The NY Knicks, a case study in how not to run a NBA team.

Has there been a worse run team in the last decade than the New York Knicks?

I don't think there has.

I don't want to go to a lot of effort detailing their futility, and I don't think I have to, just a small set of facts will suffice to make my argument.

Fact #1, including the 2001-2002 the Knicks have made the playoffs 3 times in the last 11 years, they have not won a playoff series in that time, and their best season had 42 wins.

Fact #2, unlike most of the other worst run teams in the NBA, the Knicks have basically had a bottomless checkbook for that entire time. Several of those seasons they carried the highest payroll in the league. Nobody else could have the money that the Knicks have and still suck this bad.

Fact #3, the last 4 years.

4 years ago the Knicks had finally purged most of the damage from the Isaiah Thomas era and were set with loads of flexibility. They started in promising fashion and they went out and hired the trendy and successful Mike D'Antoni with a promise to build a team around him and his high octane offensive style. After acquiring a solid batch of young talent that seemed well suited to be molded into a solid fun-n-gun team.

So they are by no means a good team, but they have a future. Still, you get the feeling that Knicks management is restless, so they do what impatient people do, they make an impulse buy...droping $100 Million on a PF/C that is marginal defensively and who everybody (no kidding, EVERYBODY) knows has inflated production do to being spoonfed by one of the best PG's of all time. Ok, not the end of the world, if they get another good PG that can create in D'Antoni's offence this still has all the makings of a team that could be great but will at the very least be fun to watch.

Then the wheels fell off.

They proceeded to get into a bidding war and subsequently trade basically every thing they had for two players that are the antithesis of everything that Mike D'Antoni stood for. Anthony and Billups, while extremely talented, are ball-stopping slow-rolling iso-loving hero ballers. For them Chinese would be easier to learn than the fun-n-gun offense. But somehow the Knicks talked themselves into it, as if everybody involved could just stop being who they are and become something else.

Meanwhile, just days after, the team that lost the bidding war gets a call from Utah and lands the most perfect player for the fun-n-gun offense not named Chris Paul.

But they're not done yet, the next thing they do is amnesty Billups (who is still their best and only PG) EXPIRING contract so they can sign Tyson Chandler. Leaving only Carmelo to run the offense and feed the ball to Chandler and Amare.

The outcome was as predictable as it was sad. The best the Knicks play all season is when Carmelo is out and an undrafted PG who actually buys into the D'Antoni system gets a chance to remind everybody what the offense is supposed to look like. Then Melo comes back, the savior PG gets hurt, and the coach gets fired.

So hey, good news, right? Now since we screwed up the whole getting-players-to-fit-the-system thing so badly, maybe now we can go the coach-to-fit-the-players route?

Only one problem, they didn't do anything all the way. They screwed this pooch in both directions. They have this bastard of a talent pool that is half built for Mike D'Antoni and half built for Carmelo Anthony.

So now they have $100 Million tied up in an unhappy PF/C who is putting his hand through glass because he's so frustrated in how this team is built, and who's contract will probably prevent them from keeping their PG prodigy, and who they are likely stuck paying all $100 million because they wasted their amnesty clause on an expiring contract.

The NY Knicks, worst run franchise in the NBA.

All great, valid & true magnus.

And I believe they currently have tied the longest playoff losing streak in the history of the NBA at 12 games. (11 years since they won a playoff game.)

Good news for them is that Amare is out (due to stupidity) and Lin will likely be back for game 4 ..... now if only Carmelo can find a way out of the line-up as well.

It's not like they've drafted terribly over the past 5 or 6 years either; Ariza, D.Lee, Frye, W.Chandler, Gallinari, L.Fields, Shumpert.

TheMagnus wrote:

Has there been a worse run team in the last decade than the New York Knicks?

I don't think there has.

I don't want to go to a lot of effort detailing their futility, and I don't think I have to, just a small set of facts will suffice to make my argument.

Fact #1, including the 2001-2002 the Knicks have made the playoffs 3 times in the last 11 years, they have not won a playoff series in that time, and their best season had 42 wins.

Fact #2, unlike most of the other worst run teams in the NBA, the Knicks have basically had a bottomless checkbook for that entire time. Several of those seasons they carried the highest payroll in the league. Nobody else could have the money that the Knicks have and still suck this bad.

Fact #3, the last 4 years.

4 years ago the Knicks had finally purged most of the damage from the Isaiah Thomas era and were set with loads of flexibility. They started in promising fashion and they went out and hired the trendy and successful Mike D'Antoni with a promise to build a team around him and his high octane offensive style. After acquiring a solid batch of young talent that seemed well suited to be molded into a solid fun-n-gun team.

So they are by no means a good team, but they have a future. Still, you get the feeling that Knicks management is restless, so they do what impatient people do, they make an impulse buy...droping $100 Million on a PF/C that is marginal defensively and who everybody (no kidding, EVERYBODY) knows has inflated production do to being spoonfed by one of the best PG's of all time. Ok, not the end of the world, if they get another good PG that can create in D'Antoni's offence this still has all the makings of a team that could be great but will at the very least be fun to watch.

Then the wheels fell off.

They proceeded to get into a bidding war and subsequently trade basically every thing they had for two players that are the antithesis of everything that Mike D'Antoni stood for. Anthony and Billups, while extremely talented, are ball-stopping slow-rolling iso-loving hero ballers. For them Chinese would be easier to learn than the fun-n-gun offense. But somehow the Knicks talked themselves into it, as if everybody involved could just stop being who they are and become something else.

Meanwhile, just days after, the team that lost the bidding war gets a call from Utah and lands the most perfect player for the fun-n-gun offense not named Chris Paul.

But they're not done yet, the next thing they do is amnesty Billups (who is still their best and only PG) EXPIRING contract so they can sign Tyson Chandler. Leaving only Carmelo to run the offense and feed the ball to Chandler and Amare.

The outcome was as predictable as it was sad. The best the Knicks play all season is when Carmelo is out and an undrafted PG who actually buys into the D'Antoni system gets a chance to remind everybody what the offense is supposed to look like. Then Melo comes back, the savior PG gets hurt, and the coach gets fired.

So hey, good news, right? Now since we screwed up the whole getting-players-to-fit-the-system thing so badly, maybe now we can go the coach-to-fit-the-players route?

Only one problem, they didn't do anything all the way. They screwed this pooch in both directions. They have this bastard of a talent pool that is half built for Mike D'Antoni and half built for Carmelo Anthony.

So now they have $100 Million tied up in an unhappy PF/C who is putting his hand through glass because he's so frustrated in how this team is built, and who's contract will probably prevent them from keeping their PG prodigy, and who they are likely stuck paying all $100 million because they wasted their amnesty clause on an expiring contract.

The NY Knicks, worst run franchise in the NBA.

Seriously brother. Everything you said is spot on and I wish I had the writing skills to make posts like that. writing is not one of strong suits. My post are usually short and only make one or two points. If I go longer than that I kind of start rambling.

Back to the point. I would have maybe guess the Clippers or GS, but the way you laid it out it would be really hard to disagree. I just hope the reports that Sloan is on their radar isn't true. I would hate to see him get mixed up in that train wreck.

Don't think Sloan is insane enough to take on that train wreck and unforgiving bright lights that go with it. I mean really - you think he could work with Amare after that right up there with the stupidest ever basketball related injuries ever? And Caryellow? Not a chance. Talk about the antithesis of a Sloan player. I think Jerry, if he ever comes back, would only do it with a promising young club that is well constituted but perhaps under-acheiving. I think he actually started to embrace the mentoring role until Dwill and still unheard events transpired that derailed his enthusiasm for the brutal grind of head coaching.

And Magnus, you really should start a double life as an NBA writer. Your shit is always right on even if I disagree with some things around the edges. And, I love saying "shit" in this forum without getting back four ****!

MTJazz wrote:

Don't think Sloan is insane enough to take on that train wreck and unforgiving bright lights that go with it. I mean really - you think he could work with Amare after that right up there with the stupidest ever basketball related injuries ever? And Caryellow? Not a chance. Talk about the antithesis of a Sloan player. I think Jerry, if he ever comes back, would only do it with a promising young club that is well constituted but perhaps under-acheiving. I think he actually started to embrace the mentoring role until Dwill and still unheard events transpired that derailed his enthusiasm for the brutal grind of head coaching.

And Magnus, you really should start a double life as an NBA writer. Your shit is always right on even if I disagree with some things around the edges. And, I love saying "shit" in this forum without getting back four ****!

LOL yeah I used to have to spell it $hit over there.

Romoholic wrote:

MTJazz wrote:

Don't think Sloan is insane enough to take on that train wreck and unforgiving bright lights that go with it. I mean really - you think he could work with Amare after that right up there with the stupidest ever basketball related injuries ever? And Caryellow? Not a chance. Talk about the antithesis of a Sloan player. I think Jerry, if he ever comes back, would only do it with a promising young club that is well constituted but perhaps under-acheiving. I think he actually started to embrace the mentoring role until Dwill and still unheard events transpired that derailed his enthusiasm for the brutal grind of head coaching.

And Magnus, you really should start a double life as an NBA writer. Your shit is always right on even if I disagree with some things around the edges. And, I love saying "shit" in this forum without getting back four ****!

LOL yeah I used to have to spell it $hit over there.

Hey, the PM feature isn't obvious on this forum and I need to give you my address to settle up our little preseason bet. I'll man up and go head-to-head with you next year on a similar weighty bet so you have a chance to even up the score. You gotta admit that was a good bet to lose as a Jazz fan.

MTJazz wrote:

Romoholic wrote:

MTJazz wrote:

Don't think Sloan is insane enough to take on that train wreck and unforgiving bright lights that go with it. I mean really - you think he could work with Amare after that right up there with the stupidest ever basketball related injuries ever? And Caryellow? Not a chance. Talk about the antithesis of a Sloan player. I think Jerry, if he ever comes back, would only do it with a promising young club that is well constituted but perhaps under-acheiving. I think he actually started to embrace the mentoring role until Dwill and still unheard events transpired that derailed his enthusiasm for the brutal grind of head coaching.

And Magnus, you really should start a double life as an NBA writer. Your shit is always right on even if I disagree with some things around the edges. And, I love saying "shit" in this forum without getting back four ****!

LOL yeah I used to have to spell it $hit over there.

Hey, the PM feature isn't obvious on this forum and I need to give you my address to settle up our little preseason bet. I'll man up and go head-to-head with you next year on a similar weighty bet so you have a chance to even up the score. You gotta admit that was a good bet to lose as a Jazz fan.

The pm button is the open envelope right below the post. Send me your address and we'll settle up. Never been happier to lose a bet