There is no way that New York Knicks fans took the comments from executives Steve Mills and Scott Perry in Marc J. Spears' piece for The Undefeated seriously. No way, no how.
To make a long story short, Mills and Perry basically said that the Knicks were not clearing cap space with the intention of signing big-name free agents this offseason and how they are attempting to rebuild by drafting well and bringing in “high-character guys.”
You know as well as I do that that is a load of you know what, and it seems to me that the Knicks are not only bracing for an underwhelming offseason, but are attempting damage control by making it seem like they were never interested in stars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to begin with when the fact of the matter is that the Brooklyn Nets have pulled the rug out from under the Knicks.
All season long, we heard about the possibility of Durant and Irving teaming up in New York, but apparently, we had the wrong New York franchise in mind, as the hot rumor is that Durant and Irving do want to play together in the Big Apple, but on the Nets.
Not only that, but the Knicks' bad lottery luck played a rather significant role in setting the tone for their offseason, as they landed the third overall pick and ended up taking R.J. Barrett instead of ending up with the No. 1 overall selection and snatching Zion Williamson, who would have either served as more motivation for Durant and Irving to head to the Knicks or as Anthony Davis trade bait.
So, basically, everything has come apart at the seams for New York, as the literal worst-case scenario has reared its ugly head.
Now, to be fair to the Knicks, Durant's torn Achilles in the finals also may have changed the way they looked at things, but if Durant really wanted to play for the Knicks, I find it hard to believe that Mills and Perry would have said no.
Let's face it: New York traded Kristaps Porzingis back in January with the idea that it would be signing a couple of star players in free agency this summer. Yes, Porzingis may have wanted out, but the Knicks didn't have to oblige his demands, and maybe if they wouldn't have thrown his name around in AD trade talks to begin with, he wouldn't have been so aggravated.
Even if Porzingis wanted to leave New York, he was under team control. He was set to be a restricted free agent this summer, so the Knicks could have matched any offer he received anyway.
The very idea that New York parted ways with an uber-talented 23-year-old center for a limited return (those first-round picks aren't going to be all that great) in order to “rebuild the right way” is nonsense. The Knicks traded Porzingis in order to free up enough cap space to sign two max free agents, and the two free agents New York had its eye on were Durant and Irving.
If the Knicks really wanted to rebuild in the way they are saying, they would have just re-signed Porzingis this summer, which would have given them an impressive young core of Porzingis, Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Kevin Knox and Allonzo Trier.
Look: there is nothing wrong with striking out in free agency. You can't even blame New York for that. It's not the Knicks' fault that Durant and Irving may want to play for the Nets, and it's also not the Knicks' fault that the ping pong balls didn't go their way.
We can blame them, however, for the way they handled the Porzingis situation (even if Porzingis was hardly innocent), and we can get on their case for spinning all of this into a “this is what we wanted all along” situation.
Again, even with Porzingis, the Knicks took a risk, and there is nothing wrong with taking risks. Almost all championship teams took a risk at some point to assemble the core that they had.
But that's not even the main issue here.
The issue is Mills and Perry insisting that the New York did not go through all of this in order to land a couple of big fish this summer. They know that's not true, and Knicks fans certainly know that's not true.
The funny thing is, New York may actually end up better off by staying the course and continuing with its youth movement. It would have been even better had it kept Porzingis, but I guess hindsight is 20/20 on that.
But let's not sit here and pretend that everything has gone according to plan for the Knicks, because it hasn't.
As a matter of fact, things have gone haywire, and Mills and Perry are obviously aware of it.
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