Posted by martin:
Posted by TheGame:
Posted by martin:
Posted by BRIGGS:
They are putting all of their eggs in one basket and being as arrogant as you can be about it--hence no resolution to Lee and Robinson. Lets face it--we didnt pick a young up and coming GM who would pro-actively try to get this team better now--Walsh has one plan--get to 2010 and pray--take his 12-18mm and go back to Indiana to retire. No true criticism--he got us to FA easy job and tremendously paid--I dont blame him.
Arrogant? Where do you get arrogant? Patient? sure. Methodical? Sure.
Donnie traded away Zbo, Crawford, Collins, Rose, James last year. Traded for Tim Thomas, Harrington, Wilcox, Hughes. Signed Duhon and a bunch of other no-impact scubs. This year he traded Q for Darko and paid to draft Douglas.
The only other thing that Donnie could have done last year was to either trade for Tyson Chandler and Baron Davis. Both on high $ and both constantly hurt. That would have capped the Knicks out and left them with Isiah part 2.
You would like Donnie to sign Lee for $8M+ and perhaps Nate $5M+ for and give them each 5 year deals so that we can call Donnie not arrogant? Lock them up for 5 40 win seasons at best and call it a day? The Knicks would be capped out for years to come.
No thanks for the lack of forethought and planning.
I agree that Walsh is not being arrogant. But clearly he is putting all his eggs in one basket and did not properly plan out what he was going to do with Nate and Lee. It was clear what kind of money they would demand. If you had no intention of giving it to them, why didn't you trade Nate and Jeffries. If he had made that trade, we would be able to sign two max players with little problem. Now he is playing hardball with a potential starting caliber pg, who even at $4 mill would likely be underpaid in 2 years. I don't think he is being arrogant. I just think he is not making great decisions at the moment.
I would agree with you that Donnie may have missed an opportunity of trading Nate and JJ last year.
What is all of this "putting all of his eggs in one basket"? Donnie has stated that he wanted to make the team more flexible and to get the team within the salary cap in 2010. I assume you mean LeBron and only LeBron by the previous expression. I think James is the big prize but there are a LOT of other prizes out there too.
And I do believe year 2 is the stickler with any Sessions signing with the Knicks. And it could be the difference between an 8% raise and an 8% drop in salary, which COULD be the difference between being able to keep Lee and sign a max free agent and not being able to.... so the caution would be a good thing, no?
Bingo! I mean every word Martin wrote here is 100% on the money & accurate:
(1) I agree, failing to pull the trigger on the Nate/Jeffries for Kenny Thomas deal with Sac. acually does look like a mistake now. I also agree with TheGame & a few others - you gotta start questioning the planning ahead angle a little bit now with this club. Agree totally, if they really didn't have a plan for Nate, they should've rectified the situation already when they had the chance. Plus, there's also a ton of other little things I'd like to see them doing that they just don't appear to have any interest in (minor player decisions and the like). Hey I'll be critical, but only when it's warranted.
(2) I equally agree that this "all eggs in one basket," "LeBron or bust" distorted viewpoint is completely off base. No one has ever said that. Comepletely baseless. I haven't heard one person voice that opinion except this guy Briggs and now recently Chris Bosh, who may or may not have been taking a shot at the Knicks (Bosh can go F himself btw). Sure LeBron's an option, the #1 option in fact and we actually have a opportunity to at least hold a discussion with the man without embarrassing ourselves. But in general, getting under the cap was absolutely necessary, regardless of who we eventually pursue. Without cap flexibility this team isn't going anywhere, like a grounded airplane.
(3) Touching on the impact signing Ramon Sessions could have next year, I'll add the following: w/o moving Curry & Jeffries, even if we got LeBron, with Sessions already on board we'd have basically no money left over to add anything else substantial for at least a year. I went through it recently - it'll be something like a million and change we'll have left over to make moves. That's not a lot of money, plus as I understand it, we won't have the MLE available to us because technically we'd still be under the cap by a million & change (unless we went over the cap to resign one of our own guys like an Al Harrington for example then maybe, but then again I'm told you may not be able to do that along with also signing LeBron or another big FA in the same off-season as it circumvents cap rules). Now is that worth it for Sessions? Maybe it is, but no doubt they've considered that little caveat. Maybe they feel like I do - believe me I could live with Sessions, I actually like him, but maybe they feel they might have a chance at an equal or better option late in the draft next year, with a move-up draft trade or another purchased pick a second year in a row etc.. Sherron Collins and Nic Wise are good young PGs that have excelled at major college programs. Outside of a small lack of height issue, both of these guys have proven to be fairly complete young players. Odds are we could have a shot at one of these guys. This would actually surprise me somewhat, as I said earlier, Knicks management doesn't strike me as a team that does it's due diligence in advance on the small things like scouting the lower-profile players, but you never know. I mean they should, they only have a 2nd round pick next year as of right now. Scouting players is a process that should be taking place year round. Speaking of 2nd round picks, Ramon Sessions was a 2nd round pick himself...
