As for Smith, our perpetual adolescent guard, who last week compared playing defense to protecting his beloved Xbox, vaya con Dios. If Cleveland views you as the cure for what ails it, it just might be dead already. We are told that LeBron James signed off on your acquisition, which demonstrates he has a rich sense of humor.

The Knicks have decided to make a virtue of what they demonstrably do very well, which is to collect bushels of losses. Stripped clean of almost anyone who can dribble, shoot, rebound and defend, led by a coach possessed of a monk’s pacific demeanor, the Knicks have traveled well down the road toward compiling the worst record in the N.B.A. The Knicks have now moved “ahead” of even the Philadelphia 76ers, that built-to-lose franchise by the Delaware River.

If the Ping-Pong balls cooperate in the N.B.A. lottery before next summer’s draft, the Knicks could claim the likes of Jahlil Okafor, a 6-foot-11 man-child and possible franchise center from Duke.

Then Jackson can set about trying to renovate this team on the rubble of its wrecked past. He will have plenty of cap space, as he has traded or let walk away almost all but his multimillion-dollar, sore-kneed forward, Carmelo Anthony. (Smith alone would have cost the Knicks more than $6 million next season, and Shumpert was eligible for a large raise.)

Perhaps Jackson can attract a true star or two, but that could prove a fool’s errand. He might reasonably question the sanity of a player like Marc Gasol if, after many seasons with a fine Grizzlies team, he elected to join the N.B.A.’s certifiably worst team.