misterearl wrote:This Is It?

Only in your imagination.

nixluva - if you know anything about the Knicks franchise it is to expect the unexpected.

Expect Chandler, Gallo and Felton to feel really positive about the Knicks franchise this evening.

This is not some kind of rotisserie league trade we are talking about, but I think a lot of folks on this site see it that way.

misterearl wrote:All That Jazz

"but if we give them gallinari and/or fields, i still think we are the 4th or 5th best team in the east"

You ever consider as Fields and Gallo continue to improve, and a 6'11 Lithuanian in the first round is the right move, the 4th or 5th best team in the east could STILL be the NYK?

c - mosgov - may be the most interesting knicks player in the world but at least two years away from consistent performance. The 2011 playoffs for him are a huge test

pf - amare - cannot do it inside alone. With no big man to get his back, expect his turnovers to increase

sf - melo - too much one on one is never good for cohesion. Pass the ball... but where, and when?

sg - mason - you gotta be kidding me. Roger Mason has not made a shot since last season

pg - billups - back to square one with the pick and roll. Without a running mate, Billups has more pressure to shoot and pressure in New York is never a good thing.

all that jazz was a good movie. lol. anyway, the trade wouldnt give up size if we dont include mosgov who we played for two months without. amare's game wont change except he wont have to score as much. as much as i like gallo and how his game improve, i am skeptical about whether we are overrating him. i dont want to look back and have gallo avg no more than 17 ppg and missing key shots when we could have had melo. as far as mason goes, yes he is struggling but he is young and have historically made some key shots. we have to see once he has playing time. though i think we will still keep fields so it is a mute point.

Bonn1997 wrote:

KnickFanPete wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

KnickFanPete wrote:The only productive youths we'd be giving up would be Gallo and Chandler. Your core 3 would change from Amare, Gallo, and Chandler to Amare, Melo, and Fields. It's not gutting the team, it's adding more star power. It keeps us in the hunt for CP3 or Deron in 2011, and we can buy a pick or two at the end of round 1 in the coming draft.

Then what would be an example of gutting the team?

Gutting the team would be Fields, Gallo, Felton, Mozgov, Chandler, and Bill Walker for just Melo. The two trade rumors I have seen are A) Fields, Mozgov, Felton, Chandler, Curry, and number 1 for Melo, Billups, A. Carter and B) Gallo, Felton, Chandler, Curry and number 1 for Melo, Billups, and Carter. In one incarnation, you're trading 4 contributors for 2. In the other you're trading 3 contributors for 2. It's not a 5 for 1 deal.

So basically because we get an old PG who has 1 1/3 years left on his contract, it's not gutting the team? After Billups retires and the trade turns into a 4 for 1 (as the other 5 players will all still be playing), should we re-label the trade as "gutting the team"? Why not?

There will still be room for one of the 2012 FA's, and we stand a much better chance of getting one of those if we have Amare and Melo. Billups would just be here to play playoff caretaker for this year and next.

This is an absolutely horrendous deal from a long term perspective because it guts all the upside youth we have been suffering for for 2 years and still leaves us with a gaping hole at C, a low quality bench with several needs, having to replace Billups eventually at PG, and fewer picks to do any of that. There simply isn't enough cap space to do all that.

I'm besides myself that we could do such a horrific deal. It has to be Dolan because no one else on earth could be this dumb.

Keep in mind that NJ was NEVER a serious deal because he won't extend there. Even NJ management has said they were still in because they wanted to drive the price up for the Knicks and only NY is dumb enough to fall for it. If I was Walsh I would resign immediately.

* Amar’e Stoudemire did not make it to practice.

* Raymond Felton and Wilson Chandler, both avoided the media. They didn’t take any questions.

* Danilo Gallinari answered questions. “It’s tough, but it’s the NBA life.”

* When asked about trading three starters Mike D’Antoni said, “There’s no use in me answering stuff like that.”

* Timofey Mozgov was told he was the most important player in the NBA, because he was holding up the trade, responded saying “thank you!”

* Donnie Walsh did not talk to the media.

You heard it here first

Aggressive.

Intelligent.

Personable.

Alert.

Fundamentally sound.

Coachable.

Adaptable.

Professional.

When a rookie is the keeper of the flame for the ideal playing personality of the franchise, something is not right.

For everyone that said to “put the calculator away” to the Knicks when they made the trade for Carmelo Anthony, last night’s game proved why the calculator may end up being needed after all.

Unsurprisingly, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks are the two worst offenses in the league. On Wednesday and Friday night, the Knicks made them look like a high powered scoring machine.

Offensive production was never an issue for the Knicks, and it’s the main reason why detractors are against the deal. Now, the Knicks can score at a higher rate, but their defense has degraded in turn.

Hoop Data decided to prove it with the calculator:

The two worst offenses in the league:
Milwaukee: 98.4
Cleveland: 98.6

New York opened the Carmelo-era allowing 108 points on 99 possessions to Milwaukee for a 109.1 efficiency mark. Friday night they allowed 115 points to Cleveland at an even faster pace, which will end up projecting in the same neighborhood once the numbers are in the books.

It’s more than that though. Hoop Data noticed that the Knicks are not only having trouble defending, they’re dreadful when it comes to the boards.

Cleveland had a stunning 19 offensive rebounds Friday, compared to just 29 defensive rebounds for the Knicks. Remember when Indiana was grading out so well in the low 30% range in offensive rebound rate right after Frank Vogel took over? Cleveland was a fraction under 40% in that stat tonight. The Cavs would win the battle of the boards 62-42 overall.

This is the problem: the Knicks got better with the trade, but they didn’t fill in any of their major weaknesses, and it’s hard for them to improve in the next year and half.

Oklahoma City executed a couple of supreme moves at the deadline to help their interior presence on the boards (Nazr Mohammed and Kendrick Perkins) and to give them a legitimate backup point guard (Nate Robinson). In essence, if the Knicks had added these pieces, instead of giving up so much for Anthony, they would be in a better position long term.

So there you have it. The Knicks need to improve in both of those categories and have basically no cap space to work with.

See, if the ending this season isn't the one we saw for the Knicks when the Anthony trade was made, then it becomes more and more likely that Donnie Walsh decides to leave after the season, and that Mike D'Antoni, even with a year left on his contract, might be asked to leave.

If that happens, then the Extreme Makeover to talk about at James L. Dolan's Garden is the one in the Knicks' front office. It is one thing to trust Walsh to figure this thing out. To think about the job he has done over the past three years while you're handing your wallet over to Dolan. It is quite another to have faith in Dolan's ability to pick a replacement for Walsh if that's the way this thing plays out.

Because then Knicks fans wonder if they're helping pay for Allan Houston's Knicks, or Mark Warkentien's Knicks.

- Mike Lupica

The scout listed defense and ball movement as the Knicks’ greatest weaknesses. But the lack of talent was a close third.

“You have no depth,” he said. “You’ve got five good starters and a sixth man in Toney Douglas and who is the next guy? Jared Jeffries is your next-best player?”

Beyond the top six, the Knicks fall into two categories: specialists (who have one notable skill) and space-fillers (who have none). Shawne Williams, Roger Mason Jr. and Bill Walker are capable 3-point shooters who do little else. (And Williams is reliable only from the corners — meaning even his one dimension is one-dimensional.) Jeffries is a decent help defender who has a knack for drawing charges.

But consider their recent history: Jeffries was waived by the Houston Rockets, who barely used him. Williams spent the 2009-10 season out of the N.B.A. Until recently, Mason could not break the Knicks’ rotation. Walker has fallen out of the rotation entirely.

The rest of the Knicks are space-fillers — a category the scout bluntly called “Can’t Play.” That includes Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman, Anthony Carter, Andy Rautins and Derrick Brown.

- Howard Beck