As I said previously, I have little faith that this Knicks team will be good in the future. You might come to this conclusion from a number of indicators. You could look at their 14-53 record this season, tied for worst in the league. You could look at Phil Jackson’s tenure and there’s plenty of red flags there. The botching of the Steve Kerr hiring. The questionable hiring of Derek Fisher. The weird statements/tweets. The paltry returns on traded players. You could look at their eschewing of advanced statistics, as ESPN rated them 121 out of 122 professional franchises in using any reasonable numerical evidence to help assist with making decisions in a billion dollar field.
But if this report is true, it would indicate that there is no hope that this Knicks front office has any clue on how to build a winning NBA team.
[Andrea Bargnani’s] two injury-filled, unproductive seasons with the Knicks will end next month but there is already a sense that team president Phil Jackson, encouraged by Bargnani’s play over the past 20 games, will strongly consider re-signing the free agent forward… for the right price, of course.
And folks that is the canary in the coal mine.
Remember for the Knicks to have any hope the likeliest scenario is for them to pick the best pro in the NBA draft, AND grab a top notch free agent this summer, AND make sure that the draft pick, the free agent and Carmelo Anthony complement each other on the court, AND pick up the right complementary players to fill out the rest of the roster. This is the corner they’ve painted themselves into by re-signing Anthony to a huge contract, giving him a no-trade clause, and giving away future first round picks.
And for the above scenario to come true, the Knicks need someone at the helm that understands how to evaluate NBA talent. If Phil Jackson resigns Andrea Bargnani to do anything more than shoot tshirts out of a cannon, he proves that he is not qualified to run this team.