Joe Torre once said a good manager can add maybe five wins to a team’s total over 162 games, but a bad manager can torpedo an entire season. Last night’s 133-120 Knicks’ win over the Memphis Grizzlies offered two rebuttals to Torre’s take, via a coach whose approach could net his team far more than a handful of extra Ws and a player who reminds us the best coach in the world can’t win squat if that player isn’t on-board.
10 games into this season, the Knicks have started eight different players. That
typically happens to injury-ravaged teams, or super young or awful teams looking for whatever spark may offer light. New York is neither. What they are is increasingly exciting to imagine.
Last night Landry Shamet started for the third time. Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride and Ariel Hukporti have all started this year. Tom Thibodeau rode Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges like they were competing in the Iditarod rather than the NBA, rode ‘em like Mike D’Antoni rode Jeremy Lin (and Amar’e Stoudemire’s knees) like freakin’ Secretariat. Thibodeau, you may have heard, is no longer in charge.
Late in the fourth last night, with the Grizz having cut a 28-point deficit to 10, KAT wasn’t Brown’s choice at center. Neither was Mitch, nor Hukporti. Instead he went with Guerschon Yabusele, not exactly off to a Shane Spencer-level start in New York. And yet, after Brunson and OG, Yabusele finished with the Knicks’ best plus/minus (+13). The Knicks have a head coach willing to experiment a little, to share the wealth and the responsibilities around the roster. That’s not only winning games now, it’s banking minutes and mileage for April, May and hopefully June. If Thibs were coaching last night Brunson, KAT, OG, Bridges and Hart wouldn’t have been pulled until the last minute or two, if at all. Brown went nine-deep, with each player getting at least 15 minutes.
On the other sideline, Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo is getting a crash course in “be careful what you wish for.” Undoubtedly coaching in the NBA is a lifelong dream for him, and as (I believe) the first Finnish NBA HC he’s already accomplished something many never would have thought possible. No one can take that away from him. I wonder if he ever wishes someone would.
Unlike the Knicks, the Grizzlies are both young and injury-ravaged, at least injury-afflicted. Both starting center Zach Edey and Javon Small missed last night’s game and are day-to-day. Ty Jerome is out another month with a calf strain. Brandon Clarke is recovering well from a knee injury, but won’t be re-evaluated for another 6-9 weeks. Scotty Pippen Jr. is out another three months with a big toe injury. Also, what kind of unearned hubris led Scottie Pippen Sr. to name his son Junior while spelling his first name differently? “Scottie Pippen Jr.” makes sense. “Scotty Pippen” looks like what someone who sells fakes sports memorabilia signs on Scottie Pippen Sr. stuff to up the price.
And yet none of those things are the Grizzlies’ biggest issue. Ja Morant isn’t, either, but rather how the organization has continually dealt (or not dealt) with their franchise player’s blemishes. There’s a word for the approach the front office has taken to years of frustration and disappointment. That word is “gutless.”
I’m not going to run down Morant’s off-the-court issues the past few years; there’s a whole internet you can use for that, if you’re so inclined. Assuming you know the broadstrokes, the question Iilaso must be asking is “Why exactly are we putting up with this?”, the “this” being “the little Ja is giving versus the lotta he’s not.” The past four seasons Morant missed 25, 21, 73 and 31 games. That’s Zion Williamson/Anthony Davis territory. Think the Pelicans or Mavericks see either of those guys as someone they’re happy to be paying max money?
Last year Morant was bothered by how much the Grizz scaled back running pick-and-rolls. About 10 minutes before the playoffs started, Memphis fired coach Taylor Jenkins. Spoiler: firing your coach right before the playoffs is not an indicator of good health. Now under Iilaso, Morant is bothered. Again. He was suspended earlier in the week for “conduct detrimental to the team” after a(nother) sullen, passive-aggressive postgame media session, yet Ja’s play has been even more detrimental: he’s scoring less than he has since his rookie year, is 10% down from his prior career-worst field goal percentage (35%) and 11% down from his prior worst 3-point clip (17% so far this year). The less said about his defense, the better.
That’s a problem, considering there’s another $126 million (and change) left on Ja’s contract. It’s also a problem considering the $186 million (and change) left on Jaren Jackson Jr’s contract, because JJJ is a max-player in salary only. He is most definitively not a face-of-the-franchise, top-level star. Without Morant operating at that level, Jackson’s salary becomes less of a franchise cornerstone and more of a millstone dragging them down toward the apron hells. This past offseason Memphis traded one of their three best players, Desmond Bane, largely over of concerns over paying him, Morant and JJJ all nine-figure deals. Two nights ago, Bane did this.
Last night in the first half, Morant got tied up with KAT, resulting in a jump ball. In theory, anyway. When the toss went up, Ja didn’t jump. Didn’t move an inch. On the ensuing Knick possession, Morant . . . well, to say he “died” after feeling some contact would be like saying Abraham Lincoln “passed away” at Ford’s Theater. Doesn’t remotely convey the intensity. Morant hit the floor like he’d been shot, got up looking like his head was literally spinning, and had zero awareness of where the ball was as Towns dished to McBride for a three that was, if such a thing is even possible, uncontested with extreme prejudice.
Joe Torre was not welcomed to New York with open arms after the Yankees fired Buck Showalter (the first of Buck’s two unfair New York firings). “Clueless Joe,” the backpages read, immediately down on the nice guy who’d never finished first. Torre didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. The Yankees had already been really good for a few years; he brought them some new touches and voila! Dynasty, baby.
Mike Brown was not welcomed to New York with a great deal of excitement after Thibodeau’s firing; here comes another nice guy who’s never won a thing (four championships as an assistant coach, but whatevs). But in these early days he’s introduced some little changes here and there that are paying off big-time. So far. If that earns the Knicks five extra wins come playoff time, they’ll be NBA champs.
