Knicks Sink to Bottom of League like a Hippo in Quicksand. It Didn't Have To Be This Way

Since 2000, the Knicks have won less frequently than any other NBA team. They've begun this season with what is impeccable form for them: losing six of their first eight games and taking up residence in the all-too-familiar Eastern Conference cellar. And now their former star player, Dallas Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis, returns to Madison Square Garden on Thursday night with a strengthened physique, a determined heart, and dunking on his mind. 

These facts are depressingly familiar to fans of the team. But even more painful is the retrospective insight, illuminated by Ben Cohen in this timely Wall Street Journal essay, that in 2013, before any other team, the Knicks inadvertently devised an innovative formula for success in the NBA. In involved small lineups, switching defense, and prolific three-point shooting — features that basketball aficionados will recognize as the basis of the Golden State Warriors dynasty, which began in 2015 and lasted five seasons.

The Knicks, for their part, decided after their 2013 playoff run to move in another direction: relentlessly downward. Click on the player to hear the details of their rags-to-even-less-rags-with-no-riches story.