Are the New York Knicks Being Left Behind?

The Nets, Lakers, Sixers, Nuggets, Heat, Thunder and even the Hornets have managed to move forward, while the Knicks still seem stuck in an unhealthy mindset.

What is that mindset, you ask? One that dictates problems can be solved by looking outside the organization, instead of within.

It started with the Carmelo Anthony trade. New York absolutely needed another superstar to pair with Amar’e Stoudemire, so the team mortgaged its future and brought him in. And from there, it’s been a game of musical roster spots.

But how has that worked out for them? Tyson Chandler was a decent pickup, but two years into this experiment, the Knicks are 1-8 in the postseason, and the one chance they had to establish some continuity, they blew this summer by shaking up the point guard lineup yet again.

I’m not implying that Jeremy Lin was the solution to all things New York, but he would have provided some familiarity, on a roster where Stoudemire is the longest tenured player after just two years of membership.

And that’s why the Knicks are getting left behind. They’re different from the rest of the NBA’s so called super teams in the worst way possible, because they’ve simply bought every talent they current have, not helped grow them.

The Heat have Dwyane Wade, the Lakers Kobe Bryant, the Nets Brook Lopez, the Celtics Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo, and the Thunder their core four. Who do the Knicks have, that has been there from the beginning, long enough to develop the genre of emotional ties that spark an enhanced commitment to winning?

Nobody, that’s who. Iman Shumpert is a promising athlete, but he’s lightyears away from stardom, if he reaches such a level at all.

None of this is okay. And while I’m not implying that Anthony, Chandler and Stoudemire aren’t committed to winning, their very presences are a partial symbol of all that’s wrong in New York. You cannot always buy wins, especially when you’re pairing players who don’t compliment one another by nature and get rid of the one coach, in Mike D’Antoni, who could have—had Anthony sucked up his pride—made it work.

Revolving rosters are built for intrigue and false hype; they’re a championship facade. Teams need to have at least one cornerstone they helped build from the ground up.

But judging by the Knicks’ movement this offseason—Marcus Camby, Jason Kidd, Raymond Felton—they continue to ignore such a notion, which isn’t only unfortunate, but detrimental.

So, are the Knicks being left behind by the league’s other powerhouses?

No, not at all.

Because they never had a grasp on a reputable blueprint to win in the first place.