (Rose), Courtney (Lee), we try to make something happen and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. It’s very random.”
Derrick Rose added he had never been in a situation in his basketball career where a team changed offensive schemes midway through the season. Jackson declined to comment when approached by reporters outside of the Barclay’s Center.
Porzingis’ comments comes just days after the Zen Master held a 30-minute triangle session with Knicks guards and struck a similar chord to those of Rose, who dubbed the triangle offense “random basketball” in late February.
Sasha Vujacic and Chasson Randle, who both have experience running the offense in the past, told SB Nation the system is not as complicated as many make it sound, but also each conceded it took some time to fully grasp the read-and-react concept.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek was noncommittal when asked whether the team had shifted its focus from making a playoff push. New York (26-41) is now seven games behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Knicks would have to win their remaining 15 games to break even on the season. Porzingis, though, was able to find a positive in the Knicks’ losing season.
“I think this year is a really good experience for me, actually,” he said. “Tough year. It’s a tough everything. There’s a quote: ‘Smooth seas don’t make good sailors.’ So that’s how I always take it. As a challenge.”
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