This is not to toss up a strong defense of Fizdale. He is a well-regarded basketball man, but his team gave the appearance in recent weeks of punching time cards and checking out. The other night against the Nuggets, Allonzo Trier trotted onto the court. Trier, if you gave up watching the Knicks long before he arrived last year, will shoot from anywhere in the Garden ZIP code, and he cultivates an aversion to playing defense.

Not long after coming on, he strolled under a pick and watched, bemused, as the fellow he was putatively supposed to defend gathered himself and sank a 3-point shot. Then he turned around and called for the ball.

There is a lot of this. The other team takes off down the floor and the Knicks’ defenders jog alongside like amiable company. Kevin Knox, who can give the appearance of a child awakened from a fine afternoon nap, is talented but often fails to remember that moving one’s feet is the key to playing defense.

Then there is Julius Randle, who signed on as the Knicks' sort of star this past summer and labors under the unhelpful illusion that he is a 6-foot-8, 250-pound point guard. He dribbles into traffic and fumbles the ball and then hits the repeat button. There is not a high-quality scorer on this current team.