How the Knicks have lost again

Even when the stakes are unknown, the Knicks still lose. That's one way of looking at the events that unfolded regarding the courting of Steve Kerr and his eventual decision to settle in The Bay Area.

On one hand, missing out on Kerr isn't that big of a deal. He's an unproven rookie head coach who has some front office experience, and all we really know about him is that he's going to run some variation on The Triangle offense.

On the other hand, Kerr was the only coaching candidate the Knicks were seriously linked to and Phil Jackson obviously coveted him more than any other candidate. While trying to land a coach is obviously a lot different than trying to land a star free agent, in many ways this was Jackson's first recruiting pitch as Knicks president. And Jackson and the Knicks failed in that recruitment, with their coach of preference spurning them to take the Warriors job instead.

Any way you look at this, it's not a good look for Phil's Knicks. One of their biggest advantages with Phil on board with the storied franchise in the Basketball Mecca was supposed to be in recruiting. And again, while they may still be fine when the time comes to recruit actual on-court talent, for now all we know is that they couldn't even recruit a highly coveted rookie coach who played and learned under Phil. Yikes.

The whole situation also reminds us that Jackson can't undo or distract from the situation the Knicks find themselves in. They're an aging, capped out lottery team on the verge of potentially losing their franchise player for nothing, with only two first round picks to look forward to over the next four years. They're a trainwreck of an organization right now banking on 2015 free agency. They need a committed and proper rebuild once and for all, and yet they might not have the required assets to really initiate that rebuild.

Kerr served as General Manager in Phoenix for three seasons and knows the business of team building. The lure of The Zen Master and The Big Apple were unquestionably strong, but he's smart enough to realize that Jackson's presence alone doesn't change any of the aforementioned challenges facing the Knicks in the near future.

There's also the ever present matter of Jim Dolan. Much of the talk will be about Kerr spurning Jackson. But anyone who's paid attention to New York basketball over the last decade or so knows that if any potential target should be weary of the Knicks, it begins and ends with Dolan.

To top it all off, the actual best coach available this off-season is already off the market too, as Stan Van Gundy is headed to Detroit to serve as coach and president of basketball operations for the next five years. I don't remember SVG being linked to the Knicks job even once. Essentially, the Knicks apparently didn't look at the best candidate, were spurned by the most promising candidate, and now have to settle for second choices.

Perhaps the most fitting way for this drawn out saga to end would be for Mark Jackson - recently fired by the Warriors - to land the job in New York that the guy who replaced him (Kerr) decided he could do better than.

As for Kerr and the Warriors, the prospects of some triangle principles being used by a team as talented as Golden State with big men as skilled as Andrew Bogut and David Lee are tantalizing.

If Kerr can improve upon the team's 12th-ranked offense without much slippage on the defensive end, where the Warriors ranked third, Golden State will once again be on the fringes - if not smack dab in the middle - of legitimate title contention. Remember, their starting lineup of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Lee and Bogut posted the best net rating of the NBA's 34 most frequently used five-man units this season.

Lee's defense is always going to be a problem, but this is a team with a young superstar on a team-friendly contract in Curry, a defensive anchor in Bogut, one of the best two-way catalysts in Iguodala, a skilled frontcourt, a solid young starter in Thompson and a couple of nice young assets in Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green.

When healthy, the Warriors can already play with anybody. If Kerr moves the needle even minimally, it could be a game changer in the super compact Western Conference. Of course, that 'when healthy' caveat takes on new meaning with the Warriors. Bogut alone is almost guaranteed to miss significant time every year, and it will be tough to advance beyond the likes of the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Rockets and any other West powerhouses who may emerge without a lot of things breaking right for Golden State.

Kerr could do a better job than Jackson did without actually getting the Warriors as far as Jackson (Curry) did with his second round appearance in 2013. The West is simply that good, and a non-loaded Conference is one of the few advantages that the Knicks job actually offered.

Nevertheless, while the Warriors are hoping that their new player-turned-broadcaster-turned-coach is better than their last player-turned-broadcaster-turned-coach, at least they got who they wanted. And at the end of the day, they'll be measuring that expected progress by wins in April, May and possibly even June.

The Knicks, on the other hand, are just trying to lay the groundwork for getting back to playing meaningful April basketball, let alone actually winning in the Spring. They've started those efforts by following up a disappointing season whiffing on a coaching candidate - their top target - that many didn't even understand all the fuss over.

So much for Phil Jackson changing things anytime soon.