David Fizdale Was Set Up To Fail

When Fizdale first took over for New York, the roster he was gifted was untalented and in a fluid state of motion. 23 players played for the Knicks during the 2019 season, and only 5 players played more than 60 games. The season started out poorly when they traded their once franchise cornerstone Kristaps Porzingis for Deandre Jordan, Wesely Matthews, and Dennis Smith Jr. Jordan and Matthews are no longer on the team, and Smith while performing well last season, has only played 3 games so far this year. They did find a bright spot at point guard with Emmanuel Mudiay, although he left in this past offseason for Utah. They’re best young players were not the 7th overall pick Kevin Knox, who has struggled with poor shooting and lack of playmaking ability. Frank Ntlinkina, the former 7th pick of the draft, has struggled heavily, averaging just 5 points while shooting under 35%

The Knicks did potentially find two building blocks however with Mitchell Robinson and Alonzo Trier. Robinson has potential as a high energy rim runner, as he averaged 13 point and 11 rebounds per 36 minutes. Alonzo Trier was the undrafted star of last season, averaging 17 points while shooting 39% from three. While most of last season was dark for the Knicks, Trier and Robinson were interesting players to potentially build around. The Knicks also drafted RJ Barrett with the third pick of the draft, and has shown to pay off so far in this early season. Barrett has avergaed 15 point and 6 rebounds, and shown potential of elite slashing ability. The Knicks weren’t doing a terrible job, but then free agency happened.