The dynamic between New York Knicks guard Arron Afflalo and head coach Kurt Rambis gets stranger with every passing day.
By Chip Murphy
New York Knicks‘ head coach Kurt Rambis strangely benched Arron Afflalo with less than 10 games in the season and things got awkward.
A back and forth ensued between player and coach starting with Rambis claiming there was a miscommunication over the demotion, and Afflalo claiming there was no communication at all.
Apparently Rambis thinks that Afflalo has nothing to complain about though, in fact he should be grateful.
After yesterday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers, Rambis had some very strange words for the NY Post about Afflalo, who’s an impeding free agent.
“Him coming off the bench adds nothing but value to him,” Rambis said. “Whereas some teams may not be looking at him if he decides to opt out of his contract, teams might have someone at his position and don’t think of him coming off the bench, well, they start to go to [think], OK, he has the right attitude and can add productivity. I just think the more versatile players are, the better they are around the league, the more things other teams can see the possibility for them.”
It sounds like Rambis is essentially telling Afflalo to test the free agent market, and see what’s out there. That’s an odd thing for a coach to say about his current player if he wants him back next season, but ultimately that’s Afflalo’s choice anyway.
Afflalo has an $8 million player option for 2016-17 which he is sure to opt out of, but when he does the Knicks may not find a player much better for his price.
Rambis should not be the head coach next season; that would be a disaster.
But Afflalo coming back as the starting shooting guard is something to be okay with.
