Over the course of the last week, Knicks President Phil Jackson and General Manager Steve Mills have deftly remade the team’s roster. Their actions were imperative, as there is an urgency to move the Knicks forward, beginning with making the playoffs, which they haven’t accomplished for the past three seasons.
Thus far, the Knicks key decision makers have traded for point guard Derrick Rose, signed his former Chicago Bulls teammate, forward Joakim Noah, as well as shooting guard Courtney Lee, to four-year contracts, and inked point guard Brandon Jennings to a one-year deal.
“Can’t wait to play in the Mecca!!” tweeted the 26-year-old Jennings after the $5 million agreement was reported. “Excited to be joining such a historic franchise @NYKNICKS!!!”
Although they are not transformative players capable of elevating the Knicks to a top-four placing in the conference, the new acquisitions are capable veterans who are vast improvements on what the team presented on a nightly basis a season ago.
The caveat is that Rose, Noah and Jennings, all of whom have sustained significant injuries and seen their careers frustratingly obstructed, productively stay on the court for a majority of the 82-game regular season schedule. If they meet this objective, adding the trio, along with Lee, to Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis, who also have to evade debilitating injuries, could raise the Knicks’ win total from 32 last season to between 45 and 47 in the 2016-17 campaign. That would place them in contention for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, which should be their ceiling as they are currently constituted.
The moves orchestrated by Jackson and Mills in no way compromised the Knicks’ future. They clearly carefully considered the franchise’s salary cap structure moving forward and will be positioned to sign a free agent to a max contract next summer.
But as demonstrated by the 27-year-old Kevin Durant, who left the Oklahoma City Thunder after nine seasons to join the Golden State Warriors, being part of a winning culture with a high probability of claiming a championship is a compelling factor for free agents determining their destinations. Money is no longer the prevailing consideration, as nearly every team has a boatload of cash to allocate.
Jackson and Mills are acutely cognizant of this new paradigm shift. So they had to employ a win-now, short-term strategy to help strengthen the franchise’s long-term plan. If the Knicks do make a significant leap in the standings, who knows, by this time next year Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Gordon Hayward, all part of a strong 2017 unrestricted free-agent class, and all legitimate game changers, may view the Knicks as a viable option.
The game of basketball isn’t played on paper. But in black and white, Jackson and Mills have altered the line on the graph, charting the Knicks upward.
