It was beginning to seem that the answer was no. Greg Monroe rebuffed them for the Milwaukee Bucks and LarMarcus Aldridge cancelled on even meeting them once so as to meet with the Lakers again-who he said had failed the initial interview by talking up Hollywood and business contacts rather than winning basketball games.
This is something that has come through loud and clear during this free agency surge: top players feel they can get the money they want anywhere and care less about being in NY or LA than being part of a winning organization.
Neither the Knicks or the Lakers have much to show as far as that recently. At least the Lakers have the history unlike my Knicks who haven't won since 1973-though the Patrick Ewing teams of the 90s were at least contenders.
I think it's fair to say that Knicks fans are not patient and whatever pass Phil Jackson gets because of who he is and what his resume says is long over. Last year I as much as any Knicks fan was feeling privileged just to have Phil Jackson running the organization. True his success was in coaching-being a team president was brand new to him-but I felt sure that if nothing else, his Phil Jackson aura would simply turn everything it touched to gold like King Midas.
However, the honeymoon is now over. What we have learned this week is that for a team to sign very good players it''s kind of like the paradox of your first credit card-where you can't have one unless you already have one.
It seems that good players don't want to play for a team that doesn't already have good players on it. So the Knicks have to be better next year. Playoffs while not technically impossible is the ultimate dream season-last year's Bucks are the model who went from 15-67 to 41-41 and a playoff berth.
That's who they lost Monroe to. For the Knicks to do what the Bucks did would be a dream season not anything that we should reasonably expect now. At this point the Knicks are very unlikely to make the playoffs or break even. However, if they have any hope of getting top players in next year's free agency-Kevin Durant, Lebron James, etc-they will have to be much improved this year.
Because Knicks fans are rightly impatient-I mean this has been 15 years of lousy football-that's how many years it had been for the Giants when fans rented that plane in 1978. Phil Jackson and Melo both get this huge contracts and what have we got to show for it?
However, because of this impatience, no one seems to realize that the team has done pretty well this off-season-though the proof is in the pudding and we'll only know this for a fact when the season starts.
Finally some players are willing to play for the Knicks:
"Derrick Williams has agreed to a two-year, $10 million deal with the New York Knicks, according to Chris Boussard."
"The Knicks, who struck out on many free agents this summer -- including DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe -- have started to make some headway in free agency. Along with Williams, they have signed Robin Lopez and ArronAfflalo to deals the past two days."
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/7/3/8892343/derrick-williams-knicks-nba-free-agency-2015
I don't know that they really struck out. I mean they didn't get Monroe and they were widely thought to be in the running for him-he himself had expressed interest. But that's just one player.
You can certainly argue that Lopez and Afflalo do a lot to improve this team-that admittedly has a lot of room for improvement-if nothing else they have made the team bigger. Lopez is 7 feet and even shooting guard Afflalo is 6 foot 5-as is the point guard the Knicks got in the trade for Atlanta's 19th pick, Jerian Grant
Lopez is more or less Monroe's mirror image-Monroe is a pretty prolfiic scorer with little defense while Lopez is more or less the opposite.
As for the draft everyone initially booed Porzingis as the Knicks pick at #4 in the draft but he may turn out to be a steal in a few years.
http://www.sbnation.com/2015/5/27/8474249/kristaps-porzingis-nba-draft-2015-scouting-report
Certainly with him at 7 foot 3 and Lopez it's hard to say this is a short team anymore.
The most unsung move at all seems to be Grant. No one is talking about Horace Grant's son who started 4 years at Notre Dame and some experts considered him the best point guard in the country.
. Then there is Williams who could complement Melo quite well.
http://www.azdesertswarm.com/2015/7/3/8892293/derrick-williams-signs-a-two-year-10-million-deal-with-the-knicks?_ga=1.58033699.80090434.1435327193
So overall, I think they've very quietly done pretty well. Still, we'll only know this for sure when the season starts. Certainly I've been burned by the Knicks many times. But all Knicks fans can do is hope for the best. There is enough here for some realistic hope to hang your hat on.
This is something that has come through loud and clear during this free agency surge: top players feel they can get the money they want anywhere and care less about being in NY or LA than being part of a winning organization.
Neither the Knicks or the Lakers have much to show as far as that recently. At least the Lakers have the history unlike my Knicks who haven't won since 1973-though the Patrick Ewing teams of the 90s were at least contenders.
I think it's fair to say that Knicks fans are not patient and whatever pass Phil Jackson gets because of who he is and what his resume says is long over. Last year I as much as any Knicks fan was feeling privileged just to have Phil Jackson running the organization. True his success was in coaching-being a team president was brand new to him-but I felt sure that if nothing else, his Phil Jackson aura would simply turn everything it touched to gold like King Midas.
However, the honeymoon is now over. What we have learned this week is that for a team to sign very good players it''s kind of like the paradox of your first credit card-where you can't have one unless you already have one.
It seems that good players don't want to play for a team that doesn't already have good players on it. So the Knicks have to be better next year. Playoffs while not technically impossible is the ultimate dream season-last year's Bucks are the model who went from 15-67 to 41-41 and a playoff berth.
That's who they lost Monroe to. For the Knicks to do what the Bucks did would be a dream season not anything that we should reasonably expect now. At this point the Knicks are very unlikely to make the playoffs or break even. However, if they have any hope of getting top players in next year's free agency-Kevin Durant, Lebron James, etc-they will have to be much improved this year.
Because Knicks fans are rightly impatient-I mean this has been 15 years of lousy football-that's how many years it had been for the Giants when fans rented that plane in 1978. Phil Jackson and Melo both get this huge contracts and what have we got to show for it?
However, because of this impatience, no one seems to realize that the team has done pretty well this off-season-though the proof is in the pudding and we'll only know this for a fact when the season starts.
Finally some players are willing to play for the Knicks:
"Derrick Williams has agreed to a two-year, $10 million deal with the New York Knicks, according to Chris Boussard."
"The Knicks, who struck out on many free agents this summer -- including DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe -- have started to make some headway in free agency. Along with Williams, they have signed Robin Lopez and ArronAfflalo to deals the past two days."
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/7/3/8892343/derrick-williams-knicks-nba-free-agency-2015
I don't know that they really struck out. I mean they didn't get Monroe and they were widely thought to be in the running for him-he himself had expressed interest. But that's just one player.
You can certainly argue that Lopez and Afflalo do a lot to improve this team-that admittedly has a lot of room for improvement-if nothing else they have made the team bigger. Lopez is 7 feet and even shooting guard Afflalo is 6 foot 5-as is the point guard the Knicks got in the trade for Atlanta's 19th pick, Jerian Grant
Lopez is more or less Monroe's mirror image-Monroe is a pretty prolfiic scorer with little defense while Lopez is more or less the opposite.
As for the draft everyone initially booed Porzingis as the Knicks pick at #4 in the draft but he may turn out to be a steal in a few years.
http://www.sbnation.com/2015/5/27/8474249/kristaps-porzingis-nba-draft-2015-scouting-report
Certainly with him at 7 foot 3 and Lopez it's hard to say this is a short team anymore.
The most unsung move at all seems to be Grant. No one is talking about Horace Grant's son who started 4 years at Notre Dame and some experts considered him the best point guard in the country.
. Then there is Williams who could complement Melo quite well.
http://www.azdesertswarm.com/2015/7/3/8892293/derrick-williams-signs-a-two-year-10-million-deal-with-the-knicks?_ga=1.58033699.80090434.1435327193
So overall, I think they've very quietly done pretty well. Still, we'll only know this for sure when the season starts. Certainly I've been burned by the Knicks many times. But all Knicks fans can do is hope for the best. There is enough here for some realistic hope to hang your hat on.
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