New York City 2-4-10 – Comes a time every season to sort winners from losers, maybes from realities, & ghost of a chances from not a snowball’s chances in Hell.
By this point, a discerning eye can regard several teams as winners contending for the ultimate prize: NBA championship glory. These teams are the strivers & when any two meet head to head on a given night there is competitive fire lit that warms a fan’s heart.
As well at this point cynical sorts regard several teams as losers contending for a less noble yet still meaningful prize: draft lottery gold. When any two meet head to head on a given night, it is a reminder of an oft-ignored aspect of this €game€ of basketball. That it is a multi-billion dollar business with a futures market all it’s own, with the worst teams getting the best shot at top picks. In this futures market, losses are investments, towards the year’s college or international sensation that could remake the franchise.
Since you can’t just straight tank your season in a naked attempt to garner a top pick, cellar dwelling teams slog it out for wins they’d rather not have. This is the strange in-between place where the Washington & New York found each other Wednesday night, the Knicks ultimately prevailing 107-85.
At the outset of this season, Washington hoped their squad would challenge the best of the East & go deep into the playoffs. However, a rocky transition under new coach Flip Saunders hamstrung efforts even before Gilbert Arenas screwed the pooch during an orgy of bad judgment. With team teardown imminent, they look to the future & hope this year was all a bad dream. Sixteen victories to their credit, perhaps 30 by season’s end, will give them a chance for a top ten, maybe top five pick. Against the Knicks, even their captain, ever-reliable Antawn Jamison only managed 11 points, while Nick Young led the Wiz with 15 points.
To their credit, the Knicks have done a passable job cementing over the Chernobyl-type radiation left from the Isiah Thomas era, having brought in a gifted coach (Mike D’Antoni) and trading/buying out/waiting out/wading through numerous bad contracts under the guidance of GM Donnie Walsh. With highly rated center David Lee a future All-Star & a packed piggy bank for this summer’s free agent bonanza, (LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, & many others all available) New York is well situated. Lee put in 22 points against Washington, and guard Nate Robinson led all scorers with 23.
The difficult thing to predict is what these teams will look like at season’s end. As the trade deadline nears, both will probably trade pieces to free up salary cap space. Washington especially will strip itself of talent in a fire sale, to garner a few more losses & avoid paying any luxury tax during their rebuilding process. New York, having been in rebuild mode for the past few seasons, probably wants to get back to winning & taking advantage of the huge fan base the City provides it. Both organizations will be active in free agency, though the Wiz still has the lingering issue of Gilbert Arenas’s contract to resolve.