New York Knicks Should Give Up On Playoff Aspirations

It is clear that the Knicks are in no way, shape, or form at a stable condition right now. After their 20 point loss to the Grizzlies and Marcus Morris’ comments it became undoubtedly obvious that the Knicks are sinking, and sinking fast.

From the fans chanting “sell the team” to the Grizzlies not having hot water in their showers to Marcus Morris referring to Jay Crowder as “woman-like” the Knicks on every level are utterly dysfunctional.

I have decided to no longer say “Knicks Organization” as they are not at all close to being organized, and you guys can join me as well.

Now the point of this article is not to bash the Knicks, which I do love doing, I want to explain that although the Knicks still have a chance to make the playoffs, there is no reason that should be their goal.

Let’s make one thing clear, the Knicks still do have a shot at making the playoffs. At this point they are 8.5 games out of the 8th seed, which is currently held by the Nets. The 8th seed is just a winning streak away for the Knicks. However that does not mean they should go for it.

Obviously the players and coaches want to win, but that doesn’t mean us fans can’t have a different agenda.

It’s a hard pill to swallow when you decide that the playoffs are not an option, because at this point you are just rooting for your favorite team to lose, an ironic mindset. And although that might be hard to do, suiting up for next year’s draft has to be what we are rooting for now.

I don’t want to come off as pessimistic, and one of those annoying people who are constantly in your ears shouting “TANK,TANK, TANK.” I am the farthest thing from that type of person. I held out for as long as I could with this team, but what transpired during and after the Grizzlies game finally flipped the switch in my head.

Trying to just barely make the playoffs would put the Knicks even farther into no man’s land than they already are. At this point the Knicks are half way in rebuilding mode, and half in “win-now”, BUT I think we can all agree the Knicks should not be in “win-now” mode.

That is why the Knicks are so far behind the 8 ball, the team lacks direction and that is a bad state to be in. However the Knicks can start to turn things around and get the ball rolling with completely rebuilding. That starts with not focusing on the playoffs.

The focus should be playing all the young players and trading all the old players. That seems easy enough, but over and over again the Knicks struggle to do the easy things right.

I think Mike Miller has done a better job than David Fizdale at playing the young players. However the mix of rebuilding and “win-now” mode have kept Mike Miller from completely going all in on the young players. However the front office could force the hand of Miller by trading away their older players, like Marcus Morris and Taj Gibson.

At face value it seems that all the blame of not playing the young players should fall on Mike Miller, but I believe it all falls on James Dolan.

The Knicks were very close with Kristaps Porzingis, but then they traded him away, restarting the rebuilding process . The Knicks goal, or specifically James Dolan’s goal was skipping the rebuild by signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

They missed out on both, which was always a risk with their plan. Dolan thought he could bypass the boring stages of a rebuild and become a championship team over night, but their was risk there.

Unfortunately for the Knicks their worst nightmare came true, and got neither Durant or Irving and now are in no man’s land, and that all falls, in my opinion on James Dolan.

To conclude, I want to make it clear that if the Knicks do somehow make the playoffs I am going to root for the Knicks, but all I am saying is that Knicks fans should not be excited if the Knicks try to trade to make the playoffs.