Wow, this article he wrote in the offseason was right on the money- he was correct about everything
Sheridan: Knicks are more doomed than you may realizeGREENBURGH, N.Y. — I am not going to sit here and tell you that Phil Jackson made a mistake in taking Latvian toothpick Kristaps Porzingis with the fourth pick of the 2015 NBA draft.
Jackson was in the press room at 8:20 p.m. Thursday night comparing the kid to Pau Gasol, and Jackson is a better judge of talent than I am. He gets paid $12 million of Jim Dolan’s money each season to make these decisions, to “preside.”
But I will tell you that the Knicks are doomed to another half-decade of decrepitude, at a minimum. You know when they make their next draft pick? A mere 24 months from now — 2017.
That will be after they have the worst record in the NBA for each of the next two seasons.
But doom and gloom — and even levity — were not in attendance at Knicks headquarters on draft night. Jackson defended the pick as the best move for the franchise, a statement that will take years to properly judge.
If Emmanuel Mudiay turns into an All-Star, if Frank Kaminsky spends 15 years in the NBA as Danny Schayes predicts, if Justise Winslow competes for a championship in Miami next season — all of those factors will be weighed against Porzingis as the kid fills out and grows up. He is probably two years away from being a rotation player, and he’ll probably log half as many minutes next season as Jerian Grant, who Jackson picked up from Atlanta in a trade for Tim Hardaway Jr.
There is no telling who will be in the starting five for New York on Opening Night aside from Carmelo Anthony. There are now three point guards, Jose Calderon, Alexei Shved and Grant; no center, although Greg Monroe is the odds-on favorite to be taking Samuel Dalembert’s old job; no shooting guard; and no small forward, unless you want to elevate Cleanthony Early to a starter’s spot.
By December, Knicks fans will be longing for the days of Travis Wear and Quincy Acy.
If you belive what you read on Knicks press releases, Porzingis is 7-foot-3 and weighs 233 pounds.
It would have been nice to hear whether Jackson caught a glimpse of the Knicks fans reactions on television, including a little boy crying. And it would have been entertaining to hear if he had a response to Fran Frachilla’s pronouncement on ESPN: “The Knicks stink.”
But the Knicks being the Knicks, they kept Jackson’s comments brief, and there was little of substance beyond the Gasol comparisons when Jackson spoke of the 19-year-old Latvian who looks like he could be blown over by a stiff wind.
“We need someone athletic, and this is an eye-opening athletic player,” Jackson said, noting that Porzingis has better shooting range than Gasol, who was a stringbean, too, when he entered the league as a rookie weighing 227 pounds.
Porzingis needs to add about 30 pounds of muscle to play in this league, and Jackson said on ESPN it might take five years to determine whether he was the proper pick. So do not expect young Kristaps to be an impact player next season, when the Knicks will field a starting lineup of Carmelo Anthony and four players to be determined at a future date.
The Knicks have no future. They are doomed to the lottery for the next half-decade. They will never play a playoff game during Jackson’s five-year tenure as team president.
It is hopeless.
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12/14/2015 2:51 PM
