Here we have our first anonymous quotes and Charley Rosen quotes of the season, and they're fine

Today is December 29. Here we have our first rumors of mild discontent *and* our first Charley Rosen farts of the year all in one place, and it's honestly kinda fine. Here, you can read the Post article. Some parts the stand out to me.

This is from an anonymous source:

According to a source, there's a growing sense among some players in the locker room Fisher is viewed more as a "preacher'' and "motivator'' than an expert in-game tactician or Xs-and-Os master.

...

According to the source, Fisher's assistant coaches, including Brian Keefe, Kurt Rambis and Jim Cleamons, are more versed in the strategic concepts. The source said Carmelo Anthony has come to Fisher recently to lobby for rookie Kristaps Porzingis to be more involved in the offense late in games to take the burden off him. Indeed, Porzingis had plays run for him down the stretch in Boston on Sunday.

This is from Rosen:

"If you run the triangle, you have to make a total commitment to the triangle,'' said Rosen, who writes a technical basketball column for todaysfastbreak.com. "It's not like a part-time thing that you just use some of it. If that's your offense, you got to commit to it. It doesn't look like they're really committed to it.

"They're running it in a half-assed way. It's not creating the kind of shots it would normally create.''

...

"I don't know if he's not harping on them or they are resistant,'' Rosen said. "It's 32 games. They should be running it better, unless Fisher isn't fully committed to it.

"I see the weak-side picks are awful. They are loose. Nobody's headhunting or looking for somebody. It's just very, very loose.''

These are separate things (unless the anonymous source is Rosen, which would be very funny) wedged into the same report, so let's take them separately.

1. Every losing Knicks season gets its anonymously sourced report of discontent, usually before Thanksgiving. This is the latest and maybe the mildest one I've ever seen. It's not even discontent? A second-year coach relying on his veteran assistants for some of the strategy while he figures his shit out? That's pretty normal! The team's star lobbying his coach to incorporate another, younger player into the offense more? That sounds kinda great!

That's it. That's all the source said.

2. Now Rosen! Rosen, as we have discussed, is both a notorious babbler on basketball topics and Phil Jackson's close confidant. His words are often silly ... and often worth at least brief consideration. His point is kind of muddy -- I can't tell whether he's sad the Knicks aren't running the Triangle *better* or sad they aren't running it *enough*. The former certainly seems true. In all kinds of offensive sets, the Knicks too often set weak picks, ignore passing lanes, and walk through their cuts. More/better coaching and more/better players might help that in the near and far term, respectively.

The latter? Nah. Phil Jackson has made it abundantly clear that he never ran a pure Triangle offense as a coach, and that Derek Fisher is welcome to modify the tenets of the offense as he pleases. So if Rosen's just sad that he doesn't see a sideline triangle every single possession, I don't think that matters, and I don't think it reflects Phil's thinking.

In short: Derek Fisher is new and imperfect. This Knicks roster is new and imperfect. Some grumbling was bound to happen, because this is New York and the Knicks are losing. Some Rosen takes were bound to happen, because this is a Phil Jackson team. This Post report was pretty chill.