The Worst Team Money Can Buy: The New York Knicks

Last year's New York Knicks were the worst team money can buy, as they spent more money per victory than any other NBA team (and it was not close). Knicks' owner James Dolan opens his pocketbook and Isaiah Thomas obligingly spends like a Hilton heiress on Rodeo Drive. Thomas built a roster of mis-matched, free-wheeling, no discipline players and then hired the ultimate "my way or the highway" coach in Larry Brown, and surpringly, it did not work. With Brown gone, but still on the payroll for an obscene amount of money for a person getting paid not to come to work every day, Thomas is at the controls on the floor as well as off. And, while most see this marriage as a shamockery, Thomas the coach might actually be able to save Thomas the General Manager, giving New Yorkers a reason to visit Madison Square Garden with a bit of optimism, as AC columnist  Uzo Umetu noted.

While Thomas the General Manager did little to alleviate the roster headaches attached to a team with several easily disgruntled players, and added another young, expensive talent to the mix, Thomas the coach is prepared to use the assembled talent's strengths and go with an up tempo, fast breaking, Suns-style of play, rather than butting heads with the players and trying to get them to play "the right way," which led to Brown's demise. 

Much has been written about Jalen Rose's reduced role, the tenuous Steve "Franchise" Francis and Stephon "Starbury" Marbury back court, the awful first round selections of Mardy Collins and Renaldo Balkman and Thomas' "showcasing" Quentin Richardson, possibly to heighten his value for a trade to the Trailblazers for another malcontent, Darius Miles.