New York City Basketball Gets Worse By The Day

Ladies and Gentleman, at what point those the madness stop in the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets organizations? This season has been bad for New York basketball, very bad, but this week has managed to reach and all time low in ineptitude. Both teams are in a race to see which team can actually make the worse decisions in the span of a season. 

Have James Dolan, Mikhail Prokhorov and Billy King lost any iota of basketball acumen they might have had to begin with? Every day it is a flip-flop to see whose management can out do the other on how to make your team unsuccessful.

Frank Isola of the Daily News reported last night that the New York Knicks would consider hiring Allan Houston as their head coach in the event Mike Woodson is fired. When I read this I thought it was a joke and maybe it was just Mr. Isola taking shots at Knicks management. Then other media outlets started reporting this story as well. And usually where there is smoke, there is fire. If this is something Knicks management is actually considering then there is no hope for this team.

The Knicks went on a decade long stretch of not making the playoffs due to mismanagement and horrible player contracts. But then Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony, added a few pieces last season, and won 54 games plus a playoff series. Last season showed that maybe, just maybe the Knicks were doing everything possible to make the team a contender. Unfortunately it looks as if last year the New York Knicks may have peaked. 

Amare Stoudemire is getting paid $20 million dollars this season to average 3 points a game, JR Smith and Raymond Felton are not playing well enough to compliment Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler is hurt, and the players do not seem to trust each other on the court. This is a disaster season for the Knicks and the 3-13 start has proven this. 

From what I have gathered from New York Knicks fans, there needs to be a change in coaching because Mike Woodson is not getting the best out of this team. I always point out to Knicks fans that Mike Woodson got this team to 54 wins last season with basically the same players. 

But Knicks fans all over America beg to differ with my assessment, and I am not going to argue with a fan base that watches their team far closer than I do. Knicks fans aren’t dumb, they know basketball as good or possibly better than any other fan base I have come across; unfortunately for them, the people running their team are not half as knowledgeable about basketball as they are. 

The Knicks need a new head coach with a recent history of coaching in the NBA at the highest level. The minimum requirement for a coach at this point should be an assistant with at least 5 years of experience. There are former head coaches with good resumes available, so why don’t the Knicks go after one of them? 

Are Lionel Hollins and Stan Van Gundy not good enough for James Dolan? Is Knicks management unaware that both of them are available?

A Jeff Van Gundy reunion with the Knicks was the rumor just prior to the Allan Houston rumors. Although Jeff Van Gundy would be a far better hiring than Allan Houston, Jeff Van Gundy did not work once before, no reason to try and hash old dealings. Plus, Jeff Van Gundy has been removed from actual NBA coaching since his last stint with the Houston Rockets back in 2007. The Van Gundy brother that James Dolan should be targeting is Stan. 

Stan took the Orlando Magic to the NBA finals in 2009 mostly on the back of Dwight Howard. Carmelo is a far better player than Dwight Howard is in my opinion, and the Knicks have a better supporting cast around their star Carmelo Anthony than the Magic did around Dwight Howard. 

Plus, the Eastern Conference is at an all time low right now, with the right coaching and a healthy Tyson Chandler, the 3 seed at minimum is ripe for the picking. And as everyone can see from last year’s Knick team, when this team gets on a roll, they can peel off a winning streak as good as anyone in the league. 

If not Stan Van Gundy then definitely Lionel Hollins. I wrote an article detailing why both Stan Van Gundy and Lionel Hollins would be ideal replacements for both Jason Kidd and Mike Woodson should they be fired. But both the Knicks and Nets have other plans in mind, and those plans involve a game of hide & go dumb. It’s amazing. 

Alas, every day the intelligence level of the basketball organizations in New York reaches a new low. Two intelligent fan bases that had big dreams for their teams prior to this season are now rooting for two teams that are the laughing-stock of NBA fans everywhere. 

The only thing New York City basketball fans can do at this point is wait, hold their breath, shake their heads, and see which of the two teams makes the dumbest move next. And if that’s what it has come down to, then we should just rename New York City to Paradise Lost.