Schmeelk: Only The Knicks Could Win When They're Supposed To Lose
By John Schmeelk
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The Knicks have played terrible basketball all year. Watching them has been tantamount to corporal punishment. But all the pain and torture was supposed to yield at least a good chance of a happy ending.
Though there were no guarantees, the Knicks would at least have the highest-percentage chance of getting the top pick in the NBA draft. It could yield a franchise changing player like Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor, or at the very worst a top-four pick in a top-heavy draft.
But not the Knicks. Nope. They couldn't even give their fans the maximum amount of hope possible for the month between the end of the regular season and the NBA draft lottery. It was too much to give a beleaguered fan base even something as intangible as real legitimate hope for a month. Instead, for a pair of meaningless games in April, the Knicks decided to start winning. The Timberwolves weren't foolish enough to do something like that. They've lost 11 straight. The Sixers know what they're doing. They've lost nine straight.
Not the Knicks. They've won three of their last five and two in a row. That's happened only two other times all season long. It might have taken him 79 games, but Tim Hardaway Jr. decided to show up in game 80 to hit game-winning buckets and block shots in the fourth quarter. Langston Galloway somehow found his three-point stroke. Jason Smith took a real, live defender off the dribble for a layup and a foul. Even the officials got into the act on Monday night, giving the Knicks the ball and a fresh shot clock as they tried to run out the clock. This is stuff that didn't happen the entire season.
If anything, give the Knicks credit for one thing -- they are consistent. When the stakes are the highest they always do the absolute worst possible thing for the long-term health of the franchise. When they are supposed to win, they lose. When they are supposed to lose, they win. Whatever their fans want to see, the team consistently does the opposite. That's the Knicks.
All jokes aside, no one in their right mind can blame the Knicks for winning. The competitive nature of players and coaches doesn't allow them to try and lose games. The Knicks were losing because they were just that bad, not because they were trying. Somehow they found a way to beat the best team in the Eastern Conference on the road. That's the Knicks. Even when they win, their fans lose.
Now the Knicks have a five-percent lower chance of getting the first pick in the draft, 20 percent instead of 25 percent. They can fall as far as fifth, with a 12 percent chance of that happening. Their chances of finishing second or third doesn't change a whole lot, just a decrease of 2.7 percent and .7 percent, respectively. Their chances of finishing out of the top three is now 44.2 percent, rather than 35.7 percent. It's not catastrophic, but it isn't good either.
Fear not Knicks fans, the drama doesn't end now. It can actually get worse. There's one more game to go, and if the Knicks find a way to beat the Pistons on Wednesday and the Sixers lose to the Heat on the same evening, their odds get even worse across the board. They would also have a 4 percent chance of finishing in sixth place pending a coin flip with the Sixers. In a year the Knicks played the worst basketball in their franchise's history, they could pick sixth in the NBA draft.
SIXTH.
That would be catastrophic.
Do you want to know the players who have been taken at No. 6? Nerlens Noel, Damian Lillard, Jan Vesely, Ekpe Udoh, Jonny Flynn, Danilo Gallinari, Yi Jianlian, Brandon Roy, Martell Webster, Chris Kaman, Dujuan Wagner, Shane Battier, DerMarr Johnson, Wally Szczerbiak, Robert Traylor, Ron Mercer, Antione Walker, Bryant Reeves, Sharone Wright, Calbert Cheaney, Tom Gugliotta, Doug Smith and Felton Spencer. That goes back to 1990. Twenty-five players. How many are franchise-changers? Roy and Lillard. That's it. It's a scary, scary record.
That's what the Knicks are risking going into Wednesday night. They can't help themselves. Nothing can come easily, EVER. Not for Knicks fans.
The New York fan has to wonder that maybe this team will get the first overall pick anyway, despite the worsening odds. Maybe this is just one more piece of adversity the fan base has to go through to finally get some luck in the lottery. Maybe this is just part of a long spiral into darkness with the ultimate payoff at the end. Maybe the magic of Phil Jackson's zen will make the ping-pong balls bounce the right way.
Then, remember -- we're talking about the Knicks. When is there ever a real light at the end of the tunnel?
You can follow me on Twitter @Schmeelk for everything Knicks, Giants and the world of sports.