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Andrea Bargnani’s Absence Doesn’t Mean Much to the New York Knicks

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David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Being brutally honest is something that needs to be done at certain times, and I will choose to take that route here. The New York Knicks are expecting to be without big man Andrea Bargnani for at least the first three games due to a lingering hamstring injury that has bothered him throughout the preseason. Even though he will be the team’s third highest paid player this season, his absence will mean absolutely nothing.

Bargnani, who is in the final year of a contract slated to pay him $12 million, does not take away anything from the team when he is sidelined and does not add anything when he is on the court, so fans should be just as excited for their Knickerbockers to start as they were before they heard this news.

Take a look at it like this. The former No. 1 pick played in just 42 games last season, his first in New York. In those games, the Knicks went 15-27. Without him, they went 22-18, although not amazing, it is a significantly improved number. His offensive rating of 103 points per 100 possessions and defensive rating of 110, per Basketball-Reference, rank both lower and higher than the team averages respectively. His 1.5 win shares rank ninth on the team, behind everybody who played significant minutes for them last season. It is safe to assume the 2013-14 Knicks were better off without him, so why wouldn’t this year be the same?

This is where I’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt. He does possess a unique skill-set for his size and his numbers can only improve within the Phil Jackson-Derek Fisher system. As Jackson said in his assessment of each player, Bargnani is a very talented mid-range shooter and he also possesses a pretty good pump fake. If he adapts well to the triangle offense, he could become a threat to opposing defenses. Currently, however, combined with not being able to play and atrocious production last season (44.8 percent from the field, 27.8 percent from three and an average of more turnovers than assists), he’s not scaring anybody except for Knicks fans waking up from the nightmare that was his 2013-14 season.

It will be interesting to see how the Bargnani situation plays out this season and what role he will take on. We have zero answers to this question as of now, since we really haven’t seen the guy play since the middle of last season. With Amar’e Stoudemire, Quincy Acy and the impressive preseason from Jason Smith, it looks as though the Italian is only losing ground on the depth chart. To summarize, the Knicks will do just fine, if not better, without this guy on the court.

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