Post-NBA Free Agency power rankings
By John Buhler
New York Knicks
East, Atlantic
The New York Knicks have become a total clown show. Seeing the end of the Phil Jackson era may have appeased the Knicks faithful temporarily, but they’re still the same old highly dysfunctional Knicks. Carmelo Anthony still hasn’t been traded, but apparently likes to workout in the middle of the night wearing hoodies. Kristaps Porzingis is in Latvia somewhere just to get away from it all.
Even without a team president, the Knicks are still exacerbating things in their front office. While signing guard Ron Baker to a favorable, two-year deal with the club, why did general manager Steve Mills give restricted free agent Tim Hardaway Jr. a four-year offer worth $71 million?
This is just another example of how the Knicks continue to do things wrong. Keep in mind that the Knicks traded Hardaway to the Hawks in exchange for Jerian Grant’s draft rights in 2015. Hardaway became a high-end rotational player for the Hawks under Mike Budenholzer. He played himself into being a viable rotational player on a good team, but he’s not worth $71 million over four years.
The Knicks still have Anthony and Porzingis, but this is a directionless basketball team if there ever was one. We could see a slight uptick in performance with head coach Jeff Hornacek not being forced to run the antiquated triangle. That being said, it’s hard to see this club winning more than 28 games and not picking in the top-10 next summer.