Isiah's Folly, Donnie's Problem: Knicks Are No Quick Fix

         It's going to be a while New York Knicks fans. It's going to be a while before you see Madison Square Garden's first new championship banner hoisted to the rafters since the early seventies. It's going to be a while before you see the first Eastern Conference title banner since '99. It's going to be a while before the Knicks make the playoffs. Heck, it could even be a while until they get to 40 wins. 

          Isiah Thomas has left your team in shambles, he has set them back years. He has done more damage to the Knicks than any executive in sports has to their respective team since Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in order to finance a broadway play.

          Hey, at least Frazee had other interests.

          But Thomas was supposed to have a great basketball mind.  He was supposed to be the Hall of Fame point guard who knew how to judge talent and could bring the Big Apple the basketball championship that it had been craving for decades. Instead of culminating in a title, Isiah's run as Head Coach, General Manager, and Vice President ended with Thomas being fired after the worst season in franchise history.

          Isiah has left new GM Donnie Walsh with a team consisting of grossly overpaid benchwarmers and glorified role players.

 

He has them with a team whose best player, David Lee, would likely be nothing more than a sixth or seventh man on a playoff contender

 

He has left them ith a team whose point guard slot is occupied by Nate Robinson. Sure, Robinson is likely at least 2 inches under his listed height of 5-9, yet can still win the dunk contest and block Yao Ming. But he is just an energetic and exciting player—not a legitimate NBA starting point guard.

 

He has left them with a roster that is owed 90 million dollars next season.

 

He has left them with a team that still owes 21 million to Stephon Marbury, 48 million to Zach Randolph and 31.5 million to Eddy Curry. He has left them with a team that owes 40 million dollars to 3 mediocrities—Jared Jeffires, Malik Rose and Jerome James.

 

He has left them with a team that has no future, a team with no foundation. Nate Robinson is not an NBA starting point guard. Jamal Crawford seems to do nothing else than chuck up unnecessary, ill-advised shots. Quentin Richardson is just a good role player. David Lee would be an outstanding sixth or seventh man, but is not a starting power forward in the NBA. Zach Randolph is a good offensive force, but is a huge liability on defense. And let’s just face it—Eddy Curry flat out sucks.

 

Isiah traded the Knicks future for the former Bulls center. Instead of getting La Marcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah (the players the Bulls picked with the picks they got from Knicks), they acquired an overweight, overpaid center with no heart. Sure it looked at the time that Curry was the center of the future. But now Aldridge looks like a future all-star while Curry will almost be certainly be heading for a spot on the bench somewhere in the near future.

 

During Isiah’s tenure, he has:           

 

-Traded expiring contracts for Jalen Rose, then in perhaps the biggest waste of money in sports history, paid 32 million dollars for three months of the veteran swingman’s service.

 

-He cost the Knicks 11 million dollars in sexual harassment reparations.

 

-He paid Larry Brown tens of millions of dollars for one season of sheer mediocrity.

 

-And come on, he gave Jerome James 30 million dollars.

 

The Knicks are no quick fix. Just like a condemned building, the roster needs to be torn apart and rebuilt from the ground up. That, Knicks fans, is Isiah Thomas’ folly. And now, it’s Donnie Walsh’s problem.