Carmelo Anthony Wants To Remain With Knicks, Shocked By Fisher’s Removal

After news broke Monday morning that Derek Fisher had been relieved of his head coaching duties after a 23-31 start to the season, Rodman tweeted his interest to members of the Knicks organization shortly thereafter. But he said he was not looking at any coaching candidates now, saying he was fully confident in Rambis.

“I respected him a lot especially for coming in and taking on this seat, here in NY, coaching the Knicks, first-time coach”, Anthony said.

“Nobody’s happy. Everybody is kind of depressed that we’re losing”, Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis said. “Carmelo is the leader”, Jackson said.

Kurt Rambis, the team’s interim coach, and fellow assistant Jim Clemons saw their influence wane this season.

Fisher, who was sacked Monday, said in a recent ESPN radio interview that he wouldn’t be disappointed if the Knicks missed out on the playoffs and often talked about the process being more important than the results.

One of the beliefs was that Fisher did not run Jackson’s patented triangle offense, a method he has used with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively, which did lead to a good amount of success.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports that there is a “strong belief” that Jackson will “eventually find his way” back with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Hauntingly, Rambis compiled a worse winning percentage in his two seasons in the Twin Cities than did Fisher with the Knicks (.286), leading the Timberwolves to a 32-112 during his tenure. “That was embarrassing for us and for Derek, but that had no nothing to do with what’s happened here today”. Last season, no one expected much, especially once Carmelo Anthony was lost for the season and the team traded all veterans in an effort to fast-forward the rebuild, and a 17-65 record followed. Walton will be competing with [Tom] Thibodeau for the Lakers job in the spring, and who knows: “Jackson and Walton could be reunited there”. “It isn’t paramount, but at some point I’m going to have a relationship with someone who’s coaching this team”. The success of Luke Walton with the Golden State Warriors might be able to entice Jackson to pick him. Those, I think, are part and parcel I think to having a relationship with people that can work together that can still disagree and come to terms.