This offseason hasn’t been the best for all of those fans who were expecting the Knicks to come away with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. I’m happy to say that I was never in that group. When you’ve followed this team for as long as I have, it’s easy to be cynical. I also understand the optimism going into this offseason given that it wasn’t only Knick fans who were expecting the Knicks to come away with these two superstars. It’s a fact that most media outlets predicted that this was as much of a sure thing as it could be.

So what happened?

Who knows?

Who cares?

It’s stupid to let the decision for players who never played for your actual franchise to affect you. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving never played for the Knicks, decided that they did not want to play with the Knicks, and will never play for the Knicks. The same could be said about Lebron, Anthony Davis, Kahwi Leonard, and pretty much every top star in the league right now. This is the harsh reality, and has been for years now. Unlike other years though, there is reason to believe that this can change one day.

RJ Barrett

I’d be lying if I told you that R.J Barrett was a sure thing. I don’t know if he was even the best prospect on the board when they picked at 3. What I can say is that he will get a major chance. Even more rope than Kevin Knox got last year. He can also apparently play from the 2 to the 4. My take on Barrett is that he looks like a more offensive version of Jaylen Brown without the defense. He might be an even be a better prospect than Brown and approach the Jayson Tatum level. Regardless on where on that spectrum he lands up, he is a good asset to have given that either Brown or Tatum could have fetched Kahwi Leonard last off-season had Danny Ainge been more interested in wining championships than recreating the Nets deal.

Fuck this guy.

Although things didn’t look so good for Barrett at the start of summer league, he finished very strong. You could see his season starting off the same way, he will look. Ad at the beginning, then adjust his game,

Just remember that Trae Young was terrible in summer league and at the beginning of last season. Young was able to overcome his cold start through his “secondary” skill, his passing. Although some people will tell you that the best part of Young’s game is his passing, he’s more known for his shooing.

Like Young, Barrett’s game is a little misunderstood. His scoring didn’t appear to be as developed as it needs to be in the short term. But like Young, he has some good secondary skills that could make him a positive until his scoring comes around. Barrett rebounds like a modern power forward from the shooting guard position. This will be great if or when the Knicks decide to play Kevin Knox at his more natural PF position. Barret also happens to be a good, possibly great, passer for his wing profile as well. If he could piece these skills together on a semi consistent basis while his scorin gets more efficient, he could enter the conversation for Rookie of the Year.

The makings of a good front court.

After you get past all the hacky jokes at The Ringer, you’re back to the fact that mostly everyone they signed can play.

Julius Randle, is already moving into the top end of young big men who bring value on offense without shooting a high volume of 3 pointers. And he looks like he might be able to shoot them in time, you might have to scatter both him and Barrett a little because they duplicate roles as secondary ball handlers, but that’s fine. Randle is an asset, even if his defense never gets better.

Taj Gibson, is a great mentor to Mitchell Robinson. A lot better than DeAndre Jordan would have been. He’s clearly a better defensive player, with none of that fading star smell that Jordan had, and more importantly, you don’t have to play him a huge chunk of minutes. Knicks could also play Bobby Portis at the 4-5 and have him space the floor next to either Gibson, Robinson, Randle, or even Marcus Morris. I don’t buy into the narrative that Morris is now the Knicks best two-way player. His best role is as a stretch 4, but he will be forced into playing the wing on the Knicks. Not his best position. Morris is an asset though, who could fetch a draft pick or young player in a trade with a contender.

Other signings

Elfrid Payton, might not be the starter Scott Perry envisioned when he moved assets to draft him in Orlando. He is however, a decent player, only 24, who has already performed at a high level in the NBA. The final ingredient here would be consistency. This is something that coach David Fidtzdale is supposed to be good at.

Wayne Ellington and Reggie Bullock do a lot of the same things, but only Ellington does them better and isn’t injured. He’s also a pros pro that players like Barrett, Knox, and Damyean Dotson could look up to. On top of that, Ellington is still a productive player who won’t demand starters minutes and shouldn’t be standing in the way of anyone’s development.

Missed opportunities, player roles, and challenges ahead.

One of the more seemingly valid criticisms of the Knicks this offseason was that they didn’t use their cap space to get draft picks instead of opting to sign young veterans. But they already have 11 draft picks in the next 4 years (6 1st rounders and 5 2nd rounders) so I could see where they didn’t want to be stuck with any more picks in the late teens. Having too many picks in a draft is a good way of landing up with Guershuan Yabusele and Forman Kormaz. I’d rather take a stab at developing a young veteran like Portis, Randle, or even Elfrid Payton. If these are unprotected picks that we’re talking about, that’s a different story. But no one is giving up unprotected picks to take on Moe Harkless or Andre Iguodala.

Coach David Fitzdale is really going to have to earn his paycheck this season as he will need to allocate minutes to the right lineups to maximize the development of the young players on the roster, yet the team must look competitive enough where they don’t turn off potential free agents. This is of course what the Nets did. And in a different way, what the Clippers did as well. It’s fair to question whether or not Fitzdale is capable of doing this. If he could develop some of the

young players and help some of these young veterans expand their game, then the answer is yes.

If he can’t, the Knicks will be in the market for a new coach sooner than later.