Knicks · Matt Moore: The Audacious Optimism of Phil Jackson's 2016-17 New York Knicks (page 1)

here is something endearing about the hopefulness inherent in the 2016-17 Knicks headed into the season. It's been called short-sighted, it's been called a super-team, it's been called a dog-and-pony show. But what it can't be called is skeptical.
The Knicks have built a flashy, star-studded roster full of names but low on ability, unless the absolute best-case scenario consistently develops across multiple questions. Here's the crazy part. The best version of the Knicks is a team that makes the playoffs and probably is a challenger in the first round with a healthy contest in the second. It's just that very few outside of New York expect that to be the case, since that's life. The best case scenario is rarely what goes down, and when you factor in that it's the Knicks, those probabilities go even further down. New York does not have the best luck in the "things working out" department.
President Phil Jackson thought the 2014-15 Knicks would make the playoffs. The Zen Master is a former hippie who studies philosophy and humanist psychology while exploring spirituality and does all of that in the context of the game. He is not someone who enters situations with a "can't do," attitude. He believes in being able to accomplish not just goals, but greater levels of performance from a "spirit of the game" standpoint.
You can see that with how he built this roster.
Archetypes and heroes
Jackson clearly feels some level of connection with Noah, after they shared a dentist. But to sign him to $72 million, Jackson is saying in no uncertain terms that he believes Noah can return to who he was in 2014, when he was an MVP candidate. Noah was able to defend any position, rip down a rebound, scream someone's ear off, make short jumpers and finish putbacks. He was a monster in those days, and was maybe the best passing big man we've seen this decade, including Marc Gasol.
But that all seemed gone the past two years. The story on Noah now is one of another victim of Tom Thibodeau's ruthless minutes allocation and the lack of restraint it showed. He's considered "broken down," or "washed" as the kids say.
Derrick Rose, too, is a tough sell to fans these days. Rose fits all the criteria of what Jackson has wanted for some time. Consider that this was written by Jackson months ago, right after he fired Derek Fisher, in regards to their offseason needs:
"One of our several needs will be to sign a guard who can penetrate and attack the basket in early offense and screen/roll situations. Whomever we sign also has to avoid over-handling the ball and be able to get us into our offense if we can't run ourselves into an easy shot.
"I've always liked big guards...6-4, 6-5, around there. That's because having someone that big reduces the disadvantages of having to switch on high screens."

Source: The Phil Jackson Chronicles Part 5 - Firing Fisher.
An attacking pick-and-roll point guard with size? That's Derrick Rose. Right there. That's Rose. But Rose has looked nothing like the player he was with Chicago when he won MVP in 2011. He looks like a shell of that player, unable to find that extra burst of athleticism, unable to modify his game to be perimeter oriented with his shot. "Derrick Rose will never be the same again."
Derrick Rose Knicks
Derrick Rose is hoping to rekindle his career with the Knicks. Getty Images
Brandon Jennings is trying to come back from Achilles surgery which cost him much of last season. You're never supposed to be the same after that, and Jennings had never lived up to his top-prospect billing prior. He was just another point guard then. Now he's just another point guard, trying to recover his career from the one injury left that truly ruins them for basketball players.
Then there's Carmelo Anthony. Anthony should, by all rights and reasons, be gone. He should have asked for a trade long ago, and the Knicks should have gotten a bevy of picks and prospects back. That's how these things work. (Honestly he shouldn't have re-signed in 2014, from a basketball perspective, but Anthony has shown that his mind is on other areas when it comes to that, many of them admirable-- like wanting to help his community the most.) Instead he's still here. Aging, his legacy diminishing every day in comparison to his contemporaries from the 2003 draft.
A non-linear story untold
Here's the thing with all this, though. For years, the Knicks have been hammered for short-sighted moves as they sought to cut corners on their way back to contention. (Writers like this one have constantly blasted nearly every move they made.) This, though, really is a bit different. It's important to remember that careers aren't linear. Kyle Lowry was a talented prospect, then a disgruntled malcontent, then a moody solid starter, and now an All-Star franchise player. Chauncey Billups was a bust until he became one of the best floor generals since the turn of the millennium.
Take the Noah concern. The idea is that Thibodeau put too many miles on him. Yet the same thing was said about Luol Deng, who when he arrived in Miami, was also considered "washed." You know what Deng was last year? Vital to the third seed in the East and a hyper-versatile wing/combo forward who did everything that was needed, because he was still very skilled. All these players are skilled, they are also able. They can do things on the floor that lesser players cannot because of their talent and experience.
You have to remember that the Knicks weren't going anywhere before this summer. They had Kristaps Porzingis, they had Melo, and that was it. They didn't have a draft pick and didn't have a way to meld a young core with Melo or to sign big marquee free agents. So there you have to split the difference.
Could this be a disaster for the Knicks? Absolutely.

A man drinks what his friends drink. A real man drinks what he wants with Stoli flavored vodka. Enjoy...
But try and think of it if you're Phil Jackson, and you're an optimist. If you believe in the best possible scenario, there's so much this Knicks team can accomplish. If it falls short, if Noah's good but Rose is not, or Jennings thrives but Melo grows frustrated, there's still growth there. You can't stay still in the NBA and the Knicks weren't so desolate as to go with the Brooklyn Nets' (wise) brand of masochistic austerity in the hopes of instilling organizational and structural discipline.
They took the opposite approach, and even if New York fails, it won't do so in any more disappointing or frustrating ways than the Knicks teams of the past. For once in the James Dolan era, this is a team worth hoping for the best.