Conspiracy Theory: Phil Jackson Is Still Somehow Running (Ruining) The Knicks

The New York Knicks traded Carmelo Anthony to the Thunder for 30 cents on the dollar this summer, and ended up playing them in the first game of the season, ironically. Melo was looking to destroy the Knicks in the season opener, naturally, and ended up putting up a measly 22 points on a horrendous Knicks roster. Kristaps Porzingis, my large, beautiful dad, wowed everyone with an incredible 31 points and 12 rebounds. Michael Beasley injured his ankle a minute into the game, and my hopes and dreams of a Walking Bucket for this game were shattered. All around, it was basically everything I expected from the Knicks season opener, except I didn't think Phil Jackson was still running the Knicks.

Hear me out; Jackson was fired after almost trading the greatest thing that has happened to the Knicks in a very long time away to the Boston Celtics (Porzingis). First off, holy shit, imagine if Boston had Porzingis too. Second, what the hell was Jackson thinking with that? Some sort of mushroom or psychedelics had to have been involved with Jackson's thinking, but all in all, horrible decisions were dealt left and right this summer and the years before that when Jackson was brought onto the Knicks executive board. Even after his firing, Jackson is still in my head.

Willy Hernangomez is the best center on the Knicks roster. It is not Enes Kanter, and it is most definitely not Kyle O'Quinn, but why play Willy when you can play those two guys the whole game, right? Hernangomez averaged 16 points and almost 14 rebounds per 36 minutes last season, the first rookie center since Shaq to have those numbers, and he made an All-Rookie team to go along with it. Hernangomez plays super well with Porzingis on the floor too; they suit each other. Ideally, Hernangomez is the team's starting center with Kristaps on the floor, but no, the Knicks are run by a bunch of nimrods and have no idea what they are doing.

The Knicks drafted Frank Ntilikina with the eighth pick in the NBA Draft this summer and passed up on my beloved Malik Monk. Frankie Nicotine may end up being an incredible player for the Knicks, but with a sure-fire shooter on the board from the NBA product factory of Kentucky still on the board, it still is worrisome. Ntilikina played a terribly small amount of minutes with eight, and only had one assist with two fouls and a turnover. That was eight minutes for the No. 8 pick for a player that supposedly fit the system the team was running a few days before the man who wanted that system in place was fired.

Maybe Jackson isn't running the Knicks anymore, but his stupidity still reigns throughout the organization. Ron Baker, the player with the worst haircut in the entire NBA, played 23 minutes and had to guard Russell Westbrook a majority of the time. Ntilikina is a much larger player to guard Westbrook for the game, and in his eight minutes, played above-average defense.

The Knicks need to adjust the minutes distribution and give Hernangomez the minutes he deserves, and let Ntilikina figure it out as a rookie on a bad team so he can develop. It isn't that hard, and if the Knicks would give me a position high up in the organization, they would still be bad, but Ntilikina and Hernangomez would develop so much better by the end of the season, and the Knicks would still have a high chance at drafting Luka Doncic. Phil Jackson is still giving his high insight within the organization, and until something is fixed, I will not think otherwise.