The New York Knicks have fired their head coach David Fizdale after a terrible start of the season. It was something anticipated by most of the experts, after several indications made by the Knickerbockers’ management.
Fizdale as the Scapegoat
Fizdale was fired this Friday, with the team sitting in the last place of the Eastern Conference standings in the moment of his departure. Knicks were 4-18 and had eight straight losses. The last one was against the Denver Nuggets at the Madison Square Garden, 129-92, with the host being completely blown into pieces, and without any will to resist, the guests from Colorado.
The franchise recorded 21 wins and 83 losses under Fizdale during his stint, which lasted less than two seasons. However, nobody believes that it was Fizdale’s mistake, as he didn’t get the competitive team promised by the board.
This was James Dolan’s 12th coach who got replaced at Knicks, since he became the owner back 19 years ago.
What many sources say is that Fizdale didn’t have too many chances of surviving throughout the All-Star, due to the fact that team president Steve Mills’ and GM Mike Scott’s intended to cover their failures made during the offseason, by blaming Fiz for that.
These two already had a public appearance following the disappointing loss versus the Cavaliers on November 10, when they indirectly pointed fingers towards Fizdale, making him the scapegoat. Smith and Miller were saying that the team has the potential, but that the coaching and guidance is not at the required level, which wasn’t really true in this case.
With the fans mad about the poor results, the 45-year old didn’t stand a chance. Mike Miller has been named as his interim replacement, but according to sources, he won’t be a long term solution. Up until this point, he served under Fizdale as his assistant.
High Expectations For No Reason
The most important reason why Knick’s fans feel frustrated are the stories that took place after the end of the previous season. Back then, the board, and especially the media from the Big Apple, were throwing all kinds of plans at the fanbase. They would write stories about Kyrie Irving’s and Kevin Durant’s recruitment, talking about Zion Williamson and the No.1 pick on this draft, although they didn’t have any assets to reach that but to be picked out at the draft lottery as the first selection.
As time went by, you could see the euphoria among the Knicks’ fans, and they were ready to once again watch their favorites battling for the NBA throne.
However, in the end, the team was left without any of the above-mentioned guys. The best thing New York got was RJ Barrett, who is the No.3 pick form this year’s draft, and from the free agency, Julius Randle was the most sounding name.
Of course, with all due respect to all other Knicks’ players, without any of the superstars, they simply didn’t stand a chance to make better results than this one.
We’ll see what happens next with the franchise from the Big Apple. It is hard to believe that they make some radical improvement, but the time will show.
