The Knicks, In One Paragraph

Woj has a column up that's ostensibly about the Knicks' latest insane notion—that they can sign Kevin Love in 2015—but which actually serves as a fine excuse to catalog New York's pervasive, perpetual state of rot. It captures basically every ill of the franchise in one tidy paragraph:

Within the Knicks coaching staff, they believe Chris Smith doesn't even have the talent to be an NBA Development League player – never mind worthy of a roster spot. One opposing GM called him "maybe the worst player in the history of the [NBA] summer league."

Chris Smith, you'll remember, is the brother of Knicks' guard JR Smith, and made the roster as a package sweetener for his brother, who was a free agent this summer (both Smiths are represented by Creative Arts Agency). The deal is an embarrassing act of deference to CAA, but Woj points out that James Dolan, the Knicks' genital wart of an owner, actually forced through a guaranteed contract for the younger Smith last year, when he was represented by a different agency, before he blew out his knee. Now the worst player in summer league history is clogging up a roster spot when New York needs to find room for a big man with Tyson Chandler out several weeks. And all of this tucked neatly into the solidification of the Knicks as Carmelo's team; he's seized more than enough organizational power to squash idiotic roster moves, but seems uninterested in flexing it, settling for churlish banalities about winning and pull-up jumpers.

Nepotism, bad deals, self-inflicted obstacles, very bad basketball players, and a lethargic motioning toward a non-existent future. Doesn't get much more Knicks than that.

[ Yahoo]