Knicks practice roundup: Joakim Noah practices, still doubtful for Monday

The New York Knicks finished their first week of pre-seasoning, but they still haven’t seen their defensive anchor, Joakim Noah, take the court in a game. The former Defensive Player of the Year has missed New York’s first to games with a sore hamstring. Sunday afternoon’s practice brought some good news, as Noah participated fully for the first time all week:

Huzzah! That means Noah’s debut can’t be too far off:

Looks like the Knicks will continue to play it cautious, which is good to see.

Phil Jackson stopped by to rap with Jeff Hornacek, who once again made it very clear in a post-practice interview session that the team president is not interfering. Per Ian Begley:

"Phil's been great. He's not trying to take over and make us do anything. He's given us the leeway. There are some things that we do that aren't the triangle stuff [such as] our early [offense]. Quite honestly, we thought he would say, 'Let's not do that.' Or, 'Let's not do that option.' But he hasn't said that at all.

...

"We talk quite a bit, but he's been hands off. He gives some directions here and there. If he sees something or he says, 'Hey, let's take a look, clean this up, this particular action.' So it's good.”

Hornacek goes on to say that he believes most criticisms of the Knicks’ Triangle from the fact that they have tended to run it slow as hell in recent years, which is true. He plans to vary the looks on offense, getting early, quality shots whenever possible. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.