For New Yorkers, the pain of the Knicks' recent history is that it has been a slow, steady accumulation of mistakes. There's no one event so misguided as to stand out as the cause of their decline. I suppose there rarely ever is a single moment that derails a franchise (maybe Herschel Walker for the World or passing on Michael Jordan), but it's the odd franchise indeed that can point to such a constant stream of gaffes as the Knicks. After burying the payroll under contracts to Steve Francis, Penny Hardaway, and Stephon Marbury, sending two unprotected first round picks to Chicago for Eddy Curry (which became the numbers 2 and 9 picks in the 2006 and 2007 drafts), and becoming embroiled in a sexual assault scandal to boot, one can understand if the Knicks feel that they need a change of direction. And a change of direction is precisely what the Knicks have had. For the past two seasons, Knicks fans have been told to wait; 2008 and 2009 will be bad, but they will be building blocks for the future, and the summer of 2010 will make it all worth it. Isiah Thomas, who could draft unheralded talent but sure couldn't balance a checkbook, was excised. James Dolan brought in Donnie Walsh who realized that redemption couldn't be bought in every off season—it had to be bought in the off season of the century. So the Knicks displayed unusual resolve and launched a two-year assault on the Knicks' payroll to clear space ultimately for Lebron James (and maybe more) in the 2010 free agent market. Contracts were jettisoned or otherwise allowed to wither away. And for once the Knicks seemed to be doing not only the difficult thing, but the right one. The organization that once shelled out $30 million for a 30 year-old Jerome James finally realized that it had to pinch and save, sacrificing marginal success today for the prospect of real success tomorrow.
To a large extent Dolan and Walsh have the plan right, but in an ironic twist, they may have gone too far in exorcising the Knicks of old. To be certain, gorging on the standard offseason fare would have been a tremendous mistake with 2010's offering of James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, et al. looming on the horizon. But in scraping and saving for King James's contract, the Knicks forgot one crucial point: the whole point of the plan is to win. In what will be a stiff competition for James's services, that oversight might just sink the whole operation. Indeed, New York dutifully ensured that they'd have all the money the Chosen One could want, but they failed miserably to put together the one asset that James may value the most: a team with championship potential. I doubt it is easy to dump a decade's worth of bad contracts, get younger, and grow more competitive all at once. But surely the Knicks realized that they'd need to spend at least some money to put together a reasonably competitive team. Though spending nothing put the Knicks in the unique position of being able to potentially sign two of the biggest 2010 free agents, pitching that prospect to Lebron is nothing more than wooing him on a contingency. It's hard to say what exactly the Knicks should have done to suit their roster to James's eye (making a stronger play for Steve Nash might have been a start), but leaving Danilo Gallinari as James's primary running mate certainly wasn't it. Looking at the Knicks current roster, and their current chances of landing James, one can't help but wonder if the organization is more interested in building a better team, or in "changing direction" no matter the cost.
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