Exactly six weeks ago, New York Knicks executives Steve Mills and Scott Perry sat next to coach David Fizdale for one of the least believable media-day-spin sessions in recent memory. They talked up the Knicks' widely mocked offseason and made it clear that, despite missing out on all the superstar free agents on the market, they expected improvement. 

"New Yorkers are going to like this team," Mills said. 

One person in the room quipped, "New Yorkers wouldn't have liked Kawhi Leonard?" 

It wasn't convincing, but at least they were on message: The new roster should be judged on its merits, not in comparison to what could have been. Julius Randle and Bobby Portis are not Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but they wanted to play at Madison Square Garden, where fans will appreciate their toughness. They, along with veterans like Taj Gibson and Wayne Ellington, would make the likes of RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson and Kevin Knox better.  

The Knicks would never frame it like this, but after watching Durant and Irving choose Brooklyn, they were attempting to take a page out of the Nets' book. On a superficial level, Mills even sounded a bit like Sean Marks, saying repeatedly that the team would control what it could control. A-list free agents typically want to join something solid, not a perennial rebuilding team in search of a savior. The plan was to make the jump to respectability. 

Perry sold the idea that they had added versatility and shooting without sacrificing financial flexibility. Fizdale said New York was ready to take the next step. 

One statement that didn't get much attention: Mills said that the organization breaks down the season in 10-game increments. The first ended on Sunday with a humiliating 108-87 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at MSG, after which Mills and Perry did something unusual, bordering on unthinkable in Knicks world: They met the media and said they weren't happy with the 2-8 start. 

It quickly became clear that this is a crisis. The Athletic's Frank Isola reported that owner James Dolan made Mills and Perry talk to reporters and that he intends to try to poach Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, whose contract expires in 2021. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews reported that, while Mills said publicly that he still believes in the coaching staff, behind the scenes he is trying to get Fizdale fired.

The Knicks are 30th in offense and 21st in net rating, per Cleaning The Glass. Fizdale has talked about getting stops, running and sharing the ball since he was first introduced as coach, but they are 21st in defense, 23rd in transition frequency, 26th in pace and 27th in assist rate, with an offense that suffers from poor spacing and poor decision-making. It's difficult to argue that Fizdale has done an awesome job. It is ridiculous, however, to assign him more blame than the front office that constructed the roster. 

Knicks media day
The Knicks defend themselves at media day. USATSI

New York didn't have to add Randle, Portis and Gibson when it already had Robinson and Knox, who should probably play most of his minutes at power forward. It definitely didn't need to sign forward Marcus Morris a week and a half later. You might say that the Knicks had been selling a patient rebuild and then they sped up, blocking their young guys because they were so desperate to go from terrible to mediocre. Anyone around the league will tell you that it is exponentially easier to make that kind of leap than it is to go from decent to very good or from very good to great. 

The real issue, though, is that they failed to get that right. It is understandable that the Knicks didn't want to have another 17-win season, that they wanted to add some structure, experience and grit. Brooklyn was forced to go that route because of its draft-pick debt, and it paid off when it established an identity, made the playoffs and completely changed the way the league saw the organization. Look at what the Suns are doing with Ricky Rubio, Aron Baynes and Dario Saric in the mix -- no one is talking about Robert Sarver in Phoenix, and Dolan would surely kill for similar silence in New York, but this collection of ill-fitting parts has brought all sorts of noise.

When the Knicks failed to sign top-end talent, their leadership said with straight faces that they were pleased with Plan B. "This group that we have assembled, we had them on the board as a roster and we like the way they fit with each other," Mills said at media day, as if this was a perfectly balanced team. Ideally, though, you'd want to put Barrett next to guards who can space the floor, and you'd want Randle to play with another big who can both shoot and protect the rim. Robinson would thrive next to a versatile, stretchy 4, and Payton would be best playing spread pick-and-roll. Fizdale's rotations probably aren't satisfying anybody, but all he can do is mix and match and make compromises.

Regardless of Fizdale's fate, the next notable date on the calendar is Dec. 15, when Randle, Portis, Morris, Payton, Gibson, Ellington and Reggie Bullock will be eligible to be traded. Teams with realistic playoff hopes could use those guys, and New York would be wise to lose some of them. It is almost certainly too late for the front office to create the kind of winning environment it crowed about, but it's not too late to create an environment less messy than this one, where the young core has a proper chance to grow.