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What Will It Take For The New York Knicks To Have Success

By Brendan Moffatt

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 16: The New York Knicks bench reacts to the loss to the Phoenix Suns at Madison Square Garden on January 16, 2020 in New York City.The Phoenix Suns defeated the New York Knicks 121-98.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 16: The New York Knicks bench reacts to the loss to the Phoenix Suns at Madison Square Garden on January 16, 2020 in New York City.The Phoenix Suns defeated the New York Knicks 121-98.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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This began as an overview of the past failings of James Dolan and the New York Knicks, and what changes have to be made for a better future.

Returning to a thorough and brilliant series by Jade Johnson on “Sir Charles in Charge” last August for a refresher course, I was once again crushingly depressed at the twenty year calamity that is the New York Knicks. Johnson highlights the beginning of the end for the Knicks starting 20 years ago . How the Isiah Thomas era only dug the Knicks a deeper hole, and how the team is still stuck in its sad ways today.  

That is history, and now we look forward to a brighter tomorrow. The New York Knicks history leaves lots of lessons to be learned.

In order of incompetence we have the owner, the general managers who traded away draft choices for mediocre, aging and injured players, and the coaches who ran the gamut from really good, Jeff Van Gundy, to totally bonkers, Larry Brown.

The New York Knicks now must take their past failures and successes (mostly failures) and craft a game plan to pull the Big Apple out of the bottom of the NBA cellar.

Lessons for a new day begin with:

1. Responsibility, the owner takes full responsibility for the team’s long-term performance and must hire a ‘competent coaches, not a big name with major flaws (I’m talking about you Tom Thibodeau.

2. Wisdom, draft choices are not traded away for anything less than young, proven stars.

3. Patience is a virtue because great organizations aren’t built overnight

4. Continuity, a winning organization has a culture that players can identify from year to year.

5. Leadership, the general manager must know how that culture should look, e.g. defense and ball-movement

6. Consistency, coaches and players are brought in who fit the culture

7. Longevity, heavily invest in scouting and player development to maintain a pool of quality players.

Is constructive change coming? Steve Stoute, our latest incompetent, is still employed by the New York Knicks. Did he save Mike Miller’s job? If not, this makes Dolan look even worse.

Less than 25 minutes by train from MSG is the Barclay Center, home of a franchise that resurrected itself from the ashes of terrible ownership and management. Prokhorov and English exited with Tsai and Marks taking over in 2017. In just two years they built a winning team and made the playoffs. The Nets parlayed their 42 and 40 record and organizational success into signing two max free agents.

Related Story. The Knicks Need A Will To Win. light

The results haven’t lived up to expectations, but at least Nets’ fans have real reasons to hope.

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