Kristaps Porzingis is (finally) calling it like we’re seeing it: The New York Knicks are a bad basketball team.
These weren’t his exact words following the Knicks’ despicable Sunday night loss to the Brooklyn Nets, but he was hinting at as much if you read between the lines, per ESPN.com’s Ian Begley:
Porzingis, the No. 4 overall selection in the 2015 draft, said the Knicks’ offensive sets under new head coach Jeff Hornacek are “random” and that his teammates “don’t know the triangle well.”
“We’re really basic [with] what we do,” Porzingis said. “A lot of times it’s — especially one on one — whoever it is, myself, Carmelo [Anthony], Derrick [Rose], Courtney [Lee], we try to make something happen and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. It’s very random.”
Team president Phil Jackson’s commitment to the triangle and obsession with meddling remains ludicrous. The Knicks will never be good under him, and yet owner James Dolan won’t fire him before his contract is up. The team’s outlook is beyond bleak. It’ll have cap space to burn this summer, but no high-end free agent will want to join this crap fest. Plus, Jackson hasn’t exactly proved he knows how to sign the right free agents (see: Joakim Noah).
For the time being, fans must hope the Knicks continue to lose. Only a game and half separates them from a bottom-five record, and they need a top-five pick to salvage this disaster of a season. Falling within the top five or better won’t cure all that ails them, but pairing that kind of a prospect with Porzingis at least suggests the team will have a promising enough foundation to make a leap once Jackson’s demonstratively horrible tenure meets its end.
