Potential targets include A-listers like Cleveland’s Kevin Love, Memphis’s Marc Gasol and San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard. But it is hard, if not impossible, to imagine the Knicks prying Gasol or Leonard loose from their current situations, and Love will have his share of suitors if he chooses to leave the Cavaliers.

Then there are rising stars like Chicago’s Jimmy Butler, Phoenix’s Goran Dragic, Portland’s Wesley Matthews and Milwaukee’s Brandon Knight, who comes with the added obstacle of being a restricted free agent, meaning the Bucks can match any contract offer. Dragic recently told reporters that he would be open to hearing from the Knicks. Given the trajectory of their season, he might as well have been throwing glitter on a toxic spill. But it counted for something.

If free agency is a maze, then there are no certainties in the draft, either, no matter how many losses the Knicks collect. For fans who are already clamoring for Duke’s Jahlil Okafor — the presumptive No. 1 pick — it is worth remembering that the team with the league’s worst record has only a 25 percent chance of winning the top overall pick. A potential consolation prize would be Emmanuel Mudiay, an 18-year-old point guard who plays for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.

For now, the Knicks have few available means of improving their roster — not that they would necessarily want to. The rest of the season could mean providing opportunities to young players like Langston Galloway, who has been with the team’s N.B.A. Development League affiliate. On Tuesday, the Knicks were set to sign him to a 10-day contract.

Back in September, before the team had lost a single game, Jackson predicted that it would take a month to six weeks for the team to jell. At the same news conference, Coach Derek Fisher said that he thought Andrea Bargnani would be “great” this season.

So mistakes have been made — and, in fairness, many of the organization’s questionable decisions predate Jackson. The ghost of Bargnani, for example, will haunt the Knicks for years to come. As part of their deal for him with the Toronto Raptors in 2013, the Knicks gave up their 2016 first-round pick.

But by dumping contracts and accumulating picks (instead of giving them away), Jackson has at least made up his mind to start with a clean canvas — even if Anthony gets to wear one of the smocks. Jackson made a decisive move this week. What he creates from here is up to him.