The well-worn story about the Yankees rebirth as a dynasty in the late 1990s is that it was the result of George Steinbrenner's banishment from baseball by then-commissioner Fay Vincent. This all had to do with Steinbrenner hiring Howie Spira to dig up some dirt to smear Dave Winfield.
And you think your boss is a jerk.
Steinbrenner was reinstated in 1993, but those two-plus years he was away allowed the Yankees, led by Gene Michael, to gather and develop a portfolio of blue chippers such as Bernie Williams without the meddling of The Boss. The Yankees got richer investing in their own instead of in overpriced free agents. Suddenly there was stability and there was direction.
And by 1996, there was a championship. Steinbrenner couldn't argue with the stay-the-course success, so he stayed hands off. At least as long as he could. It was enough to rebuild an empire.
Now consider the Knicks.
I remember rewinding my digital recorder (no one uses tape anymore, yo) to make sure I heard Isiah Thomas correctly a few weeks ago in Orlando, when he said the Knicks are "the heathiest we’ve been in a long time."
Healthy? With 33 wins and no lottery pick to show for it? With a huge hole at power forward? With a questionable backcourt? With a luxury tax-laden $87 million payroll that Thomas has the green light to expand if he so wishes?
Hold up. Wait a minute.
Here's where Thomas knows he has to be careful. If he did absolutely nothing but add a player with the No. 23 pick, he'd have a full roster of 15 players. He'd have last season's team back, healthy, and at best they're an 8th seed playoff team. You'd also have to deal with the Steve Francis situation once again (expect more "rehabilitation" trips to Houston) and Jerome James' conditioning questions.
But ride out the year continuing to develop players. In the summer of 2008, you face one major hurdle: Eddy Curry's player opt-out after the 2008-09 season. If he's worth his weight (ha..no pun intended), he's made himself into an all-star and your horse. Perhaps he'd led you to the playoffs. So you work on his deal. Give him the max and eliminate one headache.
Quentin Richardson and Jamal Crawford also have opt-outs after 08-09. Ride them out. You'll need the cap space.
And so you go into the 2008-09 season once again with the same roster plus another draft pick (don't trade this one, unless you can move up to get Roy Hibbert!) and two contract-motivated players in Crawford and Richardson. You also have some huge assets before the trading deadline: the expiring contracts of Francis, Stephon Marbury and Malik Rose.
The Knicks payroll - as it is constructed today - drops to $41 million for the 2009-10 season. But if you reworked Curry's deal, it'll be a little higher - but still workable.
A smattering of names that could be available via free agency in the Summer of '09:
- Our good friend Kobe Bryant has that widely-reported opt-out for 2009-10, just in case things don't work out with Kevin Garnett.
- Seattle's Ray Allen's contract expires after 2009-10, so the Sonics might consider moving him
- Golden State's Baron Davis will be a free agent
- Utah's Deron Williams will be a restricted free agent, unless the Jazz rework his deal. They have a team option for next season.
Another thing to keep in mind is that these players will be a year away from an opt-out:
- LeBron James
- Dwyane Wade
- Chris Bosh
These are all things for Isiah Thomas to consider as he checks the market this summer. As fans, you have to consider it, as well. Most of you on this blog are smart and read the situation well. But there are a lot of fans who get juiced up every time a trade is discussed.
"How can we get into the KG sweepstakes?"
"What will it take to get Kobe?"
"Can we make a deal for Shawn Marion?"
But my boys here on this blog are right. Let's take a lesson from the Yankees. Show some patience and let it ride. The bigger prizes are worth waiting for.
Comments (9)
Bingo
Look at the Spurs, their main 3 players they got for NOTHING - Duncan draft, Parker draft 2nd round, Ginobili draft 2nd round. That's how you build a team.
Alan, Do the Knicks still owe a 1st round pick to Phoenix for the Marbury trade?
So many things wrong with this analogy.
The 1996-2000 Yankee dynasty wasn't built around big time free agents. They were built around key pieces from their farm team (Jeter, Rivera, Bernie, Posada, Pettitte) and solid veterans (O'Neill, Tino, Brosius, Jimmy Key, Cone, Boggs, Knoblauch) who weren't flashy but played the game right. It was a true team where everybody had to contribute for them to achieve success.
You're suggesting that the Knicks rebuild by going after one of the best players in the league on the free agent market. This would have been the way to go a couple of years ago when you could have accumulated lottery picks with an eye towards adding a centerpiece in free agency. Instead they have a bunch of role players to put around a top talent, which doesn't even make them better than last years Lakers.
You're also assuming that Isiah is capable of building a winner, like Stick Michael, Bob Watson and Buck Showalter did. If you truly believed that, you wouldn't have gone back to your voice recorder. In 3 1/2 years, spending over half a billion dollars and trading away 4 possible lottery picks and still not having the pieces to get into the KG or Kobe discussions, there's nothing to make you believe that he can.
If anything, the Knicks are following the Yankees teams from the decade prior to Steinbrenner's suspension, where they threw good money after bad for the free agent quick fix and traded away their good prospects in silly trades(Mr Costanza: How could you trade Jay Buhner!).
You need a solid base before you get that superstar free agent. Now if they hadn't traded away their lottery picks, maybe they have Andrew Bynum, Brandon Roy, and maybe Joakim Noah in place when they could be in position to sign a big time free agent.
Totally agree-what put the Knicks in this funk in the 1st place was them not willing to bite the bullet and allow Ewing's contract to run out. They let him pressure them and then got stuck w/ several bad contracts (Eisley, Rice ETC.)which started the downfall.
The question is Alan, do you think Isiah is smart enough to realize that. Probably not. If thomas got fired after another shitty season, then the next GM would hopefully realize it. I don't think the Knicks were going very far in the playoffs but had they been healthy they would have made the playoffs. There a deep team, it is not too far fetched to think they could be the 6th or 7th seed if Curry improves, and we get a full year of the new Steph. I just hope Isiah does exactly what you say and gets us in a situation where we could play in free agency for the first time since Allen Houston and Chris Childs. We haven't had an oppurtunity to use the enourmous pull of playing in New York and playing in the Garden. I guess its fortunate that we don't have the pieces to make a deal. The only thing Isiah should to is see if he could get another contract that expires 08-09. As for this draft, I don't know how Isiah doesn't see shot-blocking as the biggest need on this team. I'd go there, or Aaron Afflalo or Daquean Cook.
Alan, not sure if you've heard the rumor, but the Knicks are offering Jeffries and Collins for the 18th pick in the draft and they'd have to accept Adonal Foyle's lousy contract from the Warriors. Its assumed they want to move up to take Sean Williams. And then with the 23rd pick, they would replace Collins.
cuwpkrx jwcvqza aiqzs fkqseia lmqekr zkruojewf fsywcgx
rwhc dhkmowbu hsuvmeftk qhrxopgkl iqdbyglkp dagc syol rhkmfyn gcyduk