I’ll admit it. When I woke up to the news of Phil Jackson’s firing on Wednesday, I smiled ear to ear. Knicks fans don’t get many of those moments. However, the releasing of the Zen Master back into the NBA wild isn’t a cure-all for a team with many ills. The Knicks find new avenues of dysfunction on a yearly basis. It all leads back to several tenets in life and sport. You can’t fire your family and you can’t fire your team’s owner. Even with Phil Jackson gone, James Dolan still remains. Dolan feels heroic right now, but we all know another season of misery is imminent.
The timing of Jackson’s dismissal wasn’t a coincidence. Free agency is about to begin and Phil’s presence was toxic. He’d lost touch long before this past week, just nobody seemed ready to admit it. Over the past half year though, he’s made Madison Square Garden the antithesis of a free agent destination. The organization egregiously overpaid players who were washed up before the ink dried. Phil was allowed to alienate his two best players with no recourse and no real plan of attack once they were gone. He had to be the smartest guy in the room. Yet each move he made spoke to the contrary.
But what are the Knicks going to do now? None of the top names on the market are going to end up in orange and blue in 2017-18. That is a near guarantee. Kristaps Porzingis still wants out. Carmelo Anthony will only accept a much-discussed buyout on his strict terms. Their first round pick Frank Ntilikina, Jackson’s final troll salvo, can’t even get a proper practice jersey. Wednesday morning’s glow is gone. Reality has set in again. Who will accept the unenviable task of trying to pick up the pieces?
The Garden’s first choice is Toronto’s Masai Ujiri. The former Executive of the Year would be quite the coup. But he’s under contract with the Raptors until the end of next season. The team has $20 million soaked into the deposed Jackson. Losing more money, and possible picks, to Toronto to land Ujiri is far too steep. It is a move that reeks of desperation. Said desperation is warranted, but it isn’t a good look for potential free agents. And if we are to believe the Garden, free agents want to come to New York. (Cue spit take)
Another move that would show a lack of pulse would be re-hiring Isiah Thomas. Zeke has come out and said he has no interest in the gig, but I just can’t trust that Dolan still won’t pursue him. I could go into deeper detail on why this is the worst idea. If you are reading this you already know that. A profanity-laden Anti-Isiah meltdown is unnecessary (despite how fun and cathartic it would be).
Former Cavs GM David Griffin is the other name floating around. No longer attached to a franchise, he doesn’t have the price tag of Ujiri. He also doesn’t possess the baggage of Thomas. But in my eyes, Griffin’s work in Cleveland seems diminished by the presence of LeBron James. It isn’t hard to convince people to come to Cleveland with one of the league’s transcendent players in your midst. Kristaps Porzingis doesn’t have that attraction yet, and who knows how long The Unicorn is planning on staying in the Big Apple.
The latest suitor is Kentucky head coach John Calipari. Coach Cal has reportedly expressed interest in the role Jackson just vacated. Unless Kentucky is about to go under sanctions, I don’t believe this at all. Calipari has too good of a gig at UK and throwing that away in order to tell Steve Mills what to do is foolish. He is doing his best Nick Saban/Rick Pitino impression at the moment stating his desire to remain in Lexington. But when the Knicks are involved, toss logic out the window.
As with most things involving this club, my mind is all over the place following the Jackson departure. I struggle to find a balance between optimism and realism when it comes to the Knicks. Every time they do something universally applauded, like severing ties with Jackson, a move of paralleled irrationality isn’t far off. We as a contingent want to believe that the realization that Phil lost touch will send the team in a more positive direction. But it won’t.
Releasing Jeff Hornacek from the tyranny of the triangle sounds beneficial. His style only works though if he gets the players he needs to run opponents to death. Once again, that will be tough with the climate and culture the team currently has. There is not nearly enough light at the end of the tunnel.
The 2017-18 Knicks are going to be bad. Allowing Phil Jackson to see out his contract would have made them worse. I go back to what I said earlier though. You can’t fire your owner. As long as James Dolan is the man who signs the checks, a rebuild is out of the question. The Knicks keep blowing into their cartridges when in reality they need to throw out their system. James Dolan’s Knicks have cancer, and Phil Jackson’s firing is by no means the cure for that cancer.