The sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden stood and chanted “Dee-Fense! Dee-Fense!,” urged on by major chords blasting forth over the PA system from the World’s Most Famous Arena’s urgent, ancient organ. On the spotlighted floor below the New York Knicks dug in, and as if on cue forward Kristaps Porzingis summoned a blocked shot, then sprinted to the other end of the floor and flushed a dunk, giving the Knicks a 13-point lead over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night.
It hardly mattered that the Nets were on the second half of a back-to-back, or without starting point guard Jeremy Lin, or that the Nets weren’t even supposed to be very good to begin with. What mattered in this house, on this hour was that the Knicks got a much-needed win, beating the Nets 110-96.
Just hours earlier, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek had done his best to remind everyone that a 2-4 start to the season wasn’t exactly the end of the world. “Everybody thinks the sky is falling,” Hornacek told reporters. “I guess so. But I don’t think any of our guys, any of the coaches, anyone in the organization, is panicked about it. We know these guys just got together in these last few weeks with Derrick [Rose] coming back. Are there things we can do better? Sure. We will get better. Everyone is pretty positive.”
Winning may not be everything, or the only thing, but in New York it is somehow something even greater than all of those options. It’s something the Knicks haven’t done quite enough of the last few years, although this latest iteration of the Knicks are hoping some positivity will change that.
“It’s a process. We’re finding each other.” — Kristaps Porzingis
The hiring of Phil Jackson as team president in 2014 was expected to provide the Knicks a framework upon which to build a championship pedigree. Jackson, of course, won two titles as a player with the Knicks in the early ‘70s, the latest coming in 1973, the last time the Knicks won a title. But of course, even though Jackson racked up 11 titles as a coach with the Bulls and Lakers, Jackson was never in charge of player personnel, like he would be this time around in Manhattan.
For years, it seemed that the Knicks lacked the patience to rebuild slowly and from the ground up; it was as though they were attempting to flip houses while drawing up blueprints as they went. Jackson’s arrival would give them a timetable refresh and provide a little breathing room.
Yet after embarking on what appeared to be a resolute rebuilding track, anchored by signing franchise scorer Carmelo Anthony to a long-term deal, last season’s emergence of rookie Kristaps Porzingis allowed Jackson to hit the gas pedal on his plans. His boldest strike came this summer, when he traded Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant to Chicago for Derrick Rose, Justin Holiday and a second-round pick. Jackson also signed Rose’s former teammate, New York native and free agent center Joakim Noah, as well as veteran guards Courtney Lee and Brandon Jennings. After less than two seasons with Jackson’s former guard Derek Fisher as head coach, this summer Jackson elected Jeff Hornacek, who previously presided over a high-powered offense in Phoenix.
The roster remake was impressive, if marked by caveats. Sure, on paper a starting five of Rose, Lee, Carmelo Anthony, Porzingis and Noah seems strong, good enough for Rose to declare the Knicks as one of the NBA’s “super teams.”
But that doesn’t take into account the extensive injury history of most of the players named, or Porzingis’ youth, or Hornacek’s inexperience with Jackson’s beloved Triangle offense.
While the injury bug has thus far yet to rear its ugly head in Manhattan — *knocks on wood* — the looming spectre of the Triangle has been strangely impactful. It was mildly surprising when Jackson hired Hornacek, whose most significant history with Jackson had come as an opponent. Hornacek said he would incorporate “elements” of the Triangle, and it took all of about three weeks from the start of the season for a report to surface that Jackson was unhappy with the amount of Triangle sets the Knicks have been using.
You can’t deny that Jackson won all those titles running the Triangle offense. You also can’t argue that Jackson won those titles running the Triangle offense with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, and with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles. The truth is, these Knicks could run the Triangle, or the Square or the Rectangle, but until they improved their defensive effort, they were going to struggle. Through their first seven games, the Knicks have had a 104.2 offense rating, good for 15th among the NBA’s 30 teams. Their defensive rating of 106.5, however, left them a dismal 26th.
Hornacek has addressed the defensive deficiencies by designating associate head coach Kurt Rambis, a former assistant under Jackson, as the team’s defensive coordinator. While Hornacek says this wasn’t a decision passed down from Jackson — “Call Wikileaks and you can look at my email… [Jackson] didn’t have anything to do with it.” — it should, at least in theory, make things easier for the Knicks. “We got the one voice who’s talking about it, though the coaches are still doing their defensive game plan when they look at the team,” Hornacek said on Thursday. “With Kurt being the one guy, if a guy has a question, you can ask him. It’s simplified.”
On the other end of the floor, the Knicks have demonstrated an ability to explode on offense, although they’ve had trouble sustaining that effort. After falling behind 14 in the first half to the Nets, the Knicks turned things around in the second half thanks to a tough defensive effort from their bench. In turn, the Knicks got key huge offensive boosts in shifts from their stars — Anthony had 14 points in the third quarter, Porzingis had 11 in the fourth.
One encouraging sign for Knicks fans came in that second half against Brooklyn, when the Knicks turned to backup point guard Brandon Jennings to help lead them out of their malaise. Rose ended up sitting for most the second half, and if you’re looking for any kind of manufactured playing time controversy, look elsewhere: “That’s why I’m here,” Rose said. “To do anything to win. And if Brandon’s playing the way he was playing, my job is to sit back and tell him what he don’t see on the floor at that time and just try to make him better.”
(When asked if he had a preference between Rose’s and Jennings’ styles of play, Hornacek said he cared for “winning, maybe? Whoever provides that, we’re all good for that.“)
It doesn’t get any easier. The Knicks head into this weekend with a 3-4 record, with road games at Boston and Toronto waiting. Are these Knicks an offensive juggernaut? A lockdown defensive squad? Do they play pace and space? Inside-out? To be sure, there are questions to be answered. The Knicks were expected to take a step forward this year. And it’s happening, just perhaps not as quickly as everyone expected.
“We’re still working on our offense, defense, everything,” Porzingis said. “It’s a process. We’re finding each other.”
After years looking for a foothold, the New York Knicks are moving forward. And maybe that’s more important than how they get there.
Lang Whitaker has covered the NBA since 1998. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here or follow him on Twitter.
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