I must remind you that the very painful and long Philly experiment is far from over, far from being a clear success. T

“Very painful and long”? The Sixers last made the playoffs in 2012 and just won 53 games and got the #3 seed. The Knicks last made the playoffs in 2013 and won 29 games last year. How could an actual tank possibly not been better than what they already came up with?

the half-assed tank is far less effective than the full-on, stockpile-assets-and-pray method employed by the Sixers and, to a lesser extent, the Lakers.

But there are other options, though.

To a large extent, the problem with the Knicks is not a ‘half-assed tank’ as you claim. They have just blundered in every possible way, specially in the contracts department.

I must remind you that the very painful and long Philly experiment is far from over, far from being a clear success. The point is NOT that the Knicks have done better during the same period. They have not. The point is that a full-tank is not the guaranteed success you pretend it to be. Yes, it’s better than stupid management (Knicks) but not necessarily better than intelligent, gradual improvement through the draft and through the negotiating table. Boston is a far better model than Philly (not that the Knicks can do something similar, of course).

If this team manages to take a half season without KP and still manage to not get a top 5 lottery pick it will be an unmitigated disaster.

I think that depends on the situation. If we start to win games on the back of the play of of Knox, Frank, Robinson and Burke without KP, I don’t think that is a total disaster. If we are in the fight for the 8th seed on the back of strong veteran play from Lee, Timmy and Kanter etc, then that probably isn’t ideal. Problem is as we have been discussing for the last 6-12 months is that if we want to get serious, then Lee needs to be traded and Kanter would have ideally opted out and signed elsewhere.

Anyone ever go to one of those overseas games?

I guess if Porzingis comes back 100% it’s fine, but even the Kings, Magic and the Suns have multiple blue chip prospects to develop and we’re discussing Tim Hardaway Jr.

I just agree with JK47 and THCJ, if something good is going to happen in the next few years it will be a combination of Porzingis, Knox, Ntilikina and Robinson. Focus on them. Everybody else can be waived tomorrow for all I care.

If this team manages to take a half season without KP and still manage to not get a top 5 lottery pick it will be an unmitigated disaster.

No matter what combination of players we put out there, we’re looking like a 25 win team. This year should be about draft positioning and building trade value so we can make a respectable offer to NOLA when the time comes.

TH2 has a trade kicker, yes? So if he gets traded he’d be pulling down ~19 per. Nobody is trading for him. It could be worse, he’s pretty average. It could be four years 72 mil for an old broken down center who’s unplayable and punched the last coach.

I’m sure he is a superstar-in-the-making according to some statistical model. So is Kanter, remember?

I think Ntilikina has been perhaps the worst offensive player in the league over the course of his one year. But that’s virtually every rookie, competing for league-worst in something . The bar is so low that people look at Donovan Mitchell as some kind of god for being pretty good in the second half of the season and then being a rotation-worthy player in the playoffs.

The fact is that the Knicks would have been in a better position had they landed in the top 3 of that draft: Fultz, Ball and Tatum all look like potential future studs (Fultz is going to be at least a good, John Wall-type player, which was obvious during his few minutes at the end of the season). It’s just more obvious evidence that the half-assed tank is far less effective than the full-on, stockpile-assets-and-pray method employed by the Sixers and, to a lesser extent, the Lakers.

The team can’t keep picking team-need at #9 and expect to build a contender.

Frank might not be the future PG, or even a viable starter, but burying him behind a should-be career bench scrub? Pure silliness. He should be thrown into the mix and told to fight for his career.

It’s kind of hard to envision any contending team saying to themselves “You know who would really push us over the top? Tim Hardaway Jr!”

Nobody has to say that…they just have to say that THjr. is a better option than what we have, and we have an expiring to move, and if the Knicks throw in a heavily protected first rounder and/or a Hezonja or Dotson, we’ll take him.

But it is also likely that the Knicks will keep THjr because they (possibly foolishly) believe that he CAN be a piece of a good team going forward. Bottom line….he’s gonna play a lot and probably start for the foreseeable future.