My First Basketball Post (The Knicks)

There is no team in the NBA worse than the New York Knicks,
I know the records of Minnesota and Miami may state otherwise, but Minnesota is rebuilding, and Miami has lost a lot of players to injury, and hence is a small way are also rebuilding.
New york on the other hand arent rebuilding and arent experiencing Injuries

The Knicks are suppose to be one of the best teamn in the NBA, why, because it is one of the original teams, it is in the main media city in the US, New York city, has the largest arena, MSG, The richest Owner, Jim Dolan, Is the most valuable team, (check the forbes list), it has the highest salary roll, (over 90mil), HAs the most first round picks, and the list goes on...................


ONCE THEY LOOKED LIKE THIS
THE GREAT



NOW THEY LOOK MORE LIKE THIS




"NEW YORK KNICKS SUCK"



SO


q: Why do the Knicks Suck?

a: Well if you were to ask there Head Coach and GM, he will give you all kind of excuses, like the The players arent playing with heart and urgency, or it is the fans harsh criticism. But the answer to the question is simple.

Isiah Thomas - he is the worst GM and coach in basketball. He is a manipulative person and it seems that no matter how much he messes up, Dolan (the owner) will still give him praise. He is actually the only GM that has being hired to a team so long, without making the playoffs. Mr. Thomas has fired three of the best coaches of all time such namely Lenny Wilkens (Most wins as a coach), Jeff VanGundy, and Larry Brown, because he believed that with the talent that they have on their roster, they should be making the playoffs, but after he fired Brown, he appointed himself Head Coach, but the results have been even worse.
Though as a GM, he has completely wasted Jim Dolan's(the richest owner) money, acquiring or giving Van Horn, Jerome James, Marbury, Allan Houston, Crawford, Larry Brown, Steve Francis, QRich, Jalen Rose, Curry, Penny Hardaway, ZBO (Zach Randolph), both Kurt and Tim Thomas , and more that i just cannot remember right now, huge contracts, and then either relegating them to the bench or after a year waiving them, or simply the person did not deserve the money. Now Dolan is over the luxury tax threshold, and has to pay a dollar, for every dollar over the tax limit(last year he was 100+Mil over the limit, hence he had to give the NBA 100+ Mil for nothing).
The Knicks and Thomas do try hard to win, and thats why they try to acquire these players, as the Knicks has the most first round picks on a team with 11 knicks being drafted in the first round. But what they do not realize is that for a team to be successful, there has to be chemistry, and chemistry usually begins at the point, Marbury is a selfish player and hence not the best player to lead a team, and he and Thomas have fallen out many times about his leadership, which led to Marbury being demoted to the bench, but quickly promoted back to the starting position, as they were worse off with Marbury on the bench. Later, however, Marbury has had to take a leave of absence due to "personal reasons", and since Marbury's leave, the Knicks (correct me if I'm wrong) haven't won more than two games. This is because it all goes back to the point guard, as Crawford and Robinson have played the minutes at the point and both are offensive players, they look for their shot first.

AT the Swing MAN (SG and SF)
SG - Crawford, Jones (Fred), and others
SF - QRich, Jeffries, Rose, and others

Crawford problem was already explained in the PG section.

Jones - not really that good of a player, got ups though, surprised he lasted this long in New York (2 months - was apart of the Zbo trade), quick and strong. He plays hard defense. He's a scrappy offensive player who can get to the rim and he can shoot from distance albeit with no consistency. He was dumped by Toronto and Portland because he wasn't a versatile enough offensive player who was a hindrance to ball movement and movement off the ball. His best season was with Indiana, after the brawl.

QRich - He is the Knicks best perimeter defender and a versatile scorer. He has a post game, is good attacking the hoop, can run the floor and hit the outside shot with consistency so he can space the floor. However he falls victim to wrong situation, wrong time. He moves off the ball very poorly in the half court (NY's biggest problem) and consistently struggles to use his abilities next to the Knicks established players. He has two ball dominating guards which limits his touchs and two ball dominating big men to man the post and are not versatile enough away from the hoop to free up opportunities in the post for Q. He simply is a horrid fit here.

Jeffries - He is a complete joke, was once regarded as the one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, now he is $#*t.

Rose - doesnt even play enough to comment on his game, truthfully i dont even remember how he even played for SA.

Weak Defense in the front court: Curry vs ZBo
Now a year ago the knicks problem was their backcourt, having heavy weights as Francis and Marbury sharing minutes, but the two just never got along, as they have similar styles of play, and would have to compete for minutes and ball possesion, How did they solve that problem, trading francis for ZBo, which to me puts them in the same Dilemma.
Curry and Randolph are great offensive players, capable of putting up big scoring numbers, but both play little to no D(defense). Zbo is a better all round player as unlike Curry can pass and rebound, but for any of them to be productive they need the ball, and as they are not great ball handlers, they expect to get the ball in the right position (Unlike Garnett, Duncan and Dirk, who no matter where they receive the ball can make magic happen). The problem with this is that with a point guard looking to score, none of them are getting the ball, and these players are not hustlers who work for the ball and when the points do decide to pass in the post the question is who to pass to. However, the beneficiary of most of the passes have been ZBo, making Curry redundant (BUT WITH HIS CONTRACT SIZE, THEY CANNOT AFFORD FOR HIM TO BE REDUNDANT, OR CAN THEY). This has led to the the same problem with Francis and Marbury, both are fighting for minutes and possession, and ultimately has benefited the team.
But the problem they now face is that THOMAS has benched Zbo(similar to how he benched francis), to start DLee. DLee isn't a bad player, and does deserve minutes, but not at the cost of ZBo (similarly with crawford and Francis). and once again this led to poor performances by the one being demoted to the bench (Francis and Zbo), while the one who starts (marbury and Curry), still are not performing how they are expected to perform.

Now what do you call this, the same thing is basically, with different players in different years, Hence it must me Admins Fault or better yet Thomas.

To me Thomas is only getting big names, but worrying about Chem, but look at the lakers now, they do not have the big names (apart from Kobe and Maybe ODOM), but are gelling well and winning, which did not take over night, it took hard work, which even led kobe to being frustrated, but now its paying off as Bynum is now the one making a name for himself.
Now trevor Ariza (LAL)is also playing well, as he once did in New York, but as a rookie, no matter how much promise he had, they wanted a bigger player and so traded him and others for francis. (the point im trying to make is that it is only recently with young players like Dlee, have they kept to try and develop, usually these players get traded, for a all star caliber player.

After Blaming the coach, for the players he has acquired, an stated how the player compete each each other, i think i should mention how the knicks play as a team. at different ends of the Court

It's clear and has been clear for a good time that the Knicks have a bad mix of players. But why are they a bad mix?

Let's begin with the starters. The game of basketball is all about combinations. How do the big men play together? How do the guards do? How do the swingmen do? Can the guards and big men play together? Do the players complement one other?








Dont get me wrong Thomas isn't all bad, he has had some great drafts picking D.Lee, R.Balkman, N.Robinson, and others, and i do believe he has the teams interest at heart, but just isnt the man to do it.


Q: What can they do to improve.

A: I cant answer that, but what i recommend they do is scrap this season and start over, NOW
First get rid of Thomas, get a new Board, new coaches, assistants, etc.

Trade Curry, Crawford, Qrcih, Marbury, Rose, Jones, James, Collins, Jeffries

Keep, Randolph, Dlee.

Other Dont care what happens to them, can be traded, or kept

Why Trade so many players, it is simple, the dont play well together, and have been here long enough.
Many of these players, are easily Traded, because they do have talent.

1.) Get a young capable point Guard, a pass first type player(no recommendations on who)
2.) Get a 2guard with the offensive ability of Crawford, but with Defensive talents, unlike crawford (Someone like Monta Ellis)
3.) Build around Zach
4.) Get players who are willing to play, (Mark Blount) - a matter a fact i think with SHaq, injured, and falling off, Zo out for the season, and no confidence in blount, Curry to Miami doest even seem to be a bad deal, the only problem is when Shaq returns, does curry go back to the bench.
5.)Get players willing to take a role position (there are many of them. preferbly veterans though, as they will provide better minutes.
6.)Continue to draft well.

Now i know trading those player will be hard, because of their salary, and it may seem to drastic to start over now, but their record reflect a rebuilding team.

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If a certain someone wasn't too busy 'pimpin' staff members and cheerleaders
and actually coaching, maybe he would be able to realize what's wrong with his team



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M.T.M-M with assistance by DiPhoenix