Trader Isiah
With the NFL season now complete, it's time to turn our attention more fully to basketball. Specifically, let's look at the New York Knicks, a franchise that personifies getting low performances from big budgets. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we a couple of years ago look to the 2006 or 2007 offseason as the time when the Knicks would finally be rescued from salary cap hell? Instead, the most clueless GM in all of sports, Isiah Thomas insists on trading an expiring contract for a financial albatross just about every month or so. The latest case-in-point is the recent trade of Antonio Davis to Toronto for Jalen Rose, a 1st-round pick that originally belonged to Denver and some cash.
I find the timing of this trade and the principals involved to be equally curious. It happened just two days after New York coach Larry Brown mentioned that Davis was his liaison with the team. In addition, Jalen Rose was repeatedly benched by Brown when the two were in Indiana together because Rose's attitude and style of play didn't match up with Brown's "Right Way." So, to recap, Isiah traded the player charged with keeping the peace between a stubborn, old-school coach and a group of young, impatient players for a guy that has a history of clashing with said coach. In addition, this team chemistry suicide attempt is going to cost them an extra $34 million next year (Rose's $17M salary plus a corresponding increase to New York's already large luxury tax).
With moves like this, I'm now 100% convinced that Isiah is trying to sabotage Larry Brown. In fact, at this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if this were just a ploy for Thomas to get back into coaching. Let's recap what has happened: Isiah hired one of the best coaches in the league, a man noted for his ability to turn around losing teams quickly. The problem was, this team's best players are young (we all know how much Brown hates playing rookies) or have a history of clashing with the coach (Stephon Marbury mostly rode the pine in the last Olympics, which Brown coached), so the team started to struggle. The Knicks began to squabble amongst themselves, but fortunately, Brown had Antonio Davis to act as a go-between for him and the team, which kept the tension as low as possible. Of course, the next step in Isiah's plan was to get rid of that buffer so that the Knicks would go into a total freefall. The extra stroke of mad genius was then to find a player that Isiah knew Larry would hate to have. Enter Jalen Rose, whose offensive-mindedness and me-first attitude were already known Brown repellant. This scenario could very well end with Brown resigning in disgust sometime in the next few weeks in an attempt to start his next job search, something Brown is famous for getting a head start on. If that were to happen, I wouldn't be surprised to see Isiah "reluctantly" take over interim head coaching duties, knowing that it would give him the inside track to take over the job full-time next season. I also don't think it's impossible that Thomas is looking for a situation similar to what Gregg Popovich had several years back, when he left his GM post to try to coach the team he put together and prove it could win. The one problem with that is this: Isiah Thomas is the only person in Western civilization that doesn't know that Isiah Thomas can't coach. Still, he may be just delusional enough to believe this could work.
One caveat before Isiah decides to start looking to run into me in a back alley in suburban Detroit to beat the crap out of me (Don't know what I'm talking about? Check this out.): I do not really believe that the above motivations for the actions of you and your team are anything more than a collection of circumstantial evidence weaved together into a fictional story designed to entertain my readers. I'm sure you have a completely logical explanation for all of the moves you've made. So, please, I don't want there to "be a problem" with us, OK, Isiah? Pretty please?
I find the timing of this trade and the principals involved to be equally curious. It happened just two days after New York coach Larry Brown mentioned that Davis was his liaison with the team. In addition, Jalen Rose was repeatedly benched by Brown when the two were in Indiana together because Rose's attitude and style of play didn't match up with Brown's "Right Way." So, to recap, Isiah traded the player charged with keeping the peace between a stubborn, old-school coach and a group of young, impatient players for a guy that has a history of clashing with said coach. In addition, this team chemistry suicide attempt is going to cost them an extra $34 million next year (Rose's $17M salary plus a corresponding increase to New York's already large luxury tax).
With moves like this, I'm now 100% convinced that Isiah is trying to sabotage Larry Brown. In fact, at this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if this were just a ploy for Thomas to get back into coaching. Let's recap what has happened: Isiah hired one of the best coaches in the league, a man noted for his ability to turn around losing teams quickly. The problem was, this team's best players are young (we all know how much Brown hates playing rookies) or have a history of clashing with the coach (Stephon Marbury mostly rode the pine in the last Olympics, which Brown coached), so the team started to struggle. The Knicks began to squabble amongst themselves, but fortunately, Brown had Antonio Davis to act as a go-between for him and the team, which kept the tension as low as possible. Of course, the next step in Isiah's plan was to get rid of that buffer so that the Knicks would go into a total freefall. The extra stroke of mad genius was then to find a player that Isiah knew Larry would hate to have. Enter Jalen Rose, whose offensive-mindedness and me-first attitude were already known Brown repellant. This scenario could very well end with Brown resigning in disgust sometime in the next few weeks in an attempt to start his next job search, something Brown is famous for getting a head start on. If that were to happen, I wouldn't be surprised to see Isiah "reluctantly" take over interim head coaching duties, knowing that it would give him the inside track to take over the job full-time next season. I also don't think it's impossible that Thomas is looking for a situation similar to what Gregg Popovich had several years back, when he left his GM post to try to coach the team he put together and prove it could win. The one problem with that is this: Isiah Thomas is the only person in Western civilization that doesn't know that Isiah Thomas can't coach. Still, he may be just delusional enough to believe this could work.
One caveat before Isiah decides to start looking to run into me in a back alley in suburban Detroit to beat the crap out of me (Don't know what I'm talking about? Check this out.): I do not really believe that the above motivations for the actions of you and your team are anything more than a collection of circumstantial evidence weaved together into a fictional story designed to entertain my readers. I'm sure you have a completely logical explanation for all of the moves you've made. So, please, I don't want there to "be a problem" with us, OK, Isiah? Pretty please?
posted by Lock Ness Monster at 11:26 AM
1 Comments:
Yankees-wins-future= Knicks
I don't even know if the current Knicks player care about the Knicks. It's just a high priced train wreck.
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