Wob: The Knicks Finally Fired David Fizdale … So What’s Next?

On Friday afternoon, the sun rose in the East, set in the West, death came for some, taxes for others, and the Knicks fired their head coach.

None of this matters, to be honest, because this is an annual tradition at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks’ front office will always blood sacrifice the coach every other season as long as this current leadership is in place.

Unless Raptors president Masai Ujiri inexplicably decides to say “I want to be a part of this,” by forming a business relationship that grants him totalitarian control of all basketball decisions with an opt-out clause at any time to protect himself from James Dolan coming in and messing thing up again, expect this Knicks circle of life to continue on and on.

David Fizdale, Jeff Hornacek, Derek Fisher, Mike Woodson, Mike D’Antoni, Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkins, Jeff Van Gundy, Pat Riley — Hall-of-Famers as far as the eye can see — all suffered the same fate.

So what’s next?

Dec. 15 is coming, and you can guaran-damn-tee the Knicks are open for business. This is the first date any players who signed with teams in unrestricted free agency can be traded, so expect Marcus Morris, Bobby Portis, Elfrid Payton, Taj Gibson, Reggie Bullock, and Wayne Ellington — all guys who have team-controlled contracts at the end of the season — to be aggressively shopped to contenders.

Expect “the core four” of Frank Ntilikina, Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, and RJ Barrett (he's already tied for the lead in minutes among rookies) to get so much run that they’ll be begging for rest.

They’re the future, and for the Knicks to continue their impersonation of “The Process” that proved to be so successful in Philadelphia, these four guys will need to develop … fast … and continue their path to being players that one day interest a major free agent. Look at what the Nets just pulled off across town using this strategy.

Give Dolan credit though, the man may stink at owning a basketball team, but he at least puts his money where his mouth is — paying off every bad decision with his own money.

OK, so who wants to get paid four years worth of salary for only a year’s worth of work? Mark Jackson? Becky Hammond? John Starks/Patrick Ewing/Charles Oakley three-headed monster?

Come on down, you’re the next contestant on The Price is Spite.