Knicks legend Earl Monroe was critical of Isiah Thomas yesterday, questioning why the Knicks coach/president changed the identity of last season’s team.
Monroe also wondered if the Knicks’ roster is hopeless, feeling they needed to make a couple of trades. The trade deadline passed Thursday with Thomas standing pat.
“This season they’ve exhausted all their options with this group,” Monroe told The Post. “I still think they got a tremendous amount of talent on this team. It’s really baffling to me the team’s not performing the way I thought they would perform.”
The Knicks are 17-39, with 26 games left. The Knicks, who host the Bobcats tomorrow, need to go 16-10 to match last season’s 33-49 record. That clip was considered a big underachievement after the Knicks were hit by a spate of late-season injuries. The Knicks were 25-31 after 56 games last season.
“I think the way they played last year, I wouldn’t have changed the whole scope of Eddy Curry as the No. 1 option,” said Monroe, a producer of the ESPN documentary on black basketball pioneers, “Black Magic” that had its premiere last night at The Apollo. “He’s one heckuva player when he’s right.
“He might be a little fragile as far his psyche is concerned, but I still think he’s a kind of guy you need.”
Now the Knicks are perimeter-oriented and live and die with Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson’s jumpers. The phasing out of Curry may be the final reason owner James Dolan is expected to dump Thomas after the season. The question is: What will the new boss make of Curry? Jerry Colangelo, director of Team USA and a potential candidate to replace Thomas, did not invite Curry to be part of Team USA’s practice squad that scrimmaged the real team last summer.
“They had established Eddy Curry last year as a player, they come in this year and go away from it,” Monroe said. “It doesn’t make much sense. He’s lost a lot of his confidence and that’s why they’re going away from him now. But I’m not making those type of decisions. They had the makings of a real good team going into the season.”
The frustration is reaching the breaking point, with squabbles on the bench happening all too frequently. Quentin Richardson went on a tirade late in Sunday’s 115-92 loss at Toronto, screaming at his teammates during a timeout.
“There’s bad karma,” Monroe said. “They have to beat the bad karma down. It’s the kind of season where everything’s been strange.
“I think it’s surprising to a lot of people [Thomas hasn’t been fired], but he was a great player and has an eye for talent.”
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Richardson on his bench tirade during a timeout late in the fourth Sunday: “I don’t like losing. We were giving up too many easy baskets. It comes a point where I get so aggravated, I scream and yell. That’s how I deal with it. They understand my personality.’
Robinson will tape a segment of the Today Show at 8:30 a.m. with Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson, who are promoting the movie, “Semi-Pro.” How appropriate.