Note: Tanking is the process of losing games intentionally to achieve higher draft picks.
For the last few years, the New York Knicks have been the laughingstock of the NBA and perhaps the most dysfunctional franchise in sports history. The president of the Knicks continually trashes his star player and refuses to speak with the media, while the owner publicly suggests that random people have alcohol addictions to satisfy his own insecurities. This extreme dysfunction carries onto the court, on which players almost never pass the ball and play as if they don’t care. Every game, players chuck up brick after brick in their mission to build a wall while complaining to referees the same way Trump complains about the media. The Knicks aren’t making the playoffs this year or the next, and will never be title contenders until the organization is cleared out from top to bottom and begins “The Process” of tanking.
The first step in starting “The Process” is to remove the owner, James Dolan. Under Dolan, the Knicks have made horrible decision after horrible decision as a result of his narcissism, stupidity, and extreme incompetence. He traded away draft picks for washed-up old players on bad contracts, plunging the Knicks into nearly a decade of losing and embarrassment (kind of like the Nets right now). After 14 years of failure, Dolan finally realized he is incapable of leading even a pee-wee third grade basketball team, let alone the New York Knicks. He decided to hire a new President of Basketball Operations: Phil Jackson, an 11-time NBA champion. Sadly, Dolan managed to screw this up as well, as he failed to realize that while Jackson is a legendary coach, he is even more incompetent at managing than Dolan himself because he has never managed a basketball team. He only took the job for the money. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, has to realize that James Dolan is a plague in Knicks and a cancer to the league and should immediately force him to sell the team. The Knicks are the most valuable basketball team in the world; when it succeeds, the league succeeds.
Next to go has to be Jackson. Jackson has made one good move in his three-year tenure with the Knicks, which was drafting Kristaps Porzingis, a power forward/center who has immense potential and could develop into a star. However, reports have emerged that Jackson actually wanted to draft Jahlil Okafor, a renowned scrub, and only drafted Porzingis because there were no other players left that he liked. His basketball decisions have been terrible at best and mind-numbingly idiotic at worst; a three-year-old child picking his nose and playing with his toy choo-choo train could have done a better job by simply doing nothing. Jackson signed Joakim Noah, who is too injury-prone to do anything, to a four-year, $72 million contract. Then, he traded away some solid role players for Derrick Rose, a former MVP who suffered through numerous injuries and is now a (borderline) scrub. Finally, after realizing that he screwed up big time, Phil Jackson decided to put all the blame on his star player, Carmelo Anthony, and hide from the media in a cowardly move. Though he has good intentions, Jackson doesn’t know what he is doing and needs to go. A replacement such as former 76ers General Manager Sam Hinkie, master of “The Process,” would be an excellent choice to take his place.
As for the coaching staff, they all need to be fired. They have done a terrible job; players aren’t motivated to play well, with their failures due to the Knicks’ terribleness or just their own incompetence.
Finally, in order to start the process of tanking, all of the players have to be traded, starting with the star player, Carmelo Anthony. Anthony is an excellent isolation scorer who almost never passes the ball and doesn’t even try to pretend to play defense. His prime days are well past him, and he needs to be traded before he becomes yet another bad contract. A mid-first-round pick (10 to 15) in in the 2017 draft would suffice. Trading every single role player still on a contract of value such as Courtney Lee or Lance Thomas for second- or first-round picks would be necessary as well. There is no use for them, as role players simply help win games; scrubs from the NBA development league are what the Knicks actually need. Joakim Noah can be traded to the Nets or Kings for nothing; both of those teams are as idiotic as the Knicks, though not nearly as dysfunctional.
Finally, the (few) young players on the Knicks must be traded for picks while their value is still high. This is a painful, yet necessary step in tanking correctly. Kristaps Porzingis, despite having immense potential due to his height and skill, hasn’t improved on any of his weaknesses over the offseason. His rebounds and blocks have actually regressed, while his weaknesses, such as post moves and perimeter defense, have not been improved on. His shooting numbers are the only things that have improved, and only slightly. As a result, Porzingis’ work ethic should be called into question; he spent his all-star break messaging swimsuit models on Instagram and went to none of the Knicks’ optional practices. A player with a real work ethic is Karl-Anthony Towns, who was in the same draft class as Porzingis. Towns spent all offseason working on his game and has progressed into arguably the best center in the league in just his second year. Additionally, Porzingis doesn’t look assertive or even interested when on the floor. He’s a tall guy who can shoot, but may never become much more; thus, Porzingis needs to be traded for a top-five pick in this year’s draft and perhaps a future pick as well. While nearly all Knicks fans have already fallen in love with Porzingis, fans should be reminded of the tale of Michael Carter Williams, a former Rookie of the Year for the 76ers. After Williams’ first year, Sam Hinkie saw that his potential was drastically overrated, and traded him immediately while his value was astronomically high; Williams went on to regress into a role player at best. Hernangomez, the other young player, also needs to be traded. His potential is overrated, as he can’t shoot or play defense and travels every five seconds; a top-15 pick would do.
If the NBA forces the New York Knicks make these changes, they will be title contenders in six to eight years. The only proven way to achieve success in the NBA is by tanking, but the Knicks have failed to see the light. To postpone tanking any longer would mean another year of excruciating mediocrity and embarrassment for everyone in the organization, especially fans.