Dolan Gets His Man: Dooms Knicks, Saves Nets From Mediocrity in the Process

Thank you James Dolan. 

As a Rangers fan, I don't generally like your decisions. As a matter fact, I really dislike your decisions. You remind me of George Steinbrenner in the Bronx Zoo days before he realized he was a businessman and should leave personnel decisions to his scouts and management. Championships in 1996-1998 and 2000 showed that he was right to hand over the reigns and just sign the checks. 

It seemed that you had realized that too as of late. Without your interference, Glen Sather finally figured out how to run a hockey team in the salary cap era and Donnie Walsh did a masterful job of cleaning up the mess left by allowing Isiah Thomas to keep his job for so long. 

The Knicks were on the right track with a 28-26 record at the All-Star Break, good for sixth in the Eastern Conference. They were a fun team to watch that brought old fans back to the Garden and created a buzz in this town because they worked hard and showed great promise. 

Those days are now over because you didn't want to wait and let Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni finish the excellent job they were doing here. 

As a Nets fan, I applaud you. The trade proposed by Prokhorov/King would have doomed the Nets to mediocrity for years to come, but you saved them. 

Would I have enjoyed watching the Nets with Melo game in game out? Probably. But I would also know that the team wasn't a realistic contender and that would take away from the atmosphere that I'm hoping for when the Barclay's Center opens its doors in a year and a half. 

Carmelo and Brook Lopez would have been the core of a seven or eight seed for years to come with no hopes of improvement. They would have had very good bench players (Humphries/Morrow) in the starting lineup out of necessity. They would have had no draft picks, no tradeable assets, no bench and no PG.

Thanks to you, that's now the Knicks' problem. 

Great general managers such as Donnie Walsh or Danny Ainge understand the concept of amassing assets, managing a payroll under a salary cap, and building a lineup that gels.  Not too long ago the Celtics had Paul Pierce and nothing else. Only a few years later, they had amassed a plethora of young talent and draft picks that they turned into Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, and a solid supporting cast. 

The Knicks were on their way to that. Did they need improvement in areas such as defense, absolutely, but they had cap room and young players that would only have gotten better. It's realistic to believe they could have made some signings in FA and/or a more low-key trade than Melo this off season and been a legit four or five seed next year. 

Instead, the Knicks are going to be looking to the D-League to fill out the roster this season. As it stands, the starting five for the remainder of this season is: Turiaf-Stoudemire-Anthony-Fields-Billups. 

The only two bench players worth mentioning are Corey Brewer (8.6 ppg with MIN) and Toney Douglas (9.1 ppg with NYK). With deep, talented, experienced teams such as the Celtics, Magic and Bulls ahead of them, as well as the potential of Miami's "Big Three," its hard to imagine the Knicks getting out of the first round of the playoffs this season. 

Even if they can, it's likely their ceiling. 

Looking to next year, the new CBA will determine if the Knicks can improve on the team.  With no tradeable assets and no draft picks until 2013, the Knicks are what they are. And even then, next season will probably be without the aging Chauncey Billups. The PG is owed $14.2M next season, but only $3.7M is guaranteed. 

The Knicks may be forced to buy him out in order to acquire a legitimate starting center and a younger, cheaper point guard in the offseason. 

The only silver lining is the pipe dream that the new CBA will allow the Knicks to sign Chris Paul or Deron Williams after NEXT season, when Amare Stoudemires' knees will be two years older. 

Now, think about this both ways. If they were to acquire one of those players and Amare is healthy, they could be a dangerous team if they get hot, but we haven't seen Miami in the playoffs yet. Maybe an 82 game season followed by four best of seven's is too much weight for three players to carry averaging 40 minutes a contest, even for players of Wade and James' character.  

What is for sure however, is that to trade away all of your young talent and four-fifths of your starting lineup in the hopes that you can acquire a third superstar two years from now is a bit dangerous to say the least.  

Add in that the players may not reach FA, or the CBA may not be conducive to their signing in New York. 

Miami's Big Three all blabbed about their desire to play together, but none took a pay cut to do it. Likewise, Carmelo didn't risk losing money by becoming a FA and joining a solid Knicks team. Rather, he made his new team give away a lot of talent in order to get him now so he could get a lot of money. 

Can you blame him, perhaps not, but you likewise can't expect Paul or Williams to take a pay cut in order to play with him and Amare while they make top dollar. 

As for the Nets, perhaps they try and follow the Celtics model by building around Lopez, Favors, Harris and their four draft picks in two years. Maybe they try to acquire young talent in exchange for some of those assets to be a playoff team sooner. 

In the end, I'd prefer they continue trying to be something special as opposed to being a fancy pretender, which is just what Dolan has made the Knicks.    

Bottom line, the Knicks will get more games on national television, will make the playoffs the next four years and will be an exciting team to watch. 

Will they ever be a championship contender as opposed to simply a playoff team, I guess we won't know for two years at the earliest.