The ball hits me in the hands and I’m off. I juke a defender; spin off another opponent and hurdle over the fallen men before me. After landing a nasty stiff arm on my friend Jason, I trot into the end zone to the song “Send it Up” by Kanye West. Luckily, I have the perfect dance moves to coordinate with my touchdown and send the crowd into frenzy, but unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of doing any of that. In retrospect, the play might have started and ended with me attempting a juke and falling down in the mud, losing my necklace in the process.
Conscientiously grabbing my neck to feel for my necklace, I fret that its fallen in between the grass, lost forever. Searching through the field, I begin to realize the significance of the jewelry, the bond my family shares for wearing the same one. Half an hour later the necklace is found, broken. Time to send it down to Florida for my grandpa to fix, long after originally piecing the jewelry together during his job on Long Island. No longer doing the job full time, he's relegated to tinkering, something not all too uncommon in NBA management.
The team doesn't have a core of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. They have respectability, playoff consistency and a superstar. That won’t earn them an NBA championship, but it sure as hell means perennial playoff entrances and exits. The tinkerer inherits a team that is cap strapped because of a “max” contract doled out to a porous defensive bench player handicapped with minutes restrictions due to chronic knee injuries. The rest of the roster is aimed at complimenting their "superstar", who needs help if this team is gunning for a championship.
New York Knicks general manager Glen Grunwald, like countless other general managers, is attempting to assemble a unit that can take on the variety of top-tier teams in the Eastern Conference by working around a black hole, of sorts. With their amnesty provision used up on Chauncey Billups before the 2011-2012 season, the team has been unable to get the production they'd hoped for out of Amar'e Stoudemire, and they've been unable to move him in any capacity.
To support the Knicks defense, Grunwald turned to acquiring Tyson Chandler, which helped the Knicks with rim protection during the 2011 season. The defensive culture changed completely thanks to the general manager's acquisition of Chandler. He continued his work, looking to slightly adjust a roster that never could settle on a set core to move forward with.
Chandler’s spot doesn’t seem secure, and neither does the spot of any player on the roster not named Carmelo Anthony. Every option has been explored to try to cash in on value that the Knicks deem helpful to the team in the long run. Essentially, that's the job of any GM: to work the phones until every option has been exhausted. Still, it seems that Grunwald has been creative in this sense.
Grunwald has one of the most unique approaches out there when it comes to acquiring talent, so it may be an understatement to call it going against the grain. Grunwald has taken chances and calculated risks in order to acquire depth through waiver claims during his first season as general manager in 2011. That season threw a monkey wrench at Grunwald, who was forced to do quite a bit of work in a tightened, lockout-shortened offseason. The bench was greatly diminshed after the Carmelo Anthony trade, which forced Grunwald to replenish the bench while he worked to acquire another big-time player. He pulled it off by snatching Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak on waiver claims, hoping they could provide some sort of value off the bench.
They did just that, although one provided a bit more uplift and media attention than the other. Because the bench was that much more serviceable, Knicks managed to become a fringe playoff contenders while overcoming a rash of injuries and a coaching change.
That offseason, the Knicks went all in. They analyzed the roster and realized that they had to compile a pile of old veterans and talent to both compliment and aid Anthony in getting the Knicks deep into the playoffs. To the dismay of many, they decided against re-signing Lin, but smartly added Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton. These were guards that could command respect but also bring the ball up the court, which Anthony had to do when he wasn’t paired up with a strong, veteran player.
Grunwald added these pieces, along with Rasheed Wallace, Kurt Thomas, and Marcus Camby, at the expense of 2nd round picks (widely regarded as a cheap asset) and longer contracts for older players. It countered the "savvy" front office position of acquiring as many cheap assets as possible and hoping you can acquire a star or two. That's the position that the Houston Rockets have taken, and it's something that the Knicks couldn’t do with the roster that Grunwald inherited, so he adapted.
He changed the rules and understood that the Knicks didn’t need to coast for the playoffs for the next couple of years; he wanted to win it all. That's why, in a year without Derrick Rose, the Knicks went for the Heat. They attempted to bully the Heat down low and, had enough 3-point shooters to keep them racing inside and out. The plan nearly worked, but Wallace, Thomas and Camby were unable to provide any production by the end of the season, forcing Chandler to play long minutes with back and neck problems.
Waiver claims and trades helped the Knicks, but so did exhausting every available option. That's why they put a premium on international scouting, scoring on the likes of Pablo Prigioni, Chris Copeland, and James White along with signing J.R. Smith when he was overseas in China. All of these players were major factors in the Knicks effective play this season (you don’t think players enjoyed watching James White dunk in practice?).
Now, the Knicks have acquired Andrea Bargnani, a player who defies most statistical analysis (his acquisition isn't considered a "smart" move), but brings potential to the table. Bargnani is a former international star who, at 27, is just entering his prime. A better defender in the post than most give him credit for, he's able to spread the floor and allow for lumbering centers to chase out on his shot.
Regardless of what you think of Grunwald’s moves so far, you have to admit he uses a different technique. Some claim it was idiotic to trade New York's first round picks, while others say it was a necessary cost to pay for the immediate future of the team (especially with his contract expiring in time for the Knicks to restart in 2015). It was an old-school move to cash in on a talent who could have been a huge addition to the team's play to win now.
So, how does this relate to my grandpa? Creativity when adapting to imminent failure is what he does best, and that's something Grunwald attempted to do. The material on my necklace is forever, but the chain holding it together was replaced with a stronger and thicker chain. The clamp in the back is thicker and much less likely to rip off again due to my stupidity. Grunwald is stuck with the pieces he's given, is still attempting to build a stronger chain around them. Let’s hope they don’t fall off.
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