The Knicks’ new coaching lineup is this: Kurt Rambis is associate head coach, Jeff Hornacek is head coach, and Phil Jackson is now ready to become coach-at-large. It is unclear who will have the most influence.
Across Friday’s 49-minute press conference, the Knicks president made three things clear for next season: He wants the triangle around, he doesn’t want Carmelo Anthony around, and he wants to be around the team more as “an on-target mentor.’’
In fact, Jackson took partial blame for the team’s tailspin around the holidays when he took a West Coast respite. None of his remarks bode well for Hornacek, who could be on a short leash next season in the second year of his three-year deal. Rambis still is the apple of Jackson’s eye. Jackson had more positive things to say about Rambis, the previous season’s interim head coach whom he nearly promoted to the permanent spot, than he did Hornacek.
Though Jackson called Hornacek “a young coach’’ with just “2 ¹/₂ years’’ of experience entering the 2016-17 season, he said Rambis “has all the knowledge that I have.’’
According to sources, Jackson hired Hornacek over Rambis because he was younger with a potentially better rapport with the modern-day player than Rambis.
However, the collapse at Christmas caused an unhappy locker room and Kristaps Porzingis’ decision to boycott his exit meeting underlined his massive frustration with how matters were handled.
Jackson said Friday there was “some disconnect at times with this team and rebelliousness that created some of the discord during the year.’’
That’s on Hornacek. And that will be why, more than in his first three failed seasons, Jackson will be helping out Hornacek.
“I think that one of the things I like about this job is that [general manager] Steve Mills, [director of basketball operations] Jamie Matthews do a lot of the paperwork — the back and forth with NBA headquarters and my issues is about talking to coaches, finding out the game plan,’’ Jackson said. “I think that I left them alone to see how they were going to perform this year in a way, took some time on the West Coast during the holidays when I think things really kind of fell down over New Year’s and the subsequent week after New Year’s. So I think I’ve got to do a little bit more on scene, on target mentoring. I probably will.’’
Jackson likes the word “mentoring,” hates the word “meddling’’ and said his recent triangle clinic with the guards mostly was for Derrick Rose’s benefit, because of his “disconnect’’ with the system.
Jackson said he believes his hire came with the notion he would lend his coaching expertise after winning an NBA-record 11 titles. Because coaches “are in front of teams an inordinate amount of time,’’ Jackson has said, their remarks become “gilded’’ and a fresh voice can be useful as reinforcement.
“When you sit back on the position I’m at, I get on the court, a couple of times I’ve had to stop practice and say, ‘Hold it, we can’t play that way,’ just to emphasize what the coaches are trying to say,’’ Jackson said. “There is a point where you have to be there with the players and actually stop them, so I’ve tried to do some of that but not intrude in the coaches’ direction, That is something that has to be done because as I’ve said a few times, we have to know who we are, what we stand for and how we’re going to play.’’
Jackson, who attended just four road games last season (Los Angeles twice, Golden State, Brooklyn), talked an inordinate amount about why he will insist on the triangle and explained he had Hornacek move further toward his system before the All-Star Break.
“I let Jeff do what he wanted to do — an agreement to try to blend what we call whatever that flow, fastbreak, early shooting offense into something formatted,’’ Jackson said. “We kind of let it roll until things didn’t roll well before we [said it] looks like we need some more fundamentals, more function towards the end of a game. They showed at the end of season they started being able to do some of that.’’
Rambis got put in charge of the sickly defense early in the season, Jackon said, because he was the most “outspoken’’ assistant in that area. He also coached the Lakers’ defense during part of Jackson’s run. However, next season Rambis’ offensive influence increases.
Shaquille O’Neal recently said Jackson misses the ailing Tex Winter in enforcing triangle concepts. Next season, Hornacek will get more help from the two-headed triangle monster of Rambis and Jackson.