What's Up With The Knicks?

New York City is regarded as one of the toughest towns in sports. At the core of this city is a team that, for the past seven years, has languished in mediocrity and lowliness. This is not a knock on the player's themselves, but rather a staunch observation at the misguided direction the team has taken. What's wrong with my beloved Knicks? After watching the Knicks lose to Charlotte last night, it hit me: there are a lot of reasons for this team's steady decline to the bottom of the league ranks. One look at the team on the floor unearths many of them. On paper, the team is arguably one of the better teams in the league. They have a Stephon Marbury who has been playing like he's vying for the love of the city. Jamal Crawford is the team's best clutch player (although he is a lot like John Starks in many respects) and Eddy Curry is finally starting to live up to his potential. Still, despite all of this, the team lacks discipline on defense - allowing 102.6ppg in their last five - and all too often, their offensive punch disappears in key stretches of the game as evidenced in their embarassing defeat to the Bobcats Wednesday night. What is going on here? A team with all the money and all the talent that the Knicks have should not be struggling this much. Dallas did it, why can't New York. It has been talked about time and time again, money does not equal championships, and with the blank checks that Isaiah Thomas has been during his tenure as Knicks GM, that theory has become quite true for the Knicks. One of the issues plaguing this team is the chemsitry. It definitely seems like all of the players get along with one another, but I don't think that these players meld well on the court as far as their skill sets go. At team with four point guards who play essentially the same way won't usually win often. They seem to lose focus as soon as the second half begins. Think about that win against L.A. two days ago. They were playing a Kobe-less Lakers team and they still almost gave that game away with 21 turnovers, 5 alone in the 3rd Quarter. One would think, with the amount of scrutiny this team has been under this season for committing the same types of mistakes (turnovers and offensive droughts) they would try to contain the frequency of such occurences. There is no one solution to the problems this team faces. Yet, their first order of business should be to unload some of those guards in favor of an athletic big man. The Knicks could have probably used someone like Tyson Chandler as opposed to giving all that money to Jared Jeffries. Tyson would have given them athleticism, interior defense and rebounds to counter Eddy Curry's relative lack of all three (a guy 7 feet tall and 285 lbs should be avergaing more than 7 rebs and .6 blocks a game). That way Eddy can focus on his offense and let the rest come to him. Also, as much as I like him, why not try to unload Channing in a deal for a more reliable and tougher inside - outside defender. Though he sometimes doesn't put up good offensive numbers, Gerald Wallace could be a great asset to this team as he ofter averages high numbers in steals and blocks. He is a strong player, a great leaper and has quick hands. He'd be a handful for any 2, 3 or 4 in the league. At least, it always seems like it when he plays us (his numbers in 2 games against the Knicks, btw?: 35.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 3.0 spg, 2 bpg, pretty good, no?) Bottom line is this, the Knicks need changes on a mentality and fundamental level if they are going to make any serious noise this year or any subsequent year. Isaiah has his work cut out for him and New York City is waiting to cheer for this team in earnest again.