The
Knicks are promoting the new season with a single verb, a directive to their fans: "Declare."As in, declare your allegiance, your passion, your pride. The phrases flash across
the team'sWeb site.
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Danilo Gallinari has been disappointing, but he plays a huge part in the Knicks' plans.
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The team hopes that players like Wilson Chandler will attract star free agents.
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The Knicks need David Lee to keep collecting rebounds by the dozen.
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To those themes, the marketing folks might add a few more: patience, tolerance, blind faith.
The Knicks open the season Wednesday night in Miami and will once again test the fortitude of their fans. By their own estimation, the Knicks will bemediocre at best and quite possibly headed for a ninth straight losing season.
The payoff is supposed to come next July, in the form of
LeBronJames or Dwyane Wade or some other sparkling free-agent star. The Knicks have been hoarding salary-cap space to make that dream possible.
But the short-term result is a lackluster roster that got no significant upgrades this summer, and will most likely remain unchanged for the next eightmonths. So all the Knicks can do is speak hopefully of a .500 record and a playoff berth, while trying to refute the perception that this is a throwawayseason.
"We're not even close to being a throwaway," Coach
MikeD'Antoni said Tuesday. "We're ready to try to make the playoffs and have a great season. And hopefully, the fans will enjoy what we'redoing."
It will be a difficult task. The Knicks are projected to finish in the bottom third of the Eastern Conference.
Viewed through the prism of July 2010, the season holds one great intrigue: Who are the Knicks, and are they a team worth joining?
Because of the
N.B.A.'s salary-cap rules, the Knicks cannot outspend any other team to land asuperstar. In fact, James and Wade can make millions more by staying put. D'Antoni is tremendously popular among N.B.A. stars, but his charm and hiswide-open offense will get the Knicks only so far on the recruiting trail. Ditto for the mystique of Madison Square Garden and the lure of Madison Avenue.
So the Knicks may have to rely on another asset: their players. They need Danilo Gallinari, the sixth overall draft pick in 2008, to fulfill his promise asan offensive star. They need Wilson Chandler to gain confidence as a go-to scorer. They need David Lee to keep collecting rebounds by the dozen.
At some point, the Knicks presumably have to show some progress and some promise, and the ability to help a superstar realize his championshipambitions.
"That's the logic," said the TNT commentator Kenny Smith, assessing the free-agent decisions of James and Wade. "Because the criticism ofyour move is: Did you go to win? And if you're going and you can't win, then why did you move?"
He concluded, "You 100 percent have to go somewhere and win, and have a chance to win."
N.B.A. executives and scouts are generally skeptical about the Knicks' young core. Gallinari needed back surgery last spring and must prove he is morethan a 3-point specialist. Chandler is a versatile athlete, but so far an ordinary player. Lee is a rugged rebounder and interior scorer, but he is lacking asa defender and may have already reached his limits. Jordan Hill, the Knicks' 2009 lottery pick, had a forgettable preseason.
"We have to keep developing the young guys that we are going to go forward with, and then win," D'Antoni said. "I think Wilson and Galloand different guys on the team can be very good players. We need to put them up a notch. And that would mean a lot of wins. So it kind of goes hand inhand."
Four of the Knicks' top rotation players - Lee, Nate Robinson, Chris Duhon and Al Harrington - are free agents next summer and may have to be waived toclear cap space. That, too, makes the sales job difficult.
There is unquestionably an increased urgency for the Knicks' three best young players - Gallinari, Chandler and Lee - to grow up and deliver soon.
"It would be true whether I was going into free agency or not," said
DonnieWalsh, the team president. "I have confidence that we'll have good players on this team that free agents will say, 'Yeah, that guy, I'dlike to play with him.' "
Yet Gallinari, who is considered the Knicks' brightest prospect, will open the season on the bench after a rough preseason. D'Antoni said he wouldopen the season with Duhon and Chandler at guard and Lee, Harrington and Jared Jeffries in the frontcourt.
In Cleveland, James is already playing with three All-Stars, although two of them -
Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas - will be free agents. Next summer, James may be mentally lining upGallinari, Chandler and Lee against the
Cavaliers' Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao and Anthony Parker.
Can the Knicks make a compelling enough case? Will they be more attractive to Wade or James or Chris Bosh than the other half-dozen teams that are projectedto have substantial cap room?
Smith, who was part of two championship teams in Houston, is not convinced. He considered the Knicks' roster and their coach, their arena and theircity, and concluded simply, "That list isn't enough."
The Knicks have 82 games to prove otherwise.