The Knicks are in basketball purgatory at the moment. They're bad, and they really have no plans to get better. They've missed the playoffs in each of the last five seasons, and while the arrival of coach Mike D'Antoni last season perked them up to the tune of a 32-50 season, they've still got a long way to go.
They're not going anywhere — at the moment, at least. Their nucleus of David Lee, Wilson Chandler and Nate Robinson isn't getting them anywhere. Lee has put up dazzling numbers individually, but the team is an absolute mess defensively, and things just aren't coming together. And while 2008-09 was bad, there's really no reason to expect the coming season will be any better.
But in New York, rebuilding is anything but a one-year effort. The Knicks play in a big market with the ability to attract the big stars. Eventually, things will start looking it up.
All eyes in Madison Square Garden are on the summer of 2010. A huge portion of the Knicks' payroll comes off the books at the end of this season — Lee, Robinson, Larry Hughes, Eddy Curry, Al Harrington, Cuttino Mobley, Darko Milicic and Chris Duhon all have expiring deals. Of those eight guys, only Curry has even a player option for coming back for the 2010-11 season. All in all, that's an unprecedented $72 million in payroll coming off the books.
A year from now, the Knicks will be poised to give new meaning to the word "rebuilding." This is a team that's prepared to scrap everything — their entire starting five, no exaggeration — to start all over again in 2010. They'll be completely free from salary-cap stresses with plenty of money to spend.
The sky's the limit. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh — you name it, the Knicks will have the cash to throw at the players of their dreams. Couple at least one big-name superstar free agent (if not two) with a high draft pick in 2010, and you've got a promising team.
It will be a team that looks nothing like the Knicks team we're seeing now. The Knicks that host the Celtics in their penultimate preseason game Tuesday night are a laughingstock. They're a mix of has-beens who didn't quite pan out and youngsters who aren't quite ready. If they win 30 games again this season, it would be a miracle.
But when you watch these Knicks, you're hardly watching a basketball team. You're watching a story line. It's not about the guys on the floor right now — it's about a historic franchise, a hallowed arena and a lot of hope for the future.
The Knicks' franchise has a storied history. It stretches back over six decades: The team was a founding member of the Basketball Association of America in 1946 before moving over to the NBA, winning eight conference titles and two championships.
But the Big Apple hasn't seen basketball glory in 36 years — not since 1973, when Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe and Willis Reed were running the show, have the Knicks won a title. No one on the team's current roster was even alive.
When you've been waiting that long, what's one more year? Not much, in the grand scheme of things.
The Knicks are headed back to the promised land — it'll just take time. Eventually, there will be a championship-caliber basketball team in the biggest market in America. In the meantime, though, Manhattan is stuck with these guys. If you can't play basketball, play the waiting game instead.
