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Wednesday 16 January 2019 22:29, UK
With their collection of young prospects, reclamation projects and draft assets, the New York Knicks come to London finally on a path to success, writes Mark Deeks.
Due to the mutual existence of the playoff and draft mechanisms, the best place to be in the NBA system is near the top or near the bottom. And if you're going to be in the middle, you really need to be on the way up.
The New York Knicks are at the bottom, but they are on the way up - in control of their own destiny for the first time in a generation, seemingly no longer handicapped by the ownership-driven urgency for the playoffs that ironically undercut efforts to be good rather than enhance them.
They are using the relative talent disparity born out of the failure of their most recent playoff push, and the injury to their best player Kristaps Porzingis, to audition a collection of prospects and reclamation young veterans, in a bid to find some wheat among the chaff of another season without wins.
Beneath the surface, it's working.
OK, so they are still losing plenty. A 10-33 record, tied for second-last in the Eastern Conference and with only two wins in their last 19 games, does not immediately scream "successful strategy, nor anything close to it.
There are, however, productive ways to lose. And inasmuch as they could only realistically achieve that this season, the Knicks are by their own standards having some success.
Last season, Knicks management had playoff aspirations. Whether they retrospectively deny them or not, they made it clear at the time that they did.
Heavy free agency spends on Courtney Lee, Lance Thomas, Joakim Noah and Tim Hardaway Jr over consecutive summers tied up the salary cap picture and thus roster flexibility on two plateaued veterans, a third much declined one, and bestowed an ambitious projection on the viability of the fourth as a go-to player that he has not come close to realising. It was done with a view to getting average, quickly.
In that bid for averageness and the playoffs, the Knicks came up short. Very short, in fact, finishing 29-53 for their worst record in three seasons and fully throwing in the towel only once Porzingis went down with the serious injury that keeps him out of the line-up still today.
Instead, then, the Knicks entered this summer with a more realistic perception of their place in the NBA hierarchy. This was a team coming off of the back of a 29-win season and to be missing their clear-cut best player for at least the first few months of the season, if not the whole thing. The old adage thus came to pass - if you're going to lose, at least lose with potential.
This adage has been groupthink around the NBA for a long time, yet it has never truly permeated the Knicks, even during this generation of failure. Nevertheless, they have had some success with it by mistake; the lost years and subsequent high draft selections of Porzingis and Frank Ntilikina were accidentally welcome gifts, not a strategy, but they set the tone.
Once the towel was thrown last season, the Knicks began to reposition themselves. Trading away Doug McDermott and Willy Hernangomez (a legitimately good prospect but one who found his path to the rotation blocked on this team) saw them get back a net return of a second-round pick, as well as the reclamation project that is point guard Emmanuel Mudiay.
Mudiay still has many of the flaws that have always hindered him as a prospect - not an efficient scorer from any areas of the court, very streaky, a taker of ambitious shots, and a player who applies little ball pressure on the defensive end. But the freedom availed to him by the lack of expectation on this season has seen him put in some bigger and better performances as a relentless rim attacker than ever before.
Turning the ball over less has also helped, and so while his contractual situation (entering free agency with a large cap hold in a summer in which the Knicks again have big free agency aspirations) may mean he leaves the team after this season, his improved play gives the Knicks another option this summer.
In terms of reclamations, New York is currently giving several million and at least two starting spots to the trio of Mudiay, Mario Hezonja and Noah Vonleh. Hezonja's breakout last season with the Orlando Magic as a versatile combo-forward fell by the wayside after a terrible first two months offensively with his new team, but has found a vein of form of late, while Vonleh has been extremely consistent in a rejuvenation season for him, proving to be solid in all aspects of the game.
To a lesser extent, Trey Burke is also proving to be a successful reclamation scoring guard off the bench, as was Michael Beasley last season. And so while a rebuild would ideally be largely driven by young players with potential in their game and team control on their contracts, there is value to be found in giving airtime to the rejects, misfits and late bloomers from other teams, value the Knicks are currently realising.
That said, it is not just a season for reclamation projects, as they have also had some success with draft picks and two-way contracts.
Prior to his recent injury, this year's second-round pick Mitchell Robinson showed a fascinating level of potential due to his length, athleticism and shot blocking abilities. Passed over in the draft due to the lack of information on him because of his spotty prior history, Robinson wields an impressive level of physical talent and gives the Knicks a truly enticing prospect at a key defensive position.
They also seem to have found another seven-foot prospect worth having in the undrafted Luke Kornet, who has earned his way onto a full contract via a two-way last year. Kornet's combination of jump shot and shot blocking in a frame so long projects to fit in very well with the progression of NBA centres as a whole.
Their latest high draft pick, Kevin Knox, has had some offensive moments of his own. The youngest player on the team has been streaky, not helped by injury, but has flashed the scoring potential that made him a top 10 pick this past summer, and has shared the wing position with a couple of other lower-billed but still decent prospects.
Damyean Dotson (2017 second-round pick) and Allonzo Trier (undrafted signee) have both had their moments of intrigue, Dotson through his off-ball work and rebounding, Trier through his ability to score in isolation.
Porzingis is getting back to full health, too, and although Ntilikina has struggled to play NBA-calibre offence at either guard position, his defensive ability is legitimate. In combination, there is a clearly identifiable core to be found here, which has not been said of a Knicks team for quite some time.
Further to this, the franchise has far better control of its own destiny than what we have become accustomed to over the last few iterations. The Knicks own all their future first-round draft picks, for a change, and while their 2019, 2020 and 2021 second-round picks are owed to various places as relics from deals of years past, they have picks in each of those years coming in from other teams, two of which are from the Charlotte Hornets, who face a highly uncertain future of their own.
Amid all the lost games, then, Knicks fans should try and focus on the bigger picture. What is better for the team going forward - losing 53 games with Courtney Lee, Michael Beasley, Lance Thomas, Ron Baker and Jarrett Jack, or losing 62 games with a roster that is almost exclusively under the age of 25?
If they continue down this road they are on, draft well, and acquire better players in their next free agency endeavour, the Knicks should find that all this losing leads eventually to winning.
