MSG3 wrote:Not trying to be a dick or condescending. Sorry if you feel that way. All I'm saying is that we will be waiting a looooong time before we are winners if we don't take opportunities available to us. I don't want to Starphuck for the sake of starphucking, but Donnie's job was to clear cap space to do just that to an extent.
Thanks. No offense taken. Just pointing out that there are multiple pathways forward and choosing one ONLY on the premise of an alleged "star" status isn't our best plan.
MSG3 wrote:You tell me, what does this team need to win a title during Amar'e's prime? What can we add and subtract to this roster as presently constituted to make us legit competition for Miami, Boston, LA, Dallas, etc? If we wait for Paul, or Deron or Dwight we are taking a huge risk that might not pay off. We don't know what they want to do. Maybe Dwight wins a title and stays. Maybe CP3 and Dwight decide they want to go somewhere together. Maybe Utah gets a franchise player somehow and stays in Utah.
Yes, it would involve risk waiting for those guys contracts to come due next season. But IMHO it will be less risk than gutting our current roster in a trade. We already have known assets in our roster. We also have team chemistry, which is arguably more valuable than scoring ability (e.g., team defense relies on it, so does ball movement). Mufuhs need to trust each other to share the rock and help on D. I'd call it risky to assume that Melo will improve our team in those areas. We already know he sucks at D and is average (at best) at grabbing boards.
Both DeRon and CP3 have already stated their desire to play for the Knicks. The point is that it will be a bigger and known risk gutting our roster for Melo, who adds the one thing our team already has in abundance: Scoring.
MSG3 wrote:Maybe if we don't get Melo it's for the best and we build a Pistons-esque team. But maybe not. What we know is that one of the top 10 talents in the game wants to join another top 10 talent in the game on our team. When was the last time that happened? Did it ever happen? We have to take this chance. What I do know is that when Melo is added our team is instantly much better than it is now and we have a great core to add complementary pieces around. The future would be much less of a question mark. I'm frustrated because as bad as the last 10 years were it shouldn't make us afraid to take a risk like this for a franchise player. Yes, Melo is a franchise player. Where was Denver before he came? He came in and single- handedly made that team into a contender. The best player he had around him at any point was Chauncey Billups. Why are we so against sending a fair package to Denver to acquire a talent like this? I'm a business man and I agree that it would be best to fleece Denver here given the situation. But it's not happening and we can't cut off our nose to spite our face. This deal has to go through and the package as it is now is more than fair. I was against including Galo AND Chandler earlier in the year, but both of them do not equal Melo.
Let's get this done and enjoy what will be a hell of a ride the next 3 years.
Are you ignoring the recent ADDITION of Mozgov. As of now, Denver is asking for...
Chandler, Gallo, Curry's expiring, AR, Felton AND Mozgov, not to mention our 2014 first rounder.
Yes, adding Melo to our CURRENT team would make us better. Adding him to our team minus all those pieces would make us worse in so many ways (e.g., defense, rebounding, ball movement, team chemistry, future cap flexibility, future trade assets). Our cupboards would be bare and we'd have basically Stat/Melo/Fields to build around. That is not a smart strategy, especially when we can reject the offer and possibly get Melo while retaining our core roster.
I am not advocating for keeping our roster and making no moves. I am advocating against dealing our core roster for one volume scorer. If it was LBJ or MJ in his prime, I might reconsider. But it's not a talent on that level and it is flawed to think that Melo makes us better regardless of cost.