Posted by TMS:
Posted by JohnWallace44:
Its a bit of a leap of faith to take Derozan or Holiday, but I'd be down with taking a player like that.
Where our franchise is now, I think taking a leap on a high upside guy is the right thing to do.
We should get a shot at a really good player at the 9 slot. I just don't want to hear Buddinger's name called. Other than that, I'm pretty much good with all of the players projected in our range.
definitely a leap of faith but i absolutely agree, i much rather go w/the player w/the higher upside potential than go w/a safe pick... i still think Budinger will be a good player in the NBA but i agree i wouldn't take him w/a #9 pick either... i think we'll have a pretty good shot at someone like Warren or Teague if we get the #9 pick.
[Edited by - TMS on 03-22-2009 9:35 PM]
That's how I'm leaning right now. When thinking 'sure thing' in this draft, you gotta start with the surplus of above average PG talent (and to me we're gonna need to come up with a good PG for the future here sometime soon - Nate can do it part time but he's a scorer and better off looking for his own & Chris Duhon reuped at $6-7 mil. a pop just doesn't do it for me - he's a backup, we need to do better...). But hey, if DeRozan's still there at 9-10, like you guys I probably take him - you gotta love his athleticism and also the fact that he raised his game to another level down the stretch here when it counted most. I'm just a little leary about what we'll be getting eventually... He's a hard guy to quantify right now, there's really no way to be 100% sure on him at the moment, and with the Gallo pick officially a bust until further notice, however you want to slice it, we NEED a good player here - at least a contributor right off the bat with hopefully a chance for even more. That's why I was really rooting for USC to go a little further in the tournament - for the Knicks, the bigger the sample size of DeRozan in these pressure games the better but the Trojans are gone now so that's that. The tools and the potential's there for this kid, that's obvious. Will he wind up being a star like Vince Carter/Tracy McGrady, a slightly above average player with a decent career like Gerald Wilkins or an underachiever like Gerald Green or Qyntel Woods?? That's the major question with him right now...
Say Derozan's gone by the time we pick or they just decide they don't want to take on the risks that would come with drafting him (which I could understand, esp. after the Gallo pick), instead of packaging every last asset available to move up a few spots, I might be OK with them standing pat and taking the BA PG (Warren or Maynor would be huge upgrades over Chris Duhon at less than half the eventual cost, Jeff Teague as well though I'm concerned that he and his team played poorly the 2nd half of the season into the tournament) and then acquiring two additional late picks to amass more assets. You get the feeling James Dolan's previous GMs have scarred him and he's a little weary about spending money on this team if it's not a sure thing but Donnie should try to convince him that he needs about $5 mil. to acquire an additional pick or two and that it would be money well spent. Tough sell, again, after Donnie flopped with the Gallo pick, but nevertheless, he needs to be in there pitching this idea to Dolan. The more draft picks we can get our hands on the better in terms of reshaping this roster and making the team more attractive as a whole...
I gave you my guys that I think would help and have an immediate impact and help turn this franchise around and make the roster much for attractive to one of the 2010 FAs - Eric Maynor, Sam Young and either DuJuan Blair or Taj Gibson. I'd be ecstatic with that as our draft and I think it's doable w/o depleting our most important assets, provided they can get Dolan on board for the additional funds...
Some of these other names being talked about for the Knicks -- Stephen Curry, BJ Mullens, Cole Aldrich -- I just don't know about those guys man. There's a lot of uncertainty with some of these guys:
-- Will Curry really turn out to be the next Steve Nash as some have speculated or will he wind up being an undersized shooter with substandard PG skills, strength, speed and athleticism?
-- Will guys like BJ Mullens and Cole Aldrich pan out and be contributors at the next level or will they wind up turning into the next Sam Bowie? Aldrich destroyed Dayton yesterday but I also remember seeing him come up empty against good competition a few times this season...
[Edited by - finestrg on 03-23-2009 09:11 AM]
3/23/2009 9:59 AM