The Knicks have had talent walk through their revolving door. For every transition in front office leadership - there is the constant of conflicting vision of how the Knicks franchise should be composed - and the time frame to do it. The more things change - the more they remain the same.
For all his warts, Isiah Thomas mined some raw gems in Wilson Chandler, Nate Robinson and David Lee. A few of his "failures" - Trevor Ariza, Matt Carroll, Ime Udoka and Matt Barnes Mardy Collins, - have proven to be serviceable for other teams. The dissonance between General Manager and Head Coach - another constant that dates back to the days of Holzman and Eddie Donovan not always being on the same page
Last night's hero, Zach Randolph reminded me of Willis Reed when he was here and he reminds me of Willis now. 6'9 rugged and relentless. Donnie and (hopefully D'Antoni) have a shared vision. But with the benefit of hindsight, one cannot help but wonder how David Lee and Zach Randolph would have bonded without forcing Eddy Curry into the mix. Of course, that requires some bending of the Way Back Machine rules, but this is just a bunch of pixels on a screen and one opinion will never influence an NBA franchise.
But the point remains, the Knicks issue is not talent.
The issue is leadership making impossible decisions and getting it right more than it messes up a good thing. The Knicks issue is front office turnover, which leads to inevitable player turnover as each regime has an opinion. Isiah wacked all of Laydens's guys and soon Walsh will have wacked all of Isiah's guys. When does it stop?
A Decade Later, Perfect World, Shift Du Jour
President of Basketball Operations - Cazzie Russell, a link to the past
Executive Director of Scouting - Isiah Thomas, major props for talent evaluation
General Manager - Ernie Grunfeld, credit for Camby deal
Head Coach - Don Chaney, best coach of the past decade
Andre Miller - Grunfeld overrules VanGundy on blocking his acquisition
Ariza - Larry Brown never runs him out of town, nor does he waste a season imposing arbitrary guidelines
Chandler - thank you Isiah
Lee - thank you Isiah
Randolph - Mister double double
Danilo Gallinari - as sixth man
Matt Carroll - somehow a roster spot was found
Marcus Camby - the media training thing is swept under the rug, length in the middle
2/28/2010 1:40 PM
