If the season ended today, the New York Knicks are in the playoffs.

Let that sink in for a quick second.

I realize that it isn’t quite Thanksgiving yet, but this is a franchise that teams were looking at as an automatic ‘W’. Now? Not so much.

That is what I had written down late last week. The Knicks were playing exciting basketball. They were 6-5 and while that isn’t going to win them a championship or even guarantee a playoff berth, it was a far cry from the previous seasons.

And then everything seemingly changed.

In the span of a few hours last Friday, Jamal Crawford, Mardy Collins and Zach Randolph were gone. In their place was Al Harrington, Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas.

The mood around the area was one of both rejoice and slight confusion.

The Knicks had just traded talented players – Crawford was averaging 19.6 points per game with the Knicks and Randolph was scoring 20.5 a contest and bringing down 12.5 rebounds. Meanwhile, Collins, a Philadelphia native, was from the surrounding area.

Coming in were veterans with shorter contracts.

The most important aspect was that it was a sign that Donnie Walsh was going to fulfill his promise of getting under the salary cap by 2010. At least he is a man of his word.

While I’ve said in a previous article that there are no promises that the Knicks will land LeBron James, they at least have to try. Their current, or now former, roster wasn’t going to yield championships or allow them to hoist a banner any time soon.

That is a clear cut fact.

So much so that the president of basketball operations traded away two of his better players in order to get under the cap. If he saw an opportunity to make a solid run in the playoffs, I doubt he would have made those deals.

While you can make a case that the Knicks were going to battle for a playoff spot this season, it all comes down to championships.

And who is to say that this current roster of players still can’t compete for one of the eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference?

The last three playoff seeds are held by the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and the Knicks.

Lurking is Milwaukee, Chicago, New Jersey and Toronto. Wondering what happened is Washington.

Those teams may have more talent on paper, but that as everyone knows, that isn’t what wins you basketball games.

Randolph gave you the ability to rebound the basketball and Crawford could take over games late in the game with his ability to score.

But in Mike D’Antoni’s systerm, players are seemingly replaceable.

Harrington, Thomas and Mobley will all be able to stretch the floor and are able to hit an open jumper. And that is what this offense thrives on.

In fact, Harrington (35.8 3p% and 45.0 FG%), Thomas (36.5 3p% and 43.6 FG%) and Mobley (37.8 3p% and 43.3 FG%) have shot the ball better over their careers when compared to Crawford (34.8 3p% and 40.3 FG%).

Chris Duhon, who once was an afterthought in the Chicago Bulls organization, is posting career highs in both points, assists and field goal percentage.

Couple that with the emergence of Nate Robinson, Wilson Chandler and the re-emergance of Quentin Richardson and you are going to be able to stay in games with your shooting.

Just ask the Wizards, who on Saturday night, fell to the Knicks 122-117.

While the Wizards are playing without two starters – Brendan Haywood and Gilbert Arenas – they still have All-Stars in Caron butler and Antawn Jamison.

What the Knicks did was simply outshoot the Wizards. And they did it while only playing seven guys. This was a night after playing the Bucks with the same seven players. While it was a loss, the team still came out and played hard.

After the game against the Wizards, Robinson was interviewed at midcourt and spoke about the direction of the team. He didn’t make any promises outside the fact that the team was going to miss Crawford, Randolph and Collins, but that the group of guys they have now will still work just as hard toward, yes, making the playoffs.

Some fans are happy with just playing the waiting game until 2010. They have their fingers crossed and dreams of wearing a jersey with New York across the front and James across the back.

Others are upset with the fact they have to wait two more years until the team is competitive.

And really, they don’t have to wait that long. Turn on your T.V. The competitive team is right there in front of you.

Photo Credit: ICON Sports Media

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