Speaking in tongues

When folks offer their opinions about the Knicks, sometimes you have to crack the code to understand the true meaning.

Take Jason Kidd the other night in Dallas when he was asked if he thought the Knicks needed a "playmaker."

"Steph is a great playmaker," he said.

Remember, this is a man who denies he got Byron Scott fired in New Jersey. So he's been known to lie.

"Jamal's doing everything he can do," he went on.

Translation: Jamal's doing his best with non-point guard skills.

"It's just a matter of the game plan, of what direction they want to go," he said.

De-coded: The Knicks don't have any direction.

"It's just a matter of them being on the same page," he continued.

In other words, you can find the Knicks on the pages of "War and Peace."

"You've got to have a plan," he finally said.

And the Knicks don't, he was trying to say.

***

A story to this effect is in the print edition of Wednesday's Record, but the points in it bears repeating here as Wednesday's titanic Knicks-Heat battle approaches.

Isiah Thomas keeps talking about how quickly things can change from bad to good (and vice versa) in the NBA, but the Heat are far better suited to do that than Thomas' team.

For one, Pat Riley isn't going anywhere next season, unless he decides he only wants to play president and not coach. Still, he'll be there and with the trade of Shaquille O'Neal, he already has a plan in place for the future.

Isiah? He didn't/couldn't/wasn't allowed to do anything by the trade deadline and his status is uncertain at best. If he has a plan, it leaves with him if he's fired and a replacement starts from Point A.

Riley, meanwhile, has a nucleus of Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion (if he doesn't opt out of the $17.2 million he's due next season, which would be insane), Udonis Haslem, plus whomever he drafts with his lottery pick in June _ which is likely to be higher than the Knicks' pick.

Your Knicks' nucleus: Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph and their lottery pick.

Oh and if Riley stays on the bench, he can coach a little bit.

Isiah? Just watch how his team executes out of a time out. Actually, fails to execute on a consistent basis. And how many playoff series has he won compared to the number of championship rings Riles owns?

And finally, contrary to his reputation, Riley didn't practice his team Tuesday after a home loss to the Clippers, but had a valid reason: He would have had six healthy players, maximum, who could've practiced.

The Knicks, meanwhile, didn't practice Sunday in Dallas after flying there after Saturday's loss to Portland and getting in around 5 a.m., then didn't practice against Tuesday in Miami because they got in around 3 a.m. from Dallas. Just got in too late, is the excuse we've heard.

Guessing that some of The Lads weren't so tired Tuesday that they didn't scurry on down to South Beach. And maybe Isiah's early-season habit of over-practicing his team ingrained its plethora of bad habits, because as golfers will tell you, if you have a bad swing and keep practicing with it, you'll only ingrain that bad swing.

But if they're not going to practice, can Isiah quit with all that talk about how hard his team works?

You'd think they were toting barges and lifting bales.

Comments

[Jeff]

Great points. This is the best, IMO:

"It's just a matter of the game plan, of what direction they want to go," he said.

De-coded: The Knicks don't have any direction.

___

As long as they have Isiah this will remain a problem. It won't matter if the ping pong balls fall via divine intervention and they end up with the first pick in the draft.

With Isiah at the helm -- whether as coach or GM -- any and all of their assets will severely underperform.

Fire Isiah and hope for divine intervention!

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