Phil Jackson knows what a team needs to become successful and with his new job as president for the New York Knicks, the financial management becomes a critical part of it.
Unlike before when he would make do with the player resources he had, it is all about doing the math. And it seems that he doesn't rue the fact that the Knicks lost out on some high profile players in the free agent market who ended up with enormous contracts.
The Knicks do have the salary space to entertain players like Marc Gasol or Goran Dragić. But assuming they did, it would limit their flexibility as far as plugging key components of the team is concerned.
So assuming the Knicks were able to get Gasol for about $80 million, the team's salary budget would have been eaten up immensely. Hence, it would mean that they would have lesser chances of landing other spots like the point guard or off guard position.
As a whole, Jackson is looking at things from a larger point of view. These days, it takes more than just one player to win games; it takes five to be exact. Jackson has proven that with his tenure in Chicago and Los Angeles; and apparently, this is what the Zen Master was hired to do for the Knicks.
But of course, there is that slight thing Jackson missed to calculate — the expected spike in NBA salaries.
Such is seen to be implemented in the coming years and from the looks of it, the Knicks may have ruled out that angle.
Nevertheless, all is water under the bridge. If they missed out this season then maybe they can rethink and do that again next year.
The Knicks don't seem to be that formidable if you place them beside teams like the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers this season; but the Knicks could pull off something with less heralded players.
Jackson (and Derek Fisher) has done that in the past so it would be foolish to think the Knicks would tank in the coming season.
