This was a day made for Stephen A Smith… even if he was completely miserable. It was not a good day for the New York Knicks.
The opening day of free agency has been good for most teams but has been extremely bad for the New York Knicks. The team failed to land Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, two of the top free agents they have coveted for months. They are also poised to miss out on Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler, which means that trading Kristaps Porzingis to free up cap space was a waste.
Knicks fans are obviously furious and disappointed, especially ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, who took to Twitter to rant about the team's disastrous offseason.
For the past eight months, the Knicks have been preparing for this year's offseason. Their master plan was to tank, land the first pick in the draft, trade for Anthony Davis, and sign Durant and Irving. Unfortunately, none of those things happened. They landed the third overall pick, which they used to sign Duke University standout R.J. Barrett, but they did not have enough pieces to convince the New Orleans Pelicans to give them AD. Instead, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Then, KD and Kyrie committed to long-term deals with the Brooklyn Nets.
In a span of roughly two months, the Knicks struck out on Zion Williamson, Davis, Durant, and Irving.
What made things worse is the fact that months before free agency, there were reports that Durant joining the Knicks was already a done deal.
Well, that's obviously not the case… and the biggest beneficiary shares the New York market with them, over in Brooklyn.
But everything is not lost for the Knicks. They have enough cap space to build a competitive team. They've already signed Julius Randle to a three-year deal, so that's not a bad start. Yes, they weren't able to accomplish what they were supposed to accomplish, but the right decisions from here could help them build a roster that's good enough to make the playoffs.
Well… that's the positive spin, at least. Good luck selling the Knicks on that line of thought.