crzymdups wrote:

Paladin55 wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

knickstorrents wrote:We are using the same strategy as the Heat, except our players aren't as good, and we are paying our players more money.

How exactly can we beat the Heat?

Last time I checked, players play the games, not salaries.

And for those saying Melo is not as good as Bron... I might agree, only why has Bron so rarely beaten Melo?

The money we are paying our guys limits our roster flexibility and ability to compete for the better FAs on the market.

Their two stars are two-way players, and in Bosh they have a perfect complimentary player to benefit from the attention James and Wade get. Give them a couple of rugged defensive/rebounder players and a few guys who can hit the 3, and they are sitting in pretty good shape for a number of years, barring injury.

The money the Heat are paying their core plus Mike Miller severely limits them. Wade is aging and has a long history of injury. It's no lock the Heat will stay healthy and they have no options to improve via salary cap.

Once again, the Knicks will have max cap room in 2012.

This is assuming we don't sign long contracts this summer and the cap stays the same. Without signing anybody our team salary for 2012 is $41M. We need to get cheap labor via draft and get our role players from there.

crzymdups wrote:

knickstorrents wrote:We are using the same strategy as the Heat, except our players aren't as good, and we are paying our players more money.

How exactly can we beat the Heat?

Last time I checked, players play the games, not salaries.

And for those saying Melo is not as good as Bron... I might agree, only why has Bron so rarely beaten Melo?

I thought it was the coaches that play the game?

arkrud wrote:

Knixkik wrote:We need to be better than Miami at the PG and C positions. We are better at the PG already, we just need more depth. We are better at the PF position, and can match up well at the SF position with Melo against lebron. The only position we will never match up well is the SG position, but i'm fine with that. There is real opportunity to become as good or better with these improvements though.

Melo is no LeBron. Not even close.

Sure, but is there any other player that gives LeBron fits more than Melo? For whatever reason, Melo has historically had LeBron's number, which is a big reason why I thought he was so important to add to our roster. We're going to be battling the Heatles for years.

nixluva wrote:No matter how much talent we get some people are pre-programmed to feel the grass is greener on other teams. It wasn't possible to get better talent than we have right now. Unless we had gotten Lebron, the best we could do is Melo or Deron (which was kind of a surprise). In either case we'd still need to add more talent. Can the Knicks add enough talent to make the team truly competitive? That's what this summer and next will be about.

From what we witnessed in the playoffs, this team isn't that far off. This team wasn't anywhere close to full strength or top form chemistry wise and still we could see that the team was competitive. It's fair to assume that with some solid additions this team can make a huge jump starting next season. There's not much mystery as to what areas we need to improve. C, PG & SG. There are plenty of FA's role players that will be available this summer. Donnie just has to be smart in how he selects those players. Then we have the draft as well. We'll likely bring in Jordan, so it's not so bleak as some want to make it seem. There are some real options for improvement.

+1. We added Melo and Billups very late, and still played solid playoff hoops in the first two games against the Cs. We need help, we need a training camp to gel, and we need a regular season to mesh it all together. Will we beat the Heat next season and advance to the Finals? Not likely. But as mentioned, we will have Billups and Turiaf coming off the cap afterwards and an ability to add a max contract or the key missing role players next summer. THEN contention should follow (barring major injuries to our studs).

Professional sports always has risk, but Donnie Walnuts is doing a fine job being patient and building a sea-worthy vessel. There are no guarantees, but we're not exactly way off course, either.

Paladin55 wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

knickstorrents wrote:We are using the same strategy as the Heat, except our players aren't as good, and we are paying our players more money.

How exactly can we beat the Heat?

Last time I checked, players play the games, not salaries.

And for those saying Melo is not as good as Bron... I might agree, only why has Bron so rarely beaten Melo?

The money we are paying our guys limits our roster flexibility and ability to compete for the better FAs on the market.

Their two stars are two-way players, and in Bosh they have a perfect complimentary player to benefit from the attention James and Wade get. Give them a couple of rugged defensive/rebounder players and a few guys who can hit the 3, and they are sitting in pretty good shape for a number of years, barring injury.

Are you willing to do the same for the Knicks, add a few rugged rebounders and three point shooters?

Knixkik wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:I can't see how anyone can make a true assesment of where we are base on the last 2 months of the season..we couldn't beat boston with a depleted roster, and one of your ace's is on the shelf..heck boston couldn't do it with just one of thier aces at 50%...

We have few holes..but the not glaring

True assessment? I can't say for sure whether they'll win 38 or 50 games. I can say I'm extremely confident they're not on the path to a championship team. Like Knickstorrents said, we're using the Miami Heat strategy with inferior players.

When you have stars, it's all about how they play on that given night, or that given series, not necessary who is better overall. Yes we have inferior stars to a degree, but we can beat them to the punch in other areas. I believe we have a better supporting cast and have less invested into our supporting cast, therefore we have much better opportunity to improve. Miller and Haslem's contracts give them little room to improve. Our only glaring hole is center, so add Dalembert or someone to the roster and start training camp and we will get the chemistry right and go to war.

Dalembert is a poor choice..He has become lazy ..Total waste of money if u ask me..I would rather a D leaguer than to waste cap space on Dalembert..

Knixkik wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:I can't see how anyone can make a true assesment of where we are base on the last 2 months of the season..we couldn't beat boston with a depleted roster, and one of your ace's is on the shelf..heck boston couldn't do it with just one of thier aces at 50%...

We have few holes..but the not glaring

True assessment? I can't say for sure whether they'll win 38 or 50 games. I can say I'm extremely confident they're not on the path to a championship team. Like Knickstorrents said, we're using the Miami Heat strategy with inferior players.

When you have stars, it's all about how they play on that given night, or that given series, not necessary who is better overall.

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:I can't see how anyone can make a true assesment of where we are base on the last 2 months of the season..we couldn't beat boston with a depleted roster, and one of your ace's is on the shelf..heck boston couldn't do it with just one of thier aces at 50%...

We have few holes..but the not glaring

True assessment? I can't say for sure whether they'll win 38 or 50 games. I can say I'm extremely confident they're not on the path to a championship team. Like Knickstorrents said, we're using the Miami Heat strategy with inferior players.

When you have stars, it's all about how they play on that given night, or that given series, not necessary who is better overall.

There are few "given nights" and even fewer sets of 4 to 7 games (a series) where Melo and Amare outplay Wade and Lebron. It's not impossible but it's a bad gamble and a bad way to build a title contender.

The more our guys play together the more dangerous they'll become, much like Lebron and Wade. STAT and Melo didn't have enough time to really develop any chemistry, but that won't be the case next postseason. I'd say it will be more an closer match. The biggest issue is what we'll be able to get out of the rest of our roster. Until we upgrade the team it really is impossible to say right now. We don't know who Donnie will be able to get. If he's successful it could make a HUGE difference in the potential of this team.

I was actually encouraged by what I saw from Melo. He's capable of far more than he's shown so far even tho he's shown a lot. If he can harness what he did in the 2nd game of the playoffs he could be a transformative player for this franchise. He's got the most untapped talent in the league. If he ever got to the point where he gave 110% most of the time rather than once in a while, he'd be up there much closer to Lebron. He has that kind of potential, but it's up to him as to whether he realizes that potential. I have no doubt that in a series against Lebron, we'd see the best of Melo.

I find that last statement quite likely and look forward to it. If all are healthy I shudder to think how fast a combination with Stat, Melo, Billups and TD in it could put up points. Melo showed a lot of want to crashing the boards. whatever happens next year (assuming there is one) I doubt it will be dull.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=boshch01&p2=anthoca01

8-3 against Bosh

8-6 against Lebron

5-6 against Wade

total: 21-15

so, wait, Bonn, where does this idea that Wade/Lebron/Bosh are superior come from again? more commercials? plz explain.

just so we have the totals:

the "inferior" STAT and Melo: 53 wins

the "superior" Lebron/Bosh/Wade: 25 wins

i mean, should I throw Billups in there? maybe the Heatles can beat Billups?