Honestly, they kinda screwed up the lead/theme I had going for this recap. I was gonna vent about lousy officiating, how the Nix never get the calls, and as a result, we get 4 and 5 point swings at crucial moments/turning points in the game. I was going to follow that by ripping MD’A a new one for sitting Hill, Douglas, and Gallo when the boys were clearly on cruise mode and end it w/a whole, “The Pacers have a plan on offense and defense and the Knicks look like 5 guys who showed up for a pickup game†screed. And they go and eff it up by, well…winning.
via KnickerBlogger.Net » Blog Archive » Knicks 110 – Pacers 103.
There are bad teams that are putting out the effort you want and just don’t have the firepower to execute (Bobcats), and then there are teams that seem completely and utterly lost to the point where even wins feel hollow. The Knicks are such a team.
They’ve got a little over 9 months to completely change the outlook of this team. They’ve sacrificed everything in pursuit of cap space. Here’s the scary part, how much of what is going on is still directly tied to Isiah’s contracts? That’s an element we tend to forget and assume that his work has been flushed from the system. But there’s Eddy Curry, putting up positive signs by getting a handful of minutes. For $10 million a season! There’s Cuttino Mobley, a good guy and player who got cut down due to a heart condition, but who was, in essence, the tax on the Knicks’ soul for freeing themselves of Zach Randolph (that’s your franchise player, Memphis!) at $9.5. There’s Larry Hughes, whose actually playing well again, which is really nice to see from a guy who was blasted so much, and he’s essentially the tax on their soul from Jerome James and Tim Thomas, who was, again, part of the tax for Zach Randolph.
That’s $33 million alone, right there, with three players (!), just to make space for a big acquisition push. Or at least, that’s what we say. We say that this team is horrible and the team is making bad decisions by not pursuing better players and just going for cap space. But do you remember the inordinate amount of luxury tax they were paying for Isiah’s lottery squad? This is all done to try and get out from under that gigantic weight he put them under. I mean, yes, looking back on it, apparently all they have to do is trade with Memphis (oh, please, oh please trade Curry for Gasol and get him out of there). But getting other teams to take this group of shining stars is hard work.
And yet, there it is. I’m literally concerned for Donnie Walsh’s health this summer. Because he won’t be able to sleep. He’s going to have to be visiting free agents and reviewing tape 24-7. Plus, they have to figure out a way to get a first rounder back! So while the Fire Mike rumblings have already begun, let’s not act like putting this franchise back together could have been accomplished. They didn’t just start in a hole, they started in the coffin, in the hole, with the dirt buried on top.
