SH Blog: Smith Injury (And Contract) Nothing New For Knicks

In today’s NBA, in order to evolve, you have to understand your weaknesses.

Avoid stretching into a place where you’re just not very strong.

Focus on what you do well and fill in the blanks.

Teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets are a few prime examples of this theory in action. Big market or small market, they’ve each had sustained levels of success — whether it be moderate or extreme — over the past 10-15 years. 

That’s nearly a third of the league.

Yes, they’ve all employed one of the leagues biggest stars, but they’ve all understood how to build around those stars.

Each of the nine teams listed above has made at least one conference finals since 2007. They’ve all been legitimate contenders for multiple years in the NBA for nearly a decade with the Thunder being a new addition to the club. And for the Spurs, Lakers and Mavericks — sans the 2012-’13 Mavericks — almost two decades.

They found their stars, whether it be Kobe/Shaq, Duncan/Parker, Dirk, LeBron/Wade, Durant/Westbrook, D-Rose, Carmelo, Boston’s Big-3, or in Indiana’s case, no stars at all, and surrounded them with the right players and the right contracts.

Did you notice how there are only nine teams on this list and not ten?

Scan through the rest of the remaining teams in the NBA and tell me who the first team that jumps out that should definitely be on this list. After all, they are in every other sport.

I’m not sure what’s the bigger insult: that it is the New York Knicks, or that you might have picked somebody else.

For over a decade after making the 1999 NBA Finals, the Knicks wilted away into the NBA’s dark abyss, handing out terrible contracts like they were free candy. Their fans watching in abject horror.

• Stephon Marbury, five-years $90 million
• Jerome James, five-years $30 million
• Eddy Curry, six-years $60 million
• Alan Houston, six-years $100 million (fully guaranteed at age 30!!!)
• Larry Brown, five-years $60 million (to coach)

You can add Amar’e Stoudemire to the list — five-years $100 million — and now, you can probably add J.R. Smith too.

Just four days after inking Smith to a four-year, $25 million contract to come off the bench — he was the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year — it has been released that Smith had knee surgery on Tuesday to address a “chronic knee problem.” More from Yahoo! Sports.

Just four hours after reports Metta World Peace will come home excited many New York Knicks fans, an awful lot of the positive feelings went away with the announcement reigning Sixth Man of the YearJ.R. Smith will miss the next 12 to 16 weeks after undergoing a pair of procedures on his left knee — patella tendon surgery and arthroscopy for a tear in the lateral meniscus — on Monday. The Knicks’ timetable would peg Smith’s return to action somewhere between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15. (Smith shared the above photo on Instagram on Tuesday morning.)

News that Smith needed surgery to address what the Knicks called “chronic” knee problems that “gradually worsened” throughout the season came just 11 days after the team agreed to pay the 27-year-old shooting guard nearly $25 million over the next four years to be its top bench scorer. And, if we’re getting technical, just four days after Smith signed his contract to return as an integral part of a rotation that owner James Dolan, general manager Glen Grunwald and coach Mike Woodson hope will carry New York past the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.

No wonder it took the Knicks 14 years to win their first playoff series after making it to the Finals.

What is so baffling — and typical — about this situation is that the Knicks are actually claiming to have known about this issue before committing the next four years to Smith.

ESPN New York’s Jared Zwerling and Ian Begley reported that the Knicks were aware of the degrading condition of Smith’s knee during the season (which Smith ended pretty brilliantly) and postseason (in which he famously stunk) and that they perform physical examinations on all players before finalizing contracts.

Congratulations, New York. You just committed four years to a physically — and arguably mentally — digressing bench player that can’t stay out of the tabloids, and has become directly tied to your success.

The Knicks were given a get-out-of-jail-free card when they traded for Carmelo Anthony. He’s a superstar in this league. You can say what you want about his game — and I’m not his biggest fan — but his talent is unmistakeable.

He’s a superstar.

Once upon a time Kobe Bryant had the same inherent flaws: selfish, high-volume shooter, ball-stopper, ego, unlikeable.

The Lakers were savvy. They brought back Phil Jackson, traded for a selfless star in Pau Gasol, brought back Derek Fisher and filled in the blanks. Two championships later it is unraveling.

Two championship later.

If you can’t surround your star with the right players to maximize his value, then that’s on you.

Knicks’ management cannot be trusted. They have failed, repeatedly, for over a decade to put a winning team on the court.

Based on recent history, we shouldn’t be surprised the Knicks are going into the 2013-’14 season with an aging roster with three atrocious contracts: Stoudemire, Smith and Andrea Bargnani.

In a league that is all about maximizing value, with relentless salary cap penalties that have seen contenders trade important pieces — and in some cases superstars — the Knicks will pay Anthony, Stoudemire,Tyson Chandler and Andrea Bargnani $73 million next year. Add in about $6 million for Smith and you have enough players to field a starting lineup.

Gulp.

Bargnani, who the Knicks just traded for, says it all.

He’s underachieved his entire career, he plays no defense while the Knicks lack toughness, and has a bloated, overpriced contract. The Raptors have been trying to unload him for two years, to anybody, and the Knicks took the bait.

For some reason they always do.

Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.