The Knicks Decade of Sadness & DeMar DeRozan’s GOAT-Level Record

WE’VE MADE IT to the All-Star break which means three days off for most players and the obligation of running a game at half-speed in Cleveland for those who made the All-Star game. Better for me, it gives a window between publication and games being played and no teams can immediately prove me wrong on the same day I write about them. 

Highlights of that phenomenon include Boston beating the life out of the Heat the day after I praised Miami and piled-on Boston as well as Atlanta beating the Bucks by 40 at home two hours after I wrote about them not winning a home game for almost 3 months.

This last week of the NBA has been only slightly calmer than last week’s trade deadline madness. We’re yet to see either of the new-look Nets or Sixers in their final forms, and probably won’t for another few games. If I am converting time correctly, which I think I am, their upcoming clash in Philadelphia also falls on the same day as the first Brisbane Broncos game. I think that might be the day that my employer finds out about the ‘back tightness’ which stops me from coming in. 

Now that the Net’s Sixers trade has had some time to breathe, the Brooklyn big-3 of Harden, Durant and Irving is giving me a real Game of Thrones vibe. In only 16 games together, the trio went 13-3 and set records as one of the greatest offensive lineups of all time. When they were on the floor together it was like nothing anyone had ever seen before.

It was like when Jon Snow was running through the North with his ranga girlfriend – it was wild and free and great to watch. Now that it’s over and it’s ended with Durant injured, Kyrie a part time player and Harden relocated – it all feels a bit pointless, a bit Daenerys Targaryen going insane with two episodes left. The whole situation just makes you wonder if it was ever worth it and if you could have done something better with your life – I’m still talking about Game of Thrones by the way. 

At the other end of the New York basketball scale are the New York Knicks. Two weeks ago, I tried to write about how close the Eastern Conference standings were at that time, when 2.5 games stood between the 1st and 6th seed, before I got freaked out by the Suns. Since then, the standings have spread out  – Miami are currently 4.5 games against Boston at 6 and 7 games ahead of Brooklyn at 8, and I’ve watched a whole lot more Eastern Conference basketball. As usual, that’s included far too many Indiana Pacers games – I just can’t help myself but watch a few minutes of them every time I open League Pass. There’s not much worth saying about Indiana until next season, but I already know I’m going to be way too high on the 22/23 version of the Pacers. 

The Knicks Decade of Sadness

THINGS ARE NOT GOING WELL IN NEW YORK, who gave up a 21 point lead against the Lakers, a 23 point lead against Portland and a 28 point lead against the Nets, all in the space of a month. The Knicks have lost 7 of their 8 games this month and once again, the team that is supposed to be the crown jewel of the league is a complete laughing stock, and Stephen A. Smith is rightfully calling for fans to boycott future home games. 

How did this happen? Let’s start with some facts. 

  • Julius Randle was an all-NBA player last season, named Second Team All-NBA;
  • Holding onto an all-NBA player (even a Second Team guys) is a good way to advance your franchise and is generally a smart thing to do; 
  • Julius Randle was the most improved player last season;
  • Holding onto the most improved play is generally a smart thing to do – Giannis was most improved once; 
  • The Knicks played every home game with no fans until Feb 23, when they allowed 2,000 people in, which increased to 15,000 towards the playoffs; and
  • The Knicks are absolute trash this year.

It seems like Randle got used to an empty gym and the absence of screaming Knicks fans, who are mercurial in their support, going from adoration to abandonment in the amount of time it takes for a game winning-attempt to rise and bounce off the back iron. Randle’s had his fair run-in with fans this season, giving them the thumbs down more than once and telling a courtside fan to “shut the fuck up”. Randle has even gotten into it with Knicks staff, slapping away an assistant and his laptop that hopefully just had the words “stop shooting one-footed turnarounds” on it.  

Madison Square has become beat-down town this season. Curry broke the all time 3 point record at the end of 2021 to the loudest cheer that’s been heard from Knicks fans all year. Josh Giddey said he had his game at MSG circled in his calendar, just so he could drop his third career triple double on them. The ‘world’s most famous arena’ has become the place where opposing players come to set career highs and embarrass the locals. 

I don’t want to go full Stephen A. Smith, but when your number 1 fan, Spike Lee, is lying on your home floor looking like a proud mother while he’s taking pictures of an opposition player, your team is officially a joke. 

Things can only go well for so long in New York. For such a storied franchise, the Knicks sure have a lackluster history. The Knicks bad luck over the last decade is almost operatic. 

In February 2012, the Knicks hosted Linsanity, one of the greatest 14 day stretches in NBA history, making Jeremy Lin (and bandaids) an icon. Lin was injured when the win streak became 7 and never returned to the same spotlight he single handedly created. The Knicks did manage to finish the season 18-6, good enough for the 7th seed, going on to manage their first playoff win since 2001 against the Miami Heat, even after Amar’e Stoudemire punched a fire extinguisher, requiring stitches and ruling him out for an embarassing game 3 loss in New York. 

Whilst the 2012/13 regular season was a success, the Knicks finishing 2nd in the East, by 2015 the Knicks have fallen apart all over again, after missing the playoffs the year before, giving them a chance at the number 4 pick in the draft, which they used to take Kristaps Porzingis. In his first two years, Porzingis became the Unicorn, every Knicks fans’ favourite player. It’s easy to forget now but Porzingis was a defensive monster back in his Knick days, he was a more agile Rudy Gobert, capable of covering guys all the way out to the 3 point line. However, happiness is fleeting for the Knicks and by his third season Kristaps had injured his knee so many times that he decided he never wanted to play for New York again, forcing a trade to Dallas and plunging the Knicks back into sadness. 

Knicks fans were teased again before the 2019 draft, where Zion and Ja sat as two gold-wrapped guaranteed franchise changers at the top of the draft, and the Knicks got the 3rd pick and were forced to settle for RJ Barrett. Barret is fine, but there’s a chasm between him, Ja and Zion which is slowly becoming full of Spike Lee’s tears. 

For Knicks fans, a decade is only a small sample size – there’s been 75 whole years of this.

For some reason, I have a weakness for the Knicks. I always feel like they’re about to round a corner whenever they do something remotely sensible, bring in a new guy at value, or make a trade that isn’t complete garbage. The Knicks are just a toddler being praised for what you’d expect of a normal adult, like the way I clapped for my one year-old son for putting an empty yoghurt container in the bin. 

Now, the season after making the playoffs for the first time since 2013, the Knicks spend the off-season locking in Randle, then splash out on Evan Fournier, both of whom they were rumoured to be shopping during the trade deadline. They’re now well outside the playoffs with little hope of improving. But at least we’ll still get the chorus of Stephen A, Desus & Mero and every other Knicks fan screaming about this team being trash because, after all, no one hates the New York Knicks more than Knicks fans. 

DeMar DeRozan’s GOAT Level Record

DEMAR DEROZAN has been on a whole other stratosphere the last two weeks, scoring as if there’s no defender in front of him. In his last 10 games, DeMar is averaging 35.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.8 rebounds and, in Chicago’s win against Sacramento, DeMar became the only player ever to score 35+ while making at least 50% of his shots in 7 consecutive games, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 6 games. 

I’m a Wilt truther but even I can admit that a lot of Wilt’s records were achieved in an era where guys couldn’t dribble with their left hand. Wilt has so many league records and the vast majority of them are untouchable. Wilt has so many records that he once used them as artillery in one of his autobiographies just to take a stab at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The same is true for breaking any kind of record in Chicago – MJ holds all kinds of absurd records there. DeMar is genuinely on a GOAT-level tear right now – he’s doing something Michael never did and the insanity of that fact needs to be acknowledged. 

I once again express my regret for ever doubting DeMar and the Bulls. I have been like a kid at the circus watching him on offense recently, mouth wide open, seeing things I’d never imagined possible. 

DeMar has a new scoring move in his bag which he’s using to destroy drop coverage defenses. When DeMar is the ball handler in a pick and roll and the screener’s defender ‘drops’ below the height of the screen, DeMar throws his dribble way ahead of himself, into the space left open by the defense . By the time DeMar catches the ball his defender is on the backs of their heels and has no idea where DeMar is about to go. 

You can see it here, where Demar picks up his dribble a metre inside of half court, holds it against his hip for a moment before throwing it forward, resuming his dribble at the 3-point line and making Jacob Poetl question which way he’s going next. You could argue that’s a carry and breaking the rules but I don’t care, it’s way too much fun to watch.

This kind of dribble is nothing new, it’s the easiest way to sprint in transition, it’s why Giannis can get from halfway to the basket in one dribble. This is the first time I’ve seen it used at the point of attack in a pick and roll. Drop coverage is potentially effective at baiting DeMar to settle for a 3, since he’s an average 3 point shooter who hovers around the 33% mark, but now he’s getting a full head of steam coming off the dribble like that, it might be time for defenses to figure out another way to guard him.  

DeMar is playing fun basketball right now and it hasn’t even mattered that he’s been missing Zach LaVine since January. The man is a killer, he has so many different ways to score and he’s playing with more confidence than he’s ever played with before. I am unashamedly watching single plays of DeMar on offense on repeat.

Elsewhere in the East, the Celtics are on a tear since the New Year and boast the best defensive rating in the league by a landslide since we made it to 2022. I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t watched enough Boston games to comment on their recent run of form – I’ve made it an assignment for myself to catch up and atone for the Boston slander that I’ve so willingly thrown around this season. 

Until then, it’s time to kick back and watch the All-Star weekend. I’m backing Desmond Bane to win the 3 point competition, Cole Anthony to win the dunk contest (due to personal bias and the fact he can bring his father Greg Anthony to set-up one his dunks) and team LeBron to win the All-Star game. I don’t understand how the Rising Stars game works this year and the game will have been played by the time this is published, so congratulations to whomever.