The New York Knicks aren’t ready to give up on their 2014-15 season.
Which is weird.
At 5-28, the Knicks are off to their worst start in franchise history. They have the most losses of any NBA team, and they look like a patented shit show. Mathematically, at 9.5 games back of eighth place, they’re still in the playoff race. Spoiler, though: They aren’t going to the playoffs. They suck that bad. It’s time to cut their losses and move on with their free-agency-centric rebuilding plan.
Or, you know, maybe not.
Here’s an interesting piece of intel from Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears’ power rankings:
The Knicks are not interested in fire-sale trades yet despite their franchise-worst start, one NBA general manager told Yahoo Sports.
Oh. Well, that makes absolutely no sense.
Never mind, yes it does.
First, I’ve always found power rankings a weird piece to break news. Am I wrong? Spears is awesome and usually puts out good information, but I find myself reading his power rankings for news rather than a comprehensive interpretation of the league’s current hierarchy.
Anyway, the Knicks not holding a fire sale makes sense. Like, what are they supposed to auction off? Phil Jackson’s half-used toilet paper rolls?
Thin on assets, the Knicks are likely to stand pat—unless a Rajon Rondo-type trade falls into their lap like it did the Dallas Mavericks’, wherein the receiving team (Dallas) forfeits very little in exchange for a lot (Rondo).
What would the Knicks’ fire sale look like anyway? They’re not going to absorb any long-term salary and compromise their cap flexibility this summer. Allowing opposing teams to pillage their roster would basically be them trying to find new homes for Jose Calderon and J.R. Smith in order to increase their spending power. And maybe, just maybe, they would try to move the injured Iman Shumpert as well, being that he’s slated for restricted free agency and is bound to get paaaaaaid the kind of money they’re not willing to shell out.
But that’s about the extent of their fire sale. Teams won’t be lining up to bilk the Knicks of assets they don’t have. The ones that are willing to talk turkey won’t give up anything of consequence either. “The Knicks trade Samuel Dalembert for a second-round pick.” Those are the headlines we could anticipate.
Trading Carmelo Anthony, of course, would qualify as a legitimate fire sale, yet we, the smart-not-stupid basketball people, know that’s not going to happen. Melo has a no-trade clause, his knee has gone to shit and the Knicks need him to use whatever pull he has left to help recruit free agents this summer.
Expect it, then, to be a boring trade season for the Knicks—you know, aside from the volume losing accompanied by on-court dysfunction and discord and resulting disaster.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
