NY Knicks: Reacting to B/R’s “1 Question Still Haunting the Knicks” article
I was scouring the internet looking for NY Knicks content inspiration as I normally do, and I came across an interesting Bleacher Report piece detailing ‘1 Question still Haunting Every NBA team‘.
As I scrolled down the article, reading each team’s situation one by one, I finally come across the Knicks.
I’ll go ahead and copy the entire blurb for everyone here to read before I give my assessment:
"New York Knicks: Why Didn’t We Do This Before?The New York Knicks have officially changed their ways. Instead of knee-jerk trades or setting aside cap space to sign the marquee free agent that was never interested in the first place, they’ve pivoted to offering sensible, downside-protected contracts for quality players and valuing their own future first-rounders.It’s so simple, it’s almost genius.The Knicks currently have seven players on the roster making between $9 million and $23 million, an ideal range for throwing together multiple salaries in a trade for a disgruntled superstar. They also own all their own first-rounders—more ammo to fire off in a big-name deal, were one to arise at some point this year.New York will again compete for a playoff spot, driven by a combination of rising youth—RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley—and legitimate veteran talent—Julius Randle, Kemba Walker, Evan Fournier. And while making the effort to improve on last year’s No. 4 seed, they’ll remain flexible enough to capitalize on whatever talent-acquisition opportunities present themselves.It’s been a long time since the franchise seemed so sensibly managed and stable. Makes you wonder why the Knicks didn’t try this before."
Now let’s break this thing down.
My initial reaction was something to the effect of “Hey, not so bad for once!”.
What question do you think still haunts the NY Knicks for this season?
Of all the ‘haunting questions’, ours seemed to be the least detrimental of the bunch, which is huge considering what we fans have had to endure over the last 20+ years.
It’s nice to know that the Knicks and their front office are being recognized for all the intelligent moves they’ve been making because there’s really not a whole lot anyone can say badly about what Leon Rose and Co have done over the past year or so.
I’m certain that after finishing 4th in votes, Leon Rose is gunning for the 2021-22 Executive of the Year Award.
This article serves as one of many testaments to how well the Knicks have operated ever since Leon took the helm.
There were certainly a handful of players the Knicks could have pushed a little harder for during free agency but all in all, it’s clear that there’s not a whole lot of bad to speak of for the first time in decades.
My second thought was about how obvious it is that the Knicks will be looking to make a blockbuster trade for a superstar in the coming year.
If you compare the Knicks to any of the other successful teams in the last 5 years or so, prior to them trading for a big name Superstar, they’re constructed exactly alike.
Movable contracts that wouldn’t lock the Knicks’ trade partners into any one player for very long, which makes matching salaries a piece of cake.
I know there are a lot of fans out there that want the Knicks to simply stay the course, but staying the course for too long in today’s NBA gets you nowhere…and fast.
That’s why as much as I love all the guys on today’s team, I know not to get too emotionally attached to many of them as they’re likely not going to be here very long.
And lastly, I gotta fire a shot back at the author of B/R’s article because at the end of the day, asking ‘Why the Knicks didn’t do this sooner?’ is a very loaded question.
They’ve been trying to make this happen since the signing of Amar’e Stoudemire and trading for Carmelo Anthony many moons ago.
The team has an owner who stuck his nose into things he shouldn’t have for far too long, and would always hire ‘Yes Men’ to run the day-to-day for the team.
It seems as if a part of the agreement that brought Leon Rose to The Garden was for James Dolan to stay out of sight and just to let Leon do his thing.
It’s safe to say that so far, it’s working.
Sure, the Knicks may have been the most dysfunctional team in the NBA for over a decade, but every team goes through rebuilds.
Some just take a little longer than others.
It’s nice to know that the Knicks are no longer the laughing stock of the NBA and that they’re finally being recognized for the total 180 they’ve done with their overall roster construction to the culture they’ve instilled over the last 12+ months.