Asking Knicks fans to be patient? It's hard to do.
The Knicks have gone 36 years without a championship, they're nine years removed from their last appearance in the second round, and the team is about as long as shots get at putting an end to this length of loserdom.
On top of that, Knicks fans have been faced with a series of executives, ownership groups and coaches that were, shall we say, lacking. Toss in the sheer size of the Knick fan base and a tri-state temper following that doesn't really take to the word "rebuilding" all that well, and you have a tough group to sell the following ideal to — the Knicks will stink, again, in 2009-10.
Then you have to tell them this:
S'OK, man. S'OK.
Because the team is properly rebuilding. It's trying it's damndest to get under the cap, acquire solid assets, build a real team. To build from the bottom up. But it's hard. Isiah Thomas salted the fields before he left, leaving the team with a ridiculous array of barely tradeable contracts, earned by players who flat out didn't deserve 1/10th or even 1/100th of what they made.
He traded draft picks. He traded cap flexibility. He wasted years of your life. Utah has your first round pick next year. Unprotected.
And this last offseason? Lots of bluster, and not a lot of action. Jason Kidd(notes) and Grant Hill(notes) came through town, no deals. David Lee(notes) and Nate Robinson(notes) wanted to stay around for a while, there was months of haggling and, in the end, they got one-year deals.
And that's ... OK.
It is. Because you didn't want Kidd or Hill. You might not even want D-Lee, who's terrific, around next year. Not even Nate, who really got it together last season. You want flexibility. You don't want another sustained commitment to mediocrity. At best. That's not me calling Lee or even Nate "mediocre;" Lee might be on his way to an All-Star appearance this season. You just have to prefer to keep your options open at this point.
And right now, with the East improving and not much coming New York's way save for a bit of internal development, Darko Milicic (great trade, seriously) and Jordan Hill, I can't say with any confidence that New York can even sustain last year's run toward 32 wins.
They can sustain the fun, though. Last year's team was a blast to watch. Cold comfort, but it was. And you can sustain the attitude, the attitude that tells you to be humble, that a team like the Knicks is no different than any of the other 30 teams once you factor in revenue sharing, salary caps and luxury taxes. And you can sustain the idea that, even if you don't give a rip about shelling out money hand over fist, you better do it to the right players, hired by the right executives, coached by the right coach.
Donnie Walsh is the right executive for this team. Mike D'Antoni's the right coach. And soon enough, they'll have the right players. Or, at least, they'll have a chance at them. And it's just not worth commenting on any of these players because they won't be Knicks in 12 months time. Danilo Gallinari(notes) will be, and he looks like a stud. Jordan Hill looks solid, for a thin draft at least. Others might come back, but if Knicks fans have any say, they'll be role players. Even the ones who are brilliant, like Lee. Or explosive, like Robinson.
So take in one more year of nonsense. It might not net you LeBron or Bosh or Wade or even Carlos Boozer(notes).
But whatever happens, another year of taking blows will lead you toward respectability. And though New York's record won't be respectable this season, you can respect where they're going. Even if they step back in 2009-10.
Prediction: 30-52
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