New York has a lot of things going for it basketball-wise – NBA headquarters, world famous arena, and the best street ball in the world - so you’d almost definitely assume that they must have an absolutely top-tier team and be challenging for the title every year. Of course, anyone who knows anything about the NBA knows that the Knicks are terrible and have been for a long time, from the mess of this season to the ego-fuelled disaster that was the Stephon Marbury/Zach Randolph/Steve Francis era of the mid 2000s.

I don’t profess to be any kind of Knicks fan – thank god – but the hiring of the Zen Master himself, Phil Jackson, has been all over the Sportscentre headlines this week and the fans may actually have reason to be optimistic for the first time in a very, very long time. I think Phil will have an overwhelmingly positive impact upon the beleaguered franchise, and have identified the three key things I think he needs to address if this team is ever going to replicate the form of the 1973 Knicks that last brought the trophy to the Big Apple - Fun fact: Phil Jackson was on that team.

1: Overhaul the Roster

Whilst over on the West Coast, LA has long been the go-to place for free agents due to its celebrity lifestyle, NY has not had the same luck luring in the big names on the East Coast and I attribute this to their toxic culture and short-minded front office. Their recent moves have reeked of desperation after failing to reel in the big fish – for example getting Amare Stoudemire after LeBron decided to take his talents to South Beach, or trading far too much for Andrea ‘Primo Pasta’ Bargnani – and this desperation has lead to no cohesive long-term plan.

Thanks to the ‘genius’ of their recent GMs, they currently sit in the unenviable position of no draft picks, no young talent and little/no cap room this off-season. However, on his Lakers and Bulls teams Phil excelled not at developing young players into superstars but instead at assembling a blend of superstars and established role-players and getting them to buy into his philosophy (PHILosophy... geddit? Haha...) so if there’s anyone who can shake off the reputation of the Knicks being losers then it’ll be him – he didn’t win 11 championships as a coach by chance. Developing a winning roster out of this situation won’t happen overnight but in a couple of years when Phil has the chance to really overhaul the team and get rid of knuckleheads like JR Smith I think the Knicks could really start to make some noise in the playoffs again.

2: Keep Carmelo

The second biggest story this off-season after the potentially stacked draft class is whether Carmelo will opt-out of his contract and jump ship to a team he sees as more of a contender in the immediate future. Whilst it seemed inevitable that he would leave only a couple of weeks ago, the hiring of Phil has made it far less likely as he is likely to be both intrigued at the possibility of emulating the success of MJ and Kobe and reassured that the Knicks may now actually have a plan of how to build a team around him. People who accuse him of being nothing but a cold-hearted chucker obviously don’t watch him play regularly, as other than Tyson Chandler he is the only guy on this team who actually seems to care about winning, and anyway, who else is going to get the shots... Pablo Prigioni? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Winning without the superstar they already have will be far more difficult, if not impossible, given their salary situation so they need to go all-out to convince him to stick around. However, there are still question marks over the franchise and Phil isn’t a magician.

Although 2003 seems not that long ago, Melo is nearly 30 so only has a few seasons left of being a team-leading superstar and may feel that it’s unlikely the roster will be able to be suitably revamped in such a short time span or that a title in the next couple of years is just too much of a stretch. I don’t think his loyalties run so deep as to stick around on a rebuilding team, and apparently the Rockets have got their eye on him – pairing with Harden and Dwight may just prove to be impossible to resist. For the record, I do think he’ll stay on the team, but if next season starts anything like this one for the Knicks then expect a blockbuster trade halfway through to somewhere like Houston or Chicago.

No Carmelo, no hope.

3: Keep Dolan away

James Dolan, owner of the Knicks, is known as being one of the absolute worst owners in American sports and the evidence would certainly back this up. Stories of employees being hired to follow coach Mike Woodson 24/7 and of him giving potential free agents CDs of his band to try and lure them to New York suggest an owner who is far too paranoid, far too deluded of his own talent and above all simply far too involved (and not in a good way like Mark Cuban over in Dallas). You better believe that a maniac like that is scaring the talent away in the same way that your creepy mate scares off the girls in the club, so Phil needs to use all his presidential powers to ensure that Dolan’s involvement is scaled back to only signing the cheques. Whether Phil’s contract grants him supreme power or whether he’ll have to take matters into his own hands and smash Dolan’s instruments, well, I’m not sure, but I do think that he has the balls to tell him to stick to the owner’s box and stay out of the gym which will be beneficial for the entire organisation.

There are other minor things that will happen during PJ’s reign, like the inevitable off-season firing of Mike Woodson, but the three things discussed will certainly set the Knicks on an express route to success which has been a road all but untraveled these past few seasons. If a powerhouse team was to return to the Big Apple, Adam Silver would probably cry tears of happiness at the thought of the revenue to be earned and Phil Jackson would certainly have to become the favourite for having the greatest basketball mind of all time, but to be honest, as a Lakers fan first and a Timberwolves fan second I still find it difficult to be overly concerned or optimistic about their chances.

If Carmelo stays, they develop a couple of nice young players and they get in a few solid veterans then perhaps they’ll make it deep into the playoffs, but I just can’t see them having a brighter future than teams like the Thunder, Blazers or Lakers. Finally, does anyone else find it hilariously tragic how Mike Woodson has come out to the media saying he’s OK with coaching the triangle? His attempt to hang on to his job sounds like a girlfriend who knows she’s about to get dumped trying to bargain with her boyfriend with promises of doing whatever he wants. Hilarious.