How the Knicks Are the Biggest Laughingstock in the NBA

PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD DREW / AP

Professional New York sports teams are currently at an all-time low in terms of winning. Aside from the Mets and football Giants (barely), there's not much to get excited about for NYC fans.

The NBA teams are no exception this year. The Nets have just come off a 16-game losing streak, they’ve had their only real point guard dealing with injuries all year, watched as a young point guard that they had cut earlier in the season (Yogi Ferrell) go full 2K15 MyCareer in Dallas, and are currently 10-50 in a league where every other team but the Lakers has at least 20 wins. Heck, you can’t even say they’re tanking because Billy King traded what could be a number one overall draft pick this year for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

And yet, somehow, they’re not the biggest laughingstock in the NBA. That honor belongs to that OTHER New York NBA team.

The Knicks have not had a great season at all this year. Sure they’re 25-37 and only 5 games out of a playoff spot, but what would be the point of TRYING for that final spot? This team is going nowhere fast this year, and you can blame that on numerous factors. Of course, the main factor behind all of this mess is…

1. Phil Jackson

On March 18th, 2014, Phil Jackson was named the President of the New York Knicks. James Dolan and Knicks management hoped that his success as a head coach would translate to the front office.

On March 4th, 2017, they have been the complete opposite.

In his first offseason of business, he failed to hire Steve Kerr as a head coach (he was hired by the Warriors, and the rest is history), and instead turned to Derek Fisher. The triangle offense that he has tried to force on his head coaches has not worked at all since it’s so complicated.

To make matter much worse, he has irked the star player of the Knicks—Carmelo Anthony—numerous times, and has criticized him on social media.

“Bleacher's Ding almost rings the bell, but I learned you don't change the spot on a leopard with Michael Graham in my CBA daze.” The tweet refers to Kevin Ding’s article written on February 7th, stating that Anthony was a superstar more focused on his individual success”. Jackson seems to agree with Ding in the tweet. Anthony seemed Hence, the unsureness of whether he would be on the team at the end of 2017 (spoiler alert: he still is).

Speaking of trades and moves, many of the moves that Phil Jackson and staff has done hasn’t worked at all, and has led to this awful season. Jackson’s first move to trade Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler for two second round picks in that 2014 draft. Given Felton’s legal history over the course of the previous year and Tyson Chandler starting to decline, this wasn’t so terrible. But the two second round picks that they got: Cleanthony Early and Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Greek Freak 2). Neither produced in New York and both are no longer Knicks.

Long story short, a lot of the moves that Jackson has (and hasn’t made) have lead to the dismal of the team. The only real bright spot for the Knicks since his hiring has been Kristaps Porzingis.

The other problem with Jackson is that he’s still in head coach mode. He hasn’t quite gotten into President mode yet. It seems like he is or was always in the business of Jeff Hornacek, Fisher, and Kurt Rambis. Remember, before Fisher was fired, he had strayed away from the triangle. When Rambis took over, the triangle was instituted once again. In the beginning of the year, the triangle was used by Jeff Hornacek with a new look Knicks team, and things were looking decent until Derrick Rose went MIA in January.

Fisher discussed with Bleacher Report on his struggles working with Jackson:

“We both didn’t know exactly what we were doing…Being the head coach is not like playing. Being president is not like being the head coach. That’s one of the reasons why we didn’t quite complete our meshing and blending of talents and thoughts, because those two positions are not always aligned.” (Newsday, Al Iannazzone)

Essentially, Phil has failed to notice that the triangle hasn’t worked for the Knicks, and has tried to force it on the three head coaches he has hired. The players are not going to understand it, and that has shown on the court, but Phil Jackson’s awful tendency to mind his business has failed this team.

Phil Jackson was a great head coach, there is no doubt about that. When you can get 13 rings in your career (playing and head coach), you got a great resume. But its about time for Phil to hang up the shoes and stay in the front office (and make good moves for this team).

But enough on blaming Phil for this mess. Let’s turn straight to our next point…

2. Almost Everyone Else

Remember coming into the season when there were mixed views on the Derrick Rose trade, but there were some Knicks fans optimistic about how he would return to MVP level if healthy. Remember when Knicks fans were praising a new big three and how the Knicks were going to be a great team and give the Cavs a run for their money.

Well, Derrick Rose is healthy, and he’s nowhere near MVP talk right now.

Sure, he’s still got the athleticism as a point guard, but he also has absolutely no shot past 15 feet, and is a complete liability on the defensive side of the ball.

Speaking of defense, that has been absolutely garbage this year. Besides Derrick Rose’s incapability, Carmelo Anthony has reached all time lows with his defense. Porzingis and Kyle O’Quinn are the only notably good defensive players on this roster. This team also has a dismal bench, besides the likes of Courtney Lee and Kyle O’Quinn (before Noah got injured).

The Knicks have talent on the roster. They built this roster to try and compete this year. Those chances are falling further and further downhill as the season moves along. Their self-proclaimed Big 3 has no chemistry.

The Nets, however, do not have any star players on their roster besides Brook Lopez. They currently have the looks of a bad high school basketball team. They know they suck, so they’re just going out there and having fun. The Knicks cannot do that, since they have the stars, but they’re not producing.

The other reason why the Nets don’t worry so much is…

3. The Media

The Knicks have had the media all over them all season long. Their off-the-court issues have not helped (more on that later).

This team has been mired in a complete mess, which is what your supposed to get from a New York team with such a great history as the Knicks.

All you ever hear about in the New York media today is how bad the Knicks season has been, how the triangle hasn’t worked, why is Noah so overpaid compared to Robin Lopez, where in the world is Derrick Rose. The media was also very critical of the aforementioned tweet that Jackson sent last month.

Meanwhile, the only press the Nets have to worry about is— besides still being one of the most valuable teams playing at low levels— why Jeremy Lin decided to turn himself into a real life Jimmy Neutron.

The biggest shot to the Knicks came when the Charles Oakley fight occurred. This showed the true colors of Knicks management in handling former players. The treatment of Oakley was completely disrespectful by James Dolan and the Knicks organization. Of course though, the media jumped on that, and whatever the Knicks accomplished during that time was overshadowed by the Knicks front office. Heck, Sunday’s near win to the Warriors is overshadowed by this.

Why are the Knicks getting so much press this year? Because they’re supposed to win. Because they are playing garbage ball on national television. Because their front office’s behavior has deserved them as much press as the president of the United States.

That has created a bubble of distractions for the Knicks, and that might contribute to why they play so poorly.

Final Thoughts

The Knicks are not a terrible team. They are still only 5 games out of a playoff spot.

In reality, there should’ve been much more. There has been too much drama this season that has overshadowed the achievements they have had this season. The team is not as great as everyone though it would be, and their president is not making the right moves for this organization.

In my opinion, the Knicks need to go into rebuild mode. They need to try and go for a lower draft pick this year, try to get a Markelle Fultz, a Lonzo Ball, anyone to replace Derrick Rose in the draft. Maybe they sign a point guard for a year that’ll be there until one of those guys are ready for a starting role.

The Nets might be the ones with the worst record in the NBA and most likely not have a chance to get that pick back, but at least the Nets and all the other teams worse than the Knicks haven’t made a complete mockery of themselves.

The Knicks have, and that’s why they’re the laughingstock of the NBA.

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