"I'm from New York and never was a fan of the Knicks." -Big L 1998 freestyle
For the last two years Donnie Walsh had been giving away first picks like he was....er…Isiah Thomas in order to dump bad contracts and get as far under the cap as possible. He convinced Knicks fans that two more years of losing would be worth the pain because LeBron and his super-friends (or if we are talking about Joe Johnson his above average friend) were coming to town. His last move before the summer reeked of desperation. To entice the Rockets to take back Jared Jeffries and the remaining one year and $7 million on his contract, Walsh traded them the 8th pick in the 2009 draft, the disappointing Jordan Hill, a 2012 first rounder that is not well protected, and the right to swap 2011 first round picks.
Obviously the plan did not go according to plan, but despite the disappointment of LeBron taking his talents to South Beach, I think this is the best Knicks offseason since the 1999 lockout year. That was the offseason when Ernie Grunfield made two controversial moves by trading fan favorites Charles Oakley and John Starks (along with Terry Cummings and Chris Mills) in two separate trades for the soft Marcus Camby and nearly felonious Latrell Sprewell respectively. Additionally Grunfield signed Kurt "Krazee Eyez Killah" Thomas on the cheap to replace some of the Oakman's toughness and Thomas ended up starting 44 out of 50 games that season. The 1999 team famously made the finals as an 8th seed, and followed it up with a trip to conference finals in 2000-2001. The next year the Knicks lost in the first round to the Raptors, which ended an amazing streak of nine consecutive years making it past the first round.
Since the 2000-2001 season, the Knicks have not had a winning record and have had only one postseason appearance where they got swept 4-0 by the Nets and lost by an average of 12.8 points per game in 2003-2004. It was a dismal decade to say the least, a decade where the Knicks had only seven more wins than the lowly Clippers. So fans can call this offseason a disappointment for not getting LeBron or look at it at positively and see a young team that could finish with a winning record for the first time since last season's scoring champion and likely MVP next year had pubic hair.
I'm going with the latter and for the first time in a decade there is a team with hope and roster flexibility. Amar’e Stoudemire is not worth $4 million dollars per year more than David Lee, but the Knicks had to make switch to give the fans, the city, and even the coaching staff a change. After the last two years, the Knicks could not go into the season with David Lee as the team's best player for the third consecutive year. More importantly signing Stoudemire, allowed the Knicks to sign and trade Lee for Keleneka Azubuike, Ronny Turiaf, and Anthony Randolph.
Randolph, who just turned 21, is the key and could become an All Star. He only played in 33 games because of an injury and Don Nelson’s craziness, but in those games he averaged 11.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in only 22.7 minutes. His Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 18.71 was 40th in the NBA, and ahead of young stars like Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, and Russell Westbrook. Randolph and Gallinari (whose early career compares to Rashard Lewis) are two young players who could actually become All Stars with the Knicks or be traded to get a superstar like Carmelo Anthony or Chris Paul (since I wrote this piece six weeks ago, the rumors for both have been stronger).
Along with Randolph, Turiaf and Stoudemire give the team some shot blockers after finishing last in that category five out of the last sixth years and finishing second to last in the other year (see chart at the end). Having shotblockers helps prevent opposing teams from running a layup line and takes pressure off the guards on defense. Turiaf can play center and give the Knicks a solid 15-20 minutes. It looks like Azubuike will take over at shooting guard for former starter Wilson Chandler, who is neither a shooter nor a guard, so there should imporovement there. Roger Mason is a good pick up for $1.4 million and if he shoots like he did when he first got to San Antonio, the Knicks will be able to go nine deep.
Raymond Felton will be a clear upgrade over Chris Duhon and should flourish with D’Antoni after playing with point guard killer Larry Brown. Steve Nash went from being a perennial all star under the offensively inclined Don Nelson to a back-to-back MVP winner and first ballot hall of famer under D'Antoni. So Felton should be able to make the Mo Williams jump from being an above average point guard under Larry Brown to a potential All Star under D'Antoni. (During Nash's last four years as a starter under Nelson he averaged 16.5 ppg and 7.8 apg. Felton averaged 13.7 ppg and 6.7 apg, in 3 more min. per game than Nash, during his first four years as a fulltime starter with two of those years under Larry Brown. (I am not saying that Felton, who even after shooting 39% from three last year is a career 33% shooter from behind the arch, will ever be close to as good as Nash who may be the best shooter in NBA history, but if he can make a similar jump then he could make a couple of All Star teams)).
Everything is relative so if we compare the Knicks offseason to the Miami Heat's offseason, or what our most optimistic views were in May, then the offseason was terrible. If we compare it to the decade of disappointment under Layden and Isiah then it is a great offseason. Back in 1998 when Big L uttered the lines at the top, it meant something. Big L was trying to say he was different than everyone else from New York because in 1998 everyone was a fan of the Knicks. Twelve years later, that line loses its relevance because the Knicks are....well...irrelevant. This offseason was a step in the right direction and back towards NBA relevance.
Blocks Per Game Chart for the Past Six Seasons
Season Knicks Rank Knicks Avg. League Avg. League Leader Avg.
2009-2010 28th** 3.7 4.9 5.9
2008-2009 30th 2.5 4.8 6.4
2007-2008 30th 2.6 4.7 6.7
2006-2007 28th 3.2 4.6 5.8
2005-2006 28th** 3.3 4.7 6.1
2004-2005 30th 3.2 4.9 6.6
**tied for last
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