Worst to First: Jackie Powell’s Knicks 2K20 Tank Team
When the Tank draft order was revealed, I knew I had my chance. My moment to shine: I had just secured the number one pick in a draft where the goal was to have the worst outcome or be crowned the losingest.
That’s what a month plus of quarantine has done to all of us at Knicks SI.
But now that the WNBA draft and all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding number one pick Queen Sabrina Ionescu has dimmed a tad bit, what is there to do? Well, for me my goal is to be crowned the Tank-a-thon champion and go worst to first while still successfully being the worst. Have I caused a mental kerfuffle? Probably, but back to my tank team.
To be crowned “winner” of this tournament, I had to take some cues from Lauren, the previous winner of the Knicks SI 2K20 fantasy tournament. We traded places in this draft as she was recipient of the number one pick in the last one.
Initially my strategy was to employ the inverse of Lauren’s. She chose Patrick Ewing, the most dominant post player in Knicks history. So what’s the inverse? Who was a big man who couldn’t score or rebound at a high level? A post player who would set the tone and set my squad up for the least amount of success possible? Look no further than Herb Williams, who makes a return to my squad. In the previous draft, I took him 40th overall, the last pick in our 2K tournament. But in this bizzaro-draft, the 6’10” center turned New York Liberty assistant coach was chosen first. Worst to first.
My thought for the 16th pick in our Tank draft was initially another player who I had personally interacted with before. But thankfully Chris Molicki prevented another space and time when I could discuss Ignas Brazdeikis’ lackluster defense. Iggy was all his.
With back-to-back picks, who would land the second and third spots on “Team Worst to First”? My methodology shifted. Past the first pick, I would have to choose the worst available and that came in the form of Hubert Davis at the 16th spot. While the wing’s 93 three point rating from 2K is a bit concerning, his performance on Howard Medgal’s previous team sealed the deal for me.
In a loss to Jonathan Macri’s team, Davis failed to live up to his potential. While he scored 21 total points, he turned the ball over five times and went 2-6 from three. "We really can't win without getting more production beyond the arc from Hubert Davis,” Megdal said. “The guy shot 45 percent from three that season, so I was counting on more from him."
Following Davis immediately with the 17th pick, I decided to pick another Davis, Baron. I knew this was an absolute steal of a pick when I read about how he fared on Molicki’s team."Our team didn't execute defensively out there," Molicki said after falling to Team Verts off a dominant 58 points from Carmelo Anthony. "But a historically awful shooting performance from Baron Davis was the nail in the coffin." So how historically awful are we talking? Davis shot 1-12 from the field and missed all of his seven shots from beyond the arc. Yep, it was terrible. Perfect.
All right, with a Davis backcourt, who was next? My penultimate pick went to Bill Bradley, who is a very competent passer. His nine assists during the Carmelo romp were impressive for a wing. I was apprehensive, but then found that executing the pass is his sharpest tool while the rest: perimeter shooting and penetrating the lane are rather lackluster. All right, that’s good.
With my final pick, it was only necessary to bring on another returner to team Jackie who was ready to stink it up on the new and (un)improved team “Worst to First.”
Welcome back Steve Novak! While I remarked how disappointed I was in him Cheryl Reeve style, I couldn’t be more glad to have his overhyped three point shooting back on my team.
Now looking a bit deeper into this motley crew and how they’ll function on the court together, the most reassuringly terrible statistic is from point guard Davis. In his only year with the Knicks, his turnover percentage floated a bit under 30 percent, 28.1 to be exact. That’s exactly what I need. Entry from Davis into the post for Williams will go awfully wrong.
Also, let’s talk about rebounding. This team cannot rebound. No one rebounds anywhere close to 20 percent. Herb and Steve have percentages that hover a tiny hair above 10, but they are post players, shouldn’t they have double-digit rebounding percentages?
Now their shooting or lack thereof is what attracted me to this group. It also gives me immense confidence that I will succeed Lauren and become the champion, successfully being the worst.
In all of the simulation games that my starting five played in the previous tournament, they combined to shoot 31 percent from the field overall and 15 percent from three. How perfectly dreadful. Let's go team #worsttofirst.
