NBA most DYSFUNCTIONAL franchise for the 2020 season? [TOP-3]

SAY "HI" ON IG!! https://www.instagram.com/a.m.hoops
HIT ME UP ON TWITTER!! https://twitter.com/CaseyKeirnan

We are at the 2020 All-Star break and some teams not only have no hope but have plunged even deeper into dysfunction. The usual suspects make our list but the details are hard to imagine. Somehow the Knicks are awful in almost every way but Forbes names them the most valuable franchise in the NBA. Below is a transcript of the video!

vlade divac was one of three gm’s to pass on adding luka doncic to their team in the 2018 draft. anyone who did that will be labeled bad at their jobs.

the one pass you’d give is the atlanta hawks bc at least trae young has become an allstar his second year. then you’ve got the suns who took deandre ayton, ryan mcdonough - already fired, then the kings with marvin bagley the third number 2 overall.

then there’s another kings controversy that’s almost a scandal at this point. they may be lieing about their players’ injuries! fans were told that soreness was to blame for marvin bagley’s foot and richaun holmes’ shoulder. a report in the athletic says a team souce thinks bagley is worse than the team announced. holmes’ sore shoulder is now called a labral tear! he’ll be re-evaluated in march!

so either the medical staff is incompetent or they downplayed the injuries. if they were underreporting them to get their players on the court faster that is awful. while they may help the team on the court, a lot of these players (like marvin bagley) get the reputation of soft when really they are injured.

then you’ve got players demanding a trade. this isn’t always the case with disfunctional teams. paul george wanted off the indiana pacers, even though it wasn’t a trade - kyrie irving wanted to leave boston.

the kings have had dwayne dedmon demand a trade. he wasn’t happy with his lack of playing time and now buddy heild is in a similar situation. buddy spoke up in december...the trust issues was coach luke walton not trusting buddy in late-game situations. hield was benched and if this continues a report says he’ll demand a trade.

the pistons current situation was born out of trading a boat load of assets for blake griffin. at the time stan van gundy was in the last year of his deal and had nothing to lose. they gave away a pick that the clippers turned into shae gilgeous alexander, tobias harris who’s now a max player in philly and more.

But the kings of disfunction are somehow the kings of new york. the knicks have some of the most passionate and knowledgable fans in basketball - that’s why it hurts so much that they have the worst team the last 20 seasons. they have won 1 playoff series in 20 years and have the most head coaching turnover in that time.

then you’ve got the public disfunction. in 2017 dolan had a well-liked former knick charles oakley forcebly removed from msg. it caused a huge scene and current players called out the knicks for how they handled it. then dolan was caught on camera approaching a fan who yelled sell the team! he went right up to the kid, and big-timed him banning him for life!! that caused even more public outrage.

to put out the fire, the knicks owner went onto local radio. instead of saving face, he poored gasoline on the fire. he went on to say this about the knicks’ free agency hopes that summer:

it turns out, he was wrong! not only did zero bigtime free agents wanna be a knick but kd and kyrie chose the nets! durant posted this picture with charles oakley just before his annoucnement. oakley is now suing the knicks and knows why free agents won’t sign there. he told the new york times, “you see the fire burning, you don’t drive into it, simple as that.”

so the knicks are in a mess with no way out but the one thing that’s functioning well is the value of their franchise. the forbes list came out again and the knicks are at the top...again. they are valued at $4.6 billion! but how could that be? why is the nba’s most disfunctional franchise worth the most money?

it turns out that jim dolan isn’t some genius businessman, the knicks just happen to have the biggest advantage in the league. they play at madison square garden, the world’s most famous arena. it is valued at almost 1 billion dollars and brings in a ton of sponsorships. that accounts for almost a quarter of the knicks’ value.

then there’s tv money. everyone get’s 89m per year 24b natoinal tv contract. then each team gets revenue from their local tv market. for example, the memphis grizzlies get $9.4m per year with a population just oiver half a million. the knicks make over 100m per year with a population of about 9 million people!

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/am-hoops-podcast/id1483670476