One thing about a rebuild that we should never forget: among the worst things that can happen to a young, rebuilding team, is to constantly lose. "Growing up" in a losing environment results in a culture of losing: a culture that becomes self-perpetuating and can last your season after season. There a plenty of examples of that around the league.
So, teams that are rebuilding have to walk a fine line. Yes, a rebuilt might mean "being bad" so as to accumulate more draft picks, but is also means having veteran leadership around to set an example, emotionally even out the highs and lows of a season, and mentor younger players.
A rebuilding team needs veteran stability even though those veteran players might make the team overachieve to a degree.
I have no problem with signing Kovy, though I do have some doubts whether he fits the standard of veteran leadership I have set out above. I would much rather have made an attempt to resign Nash.
Also, from the fan point of view: next year is going to be rough. It is easy for us to sit here at the end of the season and say that it is OK if we lose and lose and lose next year. We want those elite draft prospects. But the reality is that it is going to be a very long season, full of disappointments, frustration, and disheartening loses. It has to get worse before it gets better. Yew, we can deal, intellectually, with knowing we are rebuilding. But emotionally, it is another thing.
Yes, we will be bad. But I still want the team to be somewhat interesting, to have an interesting dynamic. From the POV of ownership, they still need to fill seats and create buzz. Even the Knicks, with all that BB means to the city, have become somewhat irrelevant in the NYC sports scene with endless seasons of losing.
Kovy, may or may not be that veteran leadership and that stabilizing force. He may or may not be influential in bringing Shestyorkin and Rykov over.
But he will make the team more interesting to watch and make the long nights of next winter better. So. on balance, I'm OK with it.
