Posted by TMS:
Posted by Allanfan20:
I don't want them to tank. I just want Isiah gone and if that means losing in order to convince Dolan he's not the man for the job, then so be it. I don't trust Isiah as a GM and he hasn't been too impressive as coach either, and you know me TMS. I'm never a "Fire the coach now!" type of guy. I just want a team to be built and I don't think Isiah is capable of doing that.
in general i'm with you, i don't think Isiah is capable of building a championship calibre squad, but the reality is that Dolan is infatuated w/him & believes in him, & regardless of the bad job he's done w/trades & FA signings, he at least has proven to be a good drafter & developer of some of the young guys... his coaching this season hasn't been great, but it hasn't been all that horribe either imo... normally i'd be right there with you hoping we lose (like i wanted them to do when Lebron, Melo & Bosh were coming out in the draft that year), but the other reality is that we don't have that lottery pick to fall back on anymore, so all i can do is hope for the best that this team can somehow make the playoffs & prevent the Bulls from getting our lottery pick... it's not that i'm settling for mediocrity... you know i want a championship just as bad as you do, but i think it's still going to take a few years regardless if Isiah's here or not... i just try not to overreact when i see this team get beaten by an inferior team, because there will be times (like the other night in Indiana) when this Knicks team beats a better team than they are to balance things out a little... if they bounce back vs. the Suns & compete hard, maybe even steal a W, would your hopes for this squad be as low as they are now?
TMS, in all of my dead honesty, I wouldn't be so shocked to see an upset over the Suns, but my hopes would be just as low, b/c they've proven to me that they'll follow it up, maybe with another victory, but then a series a really bad losses. We have the talent to stay with real good teams. I don't doubt that.
However, the main reason I'm so down on this team, is 1) We really don't know what we're getting from our players, besides Lee, Q and Marbury before the injuries. And Q is injured, and Marbury tends to be a headcase, so that makes things worse. We don't know if Jamal is gonna decide to be a star or an idiot, and we don't know if Eddie is going to give an effort on both ends.
And the second reason I'm so down on this team is because in my eyes, it's a collection of either damaged goods, reclamation projects, and glorified role players and none of it really mixes together well.
And finally, I'm more so down on Isiah then I'm down on the team. I've gone on record by saying I like the players on the team. I think they have good qualities. They just don't go together well. However, I think as the GM, Isiah just doesn't have a real vision or grasp on how to build an NBA franchise. He sees guys with potential that are easy to get, makes it harder on himself by adding picks to get these players, and doesn't even consider why it's easy to get some of these players. And then he sees other guys like Jefferies, and doesn't even think twice about going after him. He sees JJ as an Indiana guy, did well for Indiana, then had a good playoffs last year (Just like Jerome did the year before, which I still say is overrated as hell). Yet, Isiah doesn't even look at his own team, let alone around the league. He doesn't realize that Balkman can be just as good a defender and is a better rebounder. He doesn't look around the league and use any creativity.
And this is why I'm convinced that Isiah just needs to go now. If the team loses, the fine, it will be good for the long run.
“Whenever I’m about to do something, I think ‘Would an idiot do that?’ and if they would, I do NOT do that thing.”- Dwight Schrute
I do really feel that. It seems like Isiah said, "We need to get athletic. We need to get young." He thought those two things, forgot every aspect of winning basketball, things which often counteract each other and require a balance. Just said, "Oh, this guy is good, this guy is good, this guy is good, ... well it works on Playstation" and made a team. Every time he's added someone, he added someone else that made that player redundant. Meanwhile, we've had glaring holes. This team is terribly unbalanced. I think if we had *some* semblance of balance to this roster, we're an above .500 team. Guys who know they should be playing aren't getting minutes. Guys are playing out of position. Guys who are coach favorites are getting more minutes. This is bad GMing and, to a lesser extent, some form of bad coaching. Isiah needs to go, because you really can't build a team in this manner and think it will succeed.