NBA

Woodson: Don’t judge me on final 16 games

Still hoping he will be the one for incoming president Phil Jackson, Mike Woodson said he hopes the Zen Master doesn’t just judge him on the final 15 games and this roller-coaster season.

The Knicks (27-40) are on a six-game winning streak following Saturday’s 115-94 rout of the Bucks, but have played a soft schedule and still are three games out of the eighth seed entering Saturday night.

Sources believe Woodson will not finish out the final year of his contract in 2014-15, and Jackson will look to bring in a coach with experience in the Triangle offense system — such as Steve Kerr, Denver head coach Brian Shaw or Bucks assistant Jim Cleamons. However, the coaching situation hasn’t been thoroughly discussed within the organization.

“I don’t think I need to prove anything as a coach,’’ Woodson said before Saturday’s game. “I’ve never felt that way. I try to do my job the best I can do, and if you’re going to judge me on 16 games, then that’s on you. I’ve tried to do the best I can do, in terms of my every-day approach to the game. We’ve had our ups and downs this year, and I take full responsibility for that. But at the end of the day, we still have 16 games left, we got a legitimate shot to make the playoffs, and that’s where I’m pushing this team.”

Woodson is making no assumptions he will be here past this season.

“When someone new comes in, he has his own thought process and philosophy in terms of how he feels and how the shape of the team should be, and till he gets here you just have no idea what he’s thinking and which direction he wants to go,’’ Woodson said. “You bring in a great basketball mind into your organization and eventually it’ll be reshaped. So how and who and when, only time will tell.’’

Woodson said other than coaching against Jackson with Atlanta then with Detroit as an assistant in the NBA Finals, he had a group winner with the Zen Master last April when the 1973 team was honored during a 40th anniversary dinner.

“We had hosted a dinner last year when we brought the championship teams back,’’ Woodson said. “So that was my only dealings with Phil at the time where we had an opportunity, which I thought was a big thrill just for me as an old coach listening to all the war stories of all the old guys that came back which was kind of nice, and Phil was a part of that. So that’s my only dealings, my coaching and that dinner.’’