New York Knicks

Derrick Williams hasn't talked to Derek Fisher about benching

Published Dec. 11, 2015 3:39 p.m. ET

foxsports

It's Derrick vs. Derek. Well, not really. It's actually pretty tame.

Derrick Williams has seen his minutes total dwindle, but when Marc Berman of the New York Post asked him why, Williams wasn't quite sure. Here's what he had to say, via Berman:

Williams is averaging a career-low 13.0 minutes per game on the season. His time has gone up and down throughout the year.

He averaged 15.9 minutes per game over the first seven contests of the year. He fell to 8.8 a night for the next eight. It was back up to 15.7 for the ensuing seven. Then Thursday, a new trend may have started against the Kings when Williams played only six minutes.

It's not really about the playing time for Williams, who isn't much of a contributor if he isn't scoring at the rim. He's not a defender, he rarely passes and he's not much of a shooter. But the inconsistency is the odd part, and it's part of a treatment coach Fisher has given other players, too, including Kyle O'Quinn, Kevin Seraphin, Lou Amundson, Jerian Grant and Sasha Vujacic.

“I haven’t talked to [Fisher] about it,’’ Williams said Wednesday. “It’s his choice. I can’t really argue with the coach’s decisions, minutes and things like that. It comes from the coaching staff. I try whenever I’m in the game, I try to make an impact. That’s the only thing I can do.’’

Williams found his situation in Sacramento wobbly last season, playing for three coaches — Mike Malone, Tyrone Corbin and George Karl. Karl knocked Williams in the press once, chiding him for grabbing zero rebounds in a 20-minute stint. But Williams feels Karl improved him.

“He’s a good coach,’’ Williams said. “He wasn’t really tough like that. That was one game. He expects a lot of things out of me. I think that’s always good, when you have a coach that really expects things out of you, wants to bring out the best in you. Myself and him, we talked about it. It was no hard feelings with the quotes. That happens when a coach expects a lot of you. At the end of the day, he wasn’t too, too hard on me. He wanted the best out of me.

“He’s a great guy. I really thrived under him.’’