Orchestrator:

• Steve Mills as President, with Scott Perry as GM

Highlights:

1. Signed Tim Hardaway Jr Before Hiring a GM: Steve Mills took charge and signed Tim Hardaway to big contract before he even got a GM, which caused potential hire David Griffin to literally turn around at an airport, and head back to Cleveland. Mills signed Scott Perry as GM.
2. Traded Carmelo Anthony: As 2nd order of business (or 1st with Perry as GM), NY traded Carmelo Anthony in summer 2017 (for Enes Kanter and a 2nd-round draft pick that ended up being Mitchell Robinson).
3. Porzingis Tore His ACL: In year 1 with Jeff Hornacek as coach, Knicks were at .500 in January but Kristaps Porzingis tore his ACL and the team finished badly.
4. Hired David Fizdale as Coach: After year 1, the Knicks fired Hornacek and hired David Fizdale. This was a bad hiring as Fizdale — despite his “he’s my coach” reputation — did a terrible job. He was all talk, no action: the Knicks didn’t play defense, and Fizdale couldn’t seem to figure out a regular lineup.
5. Traded Porzingis: In year 2 they traded Kristaps Porzingis in January to Dallas for several players including Dennis Smith Jr, and two #1 picks. One would become Quentin Grimes; the other comes due in June 2023. NY also dumped Tim Hardaway Jr’s contract in the trade.
6. Landed RJ Barrett in 2019 Draft. The Knicks had the worst record in the NBA in the 2017-18 season but were unlucky in the draft lottery — landing pick #3. Zion Williamson and Ja Morant went 1-2, and RJ Barrett fell to the Knicks at #3. To this date it is arguable how well the Knicks did here: Zion has been a star but is injury prone; Morant has been a superstar but doesn’t play defense; Barrett is a rising 2-way star guard.
7. The Famed (and Extremely Underrated) Free Agency of Summer 2019: Perry got team salary way below cap and expectations were that in Summer 2019 Knicks would splash with big free agent signings — such as Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, etc.

In the 6 months before the free agent period, it became apparent the Knicks wanted no part of pending free agent Kyrie Irving, but meanwhile Irving — apparently aware the Knicks didn’t want him — tag-teamed with Durant to plot to go to Brooklyn together. The Knicks were rumored to be strategizing to convince Durant to come to them if they also signed Kawhi Leonard.

But when Durant ripped his achilles in the playoffs, the Knicks went to plan B: “Money Ball” free agent signings of Julius Randle, and a bunch of good players to 1-year deals — including Bobby Portis, Reggie Bullock, Elfrid Payton, Wayne Ellington, and Marcus Morris — who switched to signing with them after he had already given San Antonio a handshake agreement. The Knicks were lampooned by the media for this Free Agency — but in the end they proved to be very wise. It was a Great free agency — as NY signed Randle to a modest contract, and kept the team payroll extremely manageable with 1-year contracts to “money ball” players (good players signed to modest, short-term contracts).

8. Fired Fizdale: In December of year 3, with Knicks stinking even after the “Money Ball” free agent splash, David Fizdale was fired, replaced by strategically-positioned assistant, Mike Miller.
9. Removed Steve Mills: The team did better with Miller as coach but it was too late — in January 2020 Steve Mills was removed and placed into another part of the organization. Scott Perry ran the show until Leon Rose was hired in March.
10. Overall: despite the failures, the Free Agent signings and talent acquisitions were first rate — the Knick team got younger, more athletic, and loaded up on additional future #1 picks, all while keeping the Knicks in good salary-cap shape. This period paved the way for future Knick success with creation of the future Knick core of Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson (a pick from the Melo trade), Quentin Grimes (a pick from the Porzingis trade), and Immanuel Quickley (a pick from the Marcus Morris trade) and a team well positioned, salary-cap wise. It is hard to know how much to attribute all of that to Scott Perry or Steve Mills — but we reckon Perry is at the heart of it.

Details:

The Back Story

• Rumors were that Steve Mills was undercutting Phil Jackson during the last year of Jackson’s tenure, and when Jackson tried to trade Kristaps Porzingis, Dolan finally stepped in and fired Jackson, appointing Mills as his successor.
• Mills had had a previous tenure with the Knicks — as CEO of Madison Square Garden from 2003 to 2009 — a role in which he participated in Knick strategy — a tumultuous period wherein Mills did not become a fan favorite. Mills left in 2009 to go to Magic Johnson Enterprises, and to many Knick fans’ chagrin — returned to the Knicks in 2013 as executive Vice President and GM of the organization.
• Mills was appointed GM just after the Knicks stripped former GM Glen Grunwald of power in August 2013. Mills was the GM from Sept 2013 to March 2014, when the Knicks hired Phil Jackson. Mills then supported Jackson — some say like a snake in his midst — until Jackson was fired when Mills took over.

The 1st Year

• Signed Tim Hardaway Jr. Before Hiring GM Scott Perry: The first thing that Steve Mills did — even before hiring Scott Perry as GM — was sign free agent Tim Hardaway Jr to a large, multi-year contract. Mills was a fan of Hardaway’s and had been involved with the drafting of Hardaway in 2013 — before Hardaway was later traded by Phil Jackson to Atlanta where he rejuvenated his career.

Hardaway’s contract would become an albatross for NY — as his streaky play and eccentric personality would weigh on the Knicks.

• Hired Scott Perry as GM — Once Mills took over from Phil Jackson as President of Knicks in July 2017, he hired Scott Perry as GM. Perry had been GM of the Sacramento Kings. The Knicks gave Sacramento a 2019 2nd round pick and cash as compensation.

The hiring of Perry came with its own drama — as the NY media reported on all rumors of who the Knicks were going to hire. Famously, it was reported that the Knicks were about to interview David Griffin — the highly rated GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers –but when Griffin learned he would not have full control of Knick personnel decisions but would need Steve Mills’ approval — he literally turned around at an airport he was at, en route to NY for an interview, and flew back to Cleveland.

• Traded Carmelo Anthony. As a second order of business, Mills & Perry traded away Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder — for Enes Freedom Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a high 2nd-round pick in the 2018 draft. (The Knicks would use that pick to select Mitchell Robinson.)
• Free Agents Signed in Summer 2017: After signing Hardaway Jr and then bringing Scott Perry in, the Knicks also signed Michael Beasley, Ramon Sessions, Jarrett Jack, Ron Baker, and Damyean Dotson.

2017-18 Started Well — But January Collapse & Porzingis Injury

• The 2017-28 Team: The Knicks kept Jeff Hornacek as coach and went into the 2017-2018 season with a team featuring Kristaps Porzingis, Enes Kanter, Tim Hardaway Jr, Courtney Lee, and Ramon Sessions, with Michael Beasley, Kyle O’Quinn, Lance Thomas, Doug McDermott, Ron Baker, Willy Hernangomez, and Jarrett Jack coming off the bench.  Sessions and Jack were to help rookie Frank Ntilikina.
• The Point Guard: Sessions got off to a horrible start, and Jarret Jack took the starting point guard job, as Ntilikina was introduced to the NBA off the bench. Sessions was waived in early January. Trey Burke was signed just before the season started on Oct 11 when he became available and was put on NY’s G-League roster.
• NY started the year well — and were 17-14 on Dec 22. Things were looking good — but then NY lost 10 of their next 12 including 3 overtime losses and many close loses, and then caved in — with a horrible January and February en route to a horrible 2nd half and 29-53 record.
• Porzingis Goes Down with Torn ACL — On Feb 6, Porzingis tore his ACL landing on Greek Freak’s foot.
• Trade Deadline Deal: Mudiay: On Feb 8 2018, at the trade deadline, with NY at 23-33 and having lost 5 straight, NY traded Doug McDermott and a 2nd round pick for Emmanuel Mudiay in a 3-team trade.

Mudiay didn’t help. Without Porzingis, the Knicks slide continued throughout the 2nd half of the season.

• Trade Deadline Deal: Hernangomez Dealt: the Knicks also traded Willy Hernangomez to Charlotte for two 2nd round picks (one 2nd round pick was later dealt along with Dennis Smith Jr for Derek Rose. Detroit used that 2nd round pick to select Isaiah Livers).
• Fired Hornacek: At the end of the season, NY fired Jeff Hornacek as the team went 29-53.

Year 2: David Fizdale & the Beginning of a Youth Movement

• The Knicks hired David Fizdale in May, 2018. Fizdale talked a good game and many Knick fans thought he’d be the right coach — in fact some fans started calling him “My Coach” (a political reference). Fizdale said the Knicks would stress Defense, move the ball on offense, and protect home court. Pretty much what every new coach ever had said but some Knick fans thought Fizdale was different.

• Fizdale came from Pat Riley‘s Miami Heat organization.
• NY chose Fizdale over other candidates such as Mike Budenholzer from the San Antonio organization.

Year 2 Draft — Summer 2018

• Drafted Kevin Knox with the 9th pick. Many fans wanted NY to pick Michael Porter Jr, who had the biggest upside in the draft but had fallen due to back problems. Others felt NY couldn’t miss with either Mikal Bridges or Miles Bridges (not related). Some said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the one. NY picked the 6’10 Knox who had only started playing basketball 3 years earlier at age 15 — and his father said doctors estimated Knox wasn’t finished growing yet — and could go to 6’11. Knox was raw but had offensive skills and there were reports that some scouts thought Knox would be another Kevin Durant.

Knox looked good at first with offensive ability — but his defense was horrid, and his motor seemed low. He played great in his initial summer league, and won Rookie of the Month for December in his first season. But he was given too much playing time, and his defense and low motor caught up with him. In year 2 he improved his defense, but his offense suffered — he was awkward on his drives to the basket —  and he got less playing time.

Then in summer 2019 the NBA announced that teams needed to start measuring everyone in stocking feet. Knox measured in at 6′ 7.5″ — an insult that they didn’t even round him up to 6’8. It’s unclear if this rule is still practiced. After COVID hit, delaying the start of the 2020 season, you never heard about the rule anymore. It would be ironic for Knox if players entering the league in 2020 were given the benefit of the doubt on the height they said they were. Since then, many sources truncate Knox’s height to 6’7. He never became the 6’11 Durant; on paper Knox literally shrank. Significantly.

By year 3 Knox had developed a reputation as a reserve, with an excellent 3-pt shot. In year 4 the Knicks traded him for Cam Reddish.

Too smooth pic.twitter.com/rbKjnKC8uE

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) April 2, 2019

• Drafted Mitchell Robinson with the 36th pick (2nd round). This pick saved the Knicks in this draft. Robinson had been a top-5 big man in the country in High School — then enlisted into Western Kentucky — a college he didn’t end up liking — so instead of transferring to another school and red-shirting a year, he simply stopped playing. That caused him to fall in the draft and the Knicks took a chance. They got lucky.
• Signed Allonzo Trier
• Great Summer League: Knox, Robinson, and Allonzo Trier impressed in the summer league.

Year 2 Free Agent Signings — Summer 2018

• Free Agency Summer 2018: The Knicks were getting ready for the next summer’s free agent market, when NY’s team salary would come way under the cap, so didn’t do much the summer of 2018 — signing Mario Hezonja, Luke Kornet, and Noah Vonleh to 1-year deals and waiving Joakim Noah.

2018-19 Season — Bad from the Start But with Youth

• The 2018-19 Team: With David Fizdale as the newly minted coach who so many Knick fans thought was going to be the real deal, the Knicks went into the 2018-19 season with Porzingis expected to miss most of the season still recovering from his ACL injury — although there was hope he’d return in February — and with a young team that featured Enes Kanter and Kevin Knox up front, and Tim Hardaway Jr in the backcourt with young point guard and hope for the future Frank Ntilikina. Trey Burke played himself into the starting rotation as well.
• The bench had Lance Thomas, Mitchell Robinson, Allonzo Trier, Mario Hezonja, Noah Vonleh, Ron Baker, and Damyean Dotson.
• Knox was Rookie of the Month for December.
• Mitchell Robinson was a slam dunking, shot blocking demon — especially adept at blocking 3-pointers on the perimeter.

Aaaand again. pic.twitter.com/njkIV1cO9m

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) February 6, 2019

• Allonzo Trier was electric off the bench.
• Trier got his shots but that drew ire from some teammates, most notably Tim Hardaway Jr who yelled at Trier on one play in a game where Trier went up for a layup on a fast break instead of passing it to Hardaway (the ultimate ball hog himself).
• In February, having won a job and regular playing time, Trier could be noticeably seen trying to pass first on plays, but that affected his game.

We've said it before and we'll say it again… That boy quick pic.twitter.com/CDZeFjFMBN

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) February 6, 2019

Year 2 In-Season Trades: Goodbye Porzingis, Waive Kanter

• Porzingis Traded: In January 2019, NY traded Kristaps Porzingis along with Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr, and Courtney Lee to Dallas for DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews, Dennis Smith Jr, and 2021 1st rd pick (Keon Johnson — who would traded on draft night to the Clippers for Quentin Grimes), 2023 1st round pick (top 10 protected). Porzingis was still out recovering from the torn ACL, and Mills and Perry appeared to make a determination that Porzingis was not worth re-signing for a Max contract — in that he was injury prone and, as Phil Jackson had put it, didn’t have a big enough ass to become a dominant post-up center in the NBA.
• Kanter Traded: A month after trading Porzingis, on February 7, 2019, the Knicks waived Enes (later changed his name to Freedom Kanter) and Wesley Matthews.
• The Tank for Zion: The losing continued — the Knicks tanked and went after the #1 pick that was to be Zion Williamson, with Ja Morant electrifying the NCAA playoffs and looking like a great #2 pick.
• Successful Tank: The Knicks finished 17-65 under Fizdale — finishing dead last in the NBA and guaranteeing themselves the best lottery chance at the #1 pick in the draft.

Year 3 Draft — Summer 2019 — Barrett at #3

• Unsuccessful Lottery: Unfortunately, despite the Knicks finishing with the league’s worst record, the Minnesota Timberwolves won the draft lottery to get the #1 pick, and Memphis came out of nowhere to nab pick #2. The Knicks fell back to pick #3.
• Barrett Falls to Knicks: NY drafted RJ Barrett with the #3 pick in the draft, and Ignas Brazdeikis in the 2nd round.

Year 3 Free Agency — “Money Ball” — Summer 2019

The summer of 2019 constituted the bulk of the Steve Mills/Scott Perry rebuild. NY was in tremendous cap-space position, and rumors abounded that NY would make a play for Kevin Durant.

But Durant blew out his achilles in the playoffs, which meant that he’d be out a year at least, and the next time he’d suit up, he’d be 32 years old. Plus rumors had it that Kyrie Irving and Durant wanted to sign together, and Kyrie had worn out his welcome in a young locker room in Boston and before that Cleveland, and it looked like NY wanted no part of him.

Rumors then abounded that NY was looking to sign Durant and Kawhi Leonard — rumors that may have been put out by NY. But then came a report that the Knicks backed out of a meeting with Leonard, and Leonard saying that he never had any intention of meeting with them.

The media reported the Knicks might sign Kemba Walker — but NY didn’t seem to have any interest in him.

In the end, the Knicks went with a “Money Ball” free agency, with the following signings:

• • On July 8 2019: Signed Julius Randle, Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis, Wayne Ellington, Elfrid Payton
  • July 15: Signed Marcus Morris
  • July 16: Signed Reggie Bullock

Julius Randle was a player that Perry and Mills had begun targeting a year earlier, when NY was run off the court by a more athletic Laker team. It ended up being a fantastic “money ball” signing — getting a player of tremendous value without breaking the bank.

Marcus Morris fell to the Knicks — he signed with San Antonio then changed his mind — and signed with the Knicks for one season, pissing off Greg Popovich.

The national media and the local media bashed and made fun of the Knicks all summer and into the Fall for their free agent signings — as they felt NY was expected to add two big-name superstars. The media was dead wrong — NY had actually done a fantastic job of signing value players to short term contracts.

Back-to-back 30-point games for @J30_RANDLE pic.twitter.com/2m2PrtqskK

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 27, 2019

2018-19 Season — Horror Show from the Start

• Fizdale Couldn’t Pick a Point Guard: NY started the season with no point guard — coach David Fizdale didn’t make a decision in the pre-season so in game 1 threw Allonzo Trier in as the starting point guard. Trier had a horrible first half, so Fizdale yanked him and turned to first Dennis Smith Jr as the point guard, and then Elfrid Payton. That lasted a game.
• The Dennis Smith Jr Booed-Viscously-at-MSG Game: In game 3 of the year at Madison Square Garden, Dennis Smith Jr played so badly — missing shot after shot — that MSG fans booed him off the court. Fizdale had a delayed reaction to pulling Smith Jr — allowing Smith to catch a severe verbal thrashing. Besides poor coaching judgement, all of Fizdale’s preseason talk of “Protecting Home Court” was a distant memory. A failed promise. Bull shit. As Knick fans became to know with Fizdale as coach.

• The Train Wreck & the Apology: By game 10, the Knicks were 2-8 and a Train Wreck. Steven Mills and Scott Perry apologized to NY fans after a blowout loss to Cleveland, saying the team’s off-season free-agent acquisitions were supposed to yield a better team than this.
• Fizdale Fired: the Knicks fired Fizdale on Dec 6, 2019 with the Knicks at 4-18.
• Knicks Did Much Better with Mike Miller as Coach: Assistant coach Mike Miller took over for Fizdale as coach. Miller was hired into the organization by Phil Jackson and had won a title in the G League for Westchester. Putting Miller on the Knicks coaching staff the summer before seemed like insurance in case Fizdale did poorly again. The Knicks cashed in their insurance policy — and Miller did well. Within days the Knicks defensive intensity picked up. By late December the Knicks started to win basketball games.

• Knicks Blow It Up — Remove Steve Mills: On February 4, 2020, 2 days before the trade deadline with NY at 15-36, the Knicks announced that Steve Mills was leaving team, moving away from basketball operations for a job with the entertainment division of MSG (think Circus). They announced that Scott Perry would temporarily take command of the franchise. NY was 15-36
• The Marcus Morris Trade: 2 days after Steve Mills was removed, on February 6, 2020, Scott Perry made the decision to blow up the season and trade Marcus Morris. The Knicks were 12-18 under Miller, in the middle of a 4-game winning streak — with Marcus Morris and Julius Randle playing well together — when Perry traded Morris to the Clippers in a 3-team trade that netted NY Maurice Harkless and a 2020 LA Clipper 1st round pick. In the trade, the Washington Wizards also traded Isaiah Thomas to Clippers, and the Clippers sent Jerome Robinson to Washington.
  • NY would later trade the 1st round pick to Utah on draft night (November 16, 2020 — Utah picked Udoka Aubuike) along with a 2nd round pick for Utah’s 1st round pick that they used to select Leandro Bolmaro. NY then dealt Bolmaro to get Immanuel Quickley 2 nights after the Nov 18, 2020 draft from Oklahoma City in multi-team trade).

FACT: Mook is a bucket pic.twitter.com/TfZPEAK7qO

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 5, 2020

• Leon Rose Hired: Former agent Leon Rose was hired as executive in charge of the Knicks on March 2, 2020 — effectively ending this rebuild and beginning the next one.
• COVID Strikes: On March 11, 2020, the Knicks beat Atlanta in Overtime in the last game of the season as the remaining part of the season was suspended indefinitely due to COVID. The Knicks would not play another game.
• Miller would go 17-27 as coach — and had 15 games left in the season to do even better when COVID struck.

Result:

• Still in progress — but so far:
  •  bad coaching hire, but
  • good decisions were made on Free Agency, getting team under cap, utilizing and picking up draft picks, and bringing in young talent.
• This rebuild essentially laid the foundation for the current (at this writing) Knick team: Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, RJ Barrett, and trades that netted draft picks that would become Quentin Grimes and Immanuel Quickley, all while keeping the Knicks in good salary cap shape.
• The Fizdale hiring was a disaster. NY should have hired Budenholzer — if they had, maybe Steve Mills is still the Exec in charge of the Knicks.
• Having Mike Miller in the wings as insurance to Fizdale was a good move, but COVID caused Miller to run out of time to prove himself as an NBA head coach.
• Trading Porzingis was a smart move, as he has not provided Max Contract value to this day — having been traded from Dallas to Washington. The Knicks ended up getting Quentin Grimes with one of the draft picks acquired for KP. The Knicks still own a 1st round pick from Dallas from that trade — in this June’s draft.
• The “Money Ball” Free Agent signings of summer 2019 were brilliant — the Knicks got the last laugh on the media who knocked them.
  • Julius Randle ended up being a terrific signing — an All Star player at a very decent salary.
  • The Marcus Morris signing was also terrific — he played well for NY before being traded to the Clippers for a 1st round draft pick that would eventually be Immanuel Quickley.
  • Bobby Portis and Reggie Bullock were also good signings. Portis was let go as NY didn’t seem to like his temper; Scott Perry instead signed Nerlens Noel who did well in NY until a knee injury (see next rebuild).
  • All the signings except Randle’s were for short-term deals, enabling NY to remain in excellent salary cap space.
• In essence — the Knicks traded Porzingis so as not to sign him to a Max contract, and signed Julius Randle for a lot less money. Randle signed a contract making $18 to $19 M a year for 3 years that NY later extended to $25 to $29M thru 2026. Porzingis makes $31 to $36 M a year through 2024.
• The Kevin Knox draft pick didn’t work out — NY could’ve picked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or Mikal Bridges, or Miles Bridges, or Kevin Porter Jr. But on the other hand, Miles Bridges has had domestic issues and is currently serving a suspension, and Porter Jr. signed a Max Extension and has had recurring back issues. NY traded Knox for Cam Reddish, who has talent, is 6’8, but currently is out of the NY rotation.
• The RJ Barrett pick has worked out — Barrett is on the rise as an All Star caliber shooting guard.
• The Mitchell Robinson pick was a steal — grabbing him in the 2nd round — he has become one of the elite defensive centers in the NBA.

Tune back in for Rebuild #13. Follow us on Twitter and we’ll notify you when the post is up.

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #12 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Phil Jackson

Highlights:

Ushered in the Era of The Triangle

• After months of swirling rumors, Phil Jackson was finally announced as President of Knicks in March, 2014. He replaced Glen Grunwald who was holding down the position on an interim basis after Donnie Walsh had resigned. Phil’s hiring ushered in the Era of the Triangle with the Knicks.
• The entire summer of 2014, Knicks Twitter, local media and talk shows were abuzz with The Triangle — what it was, how it was played, and how the Knicks were going to become an elite team that passed-passed-passed, and played DEFENSE. Excitement abounded.

The Initial Moves

• A month into the job, at the end of the 2014 season, Phil fired Mike Woodson and his staff.
• Hired Derek Fisher as first coach, to institute The Triangle.
• Re-signed Carmelo Anthony to a big, 5-year, $124 Million extension (extending his contract through age 34) as a first order of business. Banked on Carmelo being able to thrive in The Triangle.
• First trade: dumping Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington, Jose Calderon, and Samuel Dalembert. In a post-trade press conference, Phil took a swipe at Chandler, saying the trade was because the Knicks needed to “change some of the chemistry on the team, and bring in some character guys who could help bring us forward.”
• Drafted Cleanthony Early in 2nd round in 2014 draft (his first draft).
• Picked up Langston Galloway after the draft — a favorite of Phil Jackson‘s right-hand-man talent evaluator Clarence Gaines.

The 1st Year: ’14-15 — Horror Show

• Knicks went 17-65 in 1st season including team-record-breaking 16 loses in a row.
• The Triangle proved to be too difficult for Knicks players to learn, and new coach Derek Fisher to implement.
  • The Knicks players tried too hard to pass within the triangle, and ended up becoming mechanical and telegraphing their passes. Other teams stole the ball regularly for fast breaks in the other direction.
  • Carmelo Anthony had a hard time being efficient shooting off the pass. He tried, but as the season progressed, went back into his old habits of doing a dribble dance before shooting to get in rhythm.
  • The Knicks defense was poor; they were always getting smoked after other teams intercepted their passes.
• Phil Jackson made fun of several Knick players in an ESPN article written by his good friend Charley Rosen — including saying that after being lectured, JR Smith was “a very sensitive guy, with his big doe eyes. He looked like he was going to tear up. But he finally responded that he was going through some issues with his gal.”
• In mid-season — January, 2015 — traded JR Smith and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland in a 3-team trade that got the Knicks Lou Amundson from Cleveland and Lance Thomas from Oklahoma City.

The 2nd Off Season: Summer ’15 — Porzingis Draft & Free Agents

• Drafted Kristaps Porzingis with 4th pick in 2015 draft (Phil’s 2nd draft). At first an enormously unpopular and ridiculed pick, Porzingis turned out to be a ‘unicorn’ and a new superstar in NY.
• Dumped Tim Hardaway Jr. — trading him for 19th pick in 2015 draft, used to pick point guard Jerian Grant.
• In his first free-agent signing spree of summer of 2015, Phil signed Robin Lopez, Kyle O’Quinn, Derrick Williams, and Arron Afflalo.
  • Lopez was going to be the smart, head’s-up center to run the triangle around.
  • Afflalo was going to provide shooting in the backcourt.
  • O’Quinn would provide toughness, rebounding, and scoring inside.
  • Derrick Williams was a bonus — an athletic 6’7 forward and former #2 overall pick in the draft the Knicks would take a chance on.

The 2nd Year: ’15-16 — Porzingis Surprises But Knicks Still Stink

• At start of the season in October, Derek Fisher made headlines for being involved in a fight with former teammate Matt Barnes, who drove 95 miles (actually 20 miles) to “beat the shit out of Fisher” for romancing Barnes’ former wife. Fisher was staying at Barnes’ old house with his wife and kids. Fisher was supposed to be in NY at the Knicks training camp, but was in LA at Barnes’ house. Barnes’ agent at the time was Phil Jackson’s son. Here is Barnes’ detailed recollection of what happened.
• Newly outfitted with center Robin Lopez joining Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony on the front line, and Arron Afflalo as the shooting guard with Jose Calderon at the point — the Knicks were 20-20 on January 12, 2016 — but they went into a January losing streak that lasted until the end of the year.
• The Triangle remained elusive for the Knicks and their defense wasn’t great.
• Derek Fisher was fired in February 2016 with a 23-31 record; NY promoted assistant Kurt Rambis as interim coach for rest of 2015-16 season. NY finished the year 32-50.
• Phil Jackson started holding secret Triangle seminars in April after the season ended.

The 3rd Off-Season: Summer ’16 — A 2nd Rebuild

• Hired Jeff Hornacek as coach in summer 2016, to run The Triangle.
• Rebuild #2: in summer 2016, traded Robin Lopez, Jerian Grant, and Jose Calderon to Chicago for Derrick Rose, Justin Holliday and a 2017 2nd round pick (Damyean Dotson).
• Signed Joakim Noah to a big contract — $72M for 4 years. Noah was going to be the smart, passing, defensive-oriented center to revolve the triangle around. Noah had a shoulder injury the year before, and swore to Phil Jackson his shoulder was healthy.
• Signed Courtney Lee to be the outside shooting guard.
• Signed Sasha Vujacic, whom Phil was familiar with as an LA Laker.
• Knicks took a flyer on Brandon Jennings, hoping he could mount a comeback. He didn’t.

The 3rd Year– ’16-17: Knicks Still Stink

• With Jeff Hornacek as the coach, and a rejuvenated Derrick Rose as their point guard (averaging 18 ppg), the Knicks started out ok — they were 16-14 on Christmas, lost a heartbreaker to the Celtics and kept losing close games. For the 2nd year in a row, a losing streak started in January that lasted to the end of the season. NY finished 31-51 — almost identical season to the year before.
• Again the Knicks couldn’t figure out the Triangle. As the season progressed, they played a pseudo-Jeff-Hornacek-altered triangle.
• Joakim Noah was a disaster — he averaged 5 ppg, and only played 46 games — undergoing knee surgery in February. A month later, he was hit with a 20-game steroid suspension. A month after that, the Knicks announced he would need shoulder surgery again too.

• In January 2017, Phil Jackson’s old friend, Charlie Rosen, wrote another hit piece — this one about Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony responded to local reporters that he felt the article was probably a message from Jackson.
• Jackson tweeted in February that “You can’t change the spot on a leopard“, which many felt was a veiled reference to Melo.
• Derrick Rose, who had been a huge part of the early winning — wore down and Knicks Twitter ripped him constantly for his defense. It was revealed later on that Rose had developed and was playing with a torn meniscus in his knee.
• It was reported that Jackson wanted to eat Carmelo’s contract and trade him — which reportedly drew ire from owner James Dolan. Phil had given Melo the big extension; now wanted to throw the money to the wind.
• Jackson was quoted as saying several times that Porzingis’s ass was too small to ever become a big-time post up center in the NBA.
• It was an era of Knick reserves such as Ron Baker, Lou Amundson, Cleanthony Early, Maurice Ndour, Lance Thomas, and Willy Hernangomez.

The Final Off Season — Phil  Jackson Fired

• Porzingis became disenchanted with the way Jackson was handling his friend Carmelo Anthony, and became disenchanted himself.
• NY had to make a decision on whether to give Porzingis a max extension, or trade him.
• NY drafted Frank Ntilikina with the 7th pick in the June 2017 draft, bypassing Donovan Mitchell, whom most fans wanted NY to pick, and Dennis Smith Jr, who many other fans wanted NY to pick.
• After the draft, in June 2017, Jackson began attempts to trade Porzingis — which caused fan ire and became the last straw for Knicks owner James Dolan — who fired Jackson on June 28, 2017.

Result:

• A Disaster.
• Knicks fans wanted Phil Jackson to be the coach — but he was the GM — a position he’d never had before.
• Phil could never find a coach to properly teach his triangle. The Knicks had poor offense and bad defense.
• As a GM, Phil talked a good game, but seemed to constantly change his plan. He orchestrated what can be considered 2 rebuilds — an initial one, and then a 2nd one where he changed the main pieces he had just signed to free agent contracts the summer before — trading the free-agent center he had acquired to run the triangle — Robin Lopez — and instead signed Joakim Noah to a big contract, and changing shooting guards (Afflalo vs Courtney Lee) and point guards (Cameron vs Rose).
• For 2 straight years the Knicks were .500 in early January, then collapsed — with a long losing streak from January to the end of the year.
• Famously re-signed Carmelo Anthony to an extension, then after a year, gave up on Anthony’s ability to operate in the triangle and started insulting him via his media hit man Charley Rosen, disgruntling Porzingis. Jackson then wanted to eat Melo’s contract, tossing millions to the wind.
• Phil took shots at Knick players in press conferences, on twitter, and via his media hit man Rosen.
• Jackson tried to trade Porzingis — the final straw, causing his firing.
• After the firing, Phil famously posted a tweet of himself sitting back at his home in Montana, overlooking a lake with his feet up in the air.

pic.twitter.com/u6qjSetvXr

— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) July 9, 2017

Post Script

• The new Knick management eventually traded Porzingis — Phil’s analysis was right — Porzingis’s ass was too skinny to become a dominant post-up man — plus he was injury prone and NY didn’t seem to want to risk signing him to a max contract. Porzingis’s brother/agent was also blamed for NY cooling on KP — but it seemed their analysis of him not being worth a max contract overruled all.
• New Knick management also traded Carmelo Anthony.
• It took years to find out the Ntilikina pick didn’t work out.

Tune back in for Rebuild #12. Follow us on Twitter and we’ll notify you when the post is up.

The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #11 — Phil Jackson appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Glen Grunwald

Highlights:

• Donnie Walsh quit on June 3, 2011 and assistant GM Glen Grunwald inherited general management of the team. Grunwald was a 6’9 forward who played college ball at Indiana and was drafted by the Celtics but never made the NBA.

• Glenn Grunwald was a confusing name because the last Knicks NBA Finals appearance was ushered in by GM (and former Knick) Ernie Grunfeld. We started calling the new GM Glenn “Not Ernie Grunfeld” Grunwald.

Tyson Chandler Added to Complete the ‘Big 3’

• Grunfeld added Tyson Chandler as the 3rd “big” free agent — joining Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire — with the cap space that Donnie Walsh had opened up by dumping the entire previous roster for nothing in return. Chandler was not actually a free agent signing, but the result of a 3-team trade with Dallas and Washington. The Knicks gave up Ronny Turiaf, Andy Rautins, and two 2nd-round picks.

Hired Mike Woodson as Defensive Coach; Eventually Made Him Head Coach

• Hired Mike Woodson as an assistant coach to Mike D’Antoni soon after taking over. Woodson had been a successful head coach in Atlanta, known for instilling good defense. When Mike D’Antoni quit on March 12, 2012 — near the end of Grunwald’s first season as GM — Mike Woodson was named interim coach. Grunwald made Woodson the official head coach on May 25 — after season ended.

Ushered in the Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak Eras

• Signed Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak as free agents in late December, 2011 — ushering in both the Jeremy Lin era and the Steve Novak era at the same time.

Ushered in the JR Smith Era

• Signed J.R. Smith on February 17, 2012 — in the middle of the Jeremy Lin era — ushering in the J.R. Smith era.

Loaded Up on Aging Stars and Made the 54-Win, 2012-13 Playoff Run

• Grunwald then loaded up on aging stars for the 2012-13 season:
  • Traded Toney Douglas and Jerome Jordan for 38-year-old Marcus Camby,
  • Signed 39-year-old Jason Kidd as a free agent. Kidd was a key acquisition — he led the team to a great start and great finish to the season. In the middle 40 games, Kidd looked 39 and the Knicks played .500 ball. When he played well, Kidd not only orchestrated, but was the glue to Woodson’s complex switching defense — often intercepting passes in late game situations.
  • Signed 37-year-old Pablo Prigioni as a free agent.
  • And finally, just as the season was about to start on October 4, 2012 –signed 38-year-old Rasheed Wallace as a free agent. Rasheed played fantastic ball and helped get NY out to an 18-5 start to the season, but then went down with an injury and missed most of the rest of the year.
• Also picked up 28-year-old Chris Copeland as an unknown free agent.
• Picked up 35-year-old Kenyon Martin in late February 2013 after it became apparent that both Rasheed Wallace and Marcus Camby were not coming back from injuries.
• Drafted Tim Hardaway Jr with the #24 pick of the 2013 NBA draft.

The Bargnani Trade

• Before being let go — Grunwald managed the team during the summer of 2013, and made one famous mistake:
  • Traded Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson and a 2016 1st-round draft pick (7’1 Jakob Poeltl would later be selected at #9 overall) for Andrea Bargnani. Bargnani Flopped in NY — and is considered to be a player who didn’t live up to his big contract — but Bargnani had 2 years left on his contract at $11 million a year. Not so much money even in 2013. Bargnani was 28 years old when NY acquired him — a former #1 overall pick who had seasons of 21 ppg and 19 ppg in Toronto. In NY he averaged 14 ppg in 2 injury-filled seasons.

The draft pick ended up yielding a good player in Poeltl, who is just now coming into his own, averaging 13 ppg as a 26-yr-old center for San Antonio at this writing. When the Knicks made the trade they were coming off consecutive playoff seasons and a 54-win campaign — Grumwald didn’t conceive that everything would fall apart and in 3 years the pick would be #9 overall. And even so, many #9 picks do not become good players in the NBA. The Bargnani trade was a reasonable gamble that didn’t pay off.

Result:

• The Jeremy Lin era.
• When Mike D’Antoni quit just before the season ended on March 14, 2012, Grunwald named Woodson the head coach and the Knicks blasted Portland in his first game, 121–79. The Knicks went 18-6 in the final 24 games of the year under Woodson, after having gone 18-24 under D’Antoni. The Jeremy Lin era was already over due to his knee meniscus issue, and the JR Smith/Carmelo Anthony era had begun.

The 54-Win Campaign

• The 54-28 playoff season of 2012-2013, an Atlantic Division title, a first-round victory over the Boston Celtics in 6 games, and a hard-fought but ultimately disappointing round-2 loss to the Indiana Pacers in 6 games (wherein the Knicks coulda/shoulda won game 6 — the Melo drive to the basket blocked by Roy Hibbert forever etched in Knick fan minds).

• Can Grunwald get all the credit for the 2012-13 season? He gets most of it — Walsh had brought in Carmelo Anthony (but gutted the previous roster including Zach Randolph for nothing in return to do so) but it was Grunwald who made the major changes that resulted in the 54-win campaign — bringing in coach Woodson who stressed Defense, Jason Kidd to orchestrate, Rasheed Wallace to lead at the beginning of 2012-13, JR Smith and other key players (Kenyon Martin, etc).
• Amar’e Stoudemire only played 29 games during the 2012-13 season, missing the beginning of the year and the end of the regular season (right-knee ‘debridement’) and the 1st-round win over the Celtics. He returned in game 3 of the series against the Indiana Pacers.
• Grunfeld had an eye for talent — pulling Jeremy Lin out of nowhere, Chris Copeland too, and drafting Tim Hardaway Jr with a #24 pick. Bargnani was a big mistake however.
• Oddly enough both Ernie Grunfeld and Glen “Not Ernie Grunfeld” Grunwald knew the value of Marcus Camby — Grunfeld having traded an aging Charles Oakley for a young Marcus Camby who helped the Knicks to the 1999 finals, and Grunwald bringing Camby back to the Knicks as an old man — after Scott Layden had famously traded Camby and the #7 pick (Knicks were rumored to be picking Stoudemire but picked Nene for Denver) in the 2003 draft for Antonio McDyess and his 2 (soon to be 4) knee surgeries — one of the worst Knick trades ever.

The End

• After all that goodness and getting the Knicks back into the playoffs with Defense — albeit with a team that was old at the seams — Grunwald was let go on September 26, 2013. Steve Mills took over control as GM as well as President. The Bargnani trade was a gamble and a mistake but overall Grunwald did a good job as GM.
• The Knicks would go 37-45 in the 2013-14 season, without Jason Kidd who retired — he was the glue that made Woodson’s complex switching defense work; other Knicks like JR Smith always seemed to leave their man wide open at the 3.
• Mills searched for a new GM and hired big fish Phil Jackson in March, 2014, and it was on to the next rebuild.

Tune back in for Rebuild #11. Follow us on Twitter and we’ll notify you when the post is up.

Comments?

Comments on any of the above? Additional thoughts? Please feel free to provide your feedback below.

The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #10 – Glen Grunwald appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Donnie Walsh

Highlights:

• On Walsh’s initial press conference, he side swiped former GM Isiah Thomas, saying Isiah seemed to be building a team designed for the 1980’s, with big interior men and shooting guards. He inferred Isiah was out of touch with the modern NBA.
• Walsh proceeded to dump all the players that Isiah Thomas had acquired — including Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford (for Al Harrington), and David Lee for practically nothing in return to get team payroll down to $10 million — making room for the signing of 3 big free agents.
• Brought Mike D’Antoni in as coach, and promised Knick fans they would love his up-tempo style of coaching (eschewing defense).
• Whiffed on signing LeBron James despite a big push. Was outfoxed by Pat Riley.
• Signed Amar’e Stoudemire, who might have been a good sidekick to LeBron but ended up not meshing with Carmelo Anthony, and then getting injured.
• Drafted Danilo Gallinari and signed Raymond Felton at point guard, and with D’Antoni coaching and Amare Stoudemire playing well — the Knicks had a short resurgence in Stoudemire’s first 6 months with the team — the 2010-2011 season — disrupted by the trading of Gallinari and Felton, along with Wilson Chandler and others for Carmelo Anthony.

• Spent 6 months trying to trade for Carmelo Anthony — creating a circus-like atmosphere — and then finally traded for him in February 2011 (Melo would be a free agent the coming summer). Gave away half the team for Melo and a bunch of 1st round draft picks that would come to haunt the Knicks in the years to come:
  • NY gave up Gallinari, Felton, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, the 2014 1st round pick (which ended up being #12 overall — Dario Šarić was selected) and a swap of 2016 1st round picks (Denver got the Knicks pick which was #8 overall, and selected Jamal Murray);
  • The Knicks under Glen Grunwald traded Denver’s pick — which ended up being #9 overall — to Toronto in the Andrea Bargnani trade and Toronto  used it to pick Jakob Pöltl. The Knicks also received Chauncy Billups as a tradeable salary. It was a 3-team trade — the Knicks also dumped Eddy Curry to Minnesota in the Melo trade, along with Anthony Randolph.
• Many fans have felt the Knicks gave up too much for Melo — but it must be pointed out the players they gave up didn’t come close to adding up to Melo’s talent; the draft picks (especially Murray) hurt, but Walsh made that trade never thinking that with Melo, Stoudemire, and a 3rd elite free agent they would ever be giving up the #7 overall pick in 2014.

Result:

• The Donnie Walsh era ended up a horror show, but he never seemed to get the blame in the press, thus earning the Knickname “Teflon” Donnie Walsh by serious Knick fans. He gutted the roster getting little in return, and then whiffed on LeBron and got Carmelo Anthony as a consolation prize, but with the wrong sidekick in Stoudemire.
• Many Knick fans accused owner James Dolan of forcing Donnie Walsh to make the Melo trade, but Walsh said many times, including a full-length interview on ESPN radio — that Dolan did not interfere with him at all and he had made the Melo trade on his own.
• The first two years with Walsh as GM were miserable (32-50 and 29-53) as Walsh gutted the roster to dump all salaries for the big free agent spend. The Knicks had a short-term resurgence under D’Antoni with Stoudemire and Felton and Gallinari at the start of the 2010-2011 season — but the Melo trade threw the team off kilter, and that team ended up 42-40, making the playoffs but being swept 4-0 by the Boston Celtics in the 1st round.
• Walsh was criticized by several in the media including Peter Vecsey for dumping Zach Randolph too soon and for nothing in return (the trade was Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Los Angeles Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas). Randolph would continue to have All Star seasons for years to come, leading Memphis deep into the playoffs many times. Randolph and David Lee were playing great together at the start of the 2008-2009 season when Walsh traded Randolph away for nothing.

• The 1st round picks Walsh gave up for Melo turned out to haunt the Knicks — especially Jamal Murray who would become a scoring star for years.
• Sidenote: One time I was driving in my car listening to CBS radio and the main news announcer — not the sports announcer — mentioned the Knicks score at the top of the hour, and added how Donnie Walsh had gotten the team into such good financial position — that’s how much Walsh had the local media duped.

The End:

• Walsh quit the Knicks on June 3, 2011 in a huff. He was 71 years old. He spent a good part of his time with the Knicks in a wheel chair. He was with them 3 years — having joined the Knicks on April 2, 2008. After resigning, he hung on contractually for a year with the Knicks as a supposed consultant, and then rejoined the Indiana Pacers in 2012 as head of basketball operations after Larry Bird stepped down temporarily. Walsh became a consultant with Indiana when Bird returned a year later.
• Glen Grunwald became the interim GM, setting up the stage for Rebuild #10.

Thoughts? Provide Feedback Below

If you agree or disagree with any of the above, or feel we’ve left something out, please provide feedback below.

Next: Rebuild #10

Tune back in for Rebuild #10. Follow us on Twitter and we’ll notify you when the post is up.

The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #9 — “Teflon” Donnie Walsh appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Isiah Thomas

Highlights:

• Isiah Thomas was given the impossible task — turn over a roster that Scott Layden had assembled that was old, unathletic, undertalented, overpaid, way over the cap for years into the future, and had only one player that anyone wanted.
• This was a 4-year period that featured:
  • The Eddy Curry fiasco,
  • The Stephon Marbury fiasco,
  • The Jerome James fiasco,
  • The Larry Brown fiasco,
  • The Anucha Brown Sanders fiasco, and
  • The “Fire Isiah” signs/chants at MSG fiasco.
  • Yet Isiah left with a roster of Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, David Lee, Jamaal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, Wilson Chandler, and Nate Robinson amongst others.
• James Dolan interfered with Isiah several times — forcing him to hire a coach he didn’t want — in Larry Brown — and when Larry Brown failed, Dolan forced Isiah to coach his own players; another mistake. Isiah was the last GM that Dolan would interfere with. Meanwhile, Isiah could never find the right coach (including himself) to coach his players (much like Phil Jackson, years later).
• Disclaimer: I am one of the 3% of hard core NY Knick fans who thinks Isiah did a good job as GM, given the circumstances. For the details, read on:

The First Year:

1. The Impossible Task — Isiah Inherited a Disaster

On December 22, 2003, owner James Dolan hired Isiah Thomas to be the GM of the Knicks. He had given Scott Dolan 4 years to rebuild the Knicks, but Layden had managed the Knicks into a horrific state. Isiah Thomas was told to do the impossible — turn over a horrible roster with only one player on it that had any value (Kurt Thomas) with a massive team payroll (at over $100 million, well over the cap of $52 million at the time, with contracts signed 4 years into the future).  The Knicks had:

• Dikembe Mutumbo at center — age 37 and could barely move 2 inches laterally anymore.
• Besides Kurt Thomas, the most incredible array of undersized/undertalented power forwards in NBA history, led by Clarence Weatherspoon, Othella Harrington, Mike Sweetney, and franchise-player-of-the-future Maciej Lampe.
• Allan Houston at shooting guard, whose knees were shot and would never play another game.
• Charlie Ward at point, about to retire he would never play another game.
• Shannon Anderson and Howard Eisley as guards off the bench — both of them overpaid and undertalented.

All the NYC tabloid newspapers and media at the time said Isiah was given an impossible task. Isiah said he could do it, with sign-and-trades and the draft.

2. The Immediate Moves

Isiah jumped on the job, making immediate moves:

• A day after taking the job, Isiah waived Slavko Vraneš the 7’0 backup center.
• A week later, Isiah traded Clarence Weatherspoon to the Houston Rockets for John Amaechi and Moochie Norris.
• Isiah also took care of the Knicks one good player — Kurt Thomas — reworking his contract to give him a raise, which provided pay more reflective of Kurt Thomas‘s excellent play.

3. The Stephon Marbury trade

A week after the immediate moves, Isiah acquired his point guard to lead the rebuild — Stephon Marbury — getting him from Phoenix for Antonio McDyess and a bunch of players.

In the trade, along with Antonio McDyess, Isiah dumped Maciej Lampe (who Scott Layden said was possibly the franchise big man of the Knicks future, and a steal in the 2003 draft, having fallen to the 2nd round), along with overpaid Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward (who would never play another game), Milos Vujanic, a 2004 1st round draft pick (Kirk Snyder was later selected) and a 2010 1st round draft pick (Gordon Hayward was later selected) to the Phoenix Suns for Stephon Marbury, Anfernee Hardaway, and Cezary Trybański.

• Trade Review: This should have been a Great trade for Isiah — getting Marbury at age 26 for McDyess (age 29) and a load of NBA garbage. That first round pick which resulted in Gordon Haywood should never have been so high if the Knicks had started winning. But they didn’t. Marbury could score like a hot-knife-thru-butter and was a high IQ player who defended pretty well (took out Kobe Bryant on more than one occasion), and actually put up HOF numbers (Marbury’s career numbers are actually better than Walt Frazier‘s). But Isiah didn’t concern himself with Marbury’s personality, which at that point was not especially team oriented. Isiah, the optimist, thought he could change anybody.
• Later, in 2005-06 when Isiah Thomas became the Knicks coach, he tried to change Marbury into the point guard he had been — instructing Marbury to be a pass-first point guard with the delicate nuance of scoring when he was the best option to score. Marbury revolted from this advice, and immediately completely stopped taking shots — spent a whole game only passing the basketball. This was the beginning of a massive fallout between the two.

4. The Lenny Wilkens Fiasco

A week after acquiring Marbury, on January 15, 2004, Isiah fired Don Chaney as coach, and hired Lenny Wilkens. Wilkens, a former Hall of Fame point guard like Isiah, who had won a title as a coach with Seattle, disappointed.

Isiah hoped that Wilkens would coach the young, athletic, guard-oriented team he would be building. But the season before his hiring, Vince Carter had said that Wilkens was in retirement mode in Toronto. And it appeared that way on the Knicks as Wilkens reportedly did not instill the discipline in workouts, or lay down a team defense. He would last a year and 5 days, before being fired himself and replaced with Herb Williams for the remainder of the 2005 season.

However, what is often forgotten is that Wilkens was successful at first — the Knicks went 23-19 after he took over in 2004 to make the playoffs; although they were swept in 4 games by the Nets. The next year they were 17-22 when Wilkens was let go. Herb Williams took his place as interim coach, and the Knicks went 16-27 under him to end the 2005 season.

5. Dumping Keith Van Horn

Less than 2 months later, in February 2004, the Knicks traded Keith Van Horn to the Milwaukee Bucks; and received Nazr Mohammed from the Atlanta Hawks; and Tim Thomas from the Bucks (Milwaukee also traded Joel Przybilla to Atlanta). It was later reported that Marbury joked to teammates that he had Van Horn traded twice, once with the Nets and now with the Knicks.

• Trade Review: A good trade. Van Horn was only 28 yrs old, but would only play 2 more years in the NBA as a reserve in Milwaukee and then Dallas. The 6’9 Tim Thomas from Patterson NJ was 26 and gave the Knicks athleticism and 15.8 ppg his first year, then 12 ppg in a 2nd year before being traded in the Eddy Curry trade (see below). Tim Thomas would spend 13 yrs in the NBA, with a lifetime 11.5 ppg avg, and come back to the Knicks for a 9.9 ppg year under Mike D’Antoni in 2008-09.

6. The Vin Baker Flyer

A month after that (March 2004) Isiah took a flyer on Vin Baker, signing him to a low-cost free agent contract. Baker, age 32, was a former star power forward whose game had fallen off, reportedly due to alcoholism. Reports later surfaced that James Dolan, a former alcoholic, took a personal interest in Baker, taking him to the side to try and help him with his disease.

7. Picking Trevor Ariza in 2nd Round of 2004 Draft

Having traded away the Knicks #1 pick (which ended up being #16 overall, that Utah used to pick Kirk Snyder), Isiah used the 2nd round pick (#43 overall) to draft Trevor Ariza.

• Draft Review: This was a great Isiah draft pick; unfortunately he was forced to trade Ariza by Larry Brown, a coach he didn’t want, a year later. More on that below.

8. Trading for Jamaal Crawford

On Aug 5, 2004, Isiah traded Othella Harrington, Dikembe Mutombo, Cezary Trybański and Frank Williams to the Chicago Bulls for Jamal Crawford and Jerome Williams.

• Trade Review: This was another great trade by Isiah — bringing in the uber athletic and talented scoring guard Crawford, for the 37-yr-old Mutumbo and the so-so lefty backup power forward Harrington.

9. Midway Point of the Rebuild

After 6 months, Isiah had turned the Knicks roster around from old and unathletic, to one that featured Stephon Marbury and Jamaal Crawford in the backcourt, with a young Trevor Ariza on the bench, with Kurt Thomas, Nazr Muhammed and Tim Thomas up front. Isiah had reworked the backcourt, but now would be concentrating on the front court to add size. Meanwhile the Knicks started the 2004-2005 season with a 17-22 record with Lenny Wilkens as coach. Wilkens was fired in January 2005 (see above), and replaced with Herb Williams.

10. Tinkering

After replacing Lenny Wilkens with Herb Williams, Isiah did some mid-season tinkering:

• On February 24, 2005, he traded Nazr Mohammed (and Jamison Brewer) to San Antonio for Malik Rose, a 2005 1st round draft pick (David Lee was later selected) and a 2006 1st round draft pick (Mardy Collins was later selected), and
• On the same day Isiah gave up on Vin Baker — trading him with Moochie Norris and a 2006 2nd round draft pick (Steve Novak was later selected) to the Houston Rockets for Maurice Taylor.

The Larry Brown Era

The 2nd part of the Isiah Thomas rebuild started with Isiah loading up on more athletic talent and aiming to add bigs to the front line, and at the same time pursuing a coach to coach his team.

11. The June 2005 Draft Night

Isiah drafted Channing Frye with the 8th overall pick, and drafted David Lee with the 30th pick of the 1st round.

On draft night, Isiah also traded 33-yr-old Kurt Thomas and Dijon Thompson to the Phoenix Suns for 25-yr-old Quentin Richardson (who had averaged 17 ppg and 14.9 ppg the previous two seasons) and Nate Robinson, the 21st overall pick in the draft.

• Draft Night Review: This was a Great draft night:
  • Channing Frye wasn’t great but was one of the best players left in the draft at that point. He was the 6’11 stretch 4, 3-pt marksman that became the rage in the NBA in the coming years.
  • David Lee was a steal late in the 1st round.
  • And the trade was terrific as well:
    • Nate Robinson gave the Knicks an electric and exciting, if small player who would win a Slam Dunk title.
    • Richardson, only 25, would play 4 years with the Knicks and was an excellent defender and outside shooter; he’d average over 10 ppg for the Knicks twice.
    • To get that return for the 33-yr-old Kurt Thomas was terrific. And remember, Isiah had done Kurt Thomas right when he first became GM by reworking his contract to give him a raise, and pay reflective of his play.

12. The Jerome James Fiasco Signing

Of all the moves that Isiah Thomas made as Knicks GM, the signing of Jerome James has become synonymous with accusations of his failure. On Aug 2, 2005, Isiah signed Jerome James to a 5-yr, $5 Million/yr contract. James was 29 yrs old, but was coming off his best season — he was a 7’0 shot-blocking, defensive center who seemed to be coming into his own, and had just had a mercurial playoff, where he averaged 17.2 pts and 9.2 rebounds for Sacramento. It was not to be.

• Signing Review: James became the backup center when Isiah found opportunity to trade for Eddie Curry two months later. James never played to his potential — the first two years with the Knicks he played 40 games each year due to knee and foot injuries, and when he did play, didn’t play well. He hardly played at all (2 games each year) the last two years with the Knicks before he was traded to the Chicago Bulls by Donnie Walsh, the next GM.

13. The Eddy Curry Trade

Just before the 2005 season started, on Oct 4, 2005, Isiah traded for Eddy Curry — receiving him, Antonio Davis, and eventually Wilson Chandler for Tim Thomas, Mike Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, a 2006 1st round draft pick (LaMarcus Aldridge was later selected), an option to switch 2007 1st round picks (the Bulls later did do so, and selected Joakim Noah with the Knicks 9th pick, while the Knicks selected Wilson Chandler with the Bulls’ 17th pick), and two 2nd round picks (the Bulls got the Knicks 2007 2nd round pick (Kyrylo Fesenko was later selected) and their 2009 2nd round pick (Jon Brockman was later selected).

• Trade Review: this is the other Isiah move that has become synonomous with accusations of Isiah Thomas’s failure as a GM. But that is perfect hindsight.
  • When this trade was made, all of New York was electric with anticipation and approving of the trade — Curry was a 23-yr-old, 6’11 athletic, scoring dynamo who had just carried the Bulls into the playoffs. Shaquille O’Neal had knicknamed him Baby Shaq for his incredible athleticism for a man his size and ability to slam dunk the basketball. Curry became the best Knick alley-oop slam dunker ever until Mitchell Robinson hit the scene 12 years later.
  • The one worry about Curry at time of trade was that he had suffered heart irregularities at the end of the season. This was attributed to a diet pill he had taken (that cause a Baltimore Oriole reliever to die of a heart attack). Curry had lost weight and become a force; but the question was, could he keep the weight off if he stopped using the diet pill? The answer ended up being no, in the long run.
  • Curry could run with the guards. But — he couldn’t defend, and was a poor rebounder. Worse, he didn’t seem to have the mindset to want to be a star. He played like an All Star for one year in NY, but when Isiah later traded for Zach Randolph to play by his side, Curry went into a shell. This was something Isiah, the eternal optimist, failed to examine as a GM — the player’s mindset.
  • The Draft Picks: The Knicks entered 2005-06 with Eddy Curry and #6 pick Channing Frye added to the front line, with Jerome James at backup center, and Stephon Marbury and Jamaal Crawford with Quinten Richardson in the backcourt — and new coach Larry Brown, Everyone thought that they would improve from the 36 wins of the year before. Everyone was predicting a 40+ win season and the playoffs. Had that happened, the #1 pick they gave up to Chicago for Curry would have been a mid-1st-round pick. Instead — everything went wrong — Larry Brown had a horrific 23-win season, and on top of it all — Chicago moved up in the lottery with the Knicks pick, snaring the #2 pick in the draft — which turned out to be Aldridge. But they then traded Aldridge for #4 pick Tyrus Thomas! So Chicago did not make out that well — for them it became Eddy Curry and Wilson Chandler for Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah.

• This trade is worthy an article in itself. Bottom line — it was a great trade that didn’t work out. Eddy Curry is STILL younger than Tyson Chandler, who at this writing is still playing in the NBA. Curry coulda shoulda been a multi-time all star.

14. The Larry Brown Fiasco

During the summer, 2005, Isiah Thomas went about looking for a new coach. As happenstance would have it, Larry Brown, who had won a title with Detroit in 2004, was available.

It has been reported in many circles that Isiah wanted no part of Larry Brown as coach, and that became evident as he interviewed everyone in the world except Larry. Finally, owner James Dolan put his foot down and ordered Isiah to hire Larry Brown. This was when Dolan was still meddling with the team — something he stopped doing after Isiah Thomas. All GM’s afterwards (including Donnie Walsh and Phil Jackson) have gone on record numerous times saying James Dolan did not interfere. But he did with Isiah. Dolan afterwards blamed himself for the Larry Brown hiring.

Brown had a reputation for getting a team to play frenetic defense and winning basketball — but only for a while — a season and a half, at which point he’d move on to his next team, with his current team management hating him. He was dubbed by Peter Vecsey as “Next Town Larry Brown”.

Some wondered if Detroit had won their title because of Larry or in spite of Larry — Detroit had been conference finalists the year before they won the title; Brown threw them into disarray, then put back the starters to their regular roles in January and Detroit’s Joe Dumars happened to trade for Rasheed Wallace, paving the way for Detroit’s 2004 title. Brown then bombed out with the US Olympic team in summer 2004, losing twice to Puerto Rico and getting only the Bronze medal.

In any case, on July 27th 2005, Isiah Thomas hired Larry Brown as coach.

15. The Larry Brown Freakout Trades

As the season started, Larry Brown utilized his standard coaching practice — discombobulate the team by playing a different lineup every night — star players found themselves on the bench at times; if anyone complained, they were traded. This seemed a Larry Brown technique to eradicate egos.

Reports had it that Larry Brown would have weekly meetings with Isiah Thomas and James Dolan, and rant about the players he was given, and the players he needed to win. He didn’t feel he could win with Isiah’s players — this was water and oil from the start.

• The Larry Brown-Trevor Ariza Debacle: The first player to get the heave was Trevor Ariza. Isiah Thomas had drafted Ariza with a 2nd round pick — a phenomenal pick. Brown feuded with Trevor Ariza, moving Ariza from starter to end of bench after a few poor performances. When the press asked Ariza if he knew he was out of the rotation, he said ‘no, nobody told me’. When the press told Larry Brown what Ariza said, Brown asked what college Ariza was from; when he was told UCLA, Brown said UCLA needed to start educating its students better, for Ariza not to know his poor play had put him at end of bench. We found out later that Brown then demanded Isiah trade Ariza.
• On Feb 22, 2006, Isiah traded Trevor Ariza and Anfernee Hardaway to the Orlando Magic for Steve Francis. Francis was done but he had value as a large expiring contract. Isiah later used Steve Francis‘s expiring contract to acquire Zach Randolph (see below).
  • Trade Review: Considering the circumstances, this was a phenomenal trade — to be forced to trade the young stud he drafted to appease the coach he didn’t want, Isiah turned it all into Zach Randolph (see trade below), who played great ball for the Knicks, and played great ball for years into the future, eventually carrying David Fizdale’s Memphis team deep into the playoffs. How’s that for a round-trip story?

16. The Paper Bag Story

In around December of that year, Larry Brown told reporters the story of how Isiah Thomas came to him in the clubhouse that day, and picked up a nearby paper bag, and asked him to write down the players he wanted, and he’d go get them for him. Then Larry rolled his eyes to the reporters.

This was a measure of Larry Brown surfacing things to the media that are normally kept behind closed doors (like making fun of his player Trevor Ariza), and also a measure of Isiah Thomas reaching out with an olive branch, to a coach who reportedly was throwing weekly tirades to Dolan and Isiah to trade the players Isiah had assembled — a coach Isiah had never wanted any part of.

Oddly enough, there was only one in-season trade made in 2005-06 after the Paper Bag incident: on Feb 3, 2006, Isiah traded 37-yr-old Antonio Davis to the Toronto Raptors for 33-yr-old Jalen Rose and a 2006 1st round draft pick (Renaldo Balkman was later selected).

17. The Winning Streak, the Best Point Guard, the Spin Out

The Knicks spent the first two months of 2005-06 discombobulated — as David Lee put it at the time. This was standard Larry Brown formula. In early January they went on a 7-game winning streak led by Stephon Marbury. But it was short lived. Stephon Marbury was asked if he was a better point guard than Jason Kidd, and he replied he thought he was the best point guard in the NBA (which, he was simply stating his mindset). The press jumped on the story. Whether that had anything to do with it, the Knicks went into a tailspin, and spun completely out.

18. Firing Larry Brown

On June 22, 2006, the Knicks fired Larry Brown. James Dolan had Isiah Thomas take over as coach.

• Review of the Move: James Dolan made a mistake in forcing Isiah Thomas to hire Larry Brown, and compounded it by forcing Isiah Thomas to coach his own team. Isiah should have been allowed to find a good coach, one he wanted, to coach his players.

The Isiah Thomas Coaching Years

19. The June 2006 draft

Isiah drafted Renaldo Balkman in the 1st round (20th pick) of the 2006 NBA Draft.

• Draft Pick Review: the one Isiah mistake in the draft — but you can’t fault a bad pick at #20 overall when players are crap shoots. NY media at the time criticized Isiah for not taking Marcus Williams, the star point guard of Connecticut — but Isiah was correct to pass on Williams who did not have any success in the NBA. Had Isiah shot his crap well, he would have taken Rajon Rondo who was picked next at #21. Isiah passing over Rondo, the true point guard, is inexplicable but Rondo was Horrible his first year, then catapulted his game to star status his second year. That, plus his angry, roid-rage behavior throughout his career, plus Isiah passing over him — have always led me to be a bit suspicious of Rondo’s success.

20. Signing Jared Jeffries

In Aug, 2006, Signed Jared Jeffries as a free agent, for defense and rebounding off the bench.

21. Year One of Isiah as Coach — Some Hope?

Isiah entered 2006-2007 with a front line of Eddy Curry, Channing Frye, and David Lee, with Jared Jeffries for defense and rebounding off the bench. In the backcourt the Knicks had Stephon Marbury and Jamaal Crawford, with Nate Robinson and Quintin Richardson on the bench. A good team on paper.

After the first 10 games, Isiah Thomas the coach changed the Knicks offense so that it went through Curry at center — and Curry played the last 70 games of the year at an All Star level. The Knicks improved to 33-49 (from Larry Brown’s 23-win year) and there was some hope in Knickland. Eddy Curry looked good; so did David Lee; plus the Knicks had Jamaal Crawford and Stephon Marbury and Nate Robinson and athleticism…

The Final Ugly Season

22. The 2007 Draft

In the 2007 draft, Isiah drafted Wilson Chandler in the 1st round (23rd pick).

• Draft Review: an excellent pick, especially at #23 overall — Chandler has been a talented, athletic 2-way guard for years.

23. The Trade for Zach Randolph

During summer 2007, Isiah got 26-yr-old Zach Randolph from Portland, with Dan Dickau, and Fred Jones for Steve Francis (and his expiring contract) and Channing Frye.

• Trade Review: Great trade. Zach Randolph was only 26. Portland had become disenchanted with his defense and he was making max money. The Knicks took on Randolph’s contract and used Steve Francis‘ expiring contract to do so. Randolph played great ball for the Knicks, especially in tandem with David Lee. One caveat was that Randolph caused Eddy Curry to go into a cocoon. Later, Donnie Walsh dumped Zach Randolph for little in return in his attempt to eliminate almost all team payroll to go after LeBron James, but that is in the next rebuild story.

24. The Anucha Browne Sanders Fiasco

The Knicks were in the news throughout the summer of 2007, with the Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment lawsuit. According to court proceedings, on the first day on the job for Isiah Thomas as GM, the VP of Marketing, Anuka Browne Sanders, sent Isiah an email telling him not to make a trade without her approval. This started off a rocky relationship between the two.

The local tabloids had twice previously reported — a year before Isiah came to town — that the Knicks had a female VP of Marketing that the players hated, because she laid down rules they didn’t like (such as forcing them to wear suits when in public traveling with the team, and forbidding them to trade-off amongst themselves complementary tickets to road games). Isiah took the players side in the relationship, which culminated in a messy court case 3 years later when MSG and Steve Mills (who had originally hired Sanders) fired Sanders for incompetence, and she filed a sexual harrassment lawsuit against them and Isiah Thomas.

MSG’s story was that Isiah Thomas and Sanders did not get along, and only spent 2.5 hours in the same room together during the 3 years. During the trial, amongst the evidence that MSG presented of Sanders’ incompetence was:

1. Two weeks after the Knicks made the Eddy Curry trade, Sanders authorized a massive billboard to be put up in front of Madison Square Garden for over $100,000 that had pictures of all the players who had been traded in the Curry trade, which embarrassed the organization. In Sanders defense, she said no one had told her about the trade. This was curious since everyone else in NYC and the NBA knew about the trade as it was the biggest NBA trade of the summer, and Sanders was the VP of Marketing making $400k a year at that time, presumably enough to buy a newspaper;
2. Sanders had little knowledge of the marketing budget at meetings;
3. Sanders had organized a counter insurgency at MSG after finding out they were angling to fire her, asking workers to take her side;
4. Isiah tried to save Sanders’ job in the last month by asking her to lunch as an olive branch, so they could patch up differences; Sanders claimed this was a date request that she refused, and therefore Isiah was guilty of sexual harrassment as they fired her after she refused the lunch request.

Sanders said Isiah had not only asked her on the date, but had previously called her names, including calling her “a bitch” in the hallway.

The local media, especially feminist Andrea Peyser of the NY Post, took Sanders side, and Isiah Thomas was trashed in the newspapers.

PS: before the trial, it was reported that Anucha Browne Sanders and her husband had defrauded the IRS, but that it was not admissible information in the trial, so the jury never heard about it.

MSG lost the lawsuit, and were forced to pay Sanders $11.5 million. MSG issued a press release after the lawsuit’s findings, reiterating their belief that Isiah Thomas was innocent of the charges, and that he had spent 2.5 hours in the same room as Sanders in 3 years, and vowed to appeal. However, 3 months later, MSG settled out of court with Sanders — “at the strong request” of NBA Commissioner David Stern.

The End

And so the Knicks entered the 2007-08 season with Isiah Thomas as coach, and a team on paper that had Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, and David Lee up front, with Jarred Jeffries coming off the bench, and a backcourt of Stephon Marbury and Jamaal Crawford, with Nate Robinson, Quinten Richardson, and Wilson Chandler coming off the bench. A good, athletic team on paper.

25. The “Fire Isiah” Chants and Signs

But Curry came in out of shape and went into a shell with Randolph dominating with his post-up game, and Marbury revolted, and Isiah proved to be a mediocre coach. The Knicks lost and lost and Madison Square Garden became a zoo — with fans openly taunting Isiah with “Fire Isiah” chants and signs made up by fans writing on the back of a tray. There was even a tone of racism to the fierce boos and chants for Isiah’s firing at the Garden — it was not pretty and happened in many home games during the later part of the 2007-08 season.

26. Isiah Thomas Fired

On April 19, 2008, Isiah Thomas was fired as GM of the Knicks. He took another role in the organization, and since then James Dolan has been steadfastedly in his corner.

27. The Sleeping Pills/Suicide Incident

In October 2007, there was an incident in which Isiah Thomas apparently accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills, or tried to commit suicide. He denied the suicide attempt, and said the family had gone to the hospital because his daughter had an issue. He drew fire for using his daughter as a shield. Isiah Thomas’s wife lashed out at the media for attacking her family.

The Final Results

The Edict

Considering what he started with — a horrific roster with huge payroll and horrible salary cap space, a hard cap, and an international draft (the Yankees by comparison can bypass the American draft and sign players from Central and South America and Japan) — I have always felt that Isiah Thomas did a good — even very good — job as GM. He was a mediocre coach. And I’ve always felt he got a raw deal on the Anucha Brown Sanders trial. But the rebuild clearly didn’t work. Isiah never found the coach to coach his players — and that was in part due to James Dolan interfering. Isiah was the last GM that Dolan interfered with.

But Dolan fired Isiah and — at NBA Commissioner David Stern’s insistence — hired Donnie Walsh, and it was on to Rebuild #9.

Tune back in for Rebuild #9.

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #8 — Isiah Thomas appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Scott Layden

Highlights:

• Traded Patrick Ewing for Glen Rice
  • It was a 3-team trade with Seattle and the Lakers with multiple players involved, but that essentially was the trade for the Knicks. Ewing had demanded a trade but it seemed the Knicks management were pushing/instigating him at the time.
• Rice was later traded for Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson
• Traded Marcus Camby AND the #7 pick in the 2002 draft (Nene), and Mark Jackson for Antonio McDyess, Frank Johnson, and 2nd round pick in 2003 (ended up picking Maciej Lampe)
• Signed free agents Clarence Weatherspoon, Dikembe Mutombo
• Acquired Othella Harrington in trade for Erick Strickland and late 1st round pick
• Traded Jeff Van Gundy to Houston for a 2nd round pick
• Traded Latrell Sprewell for Keith Van Horn in a 4-team trade
• Drafted Mike Sweetney, Slavko Vranes

Result:

• Horror show — set the Knicks back 10 years. The full effects wouldn’t be felt until Layden left — the remnants of the former regime kept the Knicks treading water while Layden spun his magic — creating an unathletic, undertalented, massively overpaid roster
• Scott Layden came in with the reputation of being a “Boy Genius” GM — the NBA equivalent of Brian Cashman of the Yankees. Dave Checketts, still president of the Knicks, had worked with Layden in Utah — so brought him in.
• Instead of allowing Ewing to play one more year in NY, retiring to fanfare, and having his salary come off their cap so they could sign another free agent, he traded him for Glen Rice, who was washed
• Layden compounded the problem by trading Rice for Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley — two guards who had done well for him in Utah, but whom he then signed in Utah to overly large contracts that they didn’t play up to.
• Draft night 2002 was tragic — going in Knick fans were anticipating what star power forward they would pick — it was considered a “can’t-miss” draft with 4 possible future all-star power forwards expected to be available for the Knicks at #7: Stoudemire (thought to have highest ceiling but both his parents were in jail and he was suspended for smoking marijuna in high school), Nene (the mystery 7 footer from Brazil), Caron Butler, or Chris Wilcox.
  • The Knicks picked Nene but then shocked Knick fans everywhere by announcing they were trading Nene WITH 27-yr-old Marcus Camby — the one Knick who played above the rim — for 28-yr-old, two-knee-operations-behind-him Antonio McDyess. Nobody expected McDyess to blow out his knee two more times — but at best he was a star — not a franchise player that one hoped Stoudemire would be. And to throw in the All Star Camby — devastating.

• By the end of his 4 years, Layden had compiled a horrific team that had only one player of value that anyone wanted (Kurt Thomas whom previous GM Ernie Grunfeld snatched up in 1999) — despite a massive team payroll of over $102 Million in 2004, almost twice the cap of $52 Million at the time, with contracts signed 4 years out into the future. The Knicks had:
  • Dikembe Mutombo at center — 37 yrs old and couldn’t move 2 inches left or right anymore
  • The most incredible assemblage of undersized, undertalented power forwards ever — headed by Clarence Weatherspoon who seemed to get his shot blocked every time he tried to do a layup inside; Othella Harrington — the decent lefty power forward; Mike Sweetney the #9 overall pick who the Knicks weren’t playing (before he ate himself out of the league); and Marcel Lampe who Layden was telling Knick fans was the steal of the draft and would be the Knicks franchise player of the future.
    • the undersized 6’6″ power forward Weatherspoon had been an 18 ppg/10 rpg player when he was 23 in Philly, but Layden signed him to the big free agent contract when he was 31 — his lift was gone
  • Keith Van Horn at small forward
  • Allan Houston at shooting guard — whom the Knicks needlessly resigned to a multi-year massive contract extension ($100 million for 6 more years in 2001) even though his knees were shot
  • Charlie Ward at point — who was about to retire
  • Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley also in the backcourt — undertalented and overpaid

The End

• After 4 years, owner James Dolan pulled the plug, firing Layden and replacing him with Isiah Thomas. According to the NY media at the time, Thomas was given an impossible job — turn over this roster — unathletic with players nobody wanted and signed 4 years into the future. And so it was on to Rebuild #8…

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #7 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Ernie Grunfeld

Highlights:

• Grunfeld replaced Pat Riley with Don Nelson and THAT didn’t work — Knicks were 34-25 under Nelson but it didn’t feel that way. Nelson liked a guard oriented team. Patrick Ewing was unhappy. Nelson was fired, and assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy was named coach. The post-Riley, Van Gundy era was on.
• In the summer of 1996 the Knicks were at a crossroads — while the media focused that summer on Michael Jordan‘s future, and him only signing a 1-year, $30M deal with Chicago — the under-reported big story was that Shaquille O’Neal was a free agent — and this was before any salary caps. Ernie Grunfeld later admitted that the Knicks were considering going after Shaq — that would have meant trading Ewing — but Grunfeld decided to make one more run with Ewing. Shaq signed with LA, shifting the center of power in the NBA to the West (which soon became the best), and the Knicks retooled around Ewing:
  • Signed Allan Houston and Chris Childs to free-agent contracts (shooters to help Ewing),
  • Traded Anthony Mason for Larry Johnson.
• One more final retool was accomplished before the 1998-99 season:
  •  John Starks was traded for Latrell Sprewell — when he became available after choking his coach PJ Carlesimo
  • Charles Oakley was traded for young Marcus Camby

Result:

• 57 wins in 1996-97 for the Houston-Childs-Larry Johnson retool, with Van Gundy coaching — but then came the bitter, infamous 7-game loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semis, where Ewing was suspended a game for simply stepping onto the court while a fight broke out.
• Knicks slipped to 43 wins in 1997-98 and were wiped out by Indiana in the semis, 4-1. Another retool was needed..
• The Sprewell-for-Starks-&-Camby-for-Oakley retool got the Knicks to the finals in 1998-99.

• The 1999 Finals Run:
  • It was a strike season, and that Knick team started slowly but ended strong.
  • Too late for GM Grunfeld as he was fired during the season just before the run.
  • News also broke that head of basketball operations Dave Checketts was interviewing Phil Jackson to become Knicks coach. Van Gundy became the hero and Checketts the villain.
  • Ewing was injured in the 1999 Conference Finals vs Indiana — and limped noticeably on the court the first two games, still leading the Knicks to a game 1 victory and close game 2 loss. Indiana’s players were quoted as thinking he was faking it. After game 2 it was discovered he was playing with a torn achilles.
  • Still, Larry Johnson’s big 4-point play won game 3 to give the Knicks momentum over Indiana.
  • Marcus Camby played above the rim, and Sprewell and team led the Knicks to the Finals.
  • (Note: Indiana’s guards (Mark Jackson, Reggie Miller) said it seemed the league refs gave the Knicks every call to get them to the finals.)
  • Ewing missed the finals; San Antonio collapsed on Camby and won easily 4-1.
  • (Note: Tim Duncan was injured just before the next season’s playoffs and missed them completely. A year late for the Knicks.)
• A lot of Knicks fans think Ewing’s Knick title hopes ended with the 1999 finals — and they essentially had. Not to forget in 1999-2000 the Knicks won 50 games and went the Eastern Conference Finals again. This time Indiana won the series 4-2. By that time the Lakers had become dominant (67 wins) with Shaq O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in place, with Phil Jackson as the coach (see above).

The End:

• Ewing was 37. His window had closed. It was on to Rebuild #7…

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #6 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• Dave Checketts became President of the Knicks at 35 yrs old (he came from Utah where he became their GM at age 28). Checketts replaced Al Bianchi. He named Ernie Grunfeld as GM, and brought in 5-time champion coach Pat Riley. The Ewing Championship-contending Era was on.

Highlights:

• Riley immediately made his mark on the Knicks. Word out of training camp in his first summer was that Riley was making the Knicks the most conditioned team in the NBA. They came out of the gate as a terrific defensive team — and won 51 games (vs 39 the year before).
• Anthony Mason and John Starks, both undrafted, were pulled out of thin air by Riley.
• Xavier McDaniel was added to start the 1991-92 season in a trade sending Trent Tucker to Phoenix. McDaniel gave them a star small forward to battle Michael Jordan (in addition to Mason). McDaniel was only 27 but a bad back made him 75% of what he had been.
• After one season, Riley had Mark Jackson traded to the Clippers for Doc Rivers and Charles Smith. Just like that — the Knicks had replaced their two stud young point guards who they were trying to choose between — Rod Strickland and Mark Jackson — with Doc Rivers. Smith gave them a quality big man off the bench to battle Chicago.
• Derek Harper replaced injured Doc Rivers for the Knicks 1994 finals run.
• Herb Williams, a former star-caliber center, was added as a free agent at age 34 for the 1992-93 center as a backup to Ewing and big man off the bench.
• Rolando Blackman at age 33 was added for the playoff run in 1991-92.

Results:

• The Ewing Glory years.
• Knicks won 51, 60, 57, and 55 games in 4 years
• Knicks had best record in NBA in 1993. Jordan’s Bulls (and the refs*) beat them in playoffs. (*Charles Smith seemed to be fouled at least once on that final play in Game 5, 1993, let alone all the calls Michael Jordan got earlier in that decisive game; there are videos on youtube analyzing that game.)
• Knicks went to finals in 1994 and were a jump shot away from a title (Starks 3-pointer blocked at the buzzer of game 6, which would have been the title winner if he made it)

The End:

• Pat Riley and Dave Checketts had a behind-the-scenes war for control of the team. Checketts won and Riley resigned.
• Riley leaving was a dagger to Knicks fans and would prove to be a turning point and one of the worst moments in Knicks history. Don Nelson replaced Riley and things fell apart, and soon it was on to Rebuild #6…

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title in 1973: Rebuild #5 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrator:

• GM Al Bianchi

Highlights:

• The night Dave DeBusschere won the lottery and the right to pick Patrick Ewing, it looked like the Knicks were destined to win 5 championships.
• Knicks put up two horrible 20+ win seasons in Ewing’s first two years. There was talk of making Ewing a power forward or even trading Ewing and keeping Cartwright.
• Out went DeBusschere and coach Hubie Brown and in came Al Bianchi as GM, who hired college wiz kid coach Rick Pitino.
• Got Charles Oakley & 1st-round pick (ended up being Rod Strickland) in trade for Bill Cartwright
• Drafted Mark Jackson.
• Drafted Gerald Wilkins in 2nd round.
• Picked up Johnny Newman off waivers from Cleveland.
• Pitino stressed full-court, pressure defense and shooting 3’s.
• The Knicks had the bomb squad of Trent Tucker, Mark Jackson, Gerald Wilkins, Johnny Newman and Rod Strickland — youth, athleticism, 3-point shooting, defense, and Ewing (and Oakley).

Results:

• Pitino’s 1988-89 club won 52 games, famously swept the 76’ers in the first round, with Charles Barkley crying on the floor and the Knicks young players literally taking out brooms.
• Knicks lost to Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 2nd round, 4-2.

The End:

• Live by the 3, die by the 3. The 3-pt offense was deemed a gimmick — you couldn’t win in the NBA that way. Ahead of his time. Pitino quit to accept a job back in the college ranks with Kentucky.
• Stu Jackson replaced Pitino and the Knicks went into purgatory (45 wins).
• John MacLeod replaced Stu Jackson and the Knicks plummeted more (39 wins), and it was on to Rebuild #5…

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title in 1973: Rebuild #4 appeared first on Knicks.City.

Orchestrated by:

• Dave DeBusschere became Knicks GM, and there was an in-flight rebuild.

Highlights:

• Hubie Brown was brought in as coach, stressing Defense.
• Micheal Ray Richardson was traded for Bernard King. The trade made sense at the time as it seemed the Knicks were getting a slightly better player; by then it was known Richardson had a drug problem and King had an alcohol problem. We didn’t know how much better this trade would make the Knicks until King quickly rose to become one of best players in the game.
• Maurice Lucas was traded for Truck Robinson at the end of the 1982 season — at the time this didn’t make any sense at all. Lucas averaged 16 pts and 11 rebounds for the Knicks. But new coach Hubie Brown may have preferred Truck Robinson‘s defense.
• 30 years later we learned the 1983 Knicks were under FBI investigation for fixing games to pay for their cocaine habits. You can only wonder if the trades the Knicks made in the 1982-83 time frame were due to management knowing they had a cocaine problem. The whole league had this problem, but Knicks management may have been getting rid of their more notorious imbibers.
• Bottom line — the dynamic duo backcourt of Ray Williams & Michael Ray Richardson was gone — a new course was set with Bernard King and Hubie Brown.
• Rory Sparrow was acquired to run the point.
• Trent Tucker (#6 overall pick in 1982 draft) was the young stud shooting guard — defense & great 3-pt shooter but the wait was on to see if he could learn to penetrate to basket, which he never did.
• Minor trade for Louis Orr turned out great as he became key reserve forward, along with high 1st-round draft pick Sly Williams.

Results:

• The Knicks went 44-38 the first year under Hubie Brown, and then 47 wins in 1983-84.
• Bernard King led the Knicks deep into the playoffs in ’84, beating Detroit and Isiah Thomas in a fantastic 7-game series.
• But the Knicks really had no chance against Boston — the Knicks would edge out home playoff wins, then get smashed in Boston.

The End:

• In 1984-85, Cartwright was lost for the year with a fractured foot. Truck Robinson went down for the year with a toe injury. King — leading the league in scoring — went down with a horrific knee injury. Before you knew it the Knicks had Ken Bannister and Eddie Lee Wilkins as their big men and a horrific season — which resulted in the famous Dave Debusschere lottery pick and the #1 pick in the draft, and rebuild #4…

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The post The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title in 1973: Rebuild #3 appeared first on Knicks.City.