The New York Knicks have been marred by poor decisions and futility for almost the entirety of this millennium.
They are currently staring at yet another less than 30 win season as their young stud Kristaps Porzingis recovers from a torn ACL and the rumors are swirling that current head coach Jeff Hornacek could be fired in the coming weeks.
A report came out from ESPN this week that said that Hornacek wasn’t even supposed to be the hire in 2016 until an unexpected last-minute change of heart by Phil Jackson.
According to current Orlando Magic Head Coach Frank Vogel (who may also get canned at the end of the season), he was all but assured that he was going to be offered the job in 2016…
“I interviewed with (ex-Knicks president) Phil (Jackson) and Steve Mills and we had a good couple days together and they said they had one more person they wanted to talk to before they wrapped up the process. But they felt good about it and they met with Jeff (Hornacek) and Jeff must have blown them away because they ended up going with Jeff. And I think that was a good choice because Jeff’s a helluva coach and he’s done a helluva job under a difficult circumstance here.”
Vogel hasn’t fared any better in Orlando and it truly seems like the Knicks were doomed either way these past few seasons, but it would be interesting to see if the Knicks would look any different or had different results these past two seasons with Vogel under the helm as more of a defensive coach to Hornacek’s offensive-minded approach.
It is hard to lay the blame on Hornacek when he was forced to run the archaic triangle last season and deal with constant Carmelo Anthony trade drama and had a team just out of the playoff race this season before their best player tore his ACL in February.
Whatever the Knicks decide coaching wise, draft wise and free agency wise this off-season, they need to get it right. They have been in the NBA cellar far too long.
