Schmeelk: Ugh! Knicks' Fall To Fourth Is Nothing Short Of Devastating
By John Schmeelk
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What, did you really think this was going to be easy? You're a Knicks fan. There's no such thing as easy. Knicks fans don't get pretty things. They get coal in their stockings. The only team to move down in the draft lottery this year? Of course it was the Knicks. Why? The Knicks do Knicks things.
Seventeen wins might earn some teams the top pick in the draft, but not the Knicks. It doesn't work that way for one of the most loyal fan bases in the NBA. Nope. The Lakers, who are never terrible for long stretches, get to pick second and get the next purple and gold legend. But not the Knicks. Nope, nope, nope.
Fourth was the most likely spot the Knicks were going to pick, and low and behold the math held up. It wasn't the worst slot they could have been in, just the second worst. And it deprives them of potentially two cornerstone centers that could dominate the league for a decade.
As the Timberwolves -- the team with the worst record in the league, got the first pick -- it was impossible not to think back to April, when the Knicks won three out of five games near the end of the season, including the only time all year they won two straight road games. (They actually won in Atlanta, for goodness' sake.) It's no one's fault. Players are going to try to win, but the Knicks couldn't even lose right and it cost them the first overall pick in the NBA draft.
Meaningless wins could have cost the team the best two-way center to come out of the draft in 11 years. They had that in their hands, but let it slip away by winning games that meant nothing. Let that sink in. How do you feel now?
Before the lottery, I said I would live with the fourth pick in the draft. I'm alive, so I wasn't lying, but I'm a lot angrier than I thought I was going to be. It only has a little bit to do with who the Knicks will be able to draft at four. They will get whoever is the last player remaining from the consensus top four players in the draft: Karl Anthony-Towns (no chance in hell), Jahlil Okafor (possible if the Lakers pick a guard -- alright, not possible really), D'Angelo Russell (word has it Philly loves him at three) and Emmanuel Mudiay (the mystery kid who played in China last year). Or will they go after Justise Winslow?
The Knicks will have the opportunity to draft a player with a ton of upside. There's a chance that whoever the Knicks get at four could be as good -- or even better -- than the two or three guys that go before him. I wouldn't consider it likely, but it's possible.
After my initial screaming, cursing, throwing stuff and scaring the hell out of my wife -- I warned her this was going to happen and that she shouldn't be in the apartment -- I was going to calm down and rationalize that the Knicks were still going to wind up with a potential franchise player, even if it wasn't one of the two big men. Everything was going to be fine.
Then Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted this:
At No. 4, expect that the Knicks draft pick will be very available in trade talks.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 20, 2015
The rage began to simmer.
Then that smirking fool, Steve Mills, opened his mouth and spoke to reporters.
He talked about being very open to all options with the pick -- in other words, trading it. He talked about how the decision of whom to pick could be influenced by potential free-agent additions later. If there was an Idiot's Guide To The Draft, do you know what the first line would say in big, bold, capital red letters? DRAFT THE BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE, STUPID!
The last word there might be an emphasis added by me. Picking a guy because he "fits" with a future free-agent signee, the triangle or even Carmelo Anthony is how you manipulate yourself into picking a bust.
Free agency is a crap shoot. No one knows who they are going to get. How is it even possible, let alone smart, to draft based on something that is an unknown? Who operates like that? Whomever the Knicks draft is a 12-to-15 year investment with superstar potential. Whomever they sign in free agency is a four-year who will probably not even be an All-Star. (Sorry, but I'm being realistic that guys like Gasol, Aldridge, Butler, Green, Leonard and Knight aren't coming to the Knicks.)
Pick the guy who has the best chance of being a cornerstone player and roll with him. Invest in the future for once. Try to build the right way.
Don't trade down to the end of the lottery or middle of the first round to draft someone with very little chance of being a cornerstone player, even if it means getting a veteran and future pick. The only team that could ever muster enough value to get the Knicks' pick, in my opinion, is the Celtics, and they would have to send back a good player and three ones. I still might not be convinced to make the deal. Boston isn't making that trade, anyway.
And no, Knicks fans, the fourth pick in the draft isn't getting you Boogie Cousins either. It ain't happening. Stop dreaming. Look at the cost of Kevin Love.
Also note that this pick can only be traded after it is made, since the Knicks have no pick in 2017 and there is a rule prohibiting NBA teams from trading first-round picks two years in a row.
The Knicks needed this pick to be idiot proof. Even with their ineptitude they couldn't screw up picking first or second in this draft. But at four, they are in position to do something very stupid. They could trade the pick. Despite some consensus that Mudiay is the fourth best player in this draft, the Knicks could go in another direction. I'll go through my evaluation of potential draftees in the coming weeks now that I know where the team is picking.
They can (and probably will) screw this up.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. All the losing was supposed to end in some kind of guarantee of at least a chance of a real rebuild around a franchise player. Now all Knicks fans have are a hope and a prayer that their front office doesn't do something absolutely stupid and ruin it. Based on this franchise's history, I wouldn't fly to Vegas and make that bet.
Rather than the start of a new beginning where the franchise might start winning again, it feels like the start of another series of mistakes that could cost the team another 5-to-10 years of losing. Is it pessimistic? Yeah, it is. Is it logical? Probably not. But when has either of those things ever applied to the Knicks? Never.
For Knicks fans, things never get better. It is never Christmas morning. Winter is not coming for the Knicks. It is here forever and it doesn't look like it is going anywhere anytime soon. The Garden will freeze over, and the white walkers will roam the concourses and destroy all hope.
Yeah, I'm pessimistic. I'm a Knicks fan. Can you blame me?
You can follow me on Twitter @Schmeelk for everything Knicks, Giants and the world of sports.