5 Goals for New York Knicks Season That Won't Involve NBA Playoffs
Despite preseason aspirations of clinching a playoff berth this coming April, the New York Knicks seem destined for the draft lottery instead—which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is a franchise that has been in need of a full rebuild for a decade now, and with Phil Jackson running things and loads of cap space being freed up in time for the summer, the timing is almost perfect.
That doesn't render the 2014-15 season completely useless, however. In Derek Fisher's first year implementing his system, there are still plenty of strides to be made there. And while the Knicks position themselves for a run in free agency this summer, completely floundering away a season wouldn't be an attractive look for potential signees.
So while this season may end up with a win total resembling the Isiah Thomas era, there's still a laundry list of things to accomplish before the year is out. We'll cover the most important ones next.
Don't Make Any Panic Trades
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In this in-between phase of New York's rebuild, it would be easy to look to the trade market to add a piece for immediate help or possibly unload an Amar'e Stoudemire or Andrea Bargnani.
While a move wouldn't be completely out of the question depending on the case, it's important to remember that Phil Jackson is spearheading a rebuild that can't fully take place until the summer. Giving that rebuild a chance to run its course should be the first priority.
When talking about ridding themselves of Bargnani or Stoudemire, the team must consider the price it would take to land them on other rosters. No matter what sort of success STAT enjoys this year, no team would be immediately willing to tack on the NBA's second-highest salary. Bargnani's $11.5 million for 2014-15 is just as unattractive.
Like we saw when Jackson unloaded Raymond Felton with Tyson Chandler last summer, dealing one of the two albatrosses would also cost a sweetener—think Iman Shumpert or Tim Hardaway—for no reason at all. The Knicks would likely be forced to take back longer, even more atrocious contracts in return. Both expensive forwards come off the books after this season, and simply holding onto them and eating the money would almost certainly be the more favorable option, as the combined $35 million would vanish from the payroll on July 1.
There have been rumors of New York looking into potential J.R. Smith deals, which make sense in theory, as the swingman's contract extends beyond this summer, and New York is attempting to free up as much cap room as possible. But with Smith's trade value at a constant lull, they almost certainly wouldn't be receiving fair compensation in a swap, and a trade partner could possibly want young talent in return for taking on Smith's reputation.
Making a minor deal to better position themselves for the future could make sense, but any short-sighted move to improve this season's irrelevant win total would be a setback long term.
Master the Triangle
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Mastering a system as complex as the triangle is a process, and, naturally, the Knicks are still very early on in that process. The fact that several of this year's players won't be on the roster next year doesn't play to their advantage, but instilling the system into New York's focal points should be a priority.
Particularly with the players under contact for next season—Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, Pablo Prigioni, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Cleanthony Early—several of which seem to fit nicely within the offense. For some, it's important to establish a familiarity to help the newcomers next season. For Hardaway Jr., this year must act almost as an extended preseason, to work on the triangle's important factors that haven't come naturally for him yet—namely making key passes and reads.
There have been several late-game sequences this season where New York ditches the triangle in favor of a more freelance offense, usually ending much like last year's possessions did—with one-on-one attempts from Anthony.
Fisher seems to be aware of this and spoke about it after Sunday's loss to the Portland Trail Blazers—the team's eighth straight defeat. According to ESPN New York's Ian Begley:
"'I think there still is some doubt that we can do this the way we're working on doing it,' he said before Sunday's game. 'When the pressure goes up, the stress goes up, the tendency to revert to old habits and not sticking with what you're developing now (happens). It's understandable to be that way, but we just have to continue to stretch out the amount of time that we believe in what we're doing."'
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Fisher also believes his players are having trouble trusting the system.
He says they need to 'trust that the things we work on every day ... will work in good times and bad times.'
Even if it costs the team a win here and there, sticking with the principles is crucial for the years to come. Fisher needs to prove that he can win, yes, but on a roster with as little talent as this one, proving he can instill a functional system has true value as well.
Get Iman Shumpert Performing Consistently
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Iman Shumpert's fourth year of his career is by far the most important moving forward, with restricted free agency impending next July. The 24-year-old has the raw skills to be compared with the more talented young players in the league, but to this point, he still hasn't put together an extended stretch of success.
He appeared to have turned a corner last month. Through his first 11 games, Shumpert was averaging 13.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game on 52.3 percent shooting from the field and 52.9 percent from beyond the arc.
For the career-sub-40-percent shooter, these 11 games were the longest run of productive offensive play Shumpert had compiled in the NBA. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to keep it up. In the 10 games since, he's averaged 6.4 points, 3.9 rebound and 2.5 assists on a dreadful 29 percent field-goal clip, including just 14.3 percent from downtown.
Even his trademark defense has slipped recently. According to 82games, shooting guards have posted a .556 effective field-goal percentage this year against Shumpert, up from last year's mark of .526.
The team was 2.8 points per 100 possessions with Shumpert sitting this season entering Dec. 7, a year after he posted the second-best net-rating on the team, only to Carmelo Anthony.
The 6'5" swingman's raw abilities are just as enticing as they've been since 2011. But without any hint of a finished product by year four, the Knicks'—and potential trade partners'—doubts may be justified.
Getting Shumpert playing back at the level he was earlier this year would benefit New York, regardless of its plans for him. If it opts not to pay him this summer, it could flip him at the deadline for a first-round pick—which it could've done last February, according to Grantland's Zach Lowe.
But if Shumpert shows he's worth keeping around, Phil Jackson would need to ponder using a chunk of his 2015 cap space on the 24-year-old.
Don't Overwork Carmelo Anthony
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If the Knicks learned anything from Mike Woodson's reign of terror last season, it should be that running Carmelo Anthony into the ground, night after night, in a lost season, is the last thing anybody needs.
Anthony led the NBA in minutes per game last season under Woodson, making him the oldest player to do so since Allen Iverson in 2007-08. And after taking a measured approach to Melo's minutes early on, Fisher has ran his 30-year-old star out for 38.2 minutes on average over the last five games. He's battled through knee and back ailments already this year, after his 2013-14 season ended early with news of a labrum tear—he suffered the same injury in his other shoulder a year earlier.
If it wasn't clear before the season, it's clear now: This Knicks team is going nowhere. Abusing a banged-up Anthony and playing him extensive minutes in the first season of a five-year deal doesn't make sense.
A loose comparison could be the prime years of Kevin Garnett. Like Anthony, Garnett entered the league at 19 and averaged around 36 to 38 minutes per game over his first 11 seasons. Garnett remained largely effective for the Boston Celtics for six more years, but he never averaged more than 32.8 minutes per game in a season after leaving the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Vince Carter averaged a similar 37.7 minutes per game over his first 11 NBA campaigns with the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets. After his 12th season, though, he never averaged more than 30 minutes per game again and remains an effective NBA role player only as a shell of his former self.
Especially considering the health issues Anthony has faced over the last three seasons, the Knicks should be taking as much caution as possible after inking their franchise cornerstone to a long-term deal. They've already seen this type of thing backfire once, and particularly in an already-lost season, there's no need to risk anything.
Keep the Draft in Mind but Remain a Viable Free-Agency Destination
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Knicks fans will be in an unfamiliar position this upcoming May, when the ping pong balls are spun and New York actually owns the right to its own lottery pick.
The last time the Knicks picked in the lottery was 2009, when they fell one pick shy of nabbing Stephen Curry and settled for Jordan Hill, who was traded later that season. Danilo Gallinari was drafted sixth overall in 2008, and before that, Channing Frye was drafted eighth overall in 2005. The team has finished out of the playoffs in six of the last nine years, though it has only selected its own lottery pick three times.
In a season that's already off to a 4-18 start, it's clear the playoffs aren't a possibility. Some would call it tanking, others call it rebuilding, but let's suffice to say the Knicks can certainly afford each and every loss they suffer this season.
At the same time, with hopes of inking a max-level free agent this summer, the team walks a fine line between racking up the ping pong balls and falling out of favor with prospective free agents.
The last time the Knicks faced this dilemma, they were coming off a 29-win season under Mike D'Antoni entering the summer of 2010, and though the team had sufficient cap room for two max contracts, Amar'e Stoudemire was the only free agent New York could convince to join on—but that could've only been because they offered $52 million more than ESPN Insider's Tom Haberstroh projected him to be worth that summer.
The lore of Phil Jackson and the popularity of Derek Fisher among players stands a good chance at garnering interest among the free-agent market. But nobody wants to be a part of a losing franchise—though if that franchise has Carmelo Anthony and Jahlil Okafor as its building blocks, things may be different.
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