Not-so Knicks but Still Pretty Painful - The Alright Scenario
In this potential situation, the Knicks tank goes a little better. They don’t win pointless games, because they finally know what’s good for them, and they wind up with the second or third pick which they use to draft R.J. Barrett or Ja Morant or Cam Reddish. With one of these talented young guys comes a fair amount of excitement at the very least or maybe, just maybe, they pick number one overall and Zion comes to town, which changes everything. But hey, even if they don’t, this is the highest pick since Pat Ewing and that’s something to be truly excited about.
We could do with a little of this in the Garden, no?
Unfortunately, in this scenario Durant and Kyrie still don’t come to New York, nor do any other marquee free agents. I know, it hurts, and it hurts even worse whenever KP highlights keep popping up in your notifications to remind you of what’s been lost. But don’t fret, there is still hope.
Plus Dallas is still stuck with this dweeb and his JV basketball know-how. Never forget that.
See, the front office in this iteration of the basketball universe has learned from past mistakes. Finally. They do not waste their cap space on long term deals for any player who isn’t a major needle mover. Instead they commit their money to throwing some overpriced one year deals at a few decent players in order to build a formidable squad around the young guys. With this they drag the franchise out from the gutter as they keep pressing forward with the rebuild which is not too bad. In fact, it was the actual plan to begin with before the KD rumors started swirling.
With a young core of Knox, Robinson, Smith Jr., Ntilikina, Dotson, Trier, and a top three pick in the 2019 draft flanked by some seasoned pros, this team would still be fun to root for and who knows what they may be able to achieve in a top-heavy Eastern Conference. Maybe they could earn the honor of being trounced by Giannis and the Bucks or Embiid and the Sixers in the first round for their first playoff appearance since 2013. It sounds pathetic, but it is a step forward and more importantly it’s not a step back to the way things have been run for basically this entire millenium. No more bad deals and failed win-now efforts.
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