After his New York Knicks were bounced from the Las Vegas Summer League tournament on Friday at the hands of the Charlotte Hornets, Coach Derek Fisher was asked what he learned through his first five games as a head coach.
The list of things gained from the experience is likely innumerable for Derek, who was coaching for the first time at any level, but one thing he learned about himself that hasn’t changed in his transition from player to coach was that his competitive drive is still unwavering, and he despises defeat just the same.
“I don’t know if it’s new, but I learned how much I still don’t like to lose,” Coach Fisher said. “Even though it’s Summer League, today is somewhat disappointing, but I’m excited about what we accomplished. I think all of our fans and people who watched us play, our players included, are excited about what we can become, and now we have a couple months to start to get ready for it.”
The No. 2 seed Knicks got great performances out of their Las Vegas big three—Tim Hardaway Jr., Shane Larkin and Cleanthony Early. All three eclipsed 15 points and turned in a positive scoring advantage. But a rough night from the bench led to a narrow 82-79 upset at the hands of the No. 23 seed Charlotte Hornets.
New York crushed Charlotte 95-72 in pool play last week, but the Hornets came back with a vengeance in the quarterfinals. The two squads were nearly even through the first half, but the Hornets brought a slight 39-37 edge into the break.
Hardaway carried the load in the scoring column once again. He tallied 10 points in the second frame, and led New York for the fifth straight contest, with a game-high 27 points. The second-year guard from Michigan led the team with an average of 22.8 points per game over the course of the summer session, and D-Fish praised his play, while noting that the young guard will have to improve on the defensive end before the season begins.
“Our system provides opportunities for Tim and all of our players to get multiple shots from multiple spots,” Fish said. “I thought Tim was really good in terms of picking up where his shots would come from, where the opportunities will be, and being aggressive out on the floor. I thought he gave an honest effort on the defensive end. That’s an area where he’ll have to improve and our entire team will have to be better than we have in the past.”
After hanging in the game throughout the first half, the Knicks broke down on both ends of the floor in the third quarter, tallying just 12 points. Meanwhile, P.J. Hairston and Rion Brown combined for 14 points to give the Hornets a 13-point lead, 62-49, going into the final frame.
Despite trailing by as much as 15 points, the Knicks stormed back in the fourth, outscored the Hornets 30-20 and brought the game to within three points in the final seconds. Then Larkin, a new addition in the Tyson Chandler-Raymond Felton trade with the Dallas Mavericks, buried a three-point buzzer beater—only it didn’t beat the buzzer. As the point guard’s bucket didn’t count, the Knicks fell three points short of extending their Summer League lives.
Despite his last-second misfortune on Friday, it was a strong summer season for the former Miami Hurricane, who trailed just Hardaway for the team lead in points per game, averaging 12.2 points, and led the Knicks with 3.4 assists and three steals per contest. He was also strong on the glass with 4.2 rebounds per night.
After the game, Fish showered the second-year with praise for a job well-done for the summer Knicks.
“Shane was fantastic,” Derek said. “In a lot of ways he was our most stable and consistent performer, in terms of being solid with the basketball, making the right plays, making the right reads. I thought defensively he caused a lot of problems for every team we played. That’s where he can change the game every time he’s on the floor. I’ve always been impressed with Shane even before I got a chance to coach him. He was great these past couple weeks and I’m looking forward to looking with him when we get to training camp.”
Coach Fish also paid a compliment to rookie Early, the team’s top draft pick for 2014. Early battled his way through some injuries to still have a strong Summer League performance, where he averaged 11.5 points, 4.8 boards and 1.3 dimes.
“Cleanthony was great,” Coach Fish said. “He had the ankle sprain that cost him a few days, then he had the stitches in the chin that slowed down his action in one game. What we love about Cleanthony now that we have him is what we loved before we got him, and that’s just an enjoyment for playing the game, high energy, very skilled player, and we’re just excited about trying to work with him and help him get better.”
Derek praised not just his Big 3, but the entire roster for its work in practice and in games. The team had a large task in learning the complex triangle offense in an incredibly short amount of time, but handled it with poise and executed it efficiently during the run to the Summer League quarterfinals.
“All of our practices were great: high intensity, highly focused,” Derek said. “The guys got better everyday. It’s tough to do it in the game setting. We only actually gave them a little bit of what this system provides…They executed it better in two weeks than some teams I played for when we had two months to get ready. I’m proud of these guys.”
In all, though the Knicks didn’t take home the Summer League title, Derek sees the last few weeks as a great success, and the upcoming time off for his players as well-earned.
“I thought these guys were great,” D-Fish said. “They did everything we asked them to do. No other team asked as much of their teams as we did, in terms of learning a completely new way to play in a new system. Winning four out of five games in the NBA is pretty good.”
With that in mind, free agency all but done and their solid run in Las Vegas behind them, Fish and the rest of the Knicks will take some time to breathe and regroup for the coming season, before tackling their game plan for the weeks leading up to training camp.
“I think it’s important for all of us to take a step back here to close out the month of July,” Fish said. “It’s important to slow your mind down and give your body and mind a chance to refresh and regenerate. Then right there at the start of the month of August, we’ll get back to work. We expect to compete in the Eastern Conference. That’s going to take a lot of hard work but we’re going to get right to it in August.”
