Reports in are saying that Isiah Thomas has been fired as coach of the Knicks. Thomas seems to be staying with the organization as an assistant to Walsh. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=a3kgrEUWxLEQ&refer=home Dolan showed a good understanding of the New York press by making the decision public on Friday at 5pm. Most people are either on their way home to their family or having happy hour drinks at their local pub with the music pumping. By Monday morning no one is going to remember that Isiah Thomas wa... lire la suite
Reports in are saying that Isiah Thomas has been fired as coach of the Knicks. Thomas seems to be staying with the organization as an assistant to Walsh. Dolan showed a good understanding of the New York press by making the decision public on Friday at 5pm. Most people are either on their way home to their family or having happy hour drinks at their local pub with the music pumping. By Monday morning no one is going to remember that Isiah Thomas was fired. The mere mention of Thomas’ name draws laughs and criticisms, and this was a good way to minimize the number of people that are going to sit around the water cooler and bad mouth the organization. But the timing is also perfect in another way. It’s early enough that the Knicks shouldn’t lose out on any interested coaches. If they waited longer, one of the other NBA teams looking for a coach might snap up a potential candidate. Finally I know some Knick fans are unhappy that Thomas is staying with the organization in any capacity. But I think his four and a half years of futility makes his presence innocuous. Dolan knows he can’t bring rehire him as president or coach, because Isiah Thomas has become a joke within a 100 miles of MSG. Thomas is still around because Dolan has him under contract for a few more years. For once Dolan will make someone earn the lengthy contract he handed out, instead of buying the person out.
Absolutely, Positively the Worst Team in the History of Professional Sports: A eulogy for Isiah Thomas’s New York Knickerbockers. In essence, Jeff seeks to explain the train-wreck that is the New York Knicks under Isiah Thomas. The explanation ranges from the problems with ownership, the managerial ability and style of Isiah Thomas, and the attitudes and abilities of the talent Isiah has assembled. Like most man-made disasters, the latter-day Knicks were a complex compound of error and hubris, tradition and pathology. It began with Dolan, the volatile owner who admitted to having “no basketball skills, physically or mentally.” In theory, his one good quality was his open checkbook, courtesy of Cablevision’s shareholders. In actuality, his heedless spending set off the chain reaction that would do the Knicks in. Freed from fiscal constraints, Thomas bet the farm just two weeks into his tenure on native son Stephon Marbury (a.k.a. Starbury), a player in his own image. As pointed out by David Berri, an economist at Cal State-Bakersfield and preeminent basketball-stat geek, both Isiah and Marbury were supremely skilled point guards-and also turnover-prone, low-percentage, high-volume shooters. But where “Zeke” Thomas once ruled the court with heart and guts (plus a cadre of superior role players), Marbury was all gall and spleen. Through a seven-year NBA career, he’d estranged teammates in three time zones and had yet to win a playoff series. Isiah sank $80 million (and counting) into a lead guard who could not lead. Marbury was his fatal attraction. And so the die was struck. If Thomas inherited an aging, overpaid roster, he parlayed it into a younger, faster disaster flick, a Kurtzian horror of bloated contracts and hyped ne’er-do-wells. He kept binging on overvalued gunners with cap-killing contracts, splashy names with no postseason bona fides: Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, Zach Randolph. There’s a caustic phrase in the NBA for players of this ilk: Just good enough to lose with. Before injury and melodrama intervened, the Knicks were starting five stone scorers this season-five players who saw each shot as rightfully their own. The result, Berri noted, was that you had “four guys pissed off on every possession” and disinclined to do the little things-like setting a good screen or moving without the ball-that help an offense flow. In jock argot, this is known as lousy chemistry. Not surprisingly, the current edition leads the league in forced shots, blown assignments, sideline spats, mini-mutinies, and wholesale mockery. Old nemesis Reggie Miller, now on TNT, called the Knicks “a leaguewide joke.” The Phoenix Suns’ Leandro Barbosa was distraught when a prankster said they had traded for him. “My heart was hurting,” the Brazilian said. “I went a little crazy.” The Knicks knew they were in hell when Mike Dunleavy-head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, once the NBA’s poster child for utter fecklessness-pitched a plea for sanity in long-term contracts. “Anything else,” he said, “and you become the New York Knicks.” More Information on the Knicks It’s now hard to remember, but this season began with some promise. After adding the potent Zach Randolph, the Knicks were pegged for 35 or so victories and a shot at the playoffs in a weak-sister Eastern Conference. At the Church of Lowered Expectations, where Knicks fans have worshipped ever since Cablevision CEO James Dolan donned the cardinal’s hat, mediocrity would have spelled progress, even vindication. When we look at the data, we see why there was reason to think the Knicks could rise to the level of mediocrity this season. Table One: The Knicks after 76 Games The Knicks employed four players who posted WP48 [Wins Produced per 48 minutes] marks that were above average (average is 0.100) in 2006-07: David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, Quentin Richardson, and Zach Randolph. Given the 2006-07 performance of each player, and the minutes allocated in 2007-08, the Knicks should have expected this quartet to have produced 36.2 wins this year (after 76 games). Instead this quartet has only offered 21.6 Wins Produced. Yes, as Coplon details, the Knicks employ a number of high priced-low productivity players. But this quartet - consisting of the only above average talent the team employs - should have been enough to get this team into the playoffs. Unfortunately, although three of these four players were above average in 2007-08, their production was not high enough for this team to avoid the l0ttery. Richardson’s decline is probably due to injury. As for Lee and Balkman... beyond the issue of team defense (and general lack of effort cited by Coplon), I think the fact Isiah is giving each player fewer minutes per game has also impacted each player’s over-all performance (I find reducing minutes tends to reduce per-minute performance). In essence, Isiah the coach might have undermined Isiah the GM (and as noted by Coplon, Isiah the GM isn’t that good to begin with). All that being said, even if Richardson was healthy and both Lee and Balkman returned to their 2006-07 form; this team is not nearly as good as its payroll would suggest. As Coplon notes (and as is noted often in this forum), the Knicks employ a collection of high priced scorers (i.e. Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph), whose production of wins is inconsistent with their wages. So is there any hope in New York? The team does have some nice building blocks. David Lee and Renaldo Balkman are each capable of producing wins from the forward spots. And Quentin Richardson - when healthy - can be productive at the shooting guard-small forward spot. Nate Robinson is also not a terrible back-up point guard. And.... okay, that might be it on this team. The Knicks need to find someone besides Curry to play center. And they need depth everywhere. The potential good news is that the Knicks do have a lottery pick. Although it’s too early for a mock draft (since we don’t know the lottery order), it may not be a good sign that both NBA Draft.Net and Draft Express have the Knicks taking O.J. Mayo in their mock drafts. As I noted last month, Mayo did not post great numbers this past year at USC. Although it’s too early to guess who the Knicks will pick, it’s not too early to note that a lottery pick will not always improve a team. Of course it can. But obviously if you select the wrong player, you are just going to increase your chances of returning to the lottery again the next season.
Ils etaient rares les supporteurs des Knicks a ne pas reclamer le depart d'Isiah Thomas.
A very odd headline appeared in the New York Daily News on Wednesday. In an article authored by Frank Isola we learned that Isiah Thomas Predicts a Title. Here are some excerpts from Isola’s story: “My belief and what I see and where I believe we can go as a team and an organization, I believe one day that we will win a championship here and I believe a couple of these guys will be a part of that,” Thomas said before the Knicks were walloped at the Garden by the depleted Sacramento Kings, 107-97. “I believe I’ll be a part of that.” Thomas admitted that his comments, which border on the absurd, leave him open for ridicule. ....The Knicks are now 8-22. The franchise has yet to win a playoff game since 2001 and its record with Thomas as coach is 41-71. Also, many of his player transactions have backfired, especially deals for Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury. Coincidentally, when Thomas talked about the team’s strong nucleus he failed to include Marbury and David Lee. The Knicks in 2007-08 When we look at what the Knicks have done this year - reported in Table One - we see only three players - David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, and Randolph Morris - who are above average with respect to WP48 [Wins Produced per 48 minutes]. And Morris has only played five minutes this year. The other eleven players on the roster have been below average. With such performances, the team’s won-loss record is not a surprise. Table One: The New York Knicks in 2007-08 So is Thomas just confused? Should he be ridiculed? The answer is yes if you read Frank Isola’s blog entry from Thursday. But I have a different take on what has happened to the Knicks. Defending Isiah About seven months ago I published an article in the Yale Economic Review examining Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks (I noted this article in this forum last May). Unfortunately, I can’t find this article on-line. So let me briefly explain the gist of this piece. When we look at the determinants of free agent salaries in the NBA we see that scoring dominates the story. Although blocked shots, rebounds, and maybe assists impact salary, it’s scoring that’s most important. What’s interesting (at least to me) is that shooting efficiency and turnovers are not found to statistically impact player pay. In sum, players can waste possessions and not suffer any penalty. And this tendency to ignore inefficient shooting and turnovers appears to be at the heart of the Knicks problems. A similar story could probably be told about Isiah Thomas the player. Thomas certainly had the ability to score and get assists. But Isiah’s adjusted field goal percentage was 0.465 for his career, a mark that was below average. Plus he was prone to turnovers. In sum, Thomas tended to waste possessions. Given these weaknesses, his career WP48 of 0.132 was above average (average is 0.100), but perhaps not as far above average as his Hall-of-Fame credentials would suggest. Although Isiah had shortcomings as a player, he was always regarded as the leader of the Pistons. And with Isiah, the Pistons did win two championships. Given these titles, I don’t think it’s a stretch to suppose that Isiah believes he was the primary reason his team was successful on the court (although as I noted last June, Isiah did not lead the championship teams in Wins Produced). Given this belief, Isiah has gone out and acquired players in his own image. His roster is stocked with scorers who are not efficient shooters and/or prone to turnovers. The common starting line-up of Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Quintin Richardson, Zach Randolph, and Eddy Curry consists of five players who can score. With the exception of Curry, though, these players are below average with respect to shooting efficiency. Curry is efficient, but he’s prone to turnovers (and can’t rebound very well). If scoring is all that mattered in basketball, the Knicks with these five players on the court would be a dominant team. All five players are capable of a per-game scoring mark in double digits. With such talent on the court, opposing defenses should be overwhelmed. Furthermore, the shooting efficiency of these players should rise as opposing defenses cannot decide who should be guarded. It’s my sense that Isiah believes the story I just told. And furthermore, and this is the point I would strongly emphasize, I would argue he’s not alone. As I argued in the Yale Economic Review, I think if most general managers had the money given to Isiah, they would also go out and buy every scorer they could lay their hands upon. And when that team of scorers didn’t win, they would make the same arguments you hear from Isiah. The problem is not a lack of productive talent, the problem is team chemistry and effort. If we look at the Wages of Wins measures, though, we see that chemistry isn’t the real problem with the Knicks. The real problem is a lack of productive talent. In sum, many of these players are simply not that good. Table Two reports the career productivity - entering the 2007-08 season - of each player on the Knicks roster who is currently playing at least 12 minutes per contest. Table Two: Career Performance of the New York Knicks From Table Two we see that only two players on the Knicks - Lee and Balkman - have a career WP48 that is substantially above average. And neither of these players has started the majority of New York’s games (Balkman only plays twelve minutes a game). In addition to reporting the career averages, Table Two also notes how often each player finished a season with a WP48 in excess of 0.100. As you can see, of the 63 player seasons played, only 24 of these were above average. Furthermore, Curry and Crawford, two starters on the Knicks, have combined to offer only one above average season in their careers. In sum, most of these players have been below average most of the time. Again, though, the perception is that these players are generally “good.” And when we turn to John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER), that’s a story we hear. PER tells us that five of these players - Lee, Balkman, Marbury, Randolph, and Curry - have been above average for their career. Crawford, with a career mark just below average, has been above average five out of the seven seasons he has played. When we look at all players on the Knicks, this team has posted above average PER marks in 36 of the 63 seasons played. The PER measure emphasizes player scoring. Hence, I think it’s consistent with what Thomas seems to be saying. If we focus on scoring then we have to conclude the Knicks are an above average team. Unfortunately, year after year, the team’s won-loss record tells a very different story. And it’s that story that has made New York fans so angry with Isiah Thomas.
Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks have been a frequent topic of conversation at The Wages of Wins Journal. And for those who missed out on this conversation, here are ten posts on Mr. Thomas and the Knicks (a top ten list, if you will). A Eulogy for the Knicks of Isiah Thomas The Knicks and Team Chemistry Isiah Thomas Discovers Role Players In April, Edmund Lee of Conde Nast Portfolio added to the discussion with The Thomas Tax. Lee set out to calculate the amount of money that Thomas cost the New York Knicks. Ignoring the amount of money Thomas received in salary, Lee estimates that the Thomas years cost the Knicks $186.6 million. · The Knicks paid $137 million in NBA luxury taxes under Thomas. · Had these luxury taxes results in players who could have managed to win just half their games, the Knicks would have earned about $19.6 million more in gate revenue (this estimate came from me). · The Knicks paid $18.5 million to make Larry Brown go someplace else. · And the Knicks paid another $11.5 million in the Browne Sanders case. To put this estimate in perspective, Thomas was hired on December 22, 2003 and finally re-assigned in the organization (in a role that did not involve talking to players) on April 18, 2008. In all, Thomas was part of the Knicks for 1,580 days. Given the size of the Thomas tax, the Knicks paid about $118,000 every day Thomas was a working member of the Knicks management team. And despite all this, Thomas was not actually fired from his job. In fact, it appears that Thomas is still collecting money from the Knicks. But I suspect it is no longer $100,000 a day, so I guess some progress has been made.
My memory of the Pistons extends all the way back to the days of Bob Lanier (I can still remember when he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks). But I truly began to follow the Pistons when Isiah Thomas was drafted (in 1981 when I was eleven). The story I believed growing up was that Isiah put the Pistons on the map, and it was Isiah who led the Detroit to the team’s first two championships. As I noted last summer, the story I grew up believing is not told by Wins Produced (see Looking Back at the Bad Boys). Wins Produced indicates that The Bad Boys were led by Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer (not Isiah Thomas). Discussing Chauncey and Isiah on Pistonscast All of this serves as a background to a recent conversation I had with John W. Davis and Deven Khrucell. John and Deven are the hosts of Pistonscast, “the number one podcast for die-hard Pistons fans.” As I remember, last spring I was a guest on the program and the subject of Allen Iverson came up. As I often note, “the Answer” is not quite as productive as many believe. And I noted at the time, I think Isiah was a more productive player than Iverson. When I noted that Billups offers more today than Isiah did in the 1980s, Deven expressed some unhappiness. As a result, I was asked to return to the show to debate Deven on the relative merits of Chauncey and Isiah. This debate is now posted at Pistonscast. The specific podcasts you need to hear - if you are interested in this discussion - are Episodes 62 and 63. Episode 62 is the first half of our discussion. We begin on the topic of Kwame Brown, but after awhile move into the discussion of Billups and Thomas. This debate is then continued in episode 63. Essentially, Deven’s perspective is that the numbers are not enough to tell us that Chauncey is worth more than Isiah. Of course, I disagree. The numbers in basketball do explain wins. And those numbers go back to the individuals. Furthermore, it’s not clear to me how we could ever objectively test the propositions put forward by the non-numbers crowd. At least, I can’t see how we can test such propositions without numbers. More on Billups, Isiah, and Iverson For those who wish to see more numbers on this subject, here is a comparison of the career numbers of Billups, Thomas, and Iverson. Table Three: Comparing Chauncey Billups, Isiah Thomas, and Allen Iverson As Table Three indicates, the key stats are shooting efficiency and turnovers. Unlike Isiah and Iverson - who are both below average with respect to shots from the field and turnovers - Billups excels with respect to each of these stats. Consequently, Billups has a bigger impact on team wins. Isiah Thomas: 97.4 Wins Produced, 0.132 WP48 Isiah Thomas: 18.6 Wins Produced, 0.289 WP48 [1984-85] · Maybe Flip Saunders is a Good Coach
Isiah Thomas, ancienne vedette du Championnat nord-americain de basket-ball (NBA), qui avait ete renvoye de son poste d'entraineur des New York Knicks en avril, en raison de mauvais resultats, aurait ete victime d'une overdose de somniferes, a annonce vendredi la chaine de television WCBS. WCBS, citant une source anonyme, a indique que la police s'etait rendue au domicile de Thomas apres un appel d'urgence emis depuis un telephone portable peu apres minuit, vendredi matin. Thomas aurait ete transporte en urgence a l'hopital, selon la chaine, qui n'a pas pu donner d'information sur son etat. Le New York Daily News a declare de son cote que la victime etait "un homme souffrant d'une overdose", mais a ajoute que la police n'avait pas confirme qu'il s'agissait de Thomas. L'ancien joueur avait ete limoge par les New York Knicks au printemps, apres une septieme saison mediocre d'affilee. En deux saisons a la tete de la franchise americaine, Thomas, 47 ans, a conduit les Knicks a 56 victoires contre 108 defaites. Il a egalement defraye la chronique en etant poursuivi pour harcelement sexuel par une employee du Madison Square Garden, l'enceinte de basket-ball des Knicks. Thomas, entre au Pantheon de la gloire du basket-ball en 2000, a remporte deux titres de champion NBA avec les Detroit Pistons en 1989 et 1990.
Isiah Thomas, ancienne vedette du Championnat nord-americain de basket-ball (NBA), qui avait ete renvoye de son poste d'entraineur des New York Knicks en avril, en raison de mauvais resultats, aurait ete victime d'une overdose de somniferes, a annonce vendredi la chaine de television WCBS.
L’ancien entraineur des Knicks de New York, Isiah Thomas, aurait ete victime d’une overdose de somniferes.
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