New York Knicks interim head coach Kurt Rambis is angling for a more permanent gig, so why not throw Derek Fisher under the bus?
Rambis took aim at D-Fish in a chat with reporters Friday, saying that the former Knicks coach “skirted over” areas of the Triangle Offense instead of teaching it properly during training camp.
Sounds like Derek Fisher and Kurt Rambis weren't exactly on the same page. Now, who was it who made Fisher hire Kurt. #crisis&chaos.
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) April 8, 2016
As far back as the Vegas summer league we heard that Phil was unhappy that Derek Fisher was trying to move away from running the triangle.
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) April 8, 2016
During an appearance as an NBA TV analyst earlier this week, Fisher argued that mastering the famed offense is a difficult and time-consuming task for players.
Per Newsday:
“If you want learn something and truly learn something, you have to immerse yourself in it,” Rambis said at the Knicks’ Friday morning shootaround. “We didn’t fully immerse ourselves into practicing it, developing it, learning how to work with it, going through the breakdown drills to execute it properly so we kind of skirted over things. The real learning process of it didn’t have enough time to take place. […] We also didn’t allow the players the kind of time that it needs in terms of putting in the time to allow them to get comfortable with it.”
Fisher, who was fired Feb. 8, tried to tweak the offense and add some different looks. He didn’t just use a two-guard front, which is the more traditional approach in the triangle. Fisher went with a one-guard front as well. […] “Well we looked to do things out of a one-guard front as well as a two-guard front,” Rambis said. “So we’re constantly wavering, going back and forth. So to an extent our players almost treat it like plays now rather than a real sequence of actions and a real system that you work under.”
“First off, it’s not difficult,” Rambis said. “It’s like learning anything new. You have to open up your mind and be receptive to learning something new. That’s a huge part of it. Phil and Tex (Winter) have always felt it takes players regardless of who they are a good year when you’re staying in it, when you’re executing it the way it’s supposed to be executed a year or so in terms of really understanding it, the nuances of it, where you stop thinking about it. […] So would I say it’s difficult? No. You just have to be receptive to learning.”
