There’s a saying that the third time’s the charm, and for Jeff Hornacek, well, that just might be the case.
There was a lot for him to learn during his failed time in Phoenix. He fired two assistants just to keep himself in favor for a few more months before he was likewise ousted by the team’s management. Hornacek walked away from the program acknowledging that those two terminations were his biggest regrets with the team.
Although it wasn’t clear from the outside, that decision was in part swayed by constant undercutting by the Suns’ front office.
“Jeff was really good in Phoenix. Only thing with Jeff, to me, is he didn’t control that team,” Gerald Green, who played under Hornacek for two seasons in Phoenix, told the Daily News. “He had to listen to the front office guys a lot. And by him having to do that, it messed up his coaching style, messed up his groove.
“He wasn’t really controlling the team,” Green added, saying the management takeover occurred in Hornacek’s second season. “I think if you let Jeff have more control of the team as far as letting him calling his own plays and letting him play who he feels like he should play, he’d do great.”
And yet, despite what he went through in Phoenix, Hornacek is seeing a similar scenario play out for the Knicks. He didn’t have much experience with the the triangle or the players themselves, but he was still able to get the offense going through the same structure.
“First year, the front office really wasn’t being as in control as they were the second year,” Green told the Daily News. “The first year they kind of let us play because they thought we were going to be sorry anyway. Then they realized we weren’t sorry, and they started to take control of the team instead of letting Jeff do what he did the first year.”
But the Suns went from a 48-win season in Hornacek’s first year to a 39-win finish in his second. Then Green left for the Heat and Hornacek was dropped after putting up a 14-35 record.
This season is his first with his Knicks, and his arrival was a surprise to many. He only had until the All-Star Break to get the triangle offense back into focus. But now, he is completely committed to the new style of attack.
“I always thought it could work,” he said. “We were trying to balance and doing some other things, and it’s a system that probably needs the repetition. And obviously we repeated it a little bit more often the second half of the year, and guys are running it better.”
The main focus for Hornacek now is to ensure that he isn’t undercut by management once again. After letting coaches go at the Suns, Hornacek showed that he can be swayed by a front desk that is both persistent and belligerent. But he’s also been open about what he learned from the experience.
“I should’ve just said, ‘If you want to fire them, then fire me too now,’” Hornacek said. “But I was trying to get along with management and what they want to do.”
But now that Hornacek is with the Knicks, he’s walking the same tightrope, this time by swapping around his offensive systems to the confusion and frustration of fans and players alike.
If he’s not careful, he’ll be right back where he started. But maybe the third time’s the charm?
It’ll take a season to figure that one out.
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