As has become customary, the Knicks were easily the worst in the NBA in blocked shots and third worst in field goal percentage against. Stephon Marbury and Isiah Thomas clashed early in the season, which fully derailed any hopes for normalcy and competitiveness. Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph were not a match, and the remainder of the roster proved to be decidedly unspectacular. Their per game FIC differential was -16.8, which was 29th in the NBA, and it was a regression of -9.9 per game from the 06-07 season. Nine of their 15 players were overpaid according to my objective Reina Value metric. The hiring of Mike D'Antoni will surely help, but if they are just going to tinker with the roster to clear cap space while waiting for the possibility of one of those 2003 draft class guys, it will be another frustrating run of seasons. Player: Overall Rank, Season FIC, Per 40 FIC, Reina Value - David Lee: 49th, 904, 15.3, +960% Lee was the highest ranked Knick in both season and per 40 FIC, but his 07-08 season can only be categorized as a step backwards to a firm step on his plateau. In 06-07, he had a per 40 FIC of 17.6, which was 13th in the NBA amongst those ranked in the top 100. This meant he was more productive in this metric than players like Kobe, Dwight Howard, LeBron, Chris Paul; the list can go on. In 07-08, it dropped down 2.3 points, which was due to significant drops in his rebound rate and field goal percentage. In nearly identical minutes, his rebounds and assists per 40 minutes of play dropped substantially as did his field goal percentage (60.0% to 55.2%). He remains the Knicks' most valuable commodity and a very good, hard-working player who will do whatever it takes to adapt to D'Antoni, but projections have to be tempered. - Jamal Crawford: 57th, 855, 10.7, +20% Crawford continues to be productive primarily when the team isn't expected to win, and pressure is minimal. He is a great freelance player, and I've always believed he would thrive in the triangle, but there are reservations of how he will perform in a Phoenix style of offense. With his ability to beat people off the dribble, he can be a pseudo-Barbosa, but he must be a more consistent perimeter shooter (35.6% from three). His 10.7 per 40 FIC follows a 9.7, 10.7, and 10.4 during his previous three seasons in New York. The uptick was largely due to an increase in 3-point accuracy and an improvement of his assist/turnover ratio from 1.6 to 2.1. - Zach Randolph: 63rd, 826, 14.7, -32% Randolph was virtually the same Randolph we became familiar with in Portland. Good scorer, volume rebounder, bad defender. Playing beside Curry was a disaster, but when playing beside Lee, he was actually quite effective. They will unquestionably attempt to trade Randolph, but finding a taker without aversely affecting their future cap situation will be improbable. Holding onto him at this point doesn't really hurt the club since he, at least, does have talent and could prove useful depending on whom they walk away with from the draft. - Nate Robinson: 145th, 509, 10.8, +259% The VSL MVP exits this season as one of the Knicks' only attractive commodities beyond Lee. He shot just 33.2% from beyond the arc, which is a continued decline from when he entered the league as a 39.7% 3-point shooter. This club was unquestionably better when he was on the floor, and he exhibited more maturity as he became less turnover prone. - Fred Jones: 200th, 380, 8.6, -9% Jones was the closest thing the Knicks had to an efficient 3-point shooter, hitting 38.5% of his attempts, but his time in New York is likely over. - Eddy Curry: 213th, 365, 9.5, -69% Finally and unquestionably, Curry showed that he will never be the dominant low-post center many qualified basketball minds expected him to become. I still believe much of that is within him, but there are quite a few intangibles he is missing. The Knicks were almost always atrocious when he was on the floor especially defensively. Playing Curry and Randolph together utterly killed them nearly every single moment in which they were paired. Whatever he delivers offensively is negated and then some with his amazingly poor ability to shot block, defend, and rebound, which cannot be understated and this is coming from someone who has been a defender of Curry and 'The Curry Trade' for sometime now. - Quentin Richardson: 217th, 357, 7.8, -67% Richardson dropped from 11.8 per 40 FIC to just 7.8 this season; a four point drop in one season is dramatic, and his inability to rebound as he did when he averaged 7.2 per game in 06-07 season is the prime culprit of the fall. - Renaldo Balkman: 249th, 243, 10.2, +64% Balkman, who shot 43.2% from the floor, will never be the kind of shooter that commands anything more than fringe rotation minutes. He is unquestionably an impact player on the defensive side of the ball, but his spark plug abilities would be better served on a team that had multiple high-quality scorers, like Bowen has in San Antonio. - Jared Jeffries: 253rd, 239, 7.2, -65% I don't really like to knock Isiah for the two bad MLE signings, but Jeffries and Jerome James have clearly been a waste of everyone's time and Dolan's money. John Salmons and Jannero Pargo both would have been much better options with the MLE cash that summer in which Isiah must have felt as if he was in a 'use it or lose it' situation. - Stephon Marbury: 272nd, 199, 9.9, -91% Marbury was the ninth highest ranked player in season FIC during his first full season with the Knicks, but the 15.4 per 40 FIC dropped to 11.5 with Larry Brown and 10.7/9.9 under Isiah Thomas. It is now laughable to call him a Hall of Fame point guard, but he looked like he was when the Knicks acquired him from Phoenix. The nose dive that he and Steve Francis have gone through is really dumbfounding and not at all gradual. He hasn't been able to adjust to the loss of his athleticism as climbing the ladder to finish the way he used to is no longer a physical option. Marbury can still shoot it (37.8% three during those ever so brief 24 games is a career high,) and he also can handle the rock, but his effectiveness beyond these two aspects of the game are severely limited. The good news for 2008-09 is that Marbury's $20.8 million contract is an expiring one. - Wilson Chandler: 290th, 154, 9.0, +35% Chandler had a nice finish to the season, scoring 12 points on 48.6% shooting to go with 5.6 rebounds over eight games in April. There really is no reason to give Richardson minutes that could just as easily be spent on seeing what they have with Chandler. - Mardy Collins: 329th, 98, 6.2, +0% Collins shot just 32.6% from the floor and 25.0% from three and is on the quick track to Europe as soon as his current contract is up. He was one of their worst performers and is wholly inadequate at the point position and clearly isn't a good enough shooter to be an off-guard. - Malik Rose: 348th, 73, 5.9, -89% Because he became a casualty of his own contract and the current era that produces him, Rose has patiently been in this purgatory and missing out on two additional rings and many weeks of playoff basketball in San Antonio. He had several very good seasons with the Spurs, but he is hanging on by the thread of the $7.65 million that remains on his contract for 08-09. - Randolph Morris: 413th, 13, 2.8, -52% The Knicks believed they were pulling off a steal when they signed Morris as a free agent, but the big man shot just 36.2% from the floor and showed himself to be a below average rebounder. - Jerome James: 435th, 5, 41.6, -99% James was actually incredibly outstanding during his five minutes of play in 07-08, making his only shot and going 2-for-2 from the line while grabbing three rebounds. James literally made $1.16 million per minute played this season. How The Knicks Were Acquired - Balkman, Chandler, Collins, Lee, and Robinson were acquired via draft selections. - Crawford (S&T), Curry (S&T), James, Jeffries, and Morris were free agent acquisitions. - Jones, Marbury, Randolph, Richardson, and Rose were acquired via trades. - Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM and the creator of The Reina Value which determines the value of players in relation to their contract. --

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