Your 08-09 New York Knicks: The End Is the Beginning

N.B: Godbody NBA Blogger Jeff Clark, of the mighty CelticsBlog, has again endeavored to unite NBA fans and construct a patchwork quilt of NBA team previews. I was asked to preview the Brickers, along with another blogger worthy of your admiration, Seth over at Posting and Toasting. Let's get it...

Team: New York Knickerbockers
Last Year's Record: 23-59 (take that, Miami, Memphis, Minnesota, and Seattle!)
Key Losses: None
Key Additions by Subtraction: Coach Isiah Thomas (!), GM Isiah Thomas (!), Renaldo Balkman, Randolph Morris (*tear tattoo*)
Key Additions: Mike D'Antoni, Donnie Walsh, Chris Duhon, Chris Duhon's white-woman fetish, Anthony Roberson, Danilo Gallinari (R), Patrick Ewing, Jr. (R), the ghost of Allan Houston

1) What significant moves were made during the offseason?
So, uh, you might have heard that Isiah Thomas was removed as coach and GM of the Knicks this past spring. Isiah's ouster was what we humans like to call "long overdue" and "incredible." (Too bad Knicks owner James Dolan doesn't qualify as a member of the species; otherwise, he might understand better.) As much as anything else, this website stands as a testament to the historic discontent that Isiah Thomas engendered among Knick fans during his tenure presiding over what was arguably the worst franchise to compete in the NBA. The Knicks may not have etched out the worst cumulative record in the annals of the Lig during that time, but when you add the poor performance to subjective criteria, such as a reputational degradation and the excruciating emotional pain of abject mismanagement, there is a compelling case for such an ignominious superlative.

Now, that's all done. I hope. With Donnie Walsh running the franchise and Mike D'Antoni coaching it, the Brickers have actual professionals guiding the team. The mere presence of competent individuals will improve the franchise.

Put another way, it was nice that our coach could actually attend the first practice of the year this season rather than being forced into exile as he awaited the results of a sexual harassment lawsuit. The Knicks have already improved and training camp only opened this week.

As Isiah left, so, too, did one of his symbolic proxies: Renaldo Balkman. The embodiment of Isiah's quirky decision making and ill-advised stewardship of the Knicks, Balkman was shipped to Denver in return for the right to not pay him. Given that he has the worst offensive abilities in the Association and was on the Knicks mostly because he was bipedal and could jump, Balkman's departure felt good in the pants.

The other move of true distinction was the signing of Chris Duhon. Duhon is an odd player. He came out of high school with a reputation as a shooter, but that's not really his strength. He was then going to be a great point guard, but those aren't his innate talents. By NBA standards, he is a mediocre player with athleticism and a skill set that do not exceed adequate, respectively. However, while neither a great shooter nor a great point guard, he also is not a cancer. He is not a moron. He is not a diva. He is not a lunatic. And as such, he represents an upgrade for the point guard position, because the incumbent, Stephon Marbury, is all of the things Duhon is not.

Oh, and big news: the Knicks used the sixth pick in the draft to grab a guy who already has bulging disks in his back and may or may not be able to play defense. What we do know is that he has a lot of potential on offense. So welcome, aboard, Danny G. By setting foot in America, you've exceeded the contribution of Frederic Weis. And by not being a complete bust upon first inspection, you're better than Jerrod Mustaf.

2) What are the team's biggest strengths?
Change we can believe in. Seriously. Losses will mount, and the honeymoon with a new coach will end, but the Knicks will be a better team just because they will no longer be forced to toil under an incompetent, mercurial regime. For instance, it is unlikely that D'Antoni will get into any fistfights with his own players on the team plane. And I would wager that should the Knicks be trailing in a winnable game, we won't see crunch-time lineups with Malik Rose and Wilson Chandler asked to fill it up.

It would be nice to list more things--shooting, rebounding, defense, and so forth. But this roster is primarily the same one that lurched to 23 wins last season due to incompetent offense, lazy defense, and inconsistent effort. A new coach and his new system may offer improvement, but they also will require time. Time to learn, time to adjust, and time to define new roles. I was skeptical about the impact of the D'Antoni hiring because the Knicks will not be a championship-caliber team until there is wholesale roster revision, and even then, D'Antoni may not be the right guy for the job. But to run, you first must walk. The Brickers may not have a Steve Nash and an Amare Stoudemire and a Shawn Marion, but they do, finally, have a culture of professionalism. That helps.

3) What are the team's biggest weaknesses?
Defense. These Knicks don't play it much. They can't keep people out of the lane; they don't have an athletic wing player who can give the Kobe Bryants of the world a hard enough time getting shots; they have no shot blocking; and they don't try. For the past few seasons, the number of times an opponent drove into the paint largely unencumbered was only exceeded by the number of times that the team phoned it in. You could see it in their body language and on their faces. They didn't want to try hard, they didn't want to work together, and they were playing for a coach whom most of them hated and who didn't hold them accountable. It was miserable.

The biggest difference between then and now is that the team finally has a coach who...doesn't seem capable of developing good defenders. Steve Nash is a one-way player whose defense is almost cute because it's so ineffective. Amare Stoudemire has yet to find a big man who couldn't get his when playing the Suns. Shawn Marion, for all of his athleticism, was never the catalyst for Phoenix blossoming into a better defensive unit. D'Antoni is into the seven-seconds thing. He may preach defense and he may appreciate its importance, but you don't hire him because you think defensive fundamentals are the only thing keeping you from a title.

Again, the culture change will make for happier players who are more motivated and exert more effort (at least, until the Marbury and Randolph and Curry corrosion sets in), but the Knicks will not be good defenders any time soon.

4) What are the goals for this team?
Stop being fuck ups. Sorry to be blunt and profane, but that, really, is the goal. Start acting like men. Start playing like professionals. No more intern parties, no more asinine decisions, and no more loafing.

The secondary goal, of course, and one that buttresses the first, is to get rid of the other Isiah proxy, Stephon. He represents everything that has been horrible about the Knicks. If I had the money, I'd gladly give him $20 million to go away. I'd even throw in a house in Tuscany. That is how much a Knick fan just wants this abortion of basketball to end.

5) In five years, Stephon Marbury will be...
...like Mike Tyson: a sad, cautionary circus-show whose rise and fall will capture the hope that forever permeates ghetto America and also the inescapable reality that money can't compensate for bad parenting and self-defeating models of behavior. He may also be spreading God's word from his $40 million plane during transatlantic flights to and from Italy with Sarah Plain Palin-Marbury riding shotgun.

Predicted Record: 30-52