Good thread Dido. Myself and a few others have been HUGE backers of Isiah from the first day that he got to the Knicks. I saw the trades he made in the short time that he was here and was always one of the first people to say that he is making these moves becuase they are part of a bigger plan, now did I know this for a fact? No of course not, but I had a pretty good idea that Isiah Thomas is no fool and was getting the pieces for his plan when and where he could.

I love the drafting job that Isiah has done for the Knicks, I am very excited to watch the Knicks next year but I was also one of the people VERY outspoken about the Sun success this past year because I would always say they would NEVER win a championship without any defense and I fear the Knicks will run into the same problem. Judging by what Isiah has done so far, he will come through and get the Knicks a few key defensive players when the time is right, we may not get them next year but like any plan, it takes time. Atleast this year I'm going to be extremely excited to be watching Marbury Crawford Q Reezy and Frye run up and down the court and score a load of points on teams. Excellent job Zeke.

I just laugh at those who bash Isiah Thomas, because either they will jump on the bandwagon when things pan out and act as if they were onboard all along (which is a PUNK move), or they'll simply keep hating on him as they have always done (which is a beeotch move).

Then again, some other are weak-minded to the point of having their "opinion" dictated to them by the media.

Funniest thing of all, is that most who hate on Isiah only do so because thery are mad that Laydown is outta here. Pathetic, huh? LMAO

Those of us with clear vision and whose hearts are in the right place see the improvements and continue to root for Isiah to keep up the good work and for the Knicks to evolve into a Winner.

This is a terrible post, he is a great student for what reason, he is going to bring back herb when larry decides he would rather coach the Pistons

Anyone with half a brain waits it out, number one so they don't face Public scrutiny when Brown says I wanted to be the head coach of the Knicks, number two Herb isn't really a wanted man......

And he has players that want to play for him, Crawford, Thomas, Mo, and Marbury all take possesions off. The shot selection is terrible and they are being paid more a game than most make in a year and that is an accomplisment....Seriously

He doesn't have a game changing talent, hopefully the pieces he has added allow this team to run, and run, but we need to wait and see before Isiah gets any credit......

He is in a situation that many GM's don't have the luxury of being in, with an owner who spends money.

Posted by Pharzeone:

That's why it is not fair to judge Layden to harsh for the moves he made. I judge him because he didn't have the sort of backbone to not listen to his owner everytime. I am sure that almost 20% of the moves Isiah made was because his owner put pressure on him to get a "star" in here, make the playoffs. If you believe either Checketts or Layden, they blame Dolan for a number of moves that they wouldn't have made. Layden didn't want to trade Camby or Sprewell but was force to by the owner. Layden was against trading Ewing but was overruled. They both claim they were against giving Houston all that money. Layden said Channey was Dolan's guy. I blame Dolan for not doing due diligence on some of his moves, or not being creative on trades, and lacking charisma so he couldn't form a bond with the media or the fans. The man is aloof and a yes man. That is a horrible combination for NY. To me the only reason why Dolan fired Layden was because he couldn't fire himself.

Man you are way too kind.

I think Layden was a joke and a jerk.

He make stupid ass after stupid ass decisions.

I can't describe my level of happiness the day they announced his ass was canned.

Dude! what are you talking about??? Oh, I forgot, you are one of the haters...

Posted by MS:

This is a terrible post, he is a great student for what reason, he is going to bring back herb when larry decides he would rather coach the Pistons

Anyone with half a brain waits it out, number one so they don't face Public scrutiny when Brown says I wanted to be the head coach of the Knicks, number two Herb isn't really a wanted man......

And he has players that want to play for him, Crawford, Thomas, Mo, and Marbury all take possesions off. The shot selection is terrible and they are being paid more a game than most make in a year and that is an accomplisment....Seriously

He doesn't have a game changing talent, hopefully the pieces he has added allow this team to run, and run, but we need to wait and see before Isiah gets any credit......

He is in a situation that many GM's don't have the luxury of being in, with an owner who spends money.

Fish! the plan was to get rid of the old players that Layden had and replace them with guys that should have been able to help while waiting for availability of good players, especially through the draft. He brought in players that have some sort of trade value,,,,I.E. Nazr, TT, Penny (his contract will be valuable), Mo T. Malik, JYD, etc. All of those guys can help an already establish team to win a championship...I.E. Nazr...

hey! building a championship team takes time...You have to acquire both good and bad contracts before you can finally put something good on the floor, especially when you have inherited a team with a bad cap situation and poor talent level....We are on the right track...

Dido.. no team ever turned around their team by adding BAD contracts. I'm glad to see it looks like Zeke has gotten away from that and is focused on bringing in young guys

Nah. i think Fish's right.

I called it retooling. He tried to win now while still maintaining the flexibility to shift into rebuilding if it f'd up. And it did f up. But all it cost him was 2 #1's and a bunch of Daddy Warbucks' cash.

But the smart smart man known as Isiah Lord Thomas recouped and snagged us 3 true NBA players in this draft.

That's why I was flipping with joy at the Nazr trade. I fully knew at that moment - he gets it! It didn't work and he's moving on to plan B.

I never said he didnt add young guys did I? Just dont tell me by adding those 3 that Isiah had envisioned a rebuilding youth movement.

when you trade veterans for picks and young players your rebuilding.

When you trade veterans for other veterans and add a boatload of $$$ in the meantime your retooling. The team we finished with last year wasnt getting any better with time. Yes Craw and Ariza (forget Butler until he logs more than 2 minutes) would get better, just like Marbury, Rose, JYD, KT, etc were getting older.

This years team is so far is the exact opposite, and I'm thrilled for it.

Posted by diderotn:

Hmmm Fish, I don't know if you are right about that. Look, LA got some bad contracts, and many other teams in this league have gotten bad contracts before becoming a winning operation. Look, we had no choice but to do what we did. We could have eithe stand pat and allow the contracts that we had when Zeke took over to expire while losing our fan base or did exactly what Zeke has done. Not every moves will be a success, and you have eloquantly said that in of your posts. Zeke had to see what he had first to evaluate what talents that he would need. Now that he knows, he is taking proper measures to find that type of talents. Remember that Zeke became a GM by December 04, and that was mid season, that is definitely not enough time to do what he really wanted to do.

Posted by fishmike:

Dido.. no team ever turned around their team by adding BAD contracts. I'm glad to see it looks like Zeke has gotten away from that and is focused on bringing in young guys

like who and what deals? Give me examples? LA never took on bad contacts, the exact opposite. They used space to sign Shaq. After that the only guys that had big contracts were Shaq and Kobe, the next higest paid guy was probably Devon George. Funny thing.. when they took BACK a bad contract in Brian Grant the losing started right away. No.. I dont blame that for thier turnaround, but you use it for a reason they are very stuck with limited ways to improve.

Bad contract cripple you and just add more time to how ever long it takes for you to get better.

Look at us.. we are all basicly waiting for TT, Penny, Shandon, Houston and Mo T to expire and just go away. Bad contract = cancer for the roster and a GMs ability to make changes.