Just some thoughts...

The glut.

OK, so we have a backcourt glut. Is that so bad?

Most of the year we've had a backcourt famine. Stephon struggled early on to dig Brown (standard procedure for LB's PGs). Q has taken shooting tips from Shamdon Anderson. Nate, an erratic rookie. JC, brilliant a quarter of the time and horrendous the other 75%. Things began to click for us when Marbury began to dig Brown, which coincided happily with a streak of good play from JC. Marbury goes down, JC goes south, kerplonk, we're doomed. Why? Among other things, we've been too thin on dependable perimeter talent.

Better to have too much than not enough. Now we have a guy who can fill in JC's Robin role (or maybe Batman-1B), but do it most of the time instead of some of the time. We have someone who can consistently stick a jumper (imagine that) in Rose. We have the luxury of letting Steph sit to heal, or even play reduced minutes, if he still needs to (seems like it judging from the Miami game) without being completely lost on offense. So the upshot is probably that JC and Q take a hit to their minutes, and Nate rides the pine, big whoop. Not like those guys were lighting Knickland on fire anyway.

Chemistry

What chemistry? We may have seriously mucked with the chemistry of a team with 15 wins after 50something games. Horror of horrors. It can't work? Believe me, I'm skeptical too, but it might be wise to see what it actually looks like for a stretch of games before coming to strong conclusions.

Isiah blew it at the deadline

Most peculiar is this feeling that another shoe needed to drop before the deadline. Why, so we can salvage the last 30 games of this precious season? This season is already lost. To get upset that Crawford or Q or Nate or whoever wasn't dealt *today*, or that we didn't get our much needed frontcourt enforcer *today*, is to tacitly imply that these next 30 games actually mean something in the grand scheme of things. In truth, it doesn't matter if the shoe drops today or 5 months from now. (You say: the shoe will never drop, we are doomed forever and things will never get better, ever ever ever. I don't say that the shoe will drop, I just say wait and see.) And who knows, it just may turn out that something unexpectedly positive happens-- maybe JC shows he can more consistently be useful when he's not pressed into PG duty for example.

isiah did blow it at the deadline.

jalen rose deal was made so he's not left holding his d ck in his hand on draft night.
francis is another malcontent that's had problems everywhere he's been.

two MAX deals made for these guys.

talent upgrade? sure.

guys to build a team with? nope.

he was better off doing nothing, especially since the season was done. but no, we CAN'T let those expiring deals expire b/c that goes against isiah's philosophy.

one more thing, 50 moves later and not one defensive player. isn't that a bit troubling? i mean even you tom have to question that, no?

Posted by fishmike:

Tom... the god honest truth is I think this offseason we could be a couple of modest moves from becoming a VERY good team. The kind of moves where perhaps we actually GIVE up talent to fix the chemistry problem and get some players to make what we have fit.

Everything you said is true, and even Chad (I despise the Knicks) Ford admitted that Isiah always got the best player back in every trade he made, so clearly there is talent here.

We have a couple of obvious problems. We have no tough guys. We have no defenders on the roster. We dont have a shooter, we dont have a dominant rebounder. This team gets a lot of rebounds, but we dont have a guy that owns the glass in any way shape or form.

We also have WAY to many guys. The same guys that say Mo T was a good trade because Vin and Mooch are garbage are the same guys that bitch because Lee doesnt get enough minutes. See a problem?

Here would be my simple plan. Assuming we have enough talent, and our core is the Marb/Francis backcourt and Frye/Curry frontcourt this is what I would do to make this happen.

Get Reggie Evans (dead horse I know) and Kenny Thomas. These are 2 rugged tough 2-way players. Evans can be a Rodman/Oakley hybrid and KT a guy that can play both forward spots.

Give Reggie the full MLE
Trade Crawford and one of the picks for Kenny Thomas. Yes.. great deal for Kings, better deal for Knicks because we get a guy we NEED.

Curry/JJ
Evans/Frye/Lee
Rose/Kenny T
Francis/Q1
MArbury/Nate

I think Evans/Curry/Frye/Lee/KT gives you 5 guys that can make up a variety of combos at the 4/5 and even 3 for spots.

Chemistry, roles, and players that compliment, not compete. Just my humble opinion

this is a complete change in philosophy for this team. i need to see it before i believe it.

Posted by djsunyc:

one more thing, 50 moves later and not one defensive player. isn't that a bit troubling? i mean even you tom have to question that, no?

who is a defensive player in the L available?

Artest - Larry was coaching the pistons during the brawl and IT knows that Artest is nuts

Ruben Patterson - the fact he is a rapist doomed him

Theo Ratliff - fact that he is maxed out, plays the same spot as Curry dooms him

not sure who else that was defensive was really out there - i'd love to hear from others.

Posted by Caseloads:

Posted by djsunyc:

one more thing, 50 moves later and not one defensive player. isn't that a bit troubling? i mean even you tom have to question that, no?

who is a defensive player in the L available?

Artest - Larry was coaching the pistons during the brawl and IT knows that Artest is nuts

Ruben Patterson - the fact he is a rapist doomed him

Theo Ratliff - fact that he is maxed out, plays the same spot as Curry dooms him

not sure who else that was defensive was really out there - i'd love to hear from others.

it's not always about the stud defender.

if they turned penny + AD into earl watson, dmiles and reggie evans, you already change the makeup of your team. it's not about lock down one on one, it's about putting together a good defensive unit that can get stops when they need to. forcing guys into other defenders, cutting off angles, and forcing tough shots. no express lanes to the hoop or 3 point shooting drills.

we have more trade assets now than we did this time last year... it's at least a start... if the KG deal goes down, this all will finally make some sort of sense... if it doesn't, we're stuck w/high priced players, capped out & struggling to get above .500... pretty much status quo in other words.

I would rather take Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, a top 5 pick and possibly another top 15 pick. Hey thats just me.

Posted by ultknicks524:

I would rather take Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, a top 5 pick and possibly another top 15 pick. Hey thats just me.

So would the Wolves, but if KG wants NY, then that's where Kevin will deal him. See the Shaq deal.

why would he want to play in Chicago? to play alongside the great Andres Nocioni? please. we have a great shot at getting him if he decides he wants to be dealt, as do the Lakers.

Martin - nice summary of assets

You didn't list Curry(23) or Quentin (26) with Da Yoots

“When I first came here, the average age of the roster was over 30 and people were saying we had players nobody wanted,” said Thomas. “The good thing that has come out of this process is that you can look at every player on the roster and say he has value. The average age is about 25 now and we have players a lot of teams want.”

“I know one thing,” said Thomas. “Coach and I, we’re in it for the long haul and we’re fighting like heck to win. And we don’t mind talking some hits on the way if in the end we come up on the winning side.”



[Edited by - MisterEarl on 02-23-2006 6:07 PM]