Stephen A Smith Goes Nuts With Rant on Phil Jackson

[Pharmcat]

this plan was just bad from the start. if you're planning to quickly retool around a 30 year old star and be a contender, you don't hire a coach who's never coached before and a gm who's never gm'd before. you don't have time for mistakes.

yesterday was a sobering reality day
so many potential FAs got crossed off the list, LAL was left out in the cold meaning get ready to overpay for FAs this offseason, calderon and THJR were shown to have no value around the league which means they eat vital cap space this coming summer.

Don't worry both Calderon and THJrTHJr probably will not be here after the draft. Definitely not THJr!

no one wanted them now, nothing will change in 2 months

calderon is a overpaid backup PG

[Workforce250]

He doesn't need help, he needs time. Almost every move he's made has fallen into the long game. How quickly will his "mistakes" turn into genius moves if Gasol or Aldridge signs? Or if he lands Okafor, signs a couple of decent players and then makes a big run at Durant? Or Early or Thanasis turns out to be a quality player that we keep long term?

People are habitually judging his moves in a vacuum where they assume a lot about what's going to happen next and if there's one thing that seems undeniable by now it's that Phil Jackson has been completely unpredictable in terms of moves.

this is where I just don't get knicks fans. And you have idiots like Michael Kay and Craig Carton on the media hollering how other teams bettered themselves at the deadline and we got shved.

What did you want Phil to do? Trade our 2018 and 2020 1st round picks for Dragic and then pay him a 5 year max deal in the offseason?

Phil inherited a mess, he needs time. He took over a team with zero assets. He took over a team with a useless point guard with legal problems and a terrible contract, is malcontent center who is always injured and gave up on the team last year, a (Please Use More Appropriate Word) shooting guard in JR smith who cared more about the next girl he was about the pipe instead of learning the triangle and where he could best fit in, another shooting guard who had high asperations at one time because he was an elite defender in Shumpert who got injured and never returned to his once elite defensive form because he cared too much about getting paid and his music career than continue to improve his craft.

His only young player when he took over the roster was THjr who is a "shooter" who shoots 30% from 3 and plays no defense and can't dribble, pass, or rebound. He took over a team with no 1st round pick in 2014 no 1st round pick in 2016. So the next 1st round pick he could possibly deal was 2018.

Where are these assets? please someone explain to me where the assets where. He has shed salary, he has brought in a handful of young players, he has acquired more draft picks than he has traded away, he hasn't dealt any future 1st round pick. Those are all positives.

Did this year go as plan? No, of course not. But what he did do was stay the course. Not overreact to get us into a bigger mess and he realized how the season was going and adjusted. We are now set up for our best draft pick in year, 25+ million in cap space. There is a opportunity to improve. Give the man time, what else do we have. We have been through the worst of the worst. At least this time we have a plan.

Some of you guys are amazing complain to just complain. oh the Tyson trade we should of held on to him because he would be having similar success in a place he didn't want to play. Give me a f*cking break. He would have been injured and we might be getting the 7th pick in the draft. Phil has made the right moves. No moves are great when you are shedding players no one wants, I don't see why that is so difficult to understand.

That's the important thing to note...he stayed the damned course. He warned us it'd require patience. How crazy is it that we've spent years hating Dolan for chasing quick fixes and now everyone else is demanding immediate results from the first person Dolan has finally shown a semblance of patience?

LOl exactly.

Bi-polar fans. We don't want our 1st rounders traded any longer but we want to acquire free agents to be via ridiculous trades requirements. lmao

[god shammgod]

phil jackson might become a good gm but you need him to be one now. he basically has to hit a home run this summer. he might get lucky but that's what we're depending on for the most part. he won't be here for 10 years either so him learning now won't help us later. he took a job for now and he has to have success now. maybe it's too much to ask of a first time gm, but he took the job and he knew what it entailed. he's not making "learn on the job" money, he's making "get this f*cking done" money. and that's what he has to do.

Dolan and Jackson both said from jump that fixing the Knicks would take a while. We KNEW that this was going to be a long haul situation and that the team had almost no resources. Why is everyone shocked? Go back to that initial press conference...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball- ... 53184.html

This is the mess that Jackson, a legendary coach who won an all-time-high 11 championship rings during a career on the bench with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, has been imported to clean up. Both he and owner James Dolan seem to acknowledge that it could take a while.

Creating that team, of course, figures to be Jackson's greatest challenge. The Knicks already have nearly $92 million in salary on the books for next year before factoring in a free-agent re-up raise for Anthony, will be without first-round draft picks this coming summer (as a result of the original Melo deal) and in 2016 (via the Andrea Bargnani trade) and will also give away four second-round picks between now and 2017.

With precious little cap flexibility next season and limited access to the kinds of acquisition-aiding exceptions built into the league's collective bargaining agreement due to their status as a luxury-tax payer, there aren't very many ways for Jackson to add transformational talent to the Knicks roster. This, perhaps, is why he's thinking small.

Just to be clear, he outright said Melo figured into the future while also stating that this was not going to be a quick rebuild and that culture shift was his primary goal...

well that's senseless to me. i like melo but if you think this is gonna take years then you probably should have gotten what you could for him. you're gonna have a contender finally built when melo is 34 ? now he's getting lucky, this year has gone so extraordinarily bad that's he gonna get to pair melo with a top 4 pick. that wasn't his plan though and this year has mostly been missteps by him which he admits. it's not logical to me that it's all gonna start swinging in the opposite direction just because this season ends. i'm hoping for the best, i really am. maybe we'll get lucky. but i don't feel confident about it.

[Mike Breen]

The melo contract is so terrible. That thing is gonna be a ball and chain for us before the start of the 2016-17 season. Take that to the bank. I'm so sick of the knicks doling out these garbage contracts to aging stars

[god shammgod]

i'm not disappointed at the deadline either. it was too late to really do anything. he shouldn't have given up future picks for dragic or anything. if there's one thing i like about him is that he doesn't compound his mistakes. he's still made quite a few though.

[j4remi]

well that's senseless to me. i like melo but if you think this is gonna take years then you probably should have gotten what you could for him. you're gonna have a contender finally built when melo is 34 ? now he's getting lucky, this year has gone so extraordinarily bad that's he gonna get to pair melo with a top 4 pick. that wasn't his plan though and this year has mostly been missteps by him which he admits. it's not logical to me that it's all gonna start swinging in the opposite direction just because this season ends. i'm hoping for the best, i really am. maybe we'll get lucky. but i don't feel confident about it.

1. It's fine if you don't like his plan, but he laid this ish out for you from day one and has stuck to it. That people act surprised and outraged seems strange to me.

2. His "missteps" have done nothing to take away from that initial plan, that's the key here. This year was always going to be a mulligan and the 2015 off season was always going to be crucial whether we were coming from an 8 seed with a first round elimination or got the top pick in the draft. NOTHING would change that.

3. Call it luck fam, but if we're building around a core that involves a top pick in the draft, Melo and guys that Phil hand picked to fit into his vision...I could paint a lot worse scenarios for our squad.

Last thought: I think it's easy to criticize him but I've yet to see anyone with realistic alternatives other than keeping Tyson/Felton/Shump/JR...which I consider a hell of a lot worse than our current position.

[Pharmcat]

He doesn't need help, he needs time. Almost every move he's made has fallen into the long game. How quickly will his "mistakes" turn into genius moves if Gasol or Aldridge signs? Or if he lands Okafor, signs a couple of decent players and then makes a big run at Durant? Or Early or Thanasis turns out to be a quality player that we keep long term?

People are habitually judging his moves in a vacuum where they assume a lot about what's going to happen next and if there's one thing that seems undeniable by now it's that Phil Jackson has been completely unpredictable in terms of moves.

this is where I just don't get knicks fans. And you have idiots like Michael Kay and Craig Carton on the media hollering how other teams bettered themselves at the deadline and we got shved.

What did you want Phil to do? Trade our 2018 and 2020 1st round picks for Dragic and then pay him a 5 year max deal in the offseason?

Phil inherited a mess, he needs time. He took over a team with zero assets. He took over a team with a useless point guard with legal problems and a terrible contract, is malcontent center who is always injured and gave up on the team last year, a (Please Use More Appropriate Word) shooting guard in JR smith who cared more about the next girl he was about the pipe instead of learning the triangle and where he could best fit in, another shooting guard who had high asperations at one time because he was an elite defender in Shumpert who got injured and never returned to his once elite defensive form because he cared too much about getting paid and his music career than continue to improve his craft.

His only young player when he took over the roster was THjr who is a "shooter" who shoots 30% from 3 and plays no defense and can't dribble, pass, or rebound. He took over a team with no 1st round pick in 2014 no 1st round pick in 2016. So the next 1st round pick he could possibly deal was 2018.

Where are these assets? please someone explain to me where the assets where. He has shed salary, he has brought in a handful of young players, he has acquired more draft picks than he has traded away, he hasn't dealt any future 1st round pick. Those are all positives.

Did this year go as plan? No, of course not. But what he did do was stay the course. Not overreact to get us into a bigger mess and he realized how the season was going and adjusted. We are now set up for our best draft pick in year, 25+ million in cap space. There is a opportunity to improve. Give the man time, what else do we have. We have been through the worst of the worst. At least this time we have a plan.

Some of you guys are amazing complain to just complain. oh the Tyson trade we should of held on to him because he would be having similar success in a place he didn't want to play. Give me a f*cking break. He would have been injured and we might be getting the 7th pick in the draft. Phil has made the right moves. No moves are great when you are shedding players no one wants, I don't see why that is so difficult to understand.

he sold tyson when value was lowest, he shouldve waited until tyson built his value up(tyson is playing for a contract), if he didnt, just let his contract expire....taking on calderon 2015 salary is a huge mistake, calderon has been terrible this year and the league just showed no one wants him.

regarding the draft pick, jackson has no experience in drafting a lotto player, so while a pick is nice, there is no track record to go on to show jackson will score.

[j4remi]

he sold tyson when value was lowest, he shouldve waited until tyson built his value up(tyson is playing for a contract), if he didnt, just let his contract expire....taking on calderon 2015 salary is a huge mistake, calderon has been terrible this year and the league just showed no one wants him.

regarding the draft pick, jackson has no experience in drafting a lotto player, so while a pick is nice, there is no track record to go on to show jackson will score.

Like I said...the only alternatives offered are dream scenarios.

[Pharmcat]

well that's senseless to me. i like melo but if you think this is gonna take years then you probably should have gotten what you could for him. you're gonna have a contender finally built when melo is 34 ? now he's getting lucky, this year has gone so extraordinarily bad that's he gonna get to pair melo with a top 4 pick. that wasn't his plan though and this year has mostly been missteps by him which he admits. it's not logical to me that it's all gonna start swinging in the opposite direction just because this season ends. i'm hoping for the best, i really am. maybe we'll get lucky. but i don't feel confident about it.

1. It's fine if you don't like his plan, but he laid this ish out for you from day one and has stuck to it. That people act surprised and outraged seems strange to me.

2. His "missteps" have done nothing to take away from that initial plan, that's the key here. This year was always going to be a mulligan and the 2015 off season was always going to be crucial whether we were coming from an 8 seed with a first round elimination or got the top pick in the draft. NOTHING would change that.

3. Call it luck fam, but if we're building around a core that involves a top pick in the draft, Melo and guys that Phil hand picked to fit into his vision...I could paint a lot worse scenarios for our squad.

Last thought: I think it's easy to criticize him but I've yet to see anyone with realistic alternatives other than keeping Tyson/Felton/Shump/JR...which I consider a hell of a lot worse than our current position.

if we are playing for 2015 FA, then why did he add more salary for 2015 in calderons contract? (that was a terrible move)

[Pharmcat]

he sold tyson when value was lowest, he shouldve waited until tyson built his value up(tyson is playing for a contract), if he didnt, just let his contract expire....taking on calderon 2015 salary is a huge mistake, calderon has been terrible this year and the league just showed no one wants him.

regarding the draft pick, jackson has no experience in drafting a lotto player, so while a pick is nice, there is no track record to go on to show jackson will score.

Like I said...the only alternatives offered are dream scenarios.

much better than the nightmare we are in now

[moocow007]

I stopped reading 3 pages in and I'm smh at head so may posters just having blinders on for Phil Jackson--

It's like Knickfans are literally afraid to criticize ANYTHING he does, no matter poorly the results appear...

And god forbid anyone else criticize the great Phil Jackson, y'all circle the wagons--smdh

Yeah I'm not sure why folks have to feel they need to defend Jackson at all costs. He's got the rings, the fame, the wealth and the hot intelligent girlfriend. He don't need help. The Knicks do. And no move he's made has directly helped. The Knicks aren't in a situation where they can afford mistakes (which Jackson has already admitted to) nor giving their GM time to learn on the job. I wish they did. And no the sad state of this organizationi isn't Jackson's fault but that just stresses the need for not making mistakes.

He doesn't need help, he needs time. Almost every move he's made has fallen into the long game. How quickly will his "mistakes" turn into genius moves if Gasol or Aldridge signs? Or if he lands Okafor, signs a couple of decent players and then makes a big run at Durant? Or Early or Thanasis turns out to be a quality player that we keep long term?

People are habitually judging his moves in a vacuum where they assume a lot about what's going to happen next and if there's one thing that seems undeniable by now it's that Phil Jackson has been completely unpredictable in terms of moves.

What does his biggest mistake (Chandler trade) have anything to do with Gasol or Aldridge signing? If anything it's going to hurt it since he brought on more salary commitments (Calderon) without gaining any real assets that likely can be used in a sign and trade (big free agents aren't likely to pass on the extra one year, especially guys like Gasol and Aldridge who are looking at their last big payday given that both are nearing 30). No one is judging anything in a vacuum. A bad deal is a bad deal regardless of which angle you try to look at it at. If Novak who's been a doorknob since being traded can be moved, Felton could have been moved. Calderon? The best trade he's made is moving Smith's contract. The Chandler trade was bad. The Prigioni trade was "better than nothing".

[bigfnjoe96]

The quicker people realize Calderon will be our starting PG next year, the easier it will be to accept. He's not getting traded. It is what it is. For his CAP hit he's actually not a bad deal. The chance to have a starting back court making a combined 12-15M is IMO a win, especially when PG's are about to get PAID this off-season

[moocow007]

The quicker people realize Calderon will be our starting PG next year, the easier it will be to accept. He's not getting traded.

Not getting traded cause no one wants him at that contractual commitment.

[Pharmcat]

The quicker people realize Calderon will be our starting PG next year, the easier it will be to accept. He's not getting traded.

Not getting traded cause no one wants him at that contractual commitment.

jackson got hoodwinked in that deal....that is crucial 7.5 M that cannot be spent on attracting FAs

[j4remi]

What does his biggest mistake (Chandler trade) have anything to do with Gasol or Aldridge signing? If anything it's going to hurt it since he brought on more salary commitments (Calderon) without gaining any real assets that likely can be used in a sign and trade (big free agents aren't likely to pass on the extra one year, especially guys like Gasol and Aldridge who are looking at their last big payday given that both are nearing 30).

I just said to stop looking at moves in a vacuum and you immediately took one move in a vacuum to state your case (as did Pharmcat).

That's the crux of my issue, when you narrow view it to individual moves you can complain plenty...but when you put all of the moves together, can you honestly say we're in a worse situation now than we were before he took over? Melo and Chandler each with one foot out the door, no pick in 2016 and stuck underneath contracts for Felton, JR and Shump.

[mpharris36]

he sold tyson when value was lowest, he shouldve waited until tyson built his value up(tyson is playing for a contract), if he didnt, just let his contract expire....taking on calderon 2015 salary is a huge mistake, calderon has been terrible this year and the league just showed no one wants him.

regarding the draft pick, jackson has no experience in drafting a lotto player, so while a pick is nice, there is no track record to go on to show jackson will score.

he sold Tyson when the first good deal came across the board.

reasons to agree to the Tyson deal

1) trade a player that was outspoken about not wanting to be here
2) find a taker for Raymond felton contract (useless player with a bad contract)
3) get into the deep draft (acquired a couple 2nd round picks)

he accomplished all 3. This idea that you can just hold onto Tyson chandler and get some crazy value is ridiculous. He is playing with playmaking gurads in Dallas in Monta Ellis and Rondo. Who exactly on the knicks was going to set up Tyson chandler to inflate his PER (that's right his PER is f*cking inflated by just getting easy dunks) because he hasn't helped Dallas' defense. They are still one of the worst in the league.

what are the chances Tyson chandler gets hurt or starts to demand a trade halfway through the season? What leverage do the knicks have now that every team knows the knicks are desperate to trade chandler.

People keep clamering about Mozgov this and Mozgov that. Mozgov got to late first rounders and the reason he even got those picks (which might not even convey because of the protections on them) was because Denver didn't have to trade Mozgov they had leverage. He had a team friendly player option next year. Tyson was gone. They knicks weren't going to get near the value Mozgov got.

We got Calderon, has he been good, no but has he been terrible? no. He still is learning the system and he has been a top 10 shooter this year. That is not bad. And with no poing guards really available this offseason he is still our best option and at least that is a position we don't have to focus on.

When you see the contracts Reggie Jackson and other mediocre point guards are going to sign 7 million will look like nothing for a starting point guard.

[moocow007]

What does his biggest mistake (Chandler trade) have anything to do with Gasol or Aldridge signing? If anything it's going to hurt it since he brought on more salary commitments (Calderon) without gaining any real assets that likely can be used in a sign and trade (big free agents aren't likely to pass on the extra one year, especially guys like Gasol and Aldridge who are looking at their last big payday given that both are nearing 30).

I just said to stop looking at moves in a vacuum and you immediately took one move in a vacuum to state your case (as did Pharmcat).

That's the crux of my issue, when you narrow view it to individual moves you can complain plenty...but when you put all of the moves together, can you honestly say we're in a worse situation now than we were before he took over? Melo and Chandler each with one foot out the door, no pick in 2016 and stuck underneath contracts for Felton, JR and Shump.

I would say that the Knicks are not in a better position than when Jackson took over. None of his trades have gained the Knicks any noticeable assets and he swapped JR Smith's smaller salary squatting on the cap space with a bigger one belonging to Calderon. Big picture, neither Smith nor Calderon is impactful enough to warrant the cap space so he actually made things worse. Add that to no gain in assets and...what do you think? The only thing he's managed is to create a better vibe, in true zen fashion. But vibes fade if the results are no good. Believe, I'm trying to stay positive and I'm a huge Phil Jackson fan, but I'm not jaded or blinded by any need to defend anyone unnecessarily that I think a lot of folks are doing.

[bigfnjoe96]

The quicker people realize Calderon will be our starting PG next year, the easier it will be to accept. He's not getting traded.

Not getting traded cause no one wants him at that contractual commitment.

jackson got hoodwinked in that deal....that is crucial 7.5 M that cannot be spent on attracting FAs

Totally agree, but his contract isn't that much of an albatross, especially when the PG'S we may have targeted are gonna want 10M or better in FA. Personally SG is a much higher need than PG, especially in the Triangle. Also the SG in FA are actually more attractive than the PG in FA IMO

[moocow007]

Not getting traded cause no one wants him at that contractual commitment.

jackson got hoodwinked in that deal....that is crucial 7.5 M that cannot be spent on attracting FAs

Totally agree, but his contract isn't that much of an albatross, especially when the PG'S we may have targeted are gonna want 10M or better in FA. Personally SG is a much higher need than PG, especially in the Triangle.

It's really not even about that (cost of a solid PG in the NBA nowadays). Calderon's contract hinders the flexibility to make moves for a bigger fish...both in 2015 AND 2016. Big move for big fish first, then fill out. Not the other way around (wrong sequence). If you strike out on FA with max cap space, you can always find a Calderon level PG for Calderon's contract that some team is looking to shed. And you might even be able to gain an asset in the process of taking on that Calderon level player with the Calderon level contract. There's really no need to hoard one now. I know folks want to believe and stay positive but once you set emotions and rationalization aside, having Calderon's contract is not good.

[j4remi]

What does his biggest mistake (Chandler trade) have anything to do with Gasol or Aldridge signing? If anything it's going to hurt it since he brought on more salary commitments (Calderon) without gaining any real assets that likely can be used in a sign and trade (big free agents aren't likely to pass on the extra one year, especially guys like Gasol and Aldridge who are looking at their last big payday given that both are nearing 30).

I just said to stop looking at moves in a vacuum and you immediately took one move in a vacuum to state your case (as did Pharmcat).

That's the crux of my issue, when you narrow view it to individual moves you can complain plenty...but when you put all of the moves together, can you honestly say we're in a worse situation now than we were before he took over? Melo and Chandler each with one foot out the door, no pick in 2016 and stuck underneath contracts for Felton, JR and Shump.

I would say that the Knicks are not in a better position than when Jackson took over. None of his trades have gained the Knicks any noticeable assets and he swapped JR Smith's smaller salary squatting on the cap space with a bigger one belonging to Calderon. Big picture, neither Smith nor Calderon is impactful enough to warrant the cap space so he actually made things worse. Add that to no gain in assets and...what do you think? The only thing he's managed is to create a better vibe, in true zen fashion. But vibes fade if the results are no good.

Again, this is too limiting.

A) No gain in assets is false...he did add some minor assets. The Knicks have 3 more second rounders than when they started along with Early, Thanasis and Galloway whom you might not like but can't be discounted as potential assets if not already worth something.

B) He didn't just swap JR's salary out and bring in Calderon. Shump's and Felton's salaries are also out. I don't know the numbers but my guess is that's a net gain in cap space.

C) So big picture view that would mean we have more cap space, more assets (minor though they may be) and no concrete alternatives to look at where we would definitely have more cap space and assets than the current situation.

Edit: Additionally, the Knicks would be marginally better had they stood pat on those guys. Meaning a worse pick in this draft as well. So an asset he had from jump improved by virtue of the moves he's made as well.