Again, basketball is not a math problem, and 1+1+1 may also be less than 3...
Look at the Knicks this season, they naively thought that giving Julius Randle a few more muskets would solve the team's offensive problems, but what was the result?
Last summer, although the Knicks broke through in the playoffs and stopped the first round, the 4th place in the East in the regular season still made many New York fans excited, including boss James Dolan, who opened his money bag without hesitation in the offseason and completed 5 contract extensions and 2 signings in one go:
4-year, $117 million extension for Randall;
3-year, $43 million extension for Rose;
3-year, $30 million renewal for Burks;
3-year, $32 million extension for Noel;
$2.7 million in 1-year renewal for Gibson;
Signed Kemba Walker for $2 years and $16 million;
Signed Evan Fournier for $78 million in 4 years;
For these 7 people, the Knicks have invested a total of $320 million, especially Walker and Fournier, in the eyes of management, after getting them, the team can even impact the Eastern Conference Finals, or even the Finals, how confident?
Last season, the Knicks were able to play the 4th in the East, all thanks to their excellent defense, averaging 104 points per game, ranking first in the league, and the defensive efficiency of 107.8 points per 100 rounds can also rank 4th in the league, second only to the Lakers, 76 and Jazz;
As for the offensive end, the Knicks are worse, and Randall has the ability to dominate the ball, but under his leadership, the Knicks' offensive efficiency per hundred rounds is only 110.2 points, ranking 22nd in the league, and in the first round of the playoffs, it is Randall who is locked, the Knicks will collapse, in the management's view, if they can give Randall a few muskets, the ending will be different, which is why they introduced Walker and Fournier.
These 2 backcourt players, all have the ability to carry the ball to attack, such as Walker, his blocking and demolition offense, has always been the league's top 10% level, the efficiency of nearly 1.1 points per game, higher than Paul, DeRozan, Irving and other people, even if they suffer injuries, but last season, he was still able to score 19.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, plus 4.9 assists with 55.9% true shooting;
Fournier is not bad, the past 2 seasons, he is also one of the league's best blocking offensive players, not only the number of rounds is high in the league's top 50, the efficiency of 0.95 points per round, but also always ranked in the top 30% of the league, in addition to holding the ball, the Frenchman's no-ball ability is also quite outstanding, 19-20 season, his 1.17 points per round fixed point shooting efficiency, ahead of the league's players 84.2%, not only that, his average score per game that season is also close to 20+;
The Knicks' reinforcement intention is very obvious, but basketball is not an arithmetic problem, especially between stars and stars, more like some kind of reaction in chemistry, not only needs suitable external conditions, sometimes need to use some catalysts to achieve the desired effect, it is clear that the Knicks' combination has not been successful, to be precise, it is a complete failure, and the effect of their 1+1+1 is even worse than Randall's single-core team.
Look at the Knicks' offensive efficiency this season, 108.1 points per 100 rounds, worse than last season, ranking also dropped 2 places, poor internal environment, not only hindered the output of several main players, even role players have been affected, in addition to Rose, others have regressed significantly, the most important thing is that the Knicks not only did not improve the offense, proud of the defense, but also because of the addition of Walker and Fournier became vulnerable, the efficiency of 109.5 points per 100 rounds, only ranked 15th in the league, and this is also the main reason for the Knicks' record to regress this season.
In the past seven games, the New Yorkers have only won 1 and lost 6, and the winning percentage has fallen to only 46%, ranking fourth from the bottom in the East, not to mention surpassing last season, and whether they can break into the playoffs is unknown.