GREENBURGH, N.Y. _ Back in the summer when the talk of the rebuild was in full swing, David Fizdale certainly knew there would be hard times in his first season. The seven straight losses that the Knicks carry into Friday's game in Brooklyn, sure, he could see that coming. Maybe even the 10-36 record even if he didn't want to think about it.
But what Fizdale now is dealing with in trying to navigate the team through a season in which the organization shudders at the mention or notion that they are tanking is the dysfunction that comes with the mounting losses and realistic decisions to move on from the last generation of players.
So Enes Kanter is now openly speaking about his frustration with his reduced role _ a role that evaporated to zero Wednesday night when Kanter was told in the morning that he was starting against the Rockets, then informed pregame by assistant coach Keith Smart that he was coming off the bench, and then never came off the bench at all. Tim Hardaway Jr. and rookie Allonzo Trier are screaming at each other on the court _ and then maybe more disconcerting, Trier sniping on social media.
Asked if he was worried that all this will become a distraction damaging what he's trying to do, Fizdale smiled and said, "What are we going to do? Lose more games?
"I shouldn't make light of it. Sometimes you've got to laugh. No, it's a lesson for all of them. Because they're all going to end up in different scenarios. So what I try to do is take all of these situations and teach them and prepare them and try to give them ammunition on how to handle this stuff. None of them are going to be perfect in it. I'm not going to be perfect in it. But at the end of the day, we all got a job to do. They pay us a lot of money to come here and do it."
The Knicks can plot for next summer, the lottery pick that all of the losing will bring and a chase of a star in free agency. But in the meantime, the losing is wearing thin on a team that has shown little signs of the player development set as the goal for this season.
Veterans Kanter, Lance Thomas and Courtney Lee have seen their minutes disappear, but mostly it has been in favor of players such as Emmanuel Mudiay and Noah Vonleh _ both free agents at season's end. The most recent lottery pick, Kevin Knox, has gotten a crash course with huge minutes, but the previous lottery pick, Frank Ntilikina, has struggled to find his place.
So now Kanter is teetering on a trade demand, saying he is leaving the situation to his agent, Mark Bartelstein, and Knicks general manager Scott Perry. And Hardaway didn't seem pleased _ first by Trier not passing to him on a two-on-one break early in Wednesday's game and then by learning that Trier had sent a direct message to a fan that put the onus on Hardaway for a defensive lapse late in the game.
Trier, criticized by a fan for his defense on Eric Gordon's 3-pointer with 12.4 seconds left that put Houston in front, responded in a direct message which the fan then posted publicly. Trier admitted that the expletive-laden message came from him. Hardaway, when told about the Twitter message, on a play in which Fizdale said Hardaway was supposed to switch onto Gordon, said, "Oh, so (Trier is) blaming other people, basically?"
"It was me, being frustrated about the game, letting social media get the best of you and giving somebody a response that wasn't to somebody that was (relevant) to the situation," Trier said. "So my apologies for doing that. It's not the way I want to represent myself or this organization. You learn. That's something that won't happen again. Obviously I didn't think he would take a picture of it and post it, but he got his little clout or whatever, his little 15 seconds of fame. That's why you don't send stuff like that out. That was just the competitor in me. Sometimes that can be your gift and your curse."
"I talked to him about it and just said, I know where it's coming from because he's frustrated," Fizdale said of his message to Trier. "He wants to win. He wants people to understand how much he wants to win and compete. But it can't come out like that. And it can't come out in that kind of anger and frustration and it definitely can't come out on social media."
The Knicks figure to resolve some of their issues by the Feb. 7 trade deadline. Kanter is certainly being shopped around the league, but there are several others who could be traded.
"I mean, I have no idea," Kanter said when asked if he thought he'd be a Knick after the deadline. "In the end, like I said, I want to play basketball. I don't know what's going to happen at the trade deadline. It's not in my hand. I would love to be here. Like I said from the first day, I love this organization. I love the fans and everything. I want to be here. I want to be part of the future. But they treat me like I'm 34 years old. I'm 26."
"That's out of my realm right there," Fizdale said. "Like I told you guys before, I don't care who's in this gym in a Knicks uniform, I am going to coach the hell out of them and try to make them a better player and person. Whatever agents and our front-office people decide, I'll go with the flow of that. But right now, I'm just focused on them."
