Storyline: What makes anyone think that bringing in a new coach will automatically fix this team? You can’t make lemonade from rotten lemons and turn this roster into a playoff-caliber team.
Since firing head coach Derek Fisher the New York Knicks have been in ‘who’s the next coach’ limbo from the media, talking heads, and fans. As one of the most popular and expensive NBA franchises (despite the lack of championships) this is one of the most coveted positions in the NBA.
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The last time the Knicks raised a championship banner in the world’s most famous arena – Madison Square Garden – Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Earl ‘the Pearl’ Monroe, and Dave Debusschere graced the sidelines. Not even the Patrick Ewing led-Knicks with Charles Oakley, Larry Johnson, and John Starks could return the team to prominence during the 1990s – coming up just short of winning one, if not two, crowns.
Over the last 15 years this team has had nine head coaches, including stints with Lenny Wilkens, Herb Williams, and Larry Brown. Who can forget those horrible days of Isiah Thomas? Mike Woodson was the only one during that time that had a winning record. After Jeff Van Gundy, the Knicks have been one, big mess. And despite the amount of money that owner James Dolan has spent on free agents, it hasn’t brought glory to the franchise.
So what makes anyone think that bringing in a new coach, at this juncture, will automatically make them that much better? You can’t make lemonade from rotten lemons and turn this roster into a playoff-caliber team. Sure, they’re much better than the 17-win debacle of last season, and they’re much more fun to watch, too. But as far as competing against the best of the East and West every night? It’s not even a competition.
Tom Thibodeau, Luke Walton, Phil Jackson, or even Gregg Popovich can’t make the Knicks into a championship caliber team – at least not this season. But, let’s face it: fans have been so burnt and disgruntled by the team’s performance over the last four decades they’d take anything right now – even a chance of making the playoffs as an 8-seed and getting their doors blown off in the first round.
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Carmelo Anthony, clearly the marquee player on the team, is certainly showing his age, despite playing his best all-around game since coming to NY from Denver. Kristaps Porzingis is a rare find in this year’s class of rookies – despite fans and the media ripping that pick at the NBA draft. After that there are a lot of good role players, But the team lacks the kind of cohesiveness that’s needed to bring them into the top echelon of the NBA.
For starters, the Knicks don’t have a bona fide point guard, a player who can run the floor like Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, or Chris Paul. Heck, they can’t even boast a top-twenty guard in the league. Jose Calderon is old, doesn’t defend the lane, and is a shell of his former self. Without someone truly running the floor, each and every night, the team will continue to suffer poor performances, the kind that has plagued the Knicks all season.
They don’t have anyone waiting in the wings at the guard position, either. Aaron Afflalo, Langston Galloway, and Jerian Grant are all nice players, but can you rely on any of them going forward? Afflalo looks like he may not be around next season if he seeks a big payday – and he shoots too much. Galloway gets a lot of looks, but he’s too one-dimensional. Grant is young, but the jury is still out on his overall game.
Robin Lopez, Derrick Williams, and Lou Amundson certainly can’t be counted on to take on the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and others over the course of the season – much less the playoffs.
Perhaps everyone needs to take a deep breath and let the Zen Master, Phil Jackson, work his magic. Let’s see what happens over the course of the next year or so. The problem is that Jackson has an opt-out clause this summer. He can leave New York for the sunnier climates of Los Angeles and his fiancé, Jeannie Buss. The plan Jackson started to put in place last year seems to be working – albeit slowly. But patience isn’t a virtue in New York.
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Jackson shed some really horrible salaries and got rid of deadwood players, like JR Smith and underachieving Iman Shumpert. His off-season moves, like drafting Porzingis and getting really smart free-agent contracts, have left the Knicks in a good position. The team has a lot of cap space available to sign top free agents after the season ends. But what happens if Jackson decides to leave? What if he hires a coach that the next president and GM doesn’t want? Will the Knicks have to start all over again?
The Knicks don’t have a first-round draft choice this year, having given it away to Toronto in that infamous, and forgettable, Andrea Bargnani trade in 2013. New York fans are still hurting over that one, but it’s a pattern that the team’s brass has continued to make year after year. They have yet to dig out of the black hole of giving away quality, young talent coming out of college. Jackson may be looking to buck that trend and pick future stars for the Knicks, but is he going to stay and see it through?
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Regardless of whether interim coach Kurt Rambis (and his knowledge of the ‘triangle’) can win them enough games to get into this year’s playoffs, it won’t solve the long-term problems this team faces. The next coach, whomever that is, will have to be able to run the Knicks in his own style – not one that Jackson believes should be employed. That was Fisher’s downfall. He not only couldn’t make the triangle work, but his statements about how the team was playing, didn’t put him in a good graces with management. Everyone knows that Jim Dolan is thin-skinned.
Knick fans have been more than patient with this team over the years. They continue to pay top-dollar to attend games at the Garden. And the Knicks are still one of the top draws in New York. At some point, Dolan has to stop wasting dollars on bad free agents and actually put together some semblance of a winning team. That will start with a quality head coach – an individual who will be able to run the team without someone looking over his shoulder. Until that day, the Knicks will just be fodder for more and more negative chatter. It will continue to be a losing franchise. No one will want to come play, New York or not.
