The New York Knicks should be setting out to accomplish these four goals throughout the remainder of the 2018-19 season.
Things have not gone well for the New York Knicks during the 2018-19 season. While the new leadership group of head coach David Fizdale, general manager Scott Perry and team president Steve Mills preached patience and a new culture, things have yet to materialize much.
The Knicks went into the All-Star break with a record of 11-47. They traded their supposed franchise cornerstone, Kristaps Porzingis, to the Dallas Mavericks prior to the trade deadline. To say some fans are upset would be an understatement.
This level of losing will always disappoint fans. The only silver lining is that all of the losses will result in a higher draft pick. Of course, the one season New York seems committed to losing games just so happens to be when the NBA Draft Lottery odds were adjusted so the bottom three teams all have the same chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick.
Despite the current state of the team, there is still some optimism surrounding an organization that has been gloomy for most of the past two decades. There are some young, exciting players on the roster that give fans hope for the future. The Porzingis trade cleared the contracts of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee, giving the team enough cap space to potentially sign two max free agents.
Assets of that level have rarely been seen in New York. Past regimes always opted for quick fixes, trading away draft picks for aging, overpriced veterans instead of bringing in younger players to develop. While free agency will play a big part in the Knicks’ plan this summer, they actually have some building blocks on the team if they don’t land a player to continue building through the draft.
Before fans can dream of adding two max free agents and potentially the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, they have to get through the remainder of the 2018-19 season. If the Knicks are able to accomplish these four goals, they will be a lot more fun to watch than they have been for parts of the past four months.