Critics have never had as much to criticize about the Knicks as they do right now. Lenny Wilkens "resigned" as the head coach, and Isiah Thomas' management ideas have not succeeded at all. The Knicks have dropped to fourth place and are truly an organization in despair.
With everything going on with the New York Knicks lately, before we get into it, I want to start off this article with a quote from Chad Ford of ESPN Insider, from his latest article.
“[Isiah] Thomas must have learned accounting at the Enron School of Business.”
That’s just great to hear. This quote coming after the Ford took a look at the fiasco that is the Knicks salary cap situation. We’ll talk about this later on.
A legend coach in Lenny Wilkens has left New York and the Knicks, after staying in first place for most of the season, have dropped to fourth place in the Atlantic Division with an 18-26 record. Playoff hopes have slowly faded unless the Knicks make a dramatic turnaround, which is possible at any moment the way this team is run.
I don’t mean to be negative, when the Knicks hired Thomas, I thought it was great. A legend player coming to take over management of the team, should be great for the team. But when we take a step back and look at what has happened to this team, it’s truly a disgrace. Let’s take a look at the latest episode of Isiah Thomas at his finest.
Thomas was claiming that the Knicks are in good shape because of $40 million in expiring contracts that he will have available to use this summer. Unfortunately, this $40 million in expiring contacts that Thomas continues to mention are not expired until the summer of 2006, seems he’s off a year.
But that $40 million will decrease as one of those expiring contracts is Nazr Mohammed’s, as Thomas has mentioned that he wants to renew Mohammed’s contract. That leaves two other players to make up for the remaining amount, Penny Hardaway and Tim Thomas. If Thomas lets both of these contacts expire, the Knicks will still be over the cap. Around $35-$50 million over the cap in the summer of 2006.
So that throws that plan out of the window. Chad Ford of ESPN Insider says that Thomas will shop Hardaway and Thomas around the league after this season and that they will have some trade value associated with them.
How much trade value they have depends on a few issues in this off-season. First, is the deal with the CBA. With the CBA expiring this summer, rule changes to the salary cap in the NBA are expected. Whether or not these changes will work for or against the Knicks in the long run, we don’t know.
But if the rules stay somewhat the same, teams that want to decrease their payroll may have interest in Thomas and Hardaway. As Ford from ESPN explains, “Every year, two or three marquee players are swapped for expiring contracts. Isiah knows this first hand, it’s how he acquired Stephon Marbury from the Suns.”
But enough of the money and the salary cap, let’s talk about winning. A key to winning is good coaching. After this Knicks have lost legend Lenny Wilkens, Herb Williams has stepped in as the lame duck coach. Talks of Larry Brown and Phil Jackson coming to coach the Knicks have been in the New York papers.
Larry Brown has already rejected the Knicks talks, but Phil Jackson still remains an option. How much of a difference does a coach make for the Knicks? Well, Wilkens had the team at about a .500 record the entire season, but they were slipping right before he left. The Knicks have been absolutely a disgrace lately, but you can’t blame it all on the coach with everything going on around the team.
Sure a good coach would be nice, but it shouldn’t be the teams focus. The team needs stability. Thomas, thus far, has looked at short-term fixes which in the long run have hurt the Knicks. The Knicks have been in a state of disgrace lately, and something needs to be done. What this is exactly, who knows?
