Posted by anrst:

[Eddy Curry is showing improved output with bonus minutes

YEah, those two boards against Atlanta were tremendous

Posted by misterearl:

Allanfan - the absence of Jeffries is not offered as an excuse. Lemme get this straight, you are suggesting a fluid 6'11 compliment to the solid play of Richarson would not make a difference on defense in the frontcourt against the 6'10 Harrington?

I beg to differ.

Posted by crzymdups:

Earl - Frye, Marbury and Crawford have all looked like crap. And it hasn't been their offense, it's been their entire games, other than brief spurts for Marbury and Craw against a young, young, rudderless Memphis team. If Memphis had Gasol, we'd likely be looking at three double digit losses here. It's not just the losses, it's how they've happened. Nothing's changed - the team is tremendously flawed - Marbury and Francis can't thrive together and worse, it's looking like Frye and Curry can't play together at all.

I like some of the pieces, but there is work to be done. Jefferies will help, but asking him to cover for the deficiencies of Frye and Curry all game long is a bit much. Teams run whatever they want against us, that hasn't changed. The attitude is better right now, but Isiah is all ready starting to show cracks in the armor, the Garden isn't having it either. I don't fully blame Isiah like others. I fear whatever move Dolan makes next more than I fear Isiah. Dolan is the real enemy. He's ruined this organization from the tippity top to the bottom.

IF we get Jefferies back, Lee moves to the starting lineup, Q keeps playing out of his mind, Curry continues to improve, Marbury gets his head on right (...), and Craw finds his game and Francis stays content and Balkman finds the floor a little more often, we could be decent, hell, we might sneak into the playoffs - but to what end? what's the plan? the Sixers made the playoffs last year and they're a joke. Marbury and Francis will be worse next year, Frye and Curry can't play together. We need a team architect, we need some high picks to get some real blue chip talent in here - how about a 6'8" wing player who can score like Joe Johnson or Al Harrington? We've been sold the line that we're athletic, and while we're more athletic than we've been in a while, teams like Indiana and Atlanta (who look like more of a playoff team than us, or is that only because they were playing us?) just JUMP all over of us and control the tempo. We want to run, but Atlanta slowed it down when they wanted to. We can't get stops, we always have more turnovers than our opponents.

I am happy with a real rotation and an idea about style of play that suits the team, but we're just not very good. absolute ceiling for this team if everything goes right is 41 wins - and we've already lost Jefferies for two months. So what's the ceiling now? 38? 35? We have pieces, which is more than we could ever say in the Layden era, but the pieces don't fit and there's almost no way to acquire new pieces. We just waived $27 million in expiring deals that could have gotten us some more pieces. We're hamstrung. Doing anything is going to be ridiculously hard. Do you honestly believe any team in the league would trade for Marbury? Maybe someone takes Francis - and truth be told he's probably partly playing well so he can be traded.