Writing the Pine

As the trade deadline approaches and the Knicks are considering a trade for Tracy McGrady, which would provide significant cap relief for this summer, The FinalWord and Pinesol started thinking about the future. One of the trade rumors floating around includes acquiring T-Mac, Brian Cook, and Joey Dorsey for Jared Jeffries, Larry Hughes, and Jordan Hill. The teams would also swap 2011 draft picks and the Knicks would possibly surrender their 2012 draft pick in this trade.

Looking ahead to the free agent feeding frenzy that will occur this summer, one thought started haunting us. What if the Knicks make this trade for T-Mac and can’t sign a single top tier free agent? What if Lebron and Wade re-sign with their teams? What if Bosh joins Wade in Miami? What if Joe Johnson signs with another team? What if Amare ends up getting traded and staying another year with his new team? What if David Lee wants more than we’re willing to give him and he bolts? We would be left with a skeleton of a roster of Eddy Curry, Toney Douglas, Danilo Gallinari, and Wilson Chandler. Even though a roster with Eddy Curry on it will never really be thin, NBA teams need 15 guys on the roster. If we assume that the Knicks exercise the team option on Joey Dorsey, he’ll be under contract for the next two years at slightly less than $1 million per year. Even with all of that cap space, what if the Knicks can’t get anyone else to sign? What will the Knicks do?

Hold tryouts.

We proudly present to you, MSG Idol – the New York Knicks’ version of American Idol. Contestants from all over the country, nay the world, will be competing for 10 roster spots and 10 contracts. 6 cities. Thousands of hopeful ballers. One goal. This. Is. MSG Idol!!

Here’s how it will work:

Audition Phase:

Auditions will be held in the following five American cities; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta. The selection criteria were largely based on geography. We want to be able to cast as wide a net as possible over America, so we pinpointed several basketball hotbeds (shoutout to Scout.com as a great reference point for this). New York serves as the media capital of the world, and New York and New Jersey typically offer great raw talent to colleges. Chicago serves the MidWest market, with Indiana and Illinois serving as great grounds for talent. Los Angeles will serve the Western market, including California and the Pacific Northwest, such as Seattle and Portland. Dallas is solely included to serve Texas as a whole. Atlanta was strategically chosen as the talent hotbeds of Virginia and Florida will both have relatively easy access.

Since the NBA has taken on such an International flavor in recent years, including one European city also makes sense. We have chosen Paris, France as the city. France has actually produced some solid NBA talent recently (with Tony Parker being the most notable). But the biggest draw of France is that is serves as geographical mid-way point between Spain, Italy, and Eastern Europe.

Selection Phase:

As a rule, no former NBA players are eligible for this show since according to the CBA they would command higher salaries. The prize money will be contracts, with the contracts getting more lucrative with advancement. Here’s the breakdown:

1^st place: 4-year deal with an option for the 5^th year

2^nd place: 3-year deal with an option for the 4^th year

3^rd place: 2-year deal with an option for the 3^rd year

4^th place: 2-year deal with no option

5^th place: 1-year deal with an option for the 2^nd year

6^th-10^th places: 1-year deals with varying salaries

Ultimately, we also need to decide winners. Taking a cue from our inspiration of American Idol, we will have three judges: Isaiah Thomas, Bill Simmons, and Mike D’antoni. Thomas is an obvious choice. It gives him the opportunity to redeem himself from all the fuck-ups that he committed when he was GM of the Knicks.  While he was the world’s worst GM, he was an excellent scout of talent. He was responsible for drafting Damon Stoudamire, Tracy McGrady, Marcus Camby, Trevor Ariza, Nate Robinson, David Lee, and Renaldo Balkman. Simmons has publicly stated his desire to serve as a GM of an NBA team (notably the Milwaukee Bucks). Since this actually happening is extremely far-fetched, this would be the next best thing to being an actual GM. Thomas and Simmons have also had an interesting love/hate history that would serve as witty banter on the show. We also need to have one actual Knicks representative, which is where D’antoni comes in.

In essence, the show would be much like watching a team go through training camp with the addition of an NFL combine type of event.  As the pool of contestants begins to thin out, we could bring in some actual NBA players to test their mettle. The winner will be decided by America’s votes, just as in American Idol.

Where is the fault in this? If the Knicks are unable to sign any marquee free agents, we are left with a team of 5 players, with the same exact misfortunes that have plagued us in years past. Why not make an enjoyable venture out of this? It gets the fans involved, would increase publicity, and would ideally help us from a basketball perspective as well. There’s nothing but positives all around.

This…is…MSG IDOL.