NBA: The Curious Case Of The New York Knicks: Knicks Identity Crisis

The Knicks are an intriguing old ball club.

By being based in New York, the Knicks are in a huge market and have a huge potential up side. Assemble a good team and the Knicks could dominate the NBA. 

Not necessarily by winning championships. That looks way off! But they could be the feel good team of the league, the team that everyone looks for in the game recaps, everyone's "second team."

Look what happened with the Celtics. By getting back in the game, the Celtics breathed new life into a legendary rivalry and changed the perception of the Eastern Conference. No longer was the East a non factor come finals time with only one good team, Detroit.

The Celtics led something of a comeback for the East, followed by Cleveland and Orlando. Older names are slowly bouncing back in the form of Chicago and new teams emerging with the likes of Toronto. Now imagine throwing the Knicks into that comeback equation.

Of course the idea is easier than the actual achievement, with the Knicks' spectacular failures highlighting that point. They just don't seem to know which way to go.

They seemed to be heading towards the gritty, tough Knicks of the '80s by appointing Isaiah Thomas as coach.  Obviously that was a train wreck but the idea seemed to linger. 

Larry Brown was brought in.  Aside from ridiculous trade requests, Coach Brown is mostly known for his disciplined, defensive and hard nosed teams. This again, however, led to disaster. Obviously bad contracts and bad decisions helped these disasters but it was the idea that seemed to take the brunt of the damage.

The new version of the Knicks are characterised by the Euro-ball offense led by Mike D'Antoni. A seeming U-turn from previous ideas of what the Knicks should be.

This perhaps goes deeper. Instead of being a sometimes entertaining run-and-gun team, they seem now to simply be the team who needs LeBron to save them. And that just isn't good enough.

It's not good enough for the notoriously demanding New York crowd and it sure as hell isn't good enough for "The King." Would LeBron really leave a legit contender for the Knicks? Even with the much bigger market it looks doubtful. The Knicks' answer is hopefully just a happy medium between Brown and D'Antoni.

To add a kick in the teeth, the model to follow may be their friends from over the river!

New Jersey has its fair share of haters but their rebuilding may be much quicker than many think. They have a terrific young duo in Brook Lopez and Devon Harris and a wealth of young talent surrounding them. Lee, Williams, Yi and Douglas-Roberts all have potential and with the addition of a star they could really shine.

The Nets aren't perfect obviously but their philosophy seems to be a lot more balanced than their more fashionable cousins. More business than show business.

Too long have the Knicks bounced from one extreme to the other. They need to take a deep breath and decide quickly who they want to be.

Otherwise "The King" may end up in New York, just not in a Knicks uniform. And I'm not sure being the second best team in New York will do much to calm an already volatile franchise.