The New York Knicks should start tanking with purpose

Things look bleak for the New York Knicks heading into the All-Star break.

I’m reminded of two movie characters as I sit hunched over my computer the morning after a grueling loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder scrolling through today’s Twitter tirades.

The first is Veruca Salt singing, “Give it to me now!”

Knicks fans want a golden goose.

They also want to tank. They also want the tank to be neatly wrapped up this season, so that next year is competitive again. They also want the kids to get more minutes. They also want Tom Thibodeau fired. They also want Kemba Walker, Alec Burks, and Evan Fournier benched.

And they want all of it now. And they’re willing to fire every Oompa Loompa–even Willy Wonka himself–if they don’t get what they want.

The other character I’m reminded of is Howard Ratner from Uncut Gems. (No clip for this one as there is no clip from that movie that meets the decency standards of this website. The movie is phenomenal, though.)

New York Knicks: A season of confusion

The Knicks front office and Thibodeau are Ratner in this scenario. They continue to place the same bet over and over again even though a loss is inevitable.

This run at point guard is the time Burks turns things around. These Taj Gibson minutes are the ones that prove Obi Toppin shouldn’t be playing more. This 40-minute run is the one where Julius Randle doesn’t get tired before crunch time.

We love these characters in their movies because there are nuggets of reality in each of them.

Fans are right. The Knicks should think long and hard about leaning into a tank after the All-Star break.

The front office is right that they need to demonstrate guys like Burks, Fournier, Walker, and Nerlens Noel have some value if they would like to move off their contracts this summer.

Tanking may be the way to go, but it needs to be tanking with a purpose.

That purpose must be two-fold.

One, the kids should play more minutes.

Two, the value of the longer-term contracts needs to be elevated.

If both Veruca Salt and Howard Ratner can compromise a bit, the entire Knicks organization AND all their supports might be better in the long run.