The theory is solid: the Knicks are a major-market team and they want to compete for championships, not playoff spots. With the core they had -- Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford, Wilson Chandler, Nate Robinson, David Lee, Quentin Richardson, and Chris Duhon -- they were a borderline Eastern playoff team, at best. But at least they were playing with offensive continuity and staying tight with some of the league's better teams.
Aren't any Knicks fans tired of excruciating losses? They got absolutely pounded tonight by the Cavs, and trust me, many losses of a similar variety are on the horizon. Walsh waived goodbye to Randolph and Crawford, easily New York's top two players, and welcomed Al Harrington, Tim Thomas, and Cuttino Mobley to the Big Apple.
Like I said earlier, Walsh's organizational theory is solid, but his execution was downright dreadful this past week. Randolph has been one of the most productive players in the NBA to this point in the season, racking up points and rebounds with relative ease. Crawford was the Knicks' most gifted and dangerous scorer, and their bail-out guy -- the one that bailed them out with the shotclock winding down and little-to-nothing going on offensively.
Now, the Knicks don't even have a best player. How does that happen? If you asked five different Knicks' fans who their star was, they'd probably give you five different answers. How bad is it when Chris Duhon might actually be the best player on an NBA team? He should be a solid bench player at best. Duhon, Robinson, Richardson, Chandler, Lee or Harrington could all be New York's top dog on a given night.
That's a terrible situation. As Lawrence Frank said in a recent interview, "In this league, you can't be a committee team. You need to establish an identity, be consistent, and go to your big guns when it matters most."
The Knicks no longer have big guns. They have a compilation of streaky, average players. The newly-acquired duo of Harrington and Thomas is nothing but trouble. Both have struggled to define their roles and positions with their past teams, which often leads to a lack of team chemistry and offensive flow. Harrington and Thomas are cancers; all their ex-teams and teammates know it.
The point is, this team is going to be awful for the rest of this season, and next year. I don't know about you, but I've lost a few close friends and family members in the past few years; who knows? I could be next. I don't feel like waiting around when life is happening right now. The Knicks were playing surprisingly well with Crawford, Randolph and D'Antoni's offensive system. At least I could watch the games without wanting to vomit all over my friend's flatscreen TV.
Tonight, I was gagging again. Sure it was the first night for Harrington and Thomas with new teammates, but don't expect much improvement overall. The Knicks don't have a go-to-guy, don't have an identity, and don't have a chance to make the playoffs anymore.
Walsh also drafted Danilo Gallinari with the sixth pick in this year's NBA Draft. WHAT A DISASTER. And yet, everyone seems to be in love with Walsh. I hate the guy. We could have had D.J. Augustin, Brook Lopez, Jason Thompson, Brandon Rush, Marreese Speights, Darrell Arthur, and/or Mario Chalmers. Any of those guys could have helped us right away.
Walsh and D'Antoni have also botched the Stephon Marbury situation. I truly believe that if the Knicks drafted Thompson, played Marbury instead of wasting him, and kept Randolph and Crawford, that they could have finished this year as high as fourth in the Eastern Conference.
The starting lineup should have been Marbury, Crawford, Richardson, Chandler, and Randolph, with Robinson, Duhon, David Lee, and Thompson coming off the bench. What the Knicks were missing early on, even when they were 6-3, was another explosive penetrator (Marbury) and another bench big man with athleticism and ability (Thompson).
If Walsh played his cards right from the beginning, the Knicks could have been competing in the Eastern Conference semi-finals, right away, this season. Outside of the Celtics, Cavs, and Pistons, the East is not at all intimidating.
Whatever, Walsh is an idiot. For those of you who want to wait until 2010 (when we can't even guarantee that we get LeBron), well...I hope you don't get hit by a bus tomorrow.
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