Knicks Midseason Awards: If Only There Were Any to Give Out

I was e-mailed a request by Rory Brown to do a mid-season awards piece for the Knicks.  As some of you may have read in an earlier piece of mine, I had pronounced the Knicks dead until 2010.  That's right folks, the New York Knicks are dead to me until July 2010 when they are almost sure to find a way to botch the signing of LeBron James.

Of course everyone reading, even Rory, must know that I am going to do nothing even close to praising any members of the Knicks organization at this time.  I am here, however, to claim this season the single least interesting season in recent Knicks history.

The season got off to a promising 6-5 start.  Mike D'Antoni and his famed "Seven Seconds or Less" offense quickly became the talk of New York.  The young players such as Chris Duhon and Wilson Chandler were starting to come into their own.  Besides, in the Eastern Conference, a .500 record would surely be good enough for a playoff spot.  All was right with the world (and its most famous arena).

Then, it happened: November 21, 2008.  The day Donnie Walsh drove the New York Knicks off the proverbial cliff by trading leading scorers Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph to the west coast for Al Harrington, Cuttino Mobley, and Tim Thomas (I prefer to refer to the three of them as "The Expiring Contracts").  Everything, from that point on, went downhill.

It was the most blatant salary dump in the history of basketball.  The Florida Marlins and their fire sales thought this was over the top.  Sure, management said that this was for a good cause due to the group of free agents available in 2010, headlined by LeBron James.  They're correct in that assertion (have you seen the list of free agents in 2010?  My fourth choice would be Dwayne Wade, that's how loaded it is). 

However, telling your fans that you have absolutely nothing to look forward to until July of 2010 could not be more depressing to the fan base.  In fact, I have refused to watch one Knicks game since the destruction of the roster.  I will read the newspaper the day after a game to get my information, that is all.

Our scoring leader to this point in the year is Al Harrington (who was acquired from Golden State in one of the two fire-sale deals).  His total? 21.1 points per game.  That's 0.2 points per game more than Jamal Crawford is scoring for the Warriors right now!  Fantastic!

Oh wait, we also traded for Tim Thomas (9.8 ppg) and Cuttino Mobley.  Yes, that's right, Cuttino Mobley: the man who we knew was going to retire due to a heart condition!  At least we didn't trade anyone of value for those two.  Oh wait, yes we did.  We traded away Zach Randolph, a man who happens to be scoring 22.0 points per contest.

So the organization dealt 41.9 points per game away for 30.9.  For a team that averages a -3.27 margin per game, that's a pretty substantial dropoff. 

But maybe it would have been difficult to trade those two any later than Walsh did.  That's a logical explanation.  Except for the fact that there would have been plenty of teams looking for proven scorers around the trade deadline.  So you would have had the opportunity to see if you could compete, THEN decide whether or not you wanted to start shedding salaries.

I know the team wouldn't have been on the level of Orlando, Boston, or Cleveland, but something to look forward to would have been nice.  That's all I'm saying.

If you were looking for mid-season awards, I have one question for you: why?  This has clearly been the most depressing season in recent memory.  There hasn't been one reason for optimism since that fateful November day.  At least with Isiah we TRIED to keep our talent in an attempt to compete.  That's right, I said it: I was happier and more enthused as a Knicks fan during the Isiah Thomas era.

How else am I supposed to feel after being told to wait a year and a half to watch a competitive basketball team in my city?  Maybe the Knicks should give Jerome James Quentin Richarson's No. 23 and let him trot out in that, for the time being.  Either that or throw every game in an attempt to draft Stephen Curry or Ricky Rubio.  Maybe then I'd have a reason to tune in.  Just maybe.

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