Numbers don’t lie. And if New York fans disagree with the stats and point out that they are still title contenders in the 2013-14 season; we won’t blame you if you conclude that they are delusional supporters of the probably the most pathetic team in the entire league.

We’ll start off with the root of all this evil: the expensive payroll.

Most of the key players in New York’s core are unquestionably overpaid, starting with their main man, Carmelo Anthony.

Melo is set to be paid a total of roughly $45 million in the next two seasons. Worse for NY, Melo can opt out of his contract if he does not pick up the player option for the 2014-15. Yes, it saves NY from Melo's contract, but they are still over the salary cap anyway if this happens.

So the worst-case scenario for New York is that Melo leaves, they get nothing in return, and they still have a mighty high payroll.

The culprits are the following (in any order); Amare Stoudemire with $45M/2 years left and averaging just 10.5 PPG, 1.8 RPG in very limited 12.1 minutes this season; Andrea Bargnani with $23M/2 years left. To be fair with Bargnani, he has been consistent on offense (15.1 PPG this season) but still can’t get those rebounds (4.6 RPG) even if his life and the entire country of Italy depended on it; Tyson Chandler ($28M/2 years) is still serviceable, but his injury history is not good for the 31-year-old; there’s also the volatile J.R. Smith ($18M/3 years) and the useless Raymond Felton ($13M/3 years).

Overall, the Knicks are set to pay these band of misfits (apologies to Pablo Prigioni, who is the only likeable player in the Knicks roster) $86M in 2013-14 and $91M in 2014-15-- the highest payroll outside of their in-state rivals which is owned by a Russian billionaire.

And the fact of the matter is that most of the Knicks haven’t shown any (extra) effort to arrest their bad start. And the here are Knicks’ numbers, which reeks of mediocrity in almost all categories:

24th in scoring (93.5 PPG)
25th in scoring margin (-5.4 PPG)
29th in fastbreak scoring (9.5 PPG)
24th in FG percentage (42.4%)
29th in FTA/FGM (21.3%)
2nd in 3FGA (25.3)
21st in 3FG percentage (32.8%)
29th in rebounds (45.9 RPG)
23th in assists (19.0 APG)
29th in turnovers (13.1 TOPG)
25th in opponents' field goal percentage (46.6%)
28th in defensive efficiency (1.054)

And it does NOT get better for New York in the future.

The Knicks can’t play the “tanking” card anytime soon. They owe the Denver Nuggets their 2014 first round pick (via the Melo trade in 2011); and the Nuggets have the right to swap first-round picks in 2016, still the result of the 2011 trade. Even the next two years' second-rounders are not with NY anymore; they’ll give the 2014 and 2015 picks to Houston because of the 2012 trade with the Rockets.

In other words, the Knicks have no past, no present and no future. Welcome to basketball purgatory.