The Ship Be Sinkin' Again

 I expected a slow start to the season in terms of wins and losses.  Maybe 2-8.  But time enough to maybe get it together.  And in thinking so, I'm obviously projecting how I might have viewed the schedule as an opportunity to develop some team chemistry.

Judging from these first two games, Thibs kinda/sorta has that goal in mind but he's implementing that goal by trying to win with patterns of pretty vanilla coaching folklore (play the vets).  This approach is indistinguishable from what we saw from Fizdale a year ago for twenty some games.  Let's acknowledge that march through Knicks fandom hell as Mike Miller's learning sabbatical.  Thibs is making the same mistakes that the ghosts of coaching staffs past have made over and over and over again.

Let's summarize something up front.  The Knicks have been blown out of two difficult to win contests by big margins and by real sketchy play. And yet, like a Groundhog Day dedicated to punishing Knicks fans once again, the large volume of criticism involves not the players on the court - OH, NO - NOT THEM.

No, we are being treated (ONE MORE F'N TIME) to criticism of Frank Ntilikina whose involvement in both games amounted to a few minutes of garbage time.

Now we are again being fed the end-of-shelf-life narrative that Frank has not -cough- "earned" his playing time.  Let's pretend we are all stupid and accept that premise for a moment. Buying into this empirically means  that Payton, DSJ, and a gobbledygook reconfiguration of SGs, SFs, and walk-ons all HAVE EARNED playing time ahead of Frank.  After all, the proof is in the game film.

Right.

The other day, Mavs owner, Mark Cuban was being interviewed and got a cheap shot question from one of the ESPN haters who asked if Cuban slept well after allegedly fleecing the Knicks in the Porzingus trade. Cuban diplomatically deflected the question but went on to make an important point about contemporary basketball fans.  It is that fans follow players more than uniforms these days.

It's true.

And the majority of Knicks fans are Frankie fans.  If there were fans in MSG last night, the buliding walls would be shaking from fans yelling Frank's name.  Don't believe me, ask Fizdale.

There's a cognitive disconnect in how the coaching staffs evaluate Ntilikina.  Mike Miller broke the code.  After Fizdale's miserable run, Miller's Knicks played .500 ball often with Ntilikina being the catalyst.  Frankie fans have seen this movie before.  First he's a bust, then he's in games keeping them winnable, then the Knicks win winnable games, and he finally looks to be on his way... and then a new coach who thinks the Paytons of the world are better.

I for one am sick of this stupid loop.  Trade Frank somewhere where I can enjoy watching him play - F the Knicks.  They'll eventually bumble their way into somebody who is a cookie cutter PG.  I don't even care anymore.

Chip Stern and I had a long conversation before the game about the Knicks bad habit of developing players all year long who leave.  Gone.  The guys who should be developed get free game watching seats.

Payton, Randle, Bullock, DSJ, ...

Why?

The thought occurred to me that in the time of need for a third string Center - could Iggy be a small ball candidate?