Tom Thibodeau recently mused over the state of his Knicks, reminding us about the power of superstar players and how aggressive the Knicks should be in luring them.
The new head coach of the Knicks has not, of course, encountered the special kind of Catch-22 that has defined the club for the last 20 years: they can't lure the stud players and carnivores of the league unless they win, yet they can't win sans stud players.
It feels like all stars and All-Stars have tried their hardest to loop around the former Mecca of Basketball when choosing their free agency destinations. The Knicks have lost so much street cred among the shot-callers of the sport they're forced to bottom feed every winter for the leftovers of free agency. Things have gotten so bad that the Nets have stolen some headlines and have long leapfrogged the Knicks as the best NBA club in NYC.
The founder of HoopsCritic, Brian Geltzeiler, was on WFAN on Wednesday, reminding us of what most Knicks fans already know: "this roster has the least amount of talent of any in the league.” Then he doubled down on the agony, telling Marc Malusis and all of us that he feels Brooklyn actually houses the most talented team in the Eastern Conference.
The Knicks have the lowest winning percentage (.401) in the NBA since 2001. They don't have tradition to trade on or a star player to recruit for them, and the last time they tried a legend in the front office, Phil Jackson’s results were disastrous. The one time the Knicks drafted a player worthy of the pick - Kristaps Porzingis - he couldn't wait to get the heck out of Gotham, and was thrilled to take less cash from the Mavericks than remain in the MSG crucible.
The closest the Knicks have come to bagging an all-world player was when they traded a copious cache for Carmelo Anthony, who was a watered-down version of James Harden - a sublime scorer who can't be the best player on a title team. If Harden couldn't win with Russell Westbrook or Chris Paul at his side, then ‘Melo never had a chance. And now we watched two NBA All-Stars and world champions, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, skipping midtown Manhattan to play in Brooklyn for the Nets. If the Knicks could take comfort in one solemn consolation, it's their ability to eclipse the Nets on the back page. Not anymore.
Making things worse: the Knicks' value as a franchise continues to spike no matter how many 17-65 seasons they sleep through, no matter how many draft picks they whiff on, no matter how many coaches they hire and fire, or how many times they rearrange the brass.
Though the gap is closing, the Knicks' current value ($4.6 billion) is about $2 billion more than the Nets ($2.5 billion) – but barely more than the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers ($4.4 billion) or the league's most recent dynasty, the Golden State Warriors ($4.3 billion).
As Boomer & Gio recently argued, it seems the only way the Knicks can attract players they didn't draft is by developing the ones they did. So it starts with RJ Barrett, their 2019 first-round pick out of Duke. The other is Obi Toppin, their most recent first-round pick, a 6-foot-9 forward largely considered the best college player in the nation last year when he averaged 20 points and 7.5 rebounds while leading usually-lowly Dayton to a Top 5 ranking.
The Knicks, led by Thibodeau, need to mold these young men into stars, and start a new narrative with the players they have, or else it will be the same old story for the players they want but don't have all around the league. And they can remain a staggering contradiction - the most valuable NBA team, and also the one with the poorest record.
Follow Jason Keidel on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
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