As I write this blog post, I am actually watching the Knicks lose (which has become one of my favorite past times) to the Celtics. This does not come as a surprise at all since the Celtics sit at the top of the Eastern Conference Standings but this is a Celtics team that does not have their superstar point guard, Kyrie Irving. The Knicks are trying to keep it close but the athleticism of players like Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum are beating us all over the floor. We previously talked about the Knicks weakness at the small forward position and the Celtics boast one of the strongest tandems of small young small forwards that can really do it all. We really need to take advantage of our big guys down low like Porzingis and Kanter that can overpower their smaller front court. A win here could really help us make our way towards a playoff opportunity as we are sitting right outside playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
While watching the game, one of the key points of discussion amongst the commentators is the current situation regarding our center Joakim Noah. If you read my previous blog post, you are well aware of my displeasure with Joakim Noah. But if for some reason you did not read my previous blog post, allow me to recap. So, Joakim Noah is a center on the New York Knicks roster who was acquired two years ago form the Chicago Bulls in free agency. He was signed to a multi year contracts worth over 70 million dollars. Hearing that extremely large number, you would think we would be handing that money over to a player who is good and can contribute to the team, but oh no, not at all. Noah’s first season with New York was average. He demonstrated the capability to rebound and play defense (sometimes… which is terrible for someone who had previously won Defensive Player of The Year honors). His offensive abilities where horrendous outside of a foot away from the basket (please refer to the video in my previous post if you do not believe me). Overall, not completely a bust, definitely not worth what we were paying him, but not awful. Several awful performances and injuries later, we are currently forking over every penny of that disgusting contract, he is technically a New York Knick, but he has since walked away from the team. Yeah somehow you can do that.
Not that Joakim leaving the team is a bad thing at all. He is actually terrible and has not played a minute yet this season and has only caused trouble and issues in the locker room. It isn’t that he isn’t with the team that bothers me, it’s just the principle that we are paying him more than the president makes (by a lot) and he can’t even come and play basketball. To explain why he is not currently with the team, he apparently had a confrontation with head coach Jeff Hornacek at a practice earlier this month, so Joakim simply decided to leave. Apparently it is that easy. So he is currently getting paid to not even show up to practices (sounds like a sweet gig). Now I’m sure the Knicks could go take legal matters to drag him back to the team because you know that contract thing he signed for some reason requires you to actually be a part of the team, but today the Knicks announced that they will not require Noah to return to the team until at least the trade deadline on February 8th. Hopefully before then, the Knicks can somehow wave a magic wand and just somehow get rid of his contract but their options are very limited. They can attempt to trade Noah but what team would be dumb enough to take on his contract. If we traded him, we would likely have to trade away more than Noah for probably nothing in return. Other options include buying out his contract (which Noah refuses to do because he wants every cent of that contact), or waiving or cutting him, both of which will pretty much give him what he wants by having to pay the majority of his remaining contract while he gets off the team and can just keep collecting pay checks for the next three years.
So obviously, this is a terrible situation and I think it is very greedy on Joakim Noah’s part but I’m sure the Knicks will figure something out…. hopefully
Update: The Knicks are getting crushed by the Celtics… ugh
