Jermaine defends pal Isiah

Jermaine O'Neal remains loyal to Isiah Thomas no matter how many poor moves Thomas makes or how many games the Knicks lose on the team president's watch. Instead of blaming Thomas, O'Neal says Knicks fans and critics should fault the players for their horrid season.

"I don't see anybody else blaming other presidents for other teams playing badly," O'Neal said at yesterday's Pacers shootaround. "At the end of the day, players have a job to do.

"Isiah, I think he has a plan," O'Neal added, who struggled through his second foul-plagued game and finished with 12points. "There's a reason why he put that team together."

O'Neal played for Thomas when the Knicks president was coach of the Pacers from 2000 to 2003. The two developed a friendship. Should the Pacers entertain offers for O'Neal this summer, it's a sure thing Thomas will be calling.

"The last time I checked I have five years left on my deal," O'Neal said of possibly playing for the Knicks. "As soon as the Pacers get tired of me maybe so."

Jalen, Channing, Nate & the 2 late 1st rounders for JO is probably the best possible package we could offer them... i still don't see IND making that trade.

(Both Picks and cap space???) Way too much to give up for Jermaine O'neal... IMO


I think a Francis/Frye and SA Pick would be enough to get it done.

I also believe that Larry Bird would be hard pressed to give into trading w/ Zeke. I never say never.. but that would be a hard one for Isiah to pull off. I think a 3rd team would probably be needed.. Denver and Portland come to mind. (Zack Randolph or Kenyon Martin)

[Edited by - JayNYC on 04-26-2006 1:04 PM]

pacers have too many pieces already in place to trade away JO.

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by djsunyc:


"Isiah, I think he has a plan," .... "There's a reason why he put that team together."

Yeah, that's a euphemism for "I don't know what the fluck he's thinking over there..."

LOL!! He's like: theres a reason......I just don't know what it is.

Posted by rvhoss:

I still don't think that larry is interested in coaching even JO. He wants over the hill vets with nothing to lose by listening to him.

he doesn't want talented players that can play more than one position and have the ability to take over a game by themselves.

funny... he's had a pretty good career working with those kinds of players huh?

Posted by NotFrye:

Donnie was trying to convince toronto to trade Bosh and loose change for JO. I don't think that went over too well there.

How funny is that the Knicks wanted Bosh in the draft, the Raptors weren't that interested in drafting Bosh (still mad they missed on Carmelo) but Layden was scared to make another big draft trade.

If Indiana makes any trade whether a 2 team or 3 team deal it wouldn't be for Steve Francis I think they would want to get under the cap at the end of the 2006/2007 season. So cap relief plus young talent could work.

bob, you'd need to add Mo T into that deal to match up the dollars... & i'd much rather give them Nate than include David Lee... they could use some depth at the PG anyway... i don't see IND making the trade, but just for argument's sake, if they did (w/Nate in the deal instead of D. Lee), then i'd sign Jason Williams as our backup PG... let's focus on acquiring high IQ basketball players... we should be holding onto David Lee.

I'd rather keep Nate over Lee. Nate is a gamebreaker on both ends.

Frye is a nice player but he's not a blue chip prospect thats going to have teams willing to part with superstar frontcourt players for.

Will Frye ever be an Elton Brand/Jermaine Oneil type?