Posted by MS:

Stupid to fire Isiah mid year since he has already ****ed the franchise through the roof with money.....however

DLee is known for being great with either hand, improving your free three shooting is not progress through coaching....HE passes well now? Where were you last year, he has always passed well.....

Curry outscoring centers while providing no interior dfense, doesn't matter so much if you can't do anything on defense..... Yao made him look like a little girl, Okafur had a much bigger impact on friday, Camby outplayed him twice, Okur outplayed him, even Sammy D outplayed once as well .....Points don't tell the story.

I wonder if your brother gets murdered, you break up with your wife to be, and you get traded in one offseason and your pg doesn't make the effort to find you contributes to you having an off year. So Isiah gets credit for his mental well being?

You just named 7 games out of 38. Why dont you focus on the other 31 games instead of the 7 bad games?

Posted by djsunyc:

it's a new year and a different league but 1 year ago today, nj was 19-15. if the expected did happen this year (meaning the east wasn't the worst league ever), then the knicks and the raps would be 6-8 games back.

Yeah and if Larry had coached like he was supposed to last year, Chicago would have picked 10th or 11th at the earliest (35 wins) and not 2nd. Alot of things would be different IF the expected happened but it didn't.

BigSmooth - did I mention it ain't your money?

Why is Dolan's checkbook balance even an issue here?

Just think of an alternate vision:

The extremely young Knicks frontcourt (Curry, Frye, Lee, Jeffries, Balkman) stays together and continues to mature together.

Marbury contunues to share the ball, smiles every once and a while and never speaks another word for people to pick apart like piranna after flesh.

Isiah stumbles on a scorer for the backcourt by the next draft.

It could happen

This is the one debate that really has to end. Fire Isiah? Why?

Here's the big question; what is the next coach going to improve?

Isiah should coach this team for better or for worse until Stephon's contract runs out. Until then, it makes no sense to bring in someone new.

The team is playing better than they did last year. They can actually finish games now. They have a player who at least should go to the all-star game. They have good young players.

It sure has been a bumpy ride, but the team is better and we have to keep him around.

Posted by JohnWallace44:

This is the one debate that really has to end. Fire Isiah? Why?

Here's the big question; what is the next coach going to improve?

Isiah should coach this team for better or for worse until Stephon's contract runs out. Until then, it makes no sense to bring in someone new.

The team is playing better than they did last year. They can actually finish games now. They have a player who at least should go to the all-star game. They have good young players.

It sure has been a bumpy ride, but the team is better and we have to keep him around.

Isiah built this mess of a team, and somebody has to destroy it, and I don't think Isiah is going to either A)Destroy it and/or B) Destroy it, but put up a better team. To me, his drafting has been overrated. Solid, but overrated. He can't trade, he overpays (Making players untradeable. Has nothing to do with it not being my $$$$$) How can you trust Isiah, as GM alone.

And as an employer, he strikes me as a guy who just wants to be everyone's friend, on the Knicks that is, and I don't think that's nescessarily a good tactic.

Allanfan - do you really want to give away Curry, Frye and David Lee for draft picks?

what does destroying the team include?

Then again, I never cared much for Eddie Donovan as a person either.

At least until he traded for DeBusschere

Donovan and Red did not get along but they produced a winner after five years of struggle, turnover and some of the worst Knicks records in franchise history

[Edited by - misterearl on 01-16-2007 2:50 PM]

misterearl: This is why I think Isiah is overrated as a drafter. I don't think he's bad at it to start off. He's solid. However, the problem has been this while he's been here. He's picked a couple of nice guys to have, but he picked them based on short term need. When he picked Frye, he flat out said he did it b/c he can contribute right away. Then you see Andrew Bynum, a guy who plays at the same position and is going to be better than both Curry and Frye. He'd be ready in 3 years probably, which goes by so fast, and he'd be ready to make an impact. Why couldn't we be patient and just take Bynum? It's not like our record is good anyway.

Again, a short term and long term problem we had was point guard. We need one. We had one in our laps last Summer, and while Ro Balkman is nice and a very hard working/playing and likeable player (I personally don't see how anyone can dislike him), we could have gotton guys like him with the MLE, who are even better than him and Jefferies. We need and needed Marcus Williams or Rondo. Imagine how much better Curry would be with Marcus Williams running the point?

Allanfan - do you really want to give away Curry, Frye and David Lee for draft picks?

MisterEarl, please search strongly through every one of my posts and tell me where I said trade those guys for draft picks? I don't think I did, however, I will say this. If I can trade one or 2 of them for a guaranteed chance to get Greg Oden, then I do that. However, in terms of trading those guys, I'd rather trade them for young players who are starting to establish themselves as very good players at least.

Misterearl, to finish, I think Isiah should destroy it, not b/c I don't like the players he has chosen. I said in the "Who do you like" thread, that I like all of the players on the team, besides Jerome. The reason I know it needs to be destroyed is because none of them go together. Our best lineup is Q, Marbury, Crawford, Lee and Curry and that entirely depends on them playing defense and them hitting their shots. Regardless, they are still inconsistent. Therefore, when your best lineup is inconsistent and even that makes you worry, then you know you gotto make changes to get guys who will play defense all the time (ANd hopefully one or 2 that can block shots) and also compliment eachother on offense. Meaning, have guys who can penetrate, have others who can shoot, have guys who can post up, have a guy or 2 that will just float around and be scrappy, and of course, have a star or even superstar. You need guys who have roles and you know will fulfill them every single night. Isiah collected guys that make you worry about them fulfilling them.

And to top it off, Isiah makes excuses for this team left and right and NEVER takes blame for himself. It's very annoying.

Allanfan - my take is that Isiah has been there as a player and understands how long it takes for a team to learn toughness and trust.

I don't label his explanation as making excuses due to some arbitrary timetable. Could he be trying to protect his young players from the media pressure and the highest scrutiny of any team in the league?