Why firing David Fizdale won’t save the Knicks

The New York Knicks are 2-8, tied with the Golden State Warriors for the worst record in the NBA. (What a sentence.) Coming off a weird, wild win over Kristaps Porzingis and the Mavericks on Friday, the ‘Bockers put up a truly pitiful effort at home on Sunday against the iffy Cleveland Cavaliers, losing by 21. Losing by a lot isn’t abnormal for this Knicks team early on: this was their fourth 20-point loss of the young season.

The dread led to team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry coming out for an impromptu press conference after the loss and before players or coaches talked to the media on Sunday night.

This is commendable in that it allows a media pen hungry for answers on why the Knicks are so embarrassing to ask someone other than head coach David Fizdale, who has to answer those questions every day despite not putting this doomed roster together.

On the other hand, the press conference — and what Mills and Perry said during it — immediately raises the pressure on Fizdale, despite the pressure already being at full tilt.

Let’s parse what Mills, Perry, and Fizdale said to figure out what’s really happening here.

Mills started off explaining why he and Perry addressed the media, saying that they wanted to reassure fans that they are not happy with the team’s status. That could qualify as a bit of news since getting a really high draft pick is a pretty straightforward goal for bad teams, and New York is clearly in the running for another high draft pick to join Kevin Knox and R.J. Barrett. Based on the Knicks’ front office’s summer moves, angling for the top pick wasn’t the priority. Building a competitive team seemed more important.

Welp.

Mills does later say, “We’re not here focused on the record. We’re focused on improvement and delivering consistent effort.” But a good way to measure consistent effort and improvement is by winning games. If the Knicks were 4-6 instead of 2-8, Mills and Perry wouldn’t have had this press conference. Fizdale wouldn’t feel the ice cracking beneath his feet. The record matters a lot in perception.

What about Fiz? Mills offered the most tepid of endorsements.

“We still believe in our coaching staff,” Mills said. “We believe in the plan that Scott and I put together and the players we’ve assembled. But we also have to acknowledge that we haven’t played at the level we expected to play at.”

That’s not even the dreaded “vote of confidence.” But there’s really nothing Mills or Perry could say that would make Fizdale feel comfortable at this stage. The mere fact of them being mad enough about the state of the team to subject themselves to televised media scrutiny says it all.

For his part, Fizdale kept taking responsibility for the state of the team. He didn’t bring up the bizarre roster construction or the youth of key players. (There are three players on the roster older than 25, and six of the 14 players are 22 or younger.) A reporter did mention the youth of the team, and Fizdale nodded knowingly, but he didn’t really take the bait verbally. He did the good soldier thing. He put it all on himself to motivate the team and get them in productive places.

But he, for one fleeting moment, bristled at ... something, perhaps the fact Mills and Perry came out. Fizdale said he talks to Mills and Perry frequently and supported their desire to come speak to the media. But elsewhere in his press conference, he also said this:

“A good friend of mine told me to never overreact to overreactors. We’re two games from the eighth seed. It’s not like, ‘oh God, everyone’s acting like the world is coming to an end.’ It’s not.”

Fizdale is indicating he doesn’t feel like a 2-8 record with four 20-point losses is not time to hit the panic button. Mills and Perry essentially hit the panic button, or at least one of the few panic buttons available to them at this juncture. The next panic button is firing Fizdale. It makes sense that the coach is trying to slow this train down before it collides with his job.

This episode is extremely reminiscent of when this very front office hit the panic button once free agency went sideways for the Knicks, which was three hours into free agency. The team traded Kristaps Porzingis at the deadline to get off Tim Hardaway, Jr.’s contract and clear cap space for multiple superstars, and watched the multiple superstars sign with the Brooklyn Nets. The Knicks responded by signing every big man without range they could and apologizing to fans.

Now the team is 2-8 and the front office is panicking again.

The state of things now is a direct result of what happened in the summer. Bad beats in free agency cause 2-8 records. Mills and Perry botched their chases of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. They screwed up by trading Porzingis when his value was at its lowest point and when they had almost full control of what would happen with his future in restricted free agency. They screwed up by spending all their cap space on players who won’t help them win now or be integral parts of the next good Knicks team, hopefully with Barrett and Knox (or whoever the Knicks eventually trade Barrett and Knox for).

But are Mills and Perry the real reason the Knicks can’t compete for top free agents like Durant and Irving despite being based in NEW YORK CITY with one of the most famous sports brands in the world?

No. That’s on James Dolan.

The Nets have managed to build a franchise and a culture and a platform that attracts star players. The Knicks have not. Mills has been around long enough that he is also culpable. But culture is set from the top, and Dolan is a generational embarrassment, not any sort of inspirational figure or beacon of innovation. He’s lousy at this, and it’s having a real drain on the franchise.

Getting out of the way, staying out of the media is not good enough in the new NBA. Warriors management doesn’t get out of the way: they have built a franchise that propels players into superstardom and untold riches. The Clippers present as if they are doing the same. The Nets present as if they are doing the same. The Knicks write checks and lose games. That’s it. Dolan either isn’t smart enough or invested enough to change things and make the Knicks the truly premier NBA franchise that it could be.

Fizdale will be the first fall guy here, maybe soon. Perry will go next. Maybe Mills ends up on the outs eventually, too. But so long as Dolan is in charge and so long as he doesn’t empower someone to be the franchise owner he can’t be, the Knicks will continue to fail to live up their potential as an NBA franchise.

The problems in New York are way, way beyond a 21-point loss to the Cavaliers, or a botched free agency plan, or a myopic trade. The rot is deep. Blaming the players, Fizdale, Perry, or even Mills might feel good in the moment but it misses the point.