NBA All-Star 2020 in Chicago was a phenomenal success. The events all weekend were fun and exciting. The vibe in the Windy City was energizing for everyone experiencing it. The fans, both watching at home and in-arena, enjoyed a wonderful showcase of young fresh talent. Celebrities and players were super hype for all the wild action – priceless reactions abound. It really made the aura around the exhibition weekend feel like something special.
While all that is certainly true for my feelings on the three days at the United Center as well, I couldn’t help think of another story-line. Noticing that vibrant and classic Bulls logo on center court all weekend, I hearkened back to my teenage years. it was the mid 1990’s, MJ and the Bulls were decimating the league season after season.
Nevertheless, they knew that whenever they would match up against their Eastern Conference rivals, the New York Knicks, they’d be preparing for battle. These were absolutely brutal games, built off toughness and will to win. But those Knicks, manned by names like Ewing, Oakley, Starks, Mason, Harper, Smith, among others, were true gladiators of the sport. They even had their own theme music. These dudes were kings of NYC. The playoffs were not a pipe dream, they were a guarantee. The only question was, would they secure a top two seed in the conference.
That was then. Since we’ve entered the 21st century, holy hell, The Mecca has become an unmitigated dumpster fire.
In those 20 seasons, the Knicks have made the postseason ONLY five times, with only a single run affording a lone series win (2012-2013). It’s been a hodgepodge of suckiness from all aspects of the club.
Scott Layden, Isiah Thomas, Donnie Walsh, Glen Grunwald, Steve Mills, Phil Jackson – SIX!!! These are the six names of the Fallen GM’s for the franchise in that span. Mindblowing! How can you employ this many people to run your team, and always be wrong?! (The only competent mind in the group is Walsh, who was forced out before he could finish his work).
https://twitter.com/stephenhive/status/1200825418967896065?s=20
That doesn’t even account for the FOURTEEN (!!!) coaches they have employed in that 20-year run, with a current interim who is likely gone at the end of April. For comparison’s sake, the San Antonio Spurs have had the same coach and GM from prior to this Knicks Are Dead period, which the Miami Heat have kept Riley as GM with Stan Van Gundy and Erik Spoelsta as their only coaches. It is possible to sustain winning and building a stable environment for players to thrive… just not in Manhattan, apparently.
Last summer, with several marquee free agents on the market, the common thinking was that the Knicks would finally be a player again.
Instead, recently-terminated Steve Mills and current GM Scott Perry opted to sign like 28 power forwards, helping their young players grow in no way whatsoever. Rather than sit on the cap space they suffered years and years to finally open up, they chose to spend it frivolously on players who won’t help this year nor will be around for the future plans of the Knicks either.
Going into training camp with this motley crew, I wasn’t enthused about their prospects. Yet, these dudes were smelling themselves. Hilarious! I honestly wish I had their cockiness.
From there, the season unfolded as expected– a nightmare. Things came to an impasse when the team cratered to a deplorable 4-18 record, prompting the Gruesome Twosome to fire Coach Fiz after having their asinine press conference on November 10. The utter joy this gave NBA Twitter made it worth it. I was laughing all night.
Since the hiring of interim coach Michael Miller, the Knicks have put together a record of 13-20, which qualifies as ‘not utterly horrendous’. Going into the All-Star break, the squad went 5-5 in their last 10 games. While they ended with two consecutive losses in their final pair of contests, they had racked up a four-game winning streak just before that. That stands as their best stretch of games since 2017. So there seems to finally be a semblance of accountability with these guys. It’s faint, but it’s there.
So now, we look towards the future. They have 27 games remaining in this season, which are crucial to evaluating their current roster. That should allow the front office enough time to amass the needed data that will aid them this summer. While it’s a fact that they have a mismatched team at the moment, their cap situation is rather positive starting this summer. The key is to make prudent moves that are all lined up with one another. You simply cannot have another result as last summer, when they panicked and just spent to spend.
The rumors of beloved player-agent Leon Rose supposedly coming on to run the front office would be a boon for the Knickerbockers. The mere mention of him as the decision maker at The Garden has breathed new life into the franchise. The fan base, is as they always are, intelligent and rabid. They want a winning product, sure. But most of all, they want a team that hustles on every play, dives for loose balls, and doesn’t allow easy buckets. That’s the Knicks personality — or it had been until 2000.
I was in attendance earlier this season for Kristaps Porzingis‘ return to MSG; the crowd was deafening. These fans were so amped up to have a reason to cheer (or jeer in this case). They are desperate for a real team they can root for.
This could be the start of something real that had sustainability, but only if executed correctly. As of now, the Knicks only have roughly $54M on the books for 2020-2021, with the latest cap projected to be $105M. That is Huell and Kuby money. If Leon Rose does indeed come aboard in the coming months, his savvy expertise with players should be an automatic upgrade to the Knicks chances at signing anyone. Rose is well respected by the other agents out there, not to mention most NBA front office personnel he had dealt with in his career. That fact alone could have altered history last summer, when KD and Kyrie were taking calls.
https://twitter.com/HOT97/status/1181542659292352515?s=20
The biggest issue to work out though during the back half of this season is getting a true and accurate assessment of their current core of young players. RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Frank Ntilikina, Elfrid Payton, Kevin Knox, Dennis Smith Jr., Allonzo Trier and Damyean Dotson. Those are the guys I would run hardcore for the final two dozen or so games. Put them in all types of scenarios on the court. The wins/losses are irrelevant for the most part (obviously, hurting their draft pick isn’t ideal). It’s more about moving these player profiles from the “unknown” category and into the “known” category, simply to aid the front office in mocking up the correct blueprint to move ahead. You cannot enter the draft and then free agency still having questions about their potential play next season and beyond.
Besides the overdue face-lift Rose would give the franchise when free agency begins this July, it is with the draft, that the crux of this rebuild will be based on. For the first time in eons, the Knicks actually OWN all their first-round picks going forward. Just saying that sentence would have got you punched while walking down 5th Avenue a decade ago. It was not a real world idea. That’s how bad things had gotten in Gotham. Even hope had died.
But now, besides their own picks (currently, they are slotted with the 5th pick for the coming draft in June). Things are certainly volatile, in terms of bottom-feeder records, so their final position remains to be seen. They could use some luck on Tuesday May 19th, when the NBA Draft Lottery is drawn. More leaning towards the KP draft, when he fell to them at #4, than last season’s draft, when they just missed on Zion and Ja, and fell to #3. Just imagine the ruckus that would perpetuate on Broadway were the Knicks able to land the second Ball brother in the league. Lamelo is scorching courts in Australia’s NBL where he was just awarded their Rookie of the Year award.
https://twitter.com/IllawarraHawks/status/1228984625407463424?s=20
What makes this entire plan more intriguing, like SUPER intriguing, is that the NYK also have SEVEN additional picks coming to them in the next 3-4 years. No other team in the league has a rosier outlook in terms of picks except the Oklahoma City Thunder. The difference is, the Thunder got back a massive haul for trading their All-Star forward Paul George as well their most beloved player, Russell Westbrook. The Knicks, on the other hand, have done Houdini trick this via trading an unhappy KP and a few smart moves that followed. Read that again. This already feels like another franchise; one that is capable of making sound decisions.
If things fall into place as mentioned above, with Leon Rose in the top suite making the calls, I think that also opens up a new world of LEGIT coaching prospects who may have not listened to pitches in the past. Rumors have been swirling that Jeff Van Gundy may get a look, as has the name of Kentucky’s Coach Cal been mentioned too. If the picture is now a stable organization, with people in positions of power that smart and experienced in this arena, along with a rosy potential future of picks and spending money, that is a win to me.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram where every night is a #BALLNIGHT🏀
Follow @TLSportsMedia on Twitter and Instagram for the latest NBA news and insight.
