When Phil Jackson arrived in New York to fanfare and optimism of a franchise rebuild in 2014, the talent cupboard was pretty damn bare. As Phil enters his final stretch as Knicks President, the cupboard is still looking empty. And with Carmelo Anthony seemingly being pushed out and told to consider his options elsewhere and recent reports that Jackson is thinking of trading his only other All-star asset in Kristaps Porzingis, Knicks fans are officially too mentally exhausted to lash out in anger anymore. Its become a sick joke.
NBA guru Adrian Wojnarowski threw that dagger at the Knicks faithful on Twitter, claiming that Phil would consider chucking Porz and replacing him with another 7-foot, jump-shooting project from Arizona in Lauri Markkanen, if he drops to the 8th pick.
Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter
Sources: As teams become aware Phil Jackson isn’t ruling out possibility of trading Kristaps Porzingis, frenzy of interest is growing today.
Of course fans clowned the thought. Knicks fans don’t get mad anymore, they just laugh.
What is Phil Jackson’s plan? With all of his 11 rings and Zen Master magic, he’s run the Knicks into the ground and done no better than the Presidents and orchestrators of destruction that preceded him. It’s really looking like the Knicks were no more than a money grab for Phil.
I don’t think he ever thought he could turn this franchise around, but his greed and ego were too big to walk away from the offer when owner James Dolan came running on bended knee and gave Phil the keys to the kingdom, thinking he was changing the fortunes of the franchise, or at least shutting the fans up for a minute.
Leave it up to Phil to trade the one player who can prove that he has made at least one prudent move since taking over in 2014. The Knicks won 54 games in the 201213 season when Melo powered them to the franchises lone playoff series victory in the past 15 years. Under Jackson they have won 17, 32, and 31 games.
With Melo sure to end up with (hopefully) a contender somewhere, Porzingis is the Knicks’ only power chip, the only player that can be considered somewhat of a stud and the third-year Latvian still has much learning to do. We are yet to even find out if he can carry a team.
Leave it up to Phil Jackson and we’ll never find out. It’s almost like he came here to throw gasoline on a burning franchise. The Knicks are no better than the day he arrived and that was never the plan.
To even consider trading Porz is a move that the 70-year-old Jackson needs to be psychologically evaluated on.
But then again, the entire Knicks franchise reminds me of an insane asylum.
How many bags of shame can Knicks fans wear? How many times can we beg for better players, shrewder management? New ownership?
How long will the torture last?
