To say things look bad for the New York Knicks right now would be an understatement.

Let's put it in perspective.

Last season, the Knicks shot out of the gate sprinting to an impressive 12-4 start, beating legitimate playoff contenders such as Indiana, San Antonio and eventual world champions the Miami Heat to start off what would be an Atlantic Division-winning campaign that season, the Knicks' first division title since the 1993-94 season.

The difference? The Knicks' offseason shopping spree netted them veteran leaders such as Jason Kidd, the No. 2 man on the NBA's all-time assists leaders chart, Kurt Thomas, a respected member of the last Knicks team that made the NBA Finals in 1999, and Rasheed Wallace, the emotional veteran big man who anchored Detriot to the 2004 NBA title. Carmelo Anthony, en route to the NBA scoring title, was playing nearly unstoppable in the fourth quarter. More importantly, the Knicks were shooting at an impressive 45.7 accuracy rate, including making 8 of 21.1 three-pointers, a respectable 38.0 percent mark from downtown. The shots were falling, and it powered the Knicks to a remarkable 11-4 record for November.

So far, in 16 disappointing games this season, the shots are just not falling for New York. The Knicks are shooting only 42.1 percent from the field—the fourth-worst team field goal percentage in the NBA—and a mere 32.2 percent from three-point range, third-lowest in the league. Kidd, Wallace and Thomas are gone, leaving the Knicks with a void of leadership as they try to right their ship amid troubled waters.

"The long ball was a big part of our offense last year," Woodson told Newsday last week. "And when you go down the list, it has really hurt our team because we really haven't made the long ball."

Indeed, the lack of accuracy from the field is really starting to hurt the Knicks at a time they can ill afford to have anything else go wrong, especially with All-Star center and team rock Tyson Chandler still out with a fractured right fibula while starting point guard Raymond Felton heals back and hip injuries. But at the same time, there is one key factor affecting these Knicks compared to the Knicks team that looked like world champion beaters one year ago: morale.

As in, last year's team had plenty of it. This one doesn't.

The Knicks looked flat Nov. 10 when the Western Conference champion Spurs dropped them 120-89, which marked the start of a dire losing skid in which New York has dropped 10 of it last 11 games and lost nine straight. The veteran Spurs' precision passing made the Knicks defense look as if they were standing in quicksand as they embarrassed New York at Madison Square Garden. And in another lopsided 110-90 home loss against Atlanta on Nov. 16, the Knicks looked flat, and Anthony made it known.

"We're not getting it done from an effort standpoint. It's like we're not even trying right now," Anthony said after the game.

It's one thing for a team to struggle because of injuries. But it's a completely different story when a team looks like they're giving up entirely. And it looks like Mike Woodson's Knicks squad is starting to do just that, based on their lackadaisical efforts during this ugly losing slide.

Case in point: the Chicago Bulls. Throughout all of last season, and this one, now that Derrick Rose will certainly miss the entire season again thanks to a right leg injury, the Bulls were ravaged by injuries to all of their key players at one point, from All-Star Joakim Noah down to valuable sub Kirk Hinrich. Yet the Bulls did not wither or curl up into a ball and lament their misfortunes. They fought and clawed and scratched their way into the playoffs on a 47-37 record and gutted out a hard-fought seven-game first round victory over a healthier and more talented Brooklyn Nets roster before falling to the Heat in a fiercely-contested five-game semifinals round. They were beaten and battered, but not once did the Bulls throw in the towel and give up.

But as of late, the visible lack of effort from the Knicks has forced the reputed defense guru Woodson to go on the defensive as to whether or not he still has a vote of confidence in the locker room.

"I don't think I have lost the locker room," Woodson told Stephen A. Smith last week on ESPN New York 98.7. "I don't think I have lost players from an individual standpoint. What I have lost is a Tyson Chandler and a Raymond Felton, that is what I have lost from my starting team.

"And I don't know if you can go on any roster and take two starters out of their roster and they still survive," Woodson added. "They might play in spurts like we are doing today. I am not making excuses, but I would sure love to take my chances with Tyson and Raymond in my lineup."

He makes a good point. Taking a team's starting point guard and a player as indispensable as Chandler, a former NBA Defensive Player of the Year winner, out of the equation is a tough situation for any team. And after helping to guide the Knicks towards the playoffs after the Mike D'Antoni era came to an end and putting a halt to the near two-decade long division title drought, it would hardly be fair if Woodson wasn't at least given a chance to try pulling the Knicks back from the brink with all of his weapons at the ready. A healthy roster could arguably make a difference and seeing Chandler back in action—the same man credited for helping to instill a culture of defense back into the Knicks that was long absent—could help put New York back on track with a nice winning streak midway through the season.

However, to get back on track, the Knicks need more than just bodies. They need to start playing better defense. They need someone aside from Anthony to step up on the offensive side. They are in dire need of a low-post scoring threat with Amar'e Stoudemire playing limited minutes. And perhaps more than anything else, they need to get the ball moving more. Last season, Kidd helped the Knicks off to a great start thanks to his encouragement of them circulating the ball, passing until they found not only the open man, but the right shot. Without him there, the Knicks have stopped ball movement, which leaves them unable to break apart defenses and susceptible to whichever way New York is shooting the ball, good or bad. And as of late, it's been all bad.

Herein lies the problem. Woodson is not an offensive genius. Never has been. He preaches solid defense (though he hasn't gotten it these days) but he lacks the creativity on offense necessary for a team to get that spark going for them in games. In Atlanta, his favoring of the isolation offense for their then-star player, Joe Johnson, was so well known that it eventually dubbed "Iso-Joe." In New York, that became "Iso-Melo" for Anthony, who also thrives in one-on-one play. But while it might be preferable to go to your ace—your closer—on offense, it's not a strategy that will win titles.

Stoudemire has had his share of problems over the last two years, particularly when it comes to staying healthy, but he did make one telling comment regarding the Knicks' problems on offense after a loss to Portland last week: "Right now we are not having fun. And the ball is not moving. We are playing one pass, one shot at this point. Teams that move the ball win. Teams that don't lose. It is pretty simple."

Woodson brings a lot to the table as a coach. He's respected, he makes a defense tougher and he eventually makes a franchise into winners, as evidenced by his tenure in Atlanta and New York. But without the vision on the offensive side of the ball, without an effective game plan to tack on points for the Knicks and get their gears going on "O," the Knicks' four decades without an NBA championship banner hanging in the rafters of the Garden will keep dragging on. And for an impatient Knicks fanbase and an organization desperate to look legitimate again, that might mean that the itch to start finding another coach may prove difficult not to scratch.