CrushAlot wrote:I can't think of a young free agent that left his team. The Nets tried the poison pill route and teams kept their players. Portland is in a bit of a bind because of it. This management team hasn't traded any picks (other than for Willy) that I am aware of. I think young players will have to come through the draft and through smart scouting (i.e. Baker and Kuz).

Phil's tenure is one thing - though he traded away Timmy Hardaway Jr for Jerian Grant and then traded Jerian Grant.

But I'm talking about the real management of the Knicks - Mills and Dolan.

Though I will say this KP makes it easier to build through the draft because he is a draw. Anyhow the way the rules are now there is zero hope you can steal a premier player from a franchise. They just have too much more money to offer.

crzymdups wrote:

wargames wrote:We need to draft high too.... but that is another debate

Though I will say this KP makes it easier to build through the draft because he is a draw. Anyhow the way the rules are now there is zero hope you can steal a premier player from a franchise. They just have too much more money to offer.

Yup. Agreed. Giannis never even came close to FA - locked up to a 4yr $100M deal.

I'll take his brother just about now.

We have not had much picks to work with. Now that we actually do I would much rather be in position to draft. Phil has done well with most of the picks so far. Outside of Grant, he has made good picks with KP and Hernangomez.

Our main problem right now is Melo. To be honest literally everything long term can be solved if Melo waived his NTC and we deal him for a younger athletic defensive wing and a draft pick. That's all I even want. Even as good as Melo is, he is the major obstacle in the team really rebuilding. With Jennings and Rose, Kristaps now has enough shot creators or players that draw defensive attention. We don't need Melo right now. We are not competing for a title if we make the playoffs with Melo and all Melo does is make the rebuild to a contender slower.

When our point guards were Jose, Grant and Gallo, KP would have been forced to carry too much of the load without Melo. Now with Rose and Jennings, KP can slide in perfectly in Melo current role. Less isolation, more spot ups and more team offense ran. As KP develops his post game we go to him more overt the coming years. The key will be keeping both Jennings and Rose. The other thing is we need to get extremely athletic at the 2 and 3. This will improve our defense. That would be my immediate plan. Get Melo to the Clippers in a 3 way trade that gets us an athletic 3 or 2, and a 1st round pick. Draft well this summer and focus on athleticism. Next year unleash KP with Rose/Jennings and an athletic team that plays hard and as a team on both ends. I think this rebuild is realistic. And we win more games than in the Melo era.

Heck even Rose and Jennings look ten fold better when they don't feel they have to feed Melo. Melo plans as if he is Kobe or Jordan in the offense, but his impact and consistency is half of theirs. We simply are a much better team on both ends if we trade Melo for a young athletic wing and a draft pick. With Rose now a Knick, we need to give him and Jennings full throttle of the team. Get younger and athletic around Rose and Jennings and hope KP keeps developing. That's my blue print.

Knixkik wrote:Why are the only 2 options so extreme in 1 direction or the other? Neither option is good. Balance is the key. Add quality vets where possible, keep draft picks and draft well. Try to compete by doing both.

I agree with balance - but I think it is fair to say that there are two core philosophies in the NBA - rebuild or reload. The Knicks under Dolan have always chosen to reload. Antonio McDyess, Keith Van Horn, Steph Marbury, JAmal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, Zach Randolph, Amar'e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony etc etc etc. Usually those guys come at the expense of draft picks. Just for that list above they traded 9(?? or more?) #1 picks over a span of fewer than ten years (2002 Dyess trade to 2011 Melo trade). Those picks became Nene, Gordon Hayward, LaMarcus Aldridge, Joakim Noah, and I'm counting Frye who we traded after two years - all those guys are still in the NBA, meanwhile all the guys we traded for are out and never worked out here - and in fact were usually massive disasters... except for Melo, who has not been a disaster, but has not exactly worked out the way some would have hoped.

I'm fine signing smart FA... but I want the focus to be a rebuild from the ground up through the draft around KP. I'm worried about an attempt to reload using our picks. We finally don't have future picks mortgaged away... we own all our picks in coming drafts. I'd like to keep it that way.