Per ESPN, Mike Woodson has been receiving little subtle jabs lately and even a report of how firing him would be the Knicks best bet but Woodson doesn’t agree. Woodson has a little message for fans/management/teammates alike… don’t panic just yet.
“Panic word shouldn’t even be an issue,” Woodson said after practice on Sunday. “The issue is how can we come together as a group and figure out how to play consistent basketball for 48 minutes.”
“You got two starters that are not in uniform. I don’t know what kind of team we really have,” Woodson said. “We haven’t had a full deck. Somehow, we have to get to that just to see where we are. Until we get there we got to somehow maintain and hold this thing down so it don’t get too far out of whack.
But unfortunately Smith and Anthony don’t share those same sentiments.
“We’re frustrated,” Smith said. “Like you say, it’s too early to panic, but me, personally, I’m panicking. I don’t like this.”
“If we’re going to be a championship-caliber team and call ourselves that, then we’ve gotta play like that. It can’t be no other way.”
“There’s a lot of pressure going into the next shot, the next play, the next possession,” Smith said. “I think we’ve got to, after one play is over, look forward to the next play and try to do better the next time. I think we’re over-analyzing stuff. We need to get back to having fun and playing basketball.”
Anthony:
“Yeah, I worry about other guys doing that (losing confidence),” he said. “This is tough for anybody to go through. Especially games you believe you should be winning, guys feel they should be playing better. We feel like we should be playing better as a team. Guys could easily lose confidence in a situation like that.”
Im afraid to say I kind of agree with Woodson. The Knicks have the potential to be threatening in the eastern conference and to even think of firing Woodson now would be a mistake on the Knicks behalf. If they are experiencing the same issues in February… then Woodson needs to be evaluated.