Isiah talks about the disadvantage of the salary cap, the harsh fan response, how good other players are, how its hard to win because of injuries, I have never seen or heard a big bull****er in my life, and more people willing to buy into the future of this morally corrupt organization. We are being led by the blind and are to believe that Eddy Curry actually will develop into a player in his 8th year in the league.

The fact remains Isiah has set the franchise back a decade with his short sighted drafting, his awful trades, and his hubris the prevents this team from actually becoming a unit and playing smart basketball instead of dumping it down to the human turnover.

Move 1: Rushing into the free agent market to sign, an underachieving over weight center with a history of dogging it.

Enter: Jerome James

Move 2: Drafting the softest timber in the draft while passing on Andrew Bynum and Danny Granger

Move 3: Deciding to move Kurt Thomas for a QRich even though his uninsurable back could give out at any moment, and surprise it has, and all we have to show for it is a midget guard, with mental issues that thinks he is Michael Jordan, while adding 3 more years of salary for Kurt Thomas

Move 4: Inexplicably trading for James counterpart in Chicago a player with a questionable work ethic at best, and someone believed to take en ephedra to kill a horse, with giving away to lottery picks.

Enter Eddy Curry

Move 5: Fabricating a story that Larry begged him to bring in the NBA’s big malcontent who has bitched and moaned and destroy the fabricate of every team he has been a part of giving away a young swingman.

Move 6: Signing Jared Jefferies

Move 7: Love Balkman, Love Him but you have to go pg in the draft when you don’t have one.

What could have been without these moves, is simple, a future a plan, a championship and a chance to be a great franchise yet again.

Marbury, Marcus Williams
Brandon Roye/Jamal Crawford
Ariza/Balkman
David Lee/Rose
Andrew Bynum/Kurt Thomas

And this years draft selection while not having contracts no one want like James, Jefferies, Francis, so every time you mention we look great for the future just look at that unit and see cap space and the ability to make moves, and to sign a big time free agent.

you are just blind to the evident progress

what stinks is that he took so much time to write all of this for me to just totally blow it off as another peter vescey type argument.....oh well

No one can disagree that the Francis for Ariza move stunk. No one would disagree that the James signing was horrrible. I happen to still believe that Frye is a good player. Bynum was the bigger upside player, but if he turned out to be lazy and never fully developed you'd be killing Isiah for that pick too. Jeffries is a good role player and I don't think anyone expected him to be more than that. I still like the Balkman move over the M. Williams pick. Williams is indeed a good player, but he doesn't help our defense one lick. THAT is the reason he was drafted along with Collins. We had to start adding guys who can really defend. Williams would help the offense, but nothing more.

The mistake you're making is in ASSUMING that the roster you just put together would really be good enough to do all that you predict. You don't know how that group would work together. The guards are certainly great. Who wouldn't like Roy and Williams? However that team is flawed too. There's no way to get from where we started to a title team in such a short span of time. All you did was change players, but that doesn't make it a better team.

Would you even have an argument if Lee, Q and Jamal were here and we were solidly in the playoffs as we likely would be right now?

Your team woulda sucked too.

Posted by MS:

I am talking about long term progression it would take four years for that team to really get ready to make any sort of run.

I would def have that argument because i don't believe that crawford helps you win games especially with his defense, and when he is in there with curry its too easy for teams to score. But making the playoffs in the disgraceful eastern conference is nothing to be proud of the magic and pacers are giving it away.

I am looking long term and i don't believe we have players that have the right mindset to be a winner. And teams like Atlanta and the Bobcats have resources we don't right now. And to expect isiah to add a player that will help us in the future is not something you can count on.....

I think it makes us a better team right away roye is a go to scorer and is shooting it at 44% already higher than crawford who could take time at the point as well. Ariza is a better defensive player than jefferies, and attacking the offensive glass and being active is what Ariza, Balkman, and lee do. Bynum can at least block shots, rb and pass. I understand rebuilding is a gradual process and if you have a plan, that involves young talent, cap room and not a blatant disregard for chemistry it can work. and if you wanted to go defense lowry was a great option

If you're thinking it would take 4 years for that team to make it to contender status, that's fair. It's just not automatic that your squad would be a championship caliber team. It looks to me like it would be about what the Chicago Bulls are right now. Great perimeter scoring, but not much inside. Good D, but not Piston like. Just not dominant enough in any specific way that a title team usually is.

You just have to see the big picture here. Isiah first had to help this franchise recover from the devastation wrought by Scott Layden. That'll take at least 15 years.

Add to that the evil and unexpected betrayal by Larry Brown last year - from which this franchise has yet to recover (especially since Larry is the one who traded for Steve Franics). Tack on an additional 30 years for that.

So I believe Isiah will go down as the best GM in NBA history for helping the Knicks recover from these dual catastrophes, and I predict he'll do it in just 45 years.

All we as fans have to do is continue going to games and cheering, and continue attending JD & the Straight Shot concerts, and buying their cds.

Posted by nixluva:

No one can disagree that the Francis for Ariza move stunk. No one would disagree that the James signing was horrrible. I happen to still believe that Frye is a good player. Bynum was the bigger upside player, but if he turned out to be lazy and never fully developed you'd be killing Isiah for that pick too. Jeffries is a good role player and I don't think anyone expected him to be more than that. I still like the Balkman move over the M. Williams pick. Williams is indeed a good player, but he doesn't help our defense one lick. THAT is the reason he was drafted along with Collins. We had to start adding guys who can really defend. Williams would help the offense, but nothing more.

The mistake you're making is in ASSUMING that the roster you just put together would really be good enough to do all that you predict. You don't know how that group would work together. The guards are certainly great. Who wouldn't like Roy and Williams? However that team is flawed too. There's no way to get from where we started to a title team in such a short span of time. All you did was change players, but that doesn't make it a better team.

Would you even have an argument if Lee, Q and Jamal were here and we were solidly in the playoffs as we likely would be right now?

MS, anybody can put a roster together with the benefit of hindsight and say "if we had done this and that" we would have been better. It is not like IT was the only person that passed on the players you mentioned and I happen to believe that getting Francis was LB's idea and but for that snake pushing for the move, it would not have happened. Also, I like Q and Nate and considering what Kurt Thomas is doing with the Suns, which is nothing, I cannot say that the trade was bad. Obviously, the JJ1 signing was bad but has that really set us back. We were always going to be over the cap once we got Marbury.

In your analysis you failed to mention that IT drafted Lee with the 30th pick after every other team in the league passed on him or that Balkman and Collins are the type of heady defensive minded players that this team needs going forward.

MS - nice hindsight

from Layden's dreck to NBA champion in three years huh

okayfine

Move 1: Rushing into the free agent market to sign, an underachieving over weight center with a history of dogging it.

Enter: Jerome James

HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE move by Isiah!

Move 2: Drafting the softest timber in the draft while passing on Andrew Bynum and Danny Granger

not to mention a young up & coming potential superstar in Gerald Greene... bad decision for a team looking for a star to build a franchise around

Move 3: Deciding to move Kurt Thomas for a QRich even though his uninsurable back could give out at any moment, and surprise it has, and all we have to show for it is a midget guard, with mental issues that thinks he is Michael Jordan, while adding 3 more years of salary for Kurt Thomas

that wasn't a bad trade... the bad choice was signing KT to an extension to begin with that included that trade kicker, instead of just trading his expiring contract

Move 4: Inexplicably trading for James counterpart in Chicago a player with a questionable work ethic at best, and someone believed to take en ephedra to kill a horse, with giving away to lottery picks.

Enter Eddy Curry

the inexplicable part was signing Big Turd to begin with... the trade was a no brainer... no one would have thought this team would finish w/such a terrible record last season under a HOF coach in LB, & the jury's still out on how good the pick will be this season after the swap.

Move 5: Fabricating a story that Larry begged him to bring in the NBA’s big malcontent who has bitched and moaned and destroy the fabricate of every team he has been a part of giving away a young swingman.

pure conjecture on your part... the facts seem to point to the opposite.

Move 6: Signing Jared Jefferies

agreed... he's been another bust of a MLE signing.

Move 7: Love Balkman, Love Him but you have to go pg in the draft when you don’t have one.

especially when we have 4 other guys on the roster playing the same position... that's Scott Layden all over again, except he had a hard-on for undersized PF's w/no athleticism... we needed a player like Balkman in the worst way & we got a good one... case closed.

the inexplicable part was signing Big Turd to begin with... the trade was a no brainer... no one would have thought this team would finish w/such a terrible record last season under a HOF coach in LB, & the jury's still out on how good the pick will be this season after the swap.

So why not protect the picks?