Has the Knicks master plan fizzled… already?

The New York Knicks more than any other team have had their sights set on the 2010 free agent crop. For the past two seasons, they've sacrificed any hopes of winning in lieu of clearing salary cap space.

We have yet to reach July 1, yet there's already talk the Knicks have failed:

Adrian Wojnarowski's Twitter:

One prominent agent says tonight: "I think there's a very
good chance the Knicks will get shutout (in free agency)…Even
likely…"

Ken Berger of CBS Sports:

But as the week begins, the consensus among rival executives and
influential agents is that the Knicks are in for a
tough time when the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Word circulating
over the weekend was that Knicks president Donnie Walsh and Mike
D’Antoni faced a “very tough sell” to the top free agents, according to
one rival executive monitoring the free-agent buzz. The reason,
according to an agent involved in the process: “They’re going to have a
lot of convincing to do for guys. There’s not a lot of pieces there to
make it attractive.” According to other sources, it’s even worse than
that for the Knicks. A representative for one prominent free agent, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiating period hasn’t
begun, said the Knicks may have as hard a time – or even harder –
persuading second-tier free agents to go to New York. “If you come in
there, expectations are so high you almost can’t – unless it’s LeBron,
anybody else will have a really hard time living up to it,” the agent
said. “What if the team makes playoffs and loses in first round? Is that
a success? Probably not. You’re starting off negative. That’s the way
you want to start off? Everybody should be happy about getting two
All-Stars, but they’re not the ones you thought you were getting or were
sold on getting.”

Rather than build a decent team with cap space for one max-contract and then some, they cleared the books entirely. The fatal flaw – there is no foundation. It's going to take more than a skyline and club life to attract basketball players.

If the Knicks whiff on even the second-tier free agents, even I might stop laughing for a split second and feel sympathy for them.