New York Rangers: Be thankful they’re not the Knicks

For as rough as a second straight year without postseason hockey at Madison Square Garden will be, take a second and be grateful that the New York Rangers are not the New York Knicks.

There are few guarantees in life: death, taxes, Tom Brady playing in the AFC title game, Henrik Lundqvist being underappreciated and of course, the New York Knicks’ resembling a dumpster fire. Following the team’s abysmal salary dump trade of franchise cornerstone Kristaps Porzingis, New York Rangers’ fans should be grateful the team is not run like their co-tenant.

We all take slights against our favorite teams as an indictment of ourselves. However, at some point, enough is enough and the fans deserve better. While the Rangers were an example to much of the NHL this decade as to how to be a well-run organization, the Knicks are about as far away from a model as humanly possible.

The stark contrast between the two co-tenants of Madison Square Garden could not be any greater. The Rangers are left to their own devices so that Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton have complete autonomy in roster construction and direction of the franchise. But, the Knicks are incessantly meddled with and so intertwined with owner James Dolan they have a visible stink.

Bill Simmons of the Ringer.com revealed on his podcast Thursday afternoon that both LeBron James and Dwayne Wade planned on jumping to the Knicks during the summer of 2010 but were so thoroughly unimpressed with the team’s presentation, they both opted to sign with the Miami Heat and the rest is history.

This would be the equivalent of the Rangers hosting Erik Karlsson and Artemi Panarin this summer for a meeting with the prevailing logic being that both want to join the team and completely whiffing.

The utter incompetence of the Knicks’ can solely be attributed to Dolan. He’s handpicked coaches, general managers and team presidents for past 19 years with just two playoff appearances to show for it. There’s a reason that the Rangers are run well, the Cablevision heir has no idea about anything hockey related so he stays out of it.

Dolan obviously knows nothing about basketball either but cannot seem to take a hint.

The Porzingis debacle

Anytime a franchise cornerstone is discouraged about the direction of the team, it should cause ownership and the front office to take pause. If they cannot convince a player who everything is built around, what does that say about the outside perception from other teams and players?

By all accounts, Kristaps Porzingis is a generational talent, a stretch five that can both protect the rim and stretch the floor. Sure, his injury issues as a 7’3 man are concerning, it’s hard for the body to work properly at that size, but when he was healthy, he averaged nearly three blocks a game and was an above average passer of the basketball.

After Porzingis tore his ACL late last year, the expectation was that the center would sit out the entire 2018-2019 season to focus on being all the way back for the 2019-2020 season. Besides, the Knicks were going to try and tank their way into a top three pick in the NBA draft to give the Latvian unicorn a running mate to try and get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

However, Porzingis was disenchanted with the direction of the organization and made his concerns known during a meeting with the team executives on Thursday afternoon. Less than an hour later he, along with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee were members of the Dallas Mavericks in a blatant salary dump.

The Knicks’ front office used its franchise player (Porzingis) as an asset to entice another team to take on the Hardaway Jr. and Lee contracts. This makes the future of the Knicks’ franchise wholly contingent upon the front office’s ability to entice two elite free agents this upcoming summer. If it cannot successfully court Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving or Kemba Walker, things will be quite bleak.

Down the hall

While Sather and Gorton are not the second comings of Steve Yzerman and Stan Bowman, they’ve managed to perform at a respectable level. Yes, it took Sather ten years to realize that the solution to roster issues was not just throwing money at over the hill free agents, but I digress. For much of this decade, the Rangers were firmly in the mix of Stanley Cup contenders.

Now, the organization is in the midst of a reset in the hopes of capturing a second Stanley Cup since 1940. The main difference between the Knicks and Rangers is the level of autonomy afforded to the executives between the two. It’s blatantly obvious that Dolan constantly is in the ear of the Knicks’ brass and pushes them to make impulsively make moves.

What the Knicks did to Porzingis was an outright abomination. The Rangers’ brass being afforded the luxury of time to reorganize is something the Knicks desperately need. There is no urgency to win right now because it would not be logistically possible for the hockey club to do so.

Having bad ownership is a one-way ticket to total organizational dysfunction. Thankfully, Dolan doesn’t bother Sather or Gorton and the franchise has a direction. The results will come and hopefully, Dolan doesn’t start watching TSN.