It has been quite a year for David Fizdale. He went from being forced out of his job with the Memphis Grizzlies because of his relationship with Marc Gasol to being the hottest candidate that everyone wanted this offseason. He basically got his pick of jobs choosing to lead the New York Knicks.
Welcome to New York David Fizdale! #Knicks pic.twitter.com/1nK7AIJHeJ
— Billy Platt (@BillyDaKid732) May 3, 2018
For Fizdale and Gasol, their relationship was doomed from the start, which means so was Fizdale's job. A recent story by Stefon Bondy of the New York Daily News broke down all the details.
The first problem Fizdale had was he was trying to instill a system that Gasol didn't want to play. The Grizzlies were used to the “Grit and Grind” style that had been successful over the years. For Fizdale he wanted to bring in the system he learned in Miami and try to get everyone on the team to play that way.
Fizdale also wanted to make sure it was his locker room and forced out a few of the players he didn't think fit his locker room.
“He wanted his own locker room,” a Grizzlies source told the Daily News. “And he basically convinced management to get rid of Zach (Randolph), to get rid of Tony Allen.”
The real turning point for Gasol though was when Fizdale tried to change his style of play. He wanted to turn into a perimeter shooter and an aggressive scorer, something Gasol has never focused his game around.
“He had it in where Marc was going to be a certain way and he didn't care who Marc was and he didn't care how the offense was, he didn't care about the style we were playing. It was going to be about – ‘This is a new era. The Memphis stuff is over. That Grit n Grind is done,' ” a source said. “Then he turns around and says, ‘We're going to do it the Miami Way.'
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