The signs are everywhere. Any time an organization needs to revert to damage control mode to correct a prevalent message or perception there is trouble. Where there is smoke there is fire and the undercover brother thing with Isiah Thomas and Dolan is not welcome news. The process of recruiting Carmelo has been tainted by too much opinion and Donnie Walsh cannot be happy about the way his plan has been subject to second-guessing.

The suits have decided another star is the only way to go, so be it.

Donnie Walsh should be commended for his work in New York to date. He made a major course correction in strategy and rebuilt consumer confidence. In the impatient world of Cablevision stakeholders and profits that is no simple task. Thank you Donnie.

Second, Walsh has done an amazing job of managing the media. His words have been measured and consistent. Whatever "sources" of speculation were never the result of direct quotes from his staff. His scouts have done a good job of evaluating talent like Shawne Williams and Landry Fields. Roger Mason seemed like a good idea at the time, but hey, nobody's perfect.

We will miss you.

"Howard Beck of the Times, as usual, has it exactly right this morning: This is not a Donnie Walsh trade; it is a James Dolan one. Regardless of whether or not Isiah Thomas is back in charge — as Adrian Wojnarowski's terrifying Yahoo! column yesterday implied — it's clear this decision has been taken out of Walsh's hands. Forget not extending Walsh's contract: We have no idea, at this point, why he'd even want to come back."

You could look it up.

"it's clear this decision has been taken out of Walsh's hands. Forget not extending Walsh's contract: We have no idea, at this point, why he'd even want to come back."

Until Donnie Walsh signs an extension why should that be assumed as a done deal?

"And then Jim Dolan came busting in. Convinced as always that he knows best — or anything at all, really — Dolan took the Knicks' bargaining advantage and set it on fire. (This is Dolan's way: As we put it in our mag column last week, "Walsh has put the tires back on the car. Now Dolan wants to drive again.") The Knicks went from, "The Nuggets have no choice but to trade Carmelo for whatever we want" to, "Wait, we're trading Gallinari and Chandler and Felton?" to, "We can't let Timofey Mozgov be what holds this deal up."

Dolan did this IN THE SPAN OF ONE WEEKEND.

Every piece of Knicks-Carmelo news since Friday has been depressing, one more move away from the position Walsh shrewdly put the Knicks in. The Knicks were reconstructed by patience and guile and, for once, having grownups back in charge. It took Walsh two years to clean up a decade of mess. Dolan might have undone it all in a weekend."

- NYMagazine

misterearl wrote:The Answer Man Waits For No One

Q. Silverfuel - Can we wait till the trade actually goes through before speculating on these things?

A. Nope.

Speculation is what sells newspapers.

This issue is whether Donnie Walsh is signed.

Who got next?

Maybe it's a little naive, but I really don't think Dolan is dumb enough after the last 10 years to undo all the hard work Donnie has done just to get Carmelo here if Walsh was really against it.

Allanfan20 - pissy and upset? How is that, in an way, relevant?

If you study Knicks history you may change tune of personal assumptions. Tension in the Knicks front office is in the DNA of the organization. It dates back to the tiff between Holzman and Eddie Donovan. Or Van Gundy and Grunfeld. This is only a cautionary tale of a repeat of the same theme.

If you have a counter argument, make it.

Silverfuel - of course it is speculation. It is simply the type of speculation that irritates the senses. Given the progress of the NYK during his tenure, why do you think Donnie Walsh has not signed an extension?

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.