Well at least you know I'm not a bandwagon fan! I recently made the point that NY Giants fans can't plausibly claim to be 'long suffering'-I mean sure we've missed the playoffs 3 straight years but the year before that we won the Super Bowl-after winning the SB just four years before that as well-both over heavily favored Patriots teams.
Giants bashers always say that neither team was that good-they weren't anywhere near the best team either year and there may be something to that. Both years the team just got hot at the right time. How much though if that's true does this say about Coughlin as a coach? It's funny how it went for Perry Fewell though: one day reports were that he was staying with the team, the next day he was canned.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000454764/article/report-coughlin-to-keep-coordinators-fewell-quinn
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000455098/article/perry-fewell-out-as-giants-defensive-coordinator
Ok, I better quit stalling and get to the Knicks as depressing as they are. As a Knicks fans we are long suffering, I'll say that. At this point the team is playing for nothing but-as Mike Lupica always rubs in-the future yet again. Now the team hopes they'll get the first draft pick. Interesting stat: the last time the team with the worst record got the top pick was the Orlando Magic in 2004-Dwight Howard.
Tonight, Dwight Howard and his Houston Rockets are rubbing the Knicks' face in the dirt-join the club. Forget about winning games-this team considers it a win if they beat the spread as they did last night when they 'only' lost by 10. Still there are some young players who are getting a shot and watching them is somewhat entertaining-not nearly as much as actually even competing in a game but hey, it's all about baby steps for Knicks fans these days.
A few of these young players are doing pretty good, 4 were in double digits- Langston Galloway had 19, Travis Wear 21, Cleanthony Early 16, and Quincy Acy with 11. What's interesting is that all 4 of these players didn't start-no start had double digits-though Pablo Prigioni had 9. Maybe Fisher needs to switch the starting team and the bench.
They were like most nights totally outplayed but the young guys play with enthusiasm at least. Lupica is right that over the last 15 years, since Van Gundy left, the Knicks have had too many years like this-though in all honesty this is the worst ever. The Knicks have had some bad seasons before but nothing like this.
People compare this team to the 1983-1984 team but that team won 24 games-it's tough to see that happening here. This is a 5-34 team. To get 23 wins they'd have to basically be .500 the rest of the year. This is not just a record bad season in team history but by a long way. No Knick team previously has ever lost as many as 60 games. This team is on pace to lost 71.
People say 'Well at least that 9-73 Sixer team record is safe'-I'm not so sure. I mean when you watch this team it's hard to imagine it every winning a game particularly if Melo sits for the season.
As for this rebuilding season-or the more pejorative word for rebuilding, tanking,-I'm kind of conflicted. I guess it's a good thing if the Knicks have the worst record and get the first pick of the draft. Yet, part of me would rather they weren't the worst team in the league-part of me wants them to at least beat out the Sixers and Minnesota.
Yes, there is an advantage in getting the first pick. Still, in the NBA you have a lottery so there's no guarantee they get the first pick as we observed above-indeed, even with all those extra ping pong balls no team with the worst mark has gotten the first pick since 2004.
Then again, it's not as if only the first pick has a shot at great future players, franchise players. In most years there is a lot more than 1. The Knicks could avoid the humiliation of being the league's worse and still get a franchise player to go with Melo.
What I am sure of is I don't want to see the Knicks set the NBA record. All they need is 4 wins to tie and 5 to beat the Sixers all time worst; but the way they're playing 5 wins in 43 games seems like quite a torrid pace to expect from them. They have now lost 14 in a row-another sordid record set by this team-and 24 o 25. Early in the year they lost a lot of close games they could have won but of course never did.
At this point you can barely imagine them winning again. This team just seems so outclassed. I mean the Lakers this year are bad but they actually beat Golden State-can anyone imagine the Knicks beating a team like that?
So maybe the first pick is a good thing but I don't want to set any new records and am not certain they won't-though they will get to play the Sixers, Wolves, and Charlotte. If there is one thing to give hope, they actually are not the worst team in NBA history at this point in the season-the Sixers back in 1972-73 were 3-36 at this point and Denver and Dallas both started 2-37 during the 90s.
http://espn.go.com/nba/features/worstteams
Talk about jumping the shark-Knick fans can now take heart that in the entire history of the NBA, 5 teams had worse records than the 2014-15 Knicks.
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