NY Knicks Ignoring Iman Shumpert's Obvious Value to Present and Future

No matter how unpredictable the New York Knicks may seem, their organization is remarkably consistent in two key areas: They don't win championships, and they don't tolerate young players, like Iman Shumpert.

Could those two traits possibly be related?

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that a young, promising player capped a stellar defensive effort against an All-Star and an MVP candidate with a dumb foul in the final seconds, costing his team the lead. The mistake came not from laziness, but from an overabundance of aggression, and the young player is clearly distraught. What should his coach do?

The vast majority of coaches—maybe 29 out of 30—would use it as a teaching moment, encouraging the youngster and applauding his effort over the previous 47 minutes while reminding him that such mistakes can't be repeated.

...And then there is Mike Woodson and the New York Knicks.

After Shumpert's fingertip-brush foul on Pacers forward Paul George cost the Knicks the lead at the end of regulation of the November 20 Knicks-Pacers tilt, Mike Woodson yanked him from the lineup in overtime. The move struck many Knicks observers as illogical, since Shumpert had been the only player capable of holding George in check.

Sure enough, George went off in overtime for nine points as the Pacers cruised to the win. Strategically speaking, taking Shumpert off of Paul George while the Knicks still had a chance to win was a clear mistake.

After the game, the Pacers spoke quite candidly about the ease with which they exploited the Knicks' defense with Shumpert on the bench.

So if the numbers said the Knicks were better with Shumpert in the game and the other team said the Knicks were a more difficult opponent with Shumpert in the game, then why wasn't Shumpert in the game? Mike Woodson didn't answer that question; instead, he spent his postgame press conference harping on Shumpert's last-second foul.

Even the New York beat writers were surprised by Woodson's single-minded focus on the mistake.

But this shouldn't come as a surprise to followers of the New York Knicks. Iman Shumpert has become the coach's favorite whipping boy and the front office's favorite trade chip, as reported by ESPN New York's Ian Begley. In the kind of managerial paradox you'll find only at MSG, the Knicks are trying to trade the third-year wing while simultaneously bashing him to anyone with a microphone, thereby wrecking his trade value.

"Hey, Boston, this kid Shumpert is garbage...now how about swapping him for Rajon Rondo?"

The Knicks aren't getting Rondo, and they've proven time and again that they're incapable of swapping players like Shumpert for even comparable value.

But that's never stopped them from trading a player before.

Why Trade Your Best Shooting Guard?

Iman Shumpert hasn't had a good year so far. He's been too aggressive on defense, switching at inopportune times and fouling too often. His three-point stroke has been off since the start of the season.

That being said, he's still the best shooting guard on the New York roster.

	FGA	FG%	3P%	RB	AST	BLK	PTS
J.R. Smith	15.6	.310	.289	5.0	2.0	1.4	14.8
Tim Hardaway Jr.	13.6	.403	.313	2.4	1.6	0.8	14.0
Iman Shumpert	8.1	.410	.344	5.5	2.9	2.0	9.3

On a team with an elite volume scorer in Carmelo Anthony and very little perimeter defense, which of these three shooting guards seems like the best fit? Clearly, the answer is Shumpert, a player who doesn't need the ball to contribute.

The numbers this year bear out the fact that Shumpert has been the best shooting guard to pair with Melo this season.

	MP	O-Rating	D-Rating	Net Rating
Melo/Shumpert	303	102.7	98.0	+4.7
Melo/Smith	164	98.1	105.6	-8.3
Melo/Hardaway Jr.	103	104.6	109.7	-5.2

Yet Shumpert is the one who draws constant criticism from Woodson, while Smith garners consistent praise, no matter how poorly he plays. After he was done ripping Shumpert for his poor foul, Woodson, implied that Smith is the glue that holds the team together.

Yes, Smith won the Sixth Man of the Year award last year, but since then he has gotten himself suspended for elbowing an opponent in the playoffs, melted down completely during the Indiana series, gotten himself suspended for five more games from drugs, and played like a train wreck since coming back.

There is a double standard at work in the Knicks' locker room, and it's going to cost them, both now and in the future.

Yes, the Knicks have a younger shooting guard in rookie Tim Hardaway Jr., who has played well in stretches. But Hardaway's high-volume shooting style bears little resemblance to Shumpert's. If anything, Hardaway profiles better as a replacement for Smith.

A Battle for the Future

Anyone who has read the New York papers knows it's no secret the Knicks organization isn't terribly high on Shumpert at the moment. Marc Berman of the New York Post outlined the organization's problems with their young guard:

"

Woodson has had a problem with Shumpert’s cocksure attitude for some time, and according to a source, some of his superiors view the Georgia Tech product as “a head case’’ because he always doesn’t [sic] take coaching well. 

"

Considering some of the players the Knicks have employed during the James Dolan years, that seems a bit harsh.

Of course, not everyone has such a low opinion of Shumpert. Former Knicks GM and current Indiana Pacers adviser Donnie Walsh spoke glowingly of Shumpert—a Walsh draftee—after the Pacers knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs last May.

Per Berman:

"

Iman had all the ingredients to be a very good NBA guard, a very good athlete. [He’s got] great body intelligence, confidence and ambition. He was a great defender already and will get better with experience. His shooting was not broken but needed work. He obviously did it and has become a very dependable shooter. He will have a terrific career.

"

Of course, Walsh is gone now—driven out by the shadowy MSG cabal—and Shumpert, the last homegrown Knick with more than a year's experience, will likely be gone within a matter of weeks.

Soon Hardaway will be the lone New York draftee left on the roster, and the "Hardaway trade countdown" will begin.

Even if Shumpert is a headstrong, un-coachable player—and there's little evidence of that outside of the anonymous criticisms of the current MSG regime—trading him for pennies on the dollar will only reinforce the idea that the Knicks have no idea how to build a successful franchise.

It is virtually impossible to build a championship contender without a single homegrown contributor. Even James Dolan's model for NBA success, the Miami Heat, have four players in their rotation they developed themselves: Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole and Udonis Haslem. And the Knicks don't have a once-in-a-generation talent like LeBron James, either.

With the exception of the fleeting years of the Donnie Walsh era, the Knicks have placed virtually no emphasis on player development as long as James Dolan has been the owner. They're about to repeat that mistake by trading Shumpert. The trade will hurt the team, both in the short term and the long term. Mike Woodson will get fired, Shumpert will find a role with a better franchise, and Dolan will take out his rage by trading a few more first-round picks.

And so it goes.