Knicks Regroup After Steve Mills Dismissal; RJ Barrett Close to Return
GREENBURGH, NY — Mike Miller, head coach of the Knicks, is no stranger to roster upheaval. Not with the history he's had.
"We had games we played with eight players," Miller said to reporters of his time coaching in the G-League. "You just go out and play." He brightened, remembering: "We won some of those games."
And that was the mood at Knicks practice, a day after upheaval that few expected (the firing of Steve Mills), a day before a significant portion of the roster is susceptible to trades with the February 6 deadline looming.
But for a group that had higher hopes arriving here this past summer, the day ahead meant waiting and seeing what the medium-term future of the roster would look like.
Julius Randle, for one, said he speaks with Scott Perry all the time. But he wasn't going to spend much of his next few hours worrying about how the team around him would be constructed once the deadline passed.
He said he hoped that he'd be part of that roster going forward.
"I would love it, man," Randle said. "I came here to be a part of this team, to try to help change the culture, reshape the organization and turn things around... so I'd love to continue to be part of that vision."
Randle said he's helped guide his younger teammates through what the next 24 hours will feel like. That's useful for someone like RJ Barrett, who was an undergraduate at Duke a year ago at this time, and now is figuring out how to get healthy, play at the highest level, and weather the loss of two of the men, David Fizdale and Steve Mills, who helped bring him to New York in the first place.
"I'm just trying to do my job, really," Barrett said. "We have great people throughout the organization, kind of sticking together through everything... it's the NBA, so things are going to happen. But I'm really sad that it's the people that really gave me this shot. But there's nothing else to do but move forward."
Barrett did have some good news, saying that he felt great in practice, and hadn't been ruled out of Thursday night's game yet.
As for who else might or might not play, that has as much to do with Scott Perry as it does with injuries right now.
