Derek Fisher apparently doesn’t have unconditional job security with the New York Knicks.
No head coach, save for maybe Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, and perhaps Rick Carlisle in Dallas, can necessarily say that about their situation. You don’t get into the NBA coaching game if you’re looking for stability.
But Fisher is only in his second year as head honcho of the Knicks, and he was handpicked by team president Phil Jackson, after Steve Kerr, as the best option to guide New York into the future. That seems like enough to guarantee he’ll make it into and through his third year at the helm.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com doesn’t necessarily think so, though. While appearing on The Lowe Post Podcast, he and colleague Zach Lowe touched upon the summer coaching carousel that could unfold leading into this summer. A vast array of names were dropped, all of them seemingly predictable—that is, until Windhorst mentioned Fisher:
Windhorst: I’m going to wave a yellow flag on Derek Fisher as well.
Lowe: Oh, interesting!…Why?
Windhorst: [I’m] just hearing some rumblings it’s not all rainbows and lollipops there. Just a red flag—just a yellow flag, not a red flag.
This is nothing to get up in arms about obviously, but it’s interesting that Windhorst would be hearing even faint rumblings. It suggests that the Knicks, despite being on pace to more than double last season’s win total, aren’t OK with the roller coaster ride that has become their season. They’ve underperformed too frequently during fourth quarters, their rotations haven’t been great and they’ve given up a bunch of winnable games.
With that said, Fisher has been more productively experimental of late, deviating from his love affair with Kevin Seraphin and slotting Kristaps Porzingis at the 5 more often. Plus, there are times when the Knicks look like a legit playoff team. They’ve played the Cleveland Cavaliers tight three times, losing on each occasion; they took down the Atlanta Hawks twice in a row; and they’ve had miniature winning streaks that make you start to think they’ve turned a corner.
What they really need is to forge an identity. They rank middle of the pack in offensive and defensive efficiency and haven’t been able to piece together long stretches of contemporarily paced basketball.
Should they fail to be recognized for any one facet of their approach by season’s end, it’s not impossible to envision team president Phil Jackson making some wholesale changes. Again, Fisher wasn’t his first choice for the Knicks’ head coaching position.
Still, given that last year was a throwaway season, canning Derek Fisher after 2015-16, no matter the end result, would feel a bit impulsive.
