Posted by nixluva:
Getting from the also ran group to the Title Contention group is EXTREMELY hard to do. There are teams ahead of us who have been doing it much longer and still haven't made it. Look at all the draft picks that a team like Chicago has had. They've let go of enough talent to have built a contender. The team they have now is pretty good, but do you feel they have a strong chance to get to the Finals? I don't get that feeling about them yet. We'll see what happens with the draft this year and whether we'll be giving them a lottery pick or not.
As far as the Knicks go. This team is coming from the bottom and it's an obvious longer road to the top from where we're coming from. We're just setup up building blocks and trying to establish a style of play. We're developing our young players and trying to get to the playoffs so they can get a taste of that experience. I'm a long time fan like many others here but i'm not letting that effect the way that I look at THIS particular group that's so full of guys that are at the beginning of their careers. Also guys that have been in the league for a while, but haven't yet put things all together. We're starting to see things begin to develop.
See contrary to what you think I actually agree with you. But I seem to have more of an understanding for people that don't think we are putting the pieces in place. I personally think we are going back and forth with what we want to do and that is why we have made so many poor moves. One minute we want the future. The next minute we are giving multi year contracts to 30 year old centers that are lazy. What philosophy is that? Passing on a PG in the draft because you have guys at the position that you feel can do the job is fine. No problem with that. But that's contradictory to the last move you made in which you acquired a 30 year old "PG" for a young SF.
I think fans are also pessimistic because the last two GM's have left us little flexibility. There are several ways to acquire great players. The MLE, the LLE, open free-agency, high draft picks and trading of marketable players. We seem to limit ourselves to the MLE and mid round draft picks. The rest seem to be out of our realm. Well that's not true. We have marketable young players. And that is probably our best way to improve our team. But nobody wants to discuss trading them. And if you do, you are a Nets fan.
I think JJ, JJ2 and of course all the people of the Mo Taylor/Rose era were acquired in order to make the playoffs and fill the seats and regardless of where we are today they have set us back. Think about it. JJ was acquired because we needed a center. That in itself is fine. You need a center you sign a center. But we signed him at a price in which he is now untradeable, which is a horrible decision and a complete waste of a move that had nothing to do with our future. It was done instead to create a splash.
Isiah has put some solid young players in place. But for him to build optimism around this team he has to show that every move he will make from now on is for the future. No more stopgaps. Every move is to build compliments to our big center. Whether that is a rookie in the draft or a 10 year vet does not matter. What matters is we make moves that make sense. And many of us will agree that there have been plenty of moves that have made no sense whatsoever. This is why people don't trust Isiah. It's one thing to acquire someone that makes sense but bombs. It's another thing to acquire guys that have no fit for this ball club.
Now Nixluva let me ask you a question. In order to improve this team do you think we may eventually have to trade one of the youngsters that plays a position occupied by someone else(say a Frye/Lee who will have to be a backup for their career)? Or do you think we can build a title contender with draft picks from 13-20 and the MLE?
[Edited by - bippity10 on 03-21-2007 2:29 PM][Edited by - bippity10 on 03-21-2007 2:32 PM]
