MSG Network’s weekly “Mike Woodson Show” with Alan Hahn is scheduled to air Friday night, having already been taped Monday. Whether the Woodson’s daily show of running the Knicks lasts much longer is another matter.
Is owner James Dolan going to wait until Woodson has, as he says, has “a full deck” with center Tyson Chandler expected back in as little as a week? Or will he become convinced the problems of a 6-15 club – one that blew all of a 23-point lead Thursday vs. Chicago – are too deep-rooted for Woodson to turn around?
Dolan, not in his customary baseline seat Wednesday, has contemplated that issue ever since the Knicks went on a nine-game losing streak, which they snapped last week in Brooklyn.
Including that victory, the Knicks have won three of the past five games. However, the two losses were sickly, the 41-point blowout loss to Boston at the Garden and the 109-94 embarrassment in Cleveland.
Had the Knicks routed the Bulls — not blown the lead and allowed Chicago to tie the game in the final minutes — Woodson could have worn a smile in the postgame interview, instead of a beaten-down expression. He realizes the team has confidence issues.
Perhaps this close game will become a blessing in disguise. It got emerging Amar’e Stoudemire out there in crunch time, and he hit his biggest shot since the 2010-11 season – the tiebreaking jumper that put the Knicks in the lead for good.
Now Woodson can think out of the box and actually keep Stoudemire on the floor in close games to give Carmelo Anthony some much-needed help. Anthony is getting no support in the late stages of games from J.R. Smith or Andrea Bargnani, who has fallen into a shooting slump the past three games.
If Stoudemire comes out of his first set of back-to-backs feeling spry, the Knicks become a more complete team. They have 13 back-to-back sets left, including Boston and Atlanta on Friday and Saturday.
As Anthony said the other day, “We always have a high talent level. It’s a matter of putting it altogether.’’
That is Woodson’s job – getting the most out of the talent. He has gotten nothing out of Smith and Iman Shumpert and not enough out of Bargnani consistently. But the issues could be too deep for anyone to turn around, especially an interim promotion on the Knicks staff. The assistants are Darrell Walker, Herb Williams, Jim Todd, and Dolan adores assistant GM Allan Houston.
Woodson has a chance of resurrecting this club, but he has to make all the right moves now. If the Nets were rolling and in first place, Woodson would already be gone.
Woodson must keep Pablo Prigioni as starter even when gimpy Raymond Felton returns. They are a better defensive team and less wild offensively with Prigioni on the floor. Let’s see Felton go against backup point guards and maybe he can thrive.
Woodson also must trust Stoudemire late and be more cautious about Smith, who needs more time coming off knee surgery.
Dolan has to give Woodson a chance to coach with Chandler anchoring the defense. He was their best player in the season’s first four games before he broke his right leg.
The club is still a psychological mess, as evidenced by their collapse against the Bulls, but they did hang on. Woodson deserves to hang on right now too.