What's Next for New York Knicks After Being Eliminated from 2014 Playoffs?
Darkness has set in over the Big Apple, where the New York Knicks' final glimmer of playoff hope has slowly faded into nothingness.
Now the real work begins.
By winning against the Miami Heat, the Atlanta Hawks ended New York's late playoff push, shifting focus from its attempt to salvage this season to what will, what must come next.
.png?w=256)
Team president Phil Jackson is facing a busy offseason, during which he must provide resolution to Carmelo Anthony's future, in addition to answering so many other questions and fixing plenty of additional problems.
Truthfully, it was always going to be like this. Uncertainty was always going to hang over New York like a dark cloud emitting freezing-cold rain. Making the playoffs would merely be a consolation prize, delaying the inevitable.
Nothing is standing between the Knicks and tomorrow anymore, though. Their future, for better or worse or the same, begins now.
Talent Evaluation
Having remained in the playoff hunt for so long—both a credit to the Knicks' recent improvement and an indictment of the Eastern Conference's awkwardness—there isn't much time to see what the Knicks have outside usual suspects. Still, they have to try.
Players such as Toure' Murry, Cole Aldrich and Jeremy Tyler need to see additional—or in Murry's case, actual—minutes. Iman Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr. must assume more prominent roles. Chris Smith must be brought back. Different lineups and combinations must be fielded.
Anthony shouldn't even play. Amar'e Stoudemire should be right behind him. The Knicks know what they have in those guys. They know what they bring and whether they're part of the future out of preference or necessity, or not at all. It's the question marks they have to worry about.
Whom will they re-sign? Which players should they try to trade? Who not named Carmelo Anthony fits into Jackson's plans beyond this season?
The road to answers starts now.
Head Coaching Headaches
Once the season is over, so is Mike Woodson's tenure in New York.
That's what we must believe. Coaching the Knicks to 54 victories in 2012-13 hasn't bought him this much time. It doesn't excuse a season of letdowns rife with curious and bad decisions and, ultimately, a lottery berth without a lottery pick.
Although Woodson alone is not to blame for his team's downturn, he is largely responsible. From quizzical lineups to rotational stubbornness to poor late-game execution, he's complicit with New York's fall from power. He's also one of the few prongs the Knicks can change.
Cap space doesn't exist in New York. There will be no free-agency coups for at least another year. The only way the Knicks shake up the roster is via trade, an equally difficult endeavor considering not even their expiring contracts—Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani, Tyson Chandler, etc.—are especially desirable.
Changing coaches is simpler. It's possible. It's a plan that may already be set in motion.
USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt previously cited Steve Kerr and Derek Fisher as two candidates for the Knicks' head coaching position. Beyond that, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News revealed that Woodson was nearly fired on multiple occasions this season.
"[Steve] Mills, according to a source, was prepared to make a coaching change on several occasions but didn't," he writes, "either because the Knicks went on a winning streak or because he was overruled by Garden chairman James Dolan."
Point being, Woodson's job is about as secure as flying trapeze acts staged over spike-backed alligators that haven't eaten in two weeks, headlined by random people with no gymnastic backgrounds plucked from the street. So, it's not secure.
The Knicks have been nothing if not unstable for more than a decade. Even while making three straight playoff appearances, roster turnover has been common and excessive. That shouldn't extend to the head coach.
Putting someone in place Jackson and the Knicks back is paramount. Continuity must be established somewhere by someone—anyone. Rumors of midseason and summer coaching changes must die.
Figuring out who succeeds Woodson is about more than Jackson stretching his tentacles deeper into the Knicks' business. It's about controlling what they can control, about fixing what they're capable of fixing.
Carmelo Anthony...
...or bust.
Say what you will about Anthony. The Knicks need him. Jackson needs him—badly.
Paying him nearly $130 million over the next five years isn't ideal, not for a player approaching 30 who earns his keep with bruising rim attacks and general play too brutal for most centers.
But Anthony's free agency is bigger than money.
You can't put a price on direction. Anthony gives the Knicks a clear path to traverse, a quicker way back to relevance—one that isn't otherwise available.
In lieu of available draft picks, the Knicks have summer 2015, when they will be armed with cap space and ready to bring in numerous other superstars. Successful free-agent deeds begin with Anthony, the Knicks' lone incumbent star.
Prospective targets, outside dignitaries, won't flock to New York without someone like Anthony in place. Resident superstars are imperative when rebuilding through free agency. Blank slates mean only so much.
Moreover, Anthony wants to stay. Pitching stars—such as Kevin Love and Rajon Rondo, for instance—on joining star-crossed teams is one thing. Selling them on a team that couldn't even retain its own star is another, far more difficult thing entirely.
Jackson's arrival hasn't changed the plan in New York. Preserving cap space and luring in superstars is still the primary goal. The Zen Master's addition has merely improved the chances of said plan becoming reality. With him in the fold, Isola says even LeBron James is supposed to take a harder look at the Knicks' situation whenever he hits free agency.
Those plans reach near destruction if Anthony moves on, leaving the Knicks in a hole they won't soon escape, both barren of draft picks and starless, barreling toward summer 2015 and a free-agency class less likely to ignore past transgressions.
Wait...Patiently
Breathe.
Above all else, the Knicks must breathe. Their fans must breathe. This team isn't going to be fixed overnight.
What the Knicks need is common knowledge. Their point guard position outside of Pablo Prigioni is laughable. Their defense is flawed. Their draft-pick pool is almost empty. Their cap situation—regardless of whether Anthony stays—is a mess.
Their options are limited.
For now.
Until the Knicks reach summer 2015, they have to sit tight to an extent. Jackson can work the phones and see what kind of deals he can orchestrate, but opposing executives aren't going to bend to his will just because he's Phil Jackson. Unless the Knicks have something or someone of value to offer, there isn't a blockbuster trade to negotiate.
Even if there was a significant deal to broker, the Knicks cannot do anything to compromise their impending financial plasticity. Broken-record style, they still plan on spending their way into contention.
Put in that context, what the Knicks have is what they're still going to have next season. Barring Anthony's departure and a ridiculous string of miraculous trades, these Knicks aren't going to change much between now and next year, as Newsday's Al Iannazzone explains:
"Keeping Anthony is a priority, but Jackson must decide whether Tyson Chandler, Amar'e Stoudemire, J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton, Andrea Bargnani, Iman Shumpert, Pablo Prigioni and Tim Hardaway Jr. are worth bringing back. Remember, Jackson said he's on 'a talent hunt.'
Some, if not many, of the current Knicks will return because they hope to maintain some of the flexibility they have for the summer of 2015. But Felton, Smith and Bargnani don't seem to fit the Jackson mold. The problem: Who else wants them?
"
Almost no one. Or absolutely no one.
Jackson's magic has its limits. He cannot turn stained paper into gold, and he won't turn the Knicks' expensive and unflattering core into a domineering juggernaut with a snap of his fingers and a few phone calls.
The focus, then, must be on developing this product, however imperfect, for another year. If the Knicks can play like they have lately—13-5 over their last 18 games—there is a playoff ceiling for them to graze. No championships will be won; no titles will be contended for—not that soon. But they can make the playoffs.
"There's no better place to win than New York City," Jackson said when he was first introduced as team president, per ESPN New York's Ian Begley.
Winning everything comes later, after all this, after putting this season in perspective and patiently and deliberately angling for something better.
*Salary information via ShamSports.com.
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Offseason Moves for Every Team 👉")