Horrid….
That would be the ideal
word to describe the Knicks so far this season.
The first quarter of the season ended Friday night, with a heartbreaking
loss to the Charlotte Hornets, a team who had previously lost 10 games in a
row. No equitable Knick fan thought the
Knicks would contend for a championship this season. But even the most cynical Knick fan could not
have expected this! Conceivably, fans should have listened to Carmelo when he
said, "It's
about next year when we have cap space."
Despite playing one of the easiest schedules
in the NBA, the Knicks are now losers of eight games in a row. The Knicks are now 4-18, which is the worst
start in franchise history. They currently have the third worst record in the
league; only the Detroit Pistons, who already beat the Knicks this season, and
the Philadelphia 76ers, who are deliberately losing games for the 10000th
year in a row, are worse. Although the
Knicks play in the ghastly Eastern Conference, the Knicks’ playoff aspirations
are nothing but a pipe dream.
So
far, the vaunted Triangle Offense has been a disaster. The Knicks play at the slowest pace in the NBA
(89.5 possessions per game), which isn’t unusual in the Triangle Offense; the
90s Bulls routinely played at a slow pace.
But unlike Phil Jackson’s Triangle Offenses in the past, the Knicks are
26th in points per game, only scoring 93.5 points per game and 21st
in offensive rating, scoring only 104.2 points per 100 possessions. They are last in free throw makes (13.6 a
game) and free throw attempts (17.5). Obviously, the offense doesn’t look as magnificent
without players such as Jordan, Pippen, Kobe, and Shaq, but how can a team with
one of the greatest scorers in NBA history, be so atrocious on offense?
The
defense has been proportionately as putrid as the offense. Their pick n’ roll defense is still abysmal,
and they tend to foul way too often; opponents are attempting 26.5 free throws
a game, which is 25th in the league.
As a result, they are 12th in opponent’s points per game (99.0). That’s
more indicative of the Knicks slow pace; consequently, they are 27th in defensive
rating (110.1 points per 100 possessions). The Knicks were never expected to be
the ’94 Knicks (the greatest defensive team of all time in my opinion),
especially with the lack of defenders on the team, but watching the Knicks struggle
to play defense every night has been exasperating to watch.
First
time Head Coach Derek Fisher has been abysmal so far. Fisher seems way over his
head as a coach, which is understandable since he did not have any prior
coaching experience. To his credit, the Knicks do seem to be
playing harder than they did last season.
He’s enforced a bizarre
defensive strategy, which prioritizes the Knicks to protect the rim at all
costs, even if it means giving up wide open three point shots. Consequently,
the Knicks are 25th in three-point shooting percentage defense and
they give up the third most threes in the league. His rotations are a mess; the
Knicks have had 11 different starting lineups, part of that is due to Jose
Calderon’s injury, which is the most in the league. His
crunch time adjustments are nonexistent; in seven of the Knicks eight straight
losses, the Knicks were down only one possession in the 4th
quarter. In every one of those games,
the Knicks execution was abysmal to say the least. How many times are the Knicks
going to refer to Melo isolation ball late in the fourth quarter? For goodness sake, Fisher can’t even get a
timeout called correctly!
He’s been
cautiously optimistic throughout this season. After a buzzing beating loss to
the Jazz, a reporter asked him, “ How do you feel after a loss like that?” Fisher responded, “Excitement, belief. That’s what Knicks fans
want to see.” Yes Coach Fisher, I’m sure
that is what the fans, who constantly
spend their dollars on overpriced season tickets, want to see. By the
way, Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson’s first choice, has Golden State off to their
best start in franchise history (17-2).
After the Knicks
lost to the Nets, I pondered whether this potentially could be the worst Knick
team of all time. I received some interesting feedback from Knicks fans:
“ You don’t have
any idea what you’re talking about, the Knicks just need time to gel.”
“Any team with
Carmelo on it can’t be the worst team of all time. Just keep trusting Phil
Jackson.”
“Once the Knicks
master the Triangle offense, they will be unstoppable, keep doubting them if
you want to.”
Currently,
the Knicks are projected to lose 61 games, which would be most in franchise
history. But does that mean they are the
most dreadful team of all time? According to Basketball Reference’s Simple
Rating System (SRS), which takes into account average point differential and
strength of schedule, this current Knick team is worst of all time, with an SRS
rating of -6.62.
Lets compare this Knick team to the other four
Knick teams with the lowest SRS rating. Brace yourself for this, Knick fans!
The
2007-2008 (SRS rating -6.54) Knick
team started out with some pretty lofty expectations. After trading Channing Frye and Steve Francis
for Zach Randolph, fans were genuinely excited about Knicks and pairing
Randolph with Eddy Curry. The Knicks were hoping for the revival of the Twin
Towers.
Remember this?
But as usual in the James Dolan
era, the Knicks season, turned out to be a catastrophe. Curry and Randolph
proved to be ineffective together when on the court. The Knicks attempted and failed to trade
Randolph and Curry before the trade deadline. Curry’s season ultimately ended
in March with a torn meniscus in his right knee. There
was a public feud between Stephon Marbury and Isiah Thomas. Marbury even
threatened to “dish
info” on Thomas after finding out he wouldn’t be starting a game against
the Phoenix Suns and then eventually went AWOL.
Marbury only played 24 games (the Knicks were 6-18 in those games)
before having season ending ankle surgery in February. Then there was this in
November:
The Knicks were 21st
in points per game (96.9) and 22nd in opponent’s points per game (103.5). They
were 23rd in offensive rating (104.7) and 29th in
defensive rating (111.9), which was the worst in franchise history. They ended
the season at 23-59, which is tied for the most losses in NBA history. At least Thomas eventually was fired at the
end of the season right?
After
failing to qualify for the playoffs in 2005, 2005-2006 Knicks (SRS rating -6.30) were hoping to redeem
themselves. The Knicks seemed to have upgraded their coach, when they hired
Larry Brown, who replaced Herb Williams, who was the interim Head Coach after
Lenny Wilkens was fired resigned. Ironically, the Knicks had one of the worst seasons
in franchise history and Larry Brown turned out to be one of the worst coaches
in Knick history. Brown used more than
42 different lineups, which is the most in NBA history. He routinely feuded with Marbury,
even once saying, “So, you're the best guard in the league and the team is
17-45, yeah, it's the coach's fault. I’ve never left a team in worse
shape than I got it. Not once. Now think about that. Think about me and think
about the guy who's talking. All right? I've never asked anything of my players
any different than I'm doing right now. Think about that.” The Knicks were a circus show on a nightly
basis, finishing 23-59, which was the second worst in the NBA only to the
Portland TrailBlazers, after finishing a pedestrian 33-49 the previous season. The Knicks finished the season 20th
in points per game (95.6), 27th in opponent’s points per game (102.0), 24th in
offensive rating (104.0) and 26th in defensive rating (111), which is fourth
worst in franchise history. Here are
some reminders of how dreadful that team was:
And this:
The 1962-1963 Knicks (SRS rating -6.20), coached by Eddie Donovan, the dreadful
coach in Knick history, were an NBA laughingstock. They had the lowest winning percentage (.263) in franchise history, finishing
with a record of 21-59, which was the worst in the league. They finished 37
games out of first place! The Knicks were 7th in points per game
(110.5), 6th in opponent’s points per game (117.7), 8th in offensive rating
(93.5) and 8th in defensive rating (99.7). Sounds impressive right? Unfortunately there
were only nine teams in the league at the time.
The Knicks had Richie Guerin, who was the most underrated player in
Knick history, but also had a cast-off of below average players surrounding
him. Somehow, the Knicks suffered losing
streaks of ten, eight, seven, and six games.
The
1963-1964 Knicks (SRS rating -5.91) were
just as dreadful as the previous year’s version. For the second year in a row, the Knicks
finished with the worst record in the league (21-58). The Knicks didn’t have a problem scoring,
finishing 3rd in points per game (112.2) and third in offensive
rating (95.4), but were atrocious on the defensive end finishing last in
opponent’s points per game (119.0) and last in defensive rating (101.2). After
two games, Guerin, who was ready to quit after enduring one losing season after
another, was traded to the St. Louis Hawks. “I still enjoyed playing basketball
with the Knicks, but losing takes a lot out of you” Guerin said after being
traded. The Knicks experienced two losing streaks of nine games, and one seven
game losing streak.
This
current Knick team has a long way to go to become the worst Knick team of all
time, but don’t count them out! Even
though Coach Fisher predicted the Knicks would make the playoffs, they might be
accidently tanking to secure a high draft pick. There have been various reports
that the Knicks believe that they will strikeout
with Marc Gasol this summer, so they may try to target a blue chipper such
as Jahlil Oakfor or Karl-Anthony Towns. The draft is only 198 days away. All of
you Knick fans, who recite “In Phil We Trust” after every loss and believe the
Knicks will turn this around as the season progresses, don’t count on it.
It won't hurt as much, I promise!
No comments:
Post a Comment