This is part 7!
The Phil Jackson Chronicles Part 7: 2015-16 season postmortem
Over the course of the 2015-16 NBA season, Today’s Fastbreak’s Charley Rosen met with New York Knicks president Phil Jackson to discuss the state of the team. This is Part 7 of “The Phil Jackson Chronicles.”
Knicks’ final record = 32-50
“Even when we were 22-22, we were concerned about losing games because of fourth-quarter meltdowns. The guys hadn’t developed an instinctive feel for the triangle, so they were cautious, played by rote, and our offense became predictable. When in doubt, they too often resorted to individual play. All of this created lots of media criticism of the triangle offense itself.
“But, really, when you come down to it, the triangle is just a way to format basic basketball. Lots of teams run many aspects of the triangle, with San Antonio being the most successful example. What we lacked that, say, the Spurs had, were guards who could penetrate and force defenses to make the kinds of adjustments that left other players open. That’s one reason why we drafted Jerian Grant.
“Nevertheless, early in the season, we beat some really good teams like Oklahoma City, Houston, Boston, Toronto, Atlanta, Detroit and Portland. But when you play teams multiple times you have to keep adding elements to both your offense and your defense. Yet we never did evolve. For example, we were never able to develop the recognition to properly execute many of the basic automatic options that make the triangle effective. So we couldn’t make the appropriate counters when defenses pressured the wings and we wound up turning the ball over and giving up easy run-out scores. Plus, the second or third times we played teams, our game plans remained somewhat elementary while theirs had progressed.
“Not to blame it all on Fish, though. Because we had so few holdover players from last season and so many new players this season, it was understandable why our overall development and cohesion was a slower process than we had hoped...
http://www.todaysfastbreak.com/nba-east/new-york-knicks/phil-jackson-chronicles-part-7-2015-16-season-postmortem/
