NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony is unhappy, Kurt Rambis has joined Derek Fisher on the back pages of the New York tabloids, for all the wrong reasons, and Phil Jackson can’t do anything about another Knicks season headed down the drain.
So why are some Knicks fans celebrating?
They heard the news out of Memphis that Marc Gasol needs foot surgery and is done for the season. Letting imaginations run wild, they have jumped to the conclusion that Mike Conley will head to New York this summer when he becomes a free agent.
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Conley has replaced Kevin Durant as the free-agent flavor of the week for a delusional segment of the fan base that is waiting for LeBron James to walk through the Garden’s doors and sign with the Knicks.
New York’s top sports-talk voice, WFAN’s Mike Francesa, fanned the Conley-to-Knicks flames for his friends who run Madison Square Garden and regularly set him up with the very best seats in the house. Francesa’s basic point: Conley will be thrilled to leave an aging team with a center with a bum foot and an uncertain future in Memphis, to come to New York and get a chance to play with Kristaps Porzingis in the basketball paradise Jackson has created in his two years running the Knicks.
Oh, really?
Maybe Francesa forgot, but the Knicks are as dysfunctional as ever, even after firing incompetent and distracted Fisher. If they lose in Indiana on Wednesday night, their record since last season will be 41-100. They're coming off a 27-point blitzing at home by Toronto; even Francesa had to admit the Knicks “lost on and off the court.” He was referencing the latest scandal to hit a Jackson protégé. Fisher had his troubling Matt Barnes problem, and Rambis was on Twitter following a porn site.
It’s not the crime of the century, but you know who can’t be liking that? Knicks owner James Dolan.
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The Knicks have a place for Conley. Their point guard situation is a nightly horror, with Jose Calderon too slow and unathletic to stay with opponents, Langston Galloway best as a backup, and rookie Jerian Grant not a threat to make a shot outside 10 feet.
Conley isn’t the kind of big guard Jackson favors in his beloved Triangle, but who says Conley wants to uproot himself and come play in an antiquated system, anyway? Although he recently came through the Garden with the Griz and said that “everything will be on the table" this summer, he’s looking at getting a substantially richer offer from Memphis, along with something else Jackson can’t offer: the chance to stay with a ready-made playoff team.
Sure, Memphis needs to make some adjustments, with Zach Randolph slowing down and there being a need to get more athletic with more skilled shooters. But Gasol, even at 31, isn’t Bill Walton or Yao Ming, not by a long shot. He had surgery to repair a non-displaced Type II fracture of his navicular bone. The two-time All-NBA center is expected to make a full recovery and be back for the 2016-17 season.
“Marc remains a cornerstone of our franchise and we are pleased to hear that the surgery went according to plan,” Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said in a news release. “Marc's determination and competitive spirit will serve him, his family and the team well as he begins the healing and rehab process from which we expect him to make a full recovery. We are confident we will have Marc back anchoring our team next season and beyond.”
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Conley did a lot of lobbying with Gasol last summer to stay with the Grizzlies when he could have left town as a free agent. Conley’s persistence played a role in Gasol never even taking a phone call from another team. According to sources, Conley might look around, but he’s not running for the exits if he gets a max deal from Memphis that could get him a salary starting at $25 million.
Even with the Rockets, Mavericks and Spurs expected to go after Conley this summer, the Grizzlies have a very good chance of keeping him with a max offer that will top anything the Knicks or other teams can dangle by around $30 million, via the extra fifth season and larger raises only the Grizzlies can offer. Memphis never seriously entertained an offer for Conley at the trade deadline because management firmly believes it can re-sign him after July 1.
“He wants to get paid,” former Grizzlies and Nets coach Lionel Hollins recently said on Sirius XM NBA Radio. “Will Memphis pay him as much as somebody else? If he can get to a situation that has a future of winning, or is he going to go to a team that doesn't have a future of winning? That's probably going to be important to him as well.”
That’s where Knicks fans need to wake up and take a long, sober look at what’s going on in the Garden. So much is up in the air and will make free agents like Durant and Conley think twice about coming to New York, which doesn’t have a No. 1 pick this June.
Will Jackson stick around beyond this season? Or will Dolan step in and decide he needs to find a proven GM who embraces the way basketball is played in 2016 and will restructure the roster accordingly? If Jackson does stay, who’s the coach? Another protégé who favors the Triangle and sports a losing record, like former Denver bust Brian Shaw? Porzingis is the best thing about the Knicks, but when Francesa recently went ga-ga, tabbing him a future MVP and calling him “unstoppable," he came off as a Garden shill. Again.
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Here’s another biggie: What’s Anthony’s future? After the Toronto debacle, when Knicks fans showered some of the nastiest boos on 'Melo and his teammates, he was all gloom and doom. But is it enough to make him waive his no-trade clause if this season ends up where it’s headed, in another playoff-less finish? If so, where he’s going, and who’s coming back in return?
Conley will find the neon lights are brighter on Broadway than they are on Beale Street. As for the basketball part of it, he’s better off staying where there’s more winning, now and most likely in the future.
