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New York Knicks: Derek Fisher Weighs In On Cleanthony Early

By Maxwell Ogden

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Since being selected at No. 34 overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, New York Knicks rookie Cleanthony Early has been underwhelming, at best. An All-American in 2013-14, Early has spent a majority of his time nursing injuries and bouncing between the D-League and the back-end of New York’s rotation in his first professional season.

No one’s been a bigger critic of his than head coach Derek Fisher.

According to Al Iannazzone of Newsday, coach Fisher weighed in on Early’s struggles and what’s expected of him moving forward.

"“We talked to him about not worrying about the shot as much, [but] as a young player, to find what it is you can do to help the team,’’ Fisher said. “Defensive energy and being a guy who plays with passion is what attracted everyone to him and why we drafted him. Those are the things we want to see from Cle every night. And if he makes a shot, we’ll take that as well.”Fisher wouldn’t say whether he’s seen those things enough from Early because of the injuries, the rookie transition and that he plays the same position as Anthony. “I don’t think we can judge whether we’ve seen certain things or not from him,” Fisher said."

The question is, can he live up to the hype? More applicably, can he play like he belongs in the NBA?

Thus far, the answer has been no—and Early knows it, per Iannazzone.

"Early, the No. 34 pick, has gone from being one of the better players in college last year to just another rookie struggling to show he belongs in the NBA. He readily admits he hasn’t played well.“Not at all,” Early said. “Not at all. For me, it’s [about] continuing to work hard and doing what I need to do to eventually get where I need to be, and helping my teammates and hopefully getting on the right track sooner than later.”"

The numbers agree.

Early is averaging 4.0 points in 13.7 minutes per game on a slash line of .347/.316/.500. In his previous three games leading up to the February 25 encounter with the Boston Celtics, he’d shot a combined 3-of-17 from the field and 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.

Against Boston, Early turned things around with eight points, four rebounds, one assist, two steals and a block on 4-of-7 shooting from the field in 24 minutes.

Nevertheless, many Knicks fans have put ink to paper in writing him off—small sample size or not.

It’s far too soon to write Early off, and anyone who does so is overreacting to a 21-game career. It’s not too soon to address the fact that it’s been a brutal transition for the former Wichita State star.

With 26 games left on the schedule and Early possessing one of four fully guaranteed contracts for the 2015-16 NBA season, the time is now for him to prove himself.

If he can something similar to that at the pro level, we’ll be having an entirely different conversation this time next month.

New York will revamp its roster in free agency, and significant playing time will likely be tough to come by. Not only are the Knicks expected to target stars, but they’ll have the cap space and a Top 5 draft pick to fill out their rotation

Until Early silences the doubters, the vocal criticism and skepticism will exist—from the head coach and elsewhere.

Next: A New York Knicks tradition continued on February 25

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