Mike Woodson: Vets are gone, and it's time to move on
Knicks head coach Mike Woodson reacts against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half. (Dec. 1, 2013) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Mike Woodson agrees with Carmelo Anthony that the Knicks miss the leadership of departed veterans Jason Kidd, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas "in the locker room and on the floor." But he stressed that it's beyond time to move on.
"They're not here this season and they're not going to walk through that door," Woodson said before Sunday night's game. "We've got to go with what we have. And I think what we have is good enough to win with."
Anthony recently pointed to Kidd's soda-spilling incident as another example of how the Nets' coach does "whatever it take to win." That also gave Anthony an opening to express his opinion that this team misses the influence of those departed vets.
Before the season, Woodson said he hoped Anthony, Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler would fill the leadership void. Asked Sunday if he's been satisfied with them in that role this season, he said: "Everybody's trying to do their part. I think when you lose, you reach and you look in all different directions in what in the hell is going on. As a coach, I'm scrambling, doing the same thing."
Keep shooting
The Knicks were shooting 31.7 percent on three-pointers entering Sunday night's game, fourth worst in the league, but Woodson has been happy with their shot selection. "We just got to get guys feeling good about when they take it [that] they're going to make it," he said before they went 13-for-35 Sunday night. "The three-point shot is a big weapon in our league and I don't want to get away from it because we're struggling enough as it is to score the ball."
Tim Hardaway Jr. was 5-for-8 on three-pointers Sunday night but Anthony was 1-for-7. Last season, the Knicks shot 37.6 percent on threes, fifth best in the league.
"The long ball was a big part of our offense last year," Woodson said, "and when you go down the list, it has really hurt our team because we really haven't made the long ball."
