Donnie Walsh kind of looks like Earl Milford, founder of Arrested Development’s Milford Academy, but he has made his intentions both seen and heard since he took over the Knicks in April of 2008.
Walsh has worked tirelessly to dig the team out from the under the giant stinking pile of muck Isiah Thomas dumped all over it in his epically terrible tenure.
Today, Walsh pulled off a three-team deal to ensure that the Knicks will be able to sign two max free-agents this offseason, when, among others, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade hit the open market. He had to give up a couple draft picks and Jordan Hill to do it, but it was, as Marlo Stanfield might put it, “some Spiderman s@#!.”
It strikes me that, only a few paragraphs deep in this post, I’ve already referenced two of the greatest television shows of all time. It wasn’t intentional, but maybe it had something to do with the subconscious knowledge that the Knicks, for the past several years, have been nearly unwatchable.
So as only a casual fan of the team and, hell, the entire professional game, maybe the allusions to Arrested Development and The Wire signify my hope that next year’s Knicks — with LeBron and Bosh or LeBron and whoever — could become the type of programming so transfixing, so transcendently awesome that I feel the need to watch and rewatch every moment, like I once did those shows.
And it could happen. If it all goes down according to Walsh’s plan, it’s entirely likely.
The fear, of course, is that it won’t. That King James will stay put in Cleveland and Walsh will be left with some lesser free-agent haul and egg all over his face.
The thing is, Walsh — with the way he’s gone about eradicating the detritus of Isiah’s amazing orgy of suckitude — should by now have earned enough faith from the Knicks’ fanbase for it to assume he’ll do well with the cap space he’s fought for since the day he took the reins.
So the Knicks’ deadline deals — to this partial but somewhat distanced observer, at least — don’t say “LeBron or bust,” as much as they say “tabula rasa.” Walsh will enter the offseason with a clean slate and a ton of flexibility to mold the team in his and Mike D’Antoni’s image, and only Eddy Curry left to show for the Isiah Thomas Era.
Of course, building a good team is a lot different than dismantling a crappy one, and it remains to be seen if Walsh is nearly as good at the former as he is at the latter.
Put me down for bullish, though. At the very least, I’m guessing he’ll be better than Isiah.
Tedquarters 
I don’t really follow the NBA at all, but a move like the one Walsh made today takes cojones. I like the thought process of freeing up that kind of cap space, even if it might not work out in the end. As bad as the Knicks have been in the last, what, 10 years, you might as well go for broke.
I’ve got to hope LeBron stays put. Not only because one of my sports is hating the Knicks (a sport I’ve been unable to really relish for years now), but because towns should get to keep their great, great stars. It just ought to be that way.
I understand the importance of cap space…but trading 2010, 2012, and possibly 2011 first round picks seems like a pretty steep price to pay for the possibility to sign big name free agents, some of whom may not even hit the open market. Especially since they won’t be able to outbid their current teams, since they can go over the cap to resign players, they’d have to convince them they have a better chance of winning there too. It just seems like a major gamble, especially since they won’t be left with many tradeable assets should they miss out on most of the big names.
Well what was the other option? Continue sucking and hope to rebuild the team around Jordan Hill and some draft picks in 2011 and 2012?
The 2010 draft pick was already gone thanks to isiah. 2011 can be swapped. This was the only way to go and I give walsh credit, regardless of how much potential Hill has.
Gina, they are swapping 2011 picks and the Rockets will get the Knicks 2012 pick if its outside of the top 5. Big deal. The NBA draft is different then other sports. Jordan Hill will be nothing better then Channing Frye. He’ll never be a difference maker. Great trade.
First, there is still a REALLY good chance that the Knicks get neither James nor Wade. And Bosh and Johnson could be off the table, too. Why would they want to come? Who would they be surrounded by? Gallo, TD, and Chandler, plus a bunch of veterans getting the league minimum?
Ted, I believe it is you who has written about the Mets need for “guys” Basically average-to-above-average guys that you develop from within and round out your roster. They save you money on your role role players so you can overspend on the top talent when you have to. Basketball is not that different.
Last, it is astonishing to me that I am 30 years-old, I have been a Knick fan for my entire life, and it feels like the Knicks have been giving away draft picks since I was a fetus. Some things never change.
Well where else will LeBron go? He’ll either stay in Cleveland or go to the Knicks IMO. He’s not going to Chicago, thats Jordan’s Town and always will be. Maybe the Clips, but they’re always in disarray and why would he want to play on the 2nd-class team in Kobe’s city anyway? He can build his own legacy in NYC where there really hasn’t been a superstar in forever.
Same kinda holds true for Wade. Noone shows up to Miami games, he comes to NYC and he becomes an instant star.
Why wouldn’t he just stay in Cleveland? No team can offer more money, they can go over the cap to sign him, and I seriously doubt with the team as constructed, and the fact they’ll have no picks and just enough money to sign Lee and one max player, and some 4 million dollar player or two max players and no one else, they certainly can’t convince him he’d have a better chance to win. Same with Wade, plus why wouldn’t Wade go to Chicago if he was going to win?
SHUT UP! No Lebron won’t stay in Cleveland! *Puts fingers in ears* LALALALLALA.
Seriously, at least one of those guys has to want to take up the challenge of taking the Knicks to glory. So what if they miss out on 2 mil or so? They’ll more than make up for it in endorsements. If they win they’ll be writing up a hell of a legacy.
At least, thats the way I’ll be deluding myself until the summer.
Because I like to kick knicks fans when they’re down, I’m not sure there’s really any reason to believe they’d make up for it in endorsements, at least not Lebron since he’s pretty much maxed out as it is. I mean how could he conceivably be any bigger/more marketable than he already is. Maybe there might be an improvement for Wade to move to a better basketball market but if there was I would imagine it would make more sense to go to Chicago, as it’s his hometown and he’d be the returning son back to lead his city to glory.
By the way I’m a nets fan, which is why I take pleasure from poking holes in the dreams of knicks fans. It’s the inferiority complex.