LAS VEGAS – While Mike D’Antoni gets all the credit for being a pioneer of the modern offensive trend of pace-and-space, position-less basketball, new Knicks coach David Fizdale likes to think he had a share in moving it toward the mainstream.
As a Heat assistant coach under Erik Spoelstra, Fizdale lobbied to change up things after the Miami Dream Team was formed with LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh in 2010.
Fizdale thought they could add wrinkles to the standard Spoelstra/Pat Riley moderately paced offense.
“It was always something that I used to beat over Spo’s head,” Fizdale said after the Knicks’ first summer-league practice Tuesday.