Schmeelk: Three Years In, Phil Jackson Finally Doing Things His Way
By John Schmeelk
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The Knicks decided not to bring back one of their assistant coaches over the weekend, declining to renew the contract of Joshua Longstaff. On the surface, this would appear to be a run-of-the-mill move that every team does every summer, reshuffling their coaching staff. These are the Knicks, however, so there's more to it than that.
Longstaff was one of the three holdovers from Derek Fisher's staff (along with Dave Bliss and Kurt Rambis) and worked along with Bliss to help the young players on the roster develop and improve. Longstaff had grown especially tight with Kristaps Porzingis over the past two seasons, even traveling to Latvia last summer to work with him. There were reports that Porzingis requested Longstaff join the Latvian national team coaching staff this summer. He publicly praised Longstaff and Bliss in an interview at the end of last season.
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Despite the optics, the idea this is a purposeful shot across the bow by Jackson at Porzingis seems unlikely. Even though the Knicks' president has done just that with Carmelo Anthony, it seems even too nonsensical for him to try to make Porzingis even more disgruntled with the organization. The team is retaining Bliss, the other developmental coach, after all.
So why fire Longstaff? What could Longstaff, who was reportedly widely admired by players and worked really hard to improve them, have done to not be wanted back? He sounds an awful lot like Kenny Atkinson, whom the Knicks also let go, only to see him become a head coach for the Nets. It's very odd, especially given the recent efforts to mend fences with Porzingis' camp. Perhaps Jackson preferred Bliss, who stands 6-foot-10 and would be able to help Porzingis develop his post game more? Maybe Longstaff helped more on Porzingis' perimeter game, which Jackson criticized after the season? These are all guesses.
Maybe this is just part of Jackson's plan to go all-in on the method of basketball he has been trying to get the Knicks to play since he arrived. When Jackson arrived here, he tried to put his stamp on the franchise immediately by hiring one of his former players, Derek Fisher, to be his coach. He surrounded Fisher with older coaches from Jackson's past in an attempt to help him along as coach and play the way Jackson wanted him to. Fisher brought in some of his own people from Oklahoma City as well.
Unfortunately for Jackson, Fisher seemed to be more influenced in terms of preferred play style by his time with the Thunder than when he played in the triangle with the Lakers. It took Jackson only a year and a half to pull the plug on Fisher. Jackson made it clear he let Fisher go for not communicating well with him and his hand-chosen coaches on the staff. It wasn't difficult to gleam that the reason Fisher was no longer there was because he wasn't playing the way Jackson wanted by running more of the triangle and taking his advice on other matters.
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After Rambis finished the season as interim head coach, it seemed obvious he was destined to be Jackson's choice for head coach. Regardless of whether or not the plan to become a true old-school triangle team would work, it was at least a plan. Jackson decided to go with Jeff Hornacek instead, and having not learned his lesson from Fisher, tried to force the triangle down Hornacek's throat.
After Hornacek used it sparingly in the first few months of the season and the team struggled, Jackson once again emerged from his cave in Montana and let Hornacek know that it was time for the team to rededicate to the triangle in the season's final months. Jackson held a triangle seminar with the team's guards. Even though it wasn't clear how much more the team ran the system in April, the organization said it would evaluate prospective players this summer based on triangle fit.
Longstaff is far more likely to be a victim of this organizational direction than anything else. Looking back, Jackson probably regrets not just hiring Rambis and being done with it last summer. He is stuck with Hornacek since it is unlikely owner James Dolan would allow him a third full-time coach in his fourth season as president. Hornacek has said all the right things and seems to have bought in to the plan, but now Jackson is rightfully seen as a team president who is micromanaging and stripping all authority away from the coach who needs to be able to be seen as the ultimate authority of what happens on the court.
After dancing around his ideology and trying to mix and match it with modern NBA principles, Jackson appears ready to implement his philosophy in its more pure form to see if it can work in New York. Whether or not it is likely to succeed (not very likely), at the very least, it is a plan. Jackson has bounced around to three or four different visions for this team during his tenure, but this one is likely the final one. Jackson, who won 11 world titles as a coach, wants to prove his way of playing basketball can still win games.
Knicks fans will either be victims of his hubris or enjoy the benefits of its success. At worst, Knicks fans should hope Jackson's plans don't alienate or stall the progress of the good, young pieces that have been added during his tenure. The best hope now is that a stable of young, talented people are still on the roster when Jackson leaves so the next leader of the organization can install a philosophy that can make the most of their talents.
For everything Knicks, Giants, and the world of sports, follow John on Twitter at @Schmeelk