|
VDesai
Posts: 43302
Alba Posts: 44
Joined: 10/28/2003
Member: #477
USA
|
http://www.nysun.com/article/65123
Knicks' Ill Decisions Lead To Waste
Basketball
BY JOHN HOLLINGER
October 24, 2007
Another day, another resource squandered.
One of the ongoing themes of the Knicks under Isiah Thomas is how badly they manage their assets — overpaying their players, giving up too many considerations in trades, and cutting loose talents that could prove useful in future deals. The shining example remains the Jalen Rose deal, in which the Knicks effectively paid $30 million to get a late first-round pick, when other teams routinely pay $3 million for the same privilege. But other examples abound.
This week, in a smaller way, we'll see the Knicks again waste an asset for no good reason. Here's the situation: Even with Allan Houston's comeback being aborted, the Knicks still head into Friday's roster cut-down day with two players too many. The likely result is that second-round draft choice Demetris Nichols will be shown the door.
This is the same Demetris Nichols that the Knicks chose 53rd overall on draft day, on a pick they acquired when they gave up a 2009 second-draft choice. So it's a little bizarre to be seeing New York dismiss him so quickly. That's especially true given his preseason results. Though he only played 13 minutes, he scored nine points in that time against just one turnover. He also had a strong summer league — so it's not like he's done something horrible to earn his ticket out of town.
But out he will go, sending the 2009 second-rounder down the toilet with him. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a disaster — certainly not compared to some of Thomas's other blunders.
It is, however, hugely indicative of the way the Knicks operate. New York knew from the second it consummated the Zach Randolph trade that it would have too many bodies this year. Yet they went ahead with the deal for the Nichols pick anyway.
The Knicks seemed to belatedly realize this and tried to convince Nichols to play in Europe — allowing New York to maintain his rights — but I'm not sure why they thought this would work. Few American college graduates consent to such a journey, except when it's forced upon them by circumstances (being cut by a team in the NBA, for instance). Unless the Knicks had a scout tailing Nichols and found out he ate brie with red wine at every meal, I'm not sure why they thought his outlook would be any different.
Perhaps I should give the Knicks the benefit of the doubt here, because they still have an alternative available if they would just get over themselves and consider it. I'm talking, of course, about cutting the human Hindenberg, Jerome James. I call him that name for three reasons: He's rotund, he's full of hot air, and he's a disaster. James still has three years left at the full mid-level exception. But isn't it obvious by this point that he's never going to contribute any remotely meaningful minutes?
For the league's other 29 teams, the decision to cut their losses and move on would be an obvious one. But these are the Knicks, who operate in a state of denial. James Dolan and Thomas have yet to acknowledge a single error in their serial mishandling of the franchise over the past half-decade, and in continuing with this trend they're not about to admit that signing James was a colossal blunder — even if every fan over the age of four knows it.
New York still has two days to consummate a trade as well, which is the other possible out. But it's going to be tough to pull off anything that would enable them to clear a roster spot for Nichols because, for one, several other teams also have too many bodies. Secondly, nobody wants to take on one of the Knicks' bad contracts and, thirdly, there's no need for anybody interested in Nichols to trade for him — since they can just wait until Friday and have him for free.
Wait, there's more. If the Knicks fail to make a move, the Nichols pick won't be their only needlessly expended resource. They'll also have to waive Jared Jordan, who is scoreless so far in 12 preseason minutes. That's also a little odd, since the Knicks bought his rights from the Clippers before training camp.
At least in this case, there was a sliver of logic — getting Jordan indirectly greased the skids for New York to buy out Dan Dickau — but again, it seems silly to keep a wastrel such as James around when Jordan could fill the role as the team's lone pass-first point guard.
And I haven't even started on the folly of the Allan Houston situation. Could it have been more obvious that Dolan and Thomas weren't on the same page on this one? Dolan welcomed Houston to make his comeback. Then, Thomas basically spent two weeks ignoring him before Houston saw the handwriting on the wall and pulled the plug on his return last week.
I have no idea if Houston could have helped — I suspect the answer is a no — but it would have been nice if Thomas had at least considered the possibility while he owned Houston's rights. Consider that another resource wasted, then.
I should point out that the Knicks aren't the only team who painted themselves into a corner with poor roster management this week. Philadelphia already cut an early second-round pick, Derrick Byars, because of a roster crunch, begging the question of why they picked him in the first place, rather than trading the selection. In a related story, Larry Brown is now a consultant in Philly. Perhaps some of Thomas's acumen rubbed off on him.
But as usual, nowhere is the mismanagement more egregious than in New York. The Knicks acquired two second-round draft picks — knowing full well they'd almost certainly cut both of them — while continuing to cover their eyes and pretend James might wake up and imitate a basketball player someday. In listing the blunders of the Thomas era, the Nichols case won't even crack the top 20. But that doesn't make it any less indicative of the ongoing wasteful ways at the Garden.
jhollinger@nysun.com
|
10/24/2007 10:59 AM