The New York Knicks continued their disappointing start to the 2019-20 season after losing by 18 points to the Chicago Bulls Tuesday night. It was the first game after the now-infamous impromptu press conference held by Knicks' president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry, where the pair voiced their displeasure in how the team has started this year. 

The press conference seemed to push the blame onto David Fizdale for not being able to make this roster competitive on a nightly basis, signaling that his job may not be safe if the Knicks continue to lose. There have been reports that Mills is "selling James Dolan" on the fact that this team should, in fact, be more successful than it is, and that the issue is with the coaching.

However, despite all this, Knicks players are coming to the defense of their head coach after a week's worth of drama has circulated around him. After the loss to the Bulls, several players backed Fizdale and his coaching, and acknowledged that sometimes the effort isn't there on the players' part.

"We can't control the wins and the losses, but we can control our effort level and just going out there and playing with the swag and intensity," Bobby Portis said. "So, even though shots weren't falling tonight for us and Coby White went crazy in the fourth quarter, I think that we played hard for coach and that's all we ask for."

The Knicks' head-coaching job has been a constant carousel, with the team failing to find the perfect coach to revitalize a franchise that hasn't won a championship since 1973, and hasn't been to the playoffs since 2013. In a hard-nosed city like New York, filled with die-hard Knicks fans who just want to see their team be successful, it's difficult living up to the lofty expectations laid out by the franchise's top executives when the roster often doesn't mirror the expectations they have.

Even rookie RJ Barrett knows that it's unrealistic to expect this team, one that is almost entirely new to each other, to jell right away.

"We've got 10 guys that have not played together at all, and me who hasn't even been in the league yet," Barrett said. "You're gonna have some challenges, but you've got to keep pushing, keep pushing through everything. That's all I can really say. You've just got to stay together."

Barrett also showed his support for his coach.

"He's up to the challenge. We believe in him," Barrett said. "We're staying together, and like we said, we're all-in with him and are just gonna keep fighting together."

Taj Gibson also echoed that same sentiment of "fighting for coach," and "playing hard for him," in the midst of all the noise and drama.

"He's trying to pull us toward a victory in different ways and at the same time we've been coming up short," Gibson said. "We've just got to do a lot better and it's not just on him, it's on us, too. He's been trying to will us to wins and it's been going the opposite way as of late."

It's important that both Gibson and Portis acknowledged that Fizdale should not be the only one criticized here if there's blame to be thrown around. Against the Bulls, the Knicks committed 18 turnovers, and as a team are dead-last in field goal percentage on the season (41.6), rank 29th in points per game (99.5) and have the worst net rating in the league (-10.9). Fizdale isn't the one on the court putting up those numbers; the players should be held accountable too.

Next up for the Knicks is playing host to Kristaps Porzingis and the Dallas Mavericks. This marks Porzingis' first game back at Madison Square Garden since being traded to Dallas in January. There is sure to be some added excitement to this game, and while the Knicks' front office may not have Fizdale's back as he tries to string together some wins this season, at least he knows he has the support from the locker room, which should speak volumes about him as a coach.