tj23 wrote:

tomam wrote:If you think back to the Boston series, they were able to double Melo since nobody else could score. Jeffries looked pathetic out there. Another shooter and we would have won that series. A healthy STAT would have made a difference in keeping defenses honest.

Another quality backup shooter...a true six man, would impact how defenders guard our stars.

That said we need some quality defenders to get close to competing for a championship.

They were also able to double melo since he couldn't recognize the help coming or find the open man.

There's a reason he has a career assist to turnover ratio of about 1 to 1

He is an on and off defender who will never give you the kind of game in and game out intensity a real superstar can give you. He has never been considered the kind of player who makes people around him better, either.

This stuff has been discussed before, and no matter how many times folks make statements about him being a superstar it doesn't make him one.

He and Amare are superior offensive talents, as good as anyone in the league at times. Amare showed me a lot of leadership ability- more than I thought he had- and Anthony's shooting distance was better than I expected, but when you look at the bare essentials of their respective games, they are basically offensive stars who are lacking in many other areas of the game, especially defense.

Let me see Anthony come back this season with 6/7/8 % body fat and a consistent game in terms of defensive intesity and moving the ball around, and I may change my mind. I think this is the only way for him to really step up his game at this point. I don't see it happening, however I'll happily and gladly be proved wrong.

People who were willing to give up the farm for him should be happy- you got him... but I see a pretty sketchy roster at this point, with not a lot of players I can count on to give me production worthy of a top team. We are a team with major issues at every positions except the 3 and 4, and even then you have to be concerned with Amare's fragility at times.

We are lucky that teams like Boston and Orland may be fading a bit, Chicago may not be as good as I thought, and Atlanta may never get over the hump... this gives me a little hope, but we are still far away from being a top tier team, IMO, and there is no guarantee that we are going to get their without a lot of work and a certain degree of luck.

We know what we need. Bigs to rebound and defend and a PG. A 6th man SG that can come in and heat up off the bench would help too. We've got 2 Superstars and just need to put the pieces around them.

If the Knicks can get Chris Paul, the sum of the Knick's individual pieces may not be greater than the sum of the Heat's, but when you factor in synergies, I do think an excellent facilitator setting up two elite high/low post players may be a better formula.

The Heat seem to get a big night from 2 of the 3. I think the Knicks' recipe could mean big nights from all three on a more consistent basis.

If they don't get Paul or Williams, it's not like all is lost. There is still flexibility. The Mavs played well this year, but no one really took them seriously... the Trailblazers were a trendy first round upset. They got hot and other teams came up cold at the right time. I do think the Knicks could build a similar team, with Amar'e and Melo instead of just Nowitzki and with better role players.

We already got our Jason Kidd and Barrea (TD), just need to get our Terry, Marion, and Chandler. Shows how far off the team is, but I don't think that's an impossible task

SupremeCommander wrote:I don't know about the superstar versus the supporting cast thing... LBJ, Wade, and to a certain extent Bosh were an incredibly unique situation, which is more outlier than rule. I don't think you can plan to build a franchise like that.

If the Knicks can get Chris Paul, the sum of the Knick's individual pieces may not be greater than the sum of the Heat's, but when you factor in synergies, I do think an excellent facilitator setting up two elite high/low post players may be a better formula.

The Heat seem to get a big night from 2 of the 3. I think the Knicks' recipe could mean big nights from all three on a more consistent basis.

If they don't get Paul or Williams, it's not like all is lost. There is still flexibility. The Mavs played well this year, but no one really took them seriously... the Trailblazers were a trendy first round upset. They got hot and other teams came up cold at the right time. I do think the Knicks could build a similar team, with Amar'e and Melo instead of just Nowitzki and with better role players.

We already got our Jason Kidd and Barrea (TD), just need to get our Terry, Marion, and Chandler. Shows how far off the team is, but I don't think that's an impossible task

I agree. Well on everything minus douglas lol. I don't understand the love for him. I mean he works hard and all, but he's a bonehead with a streaky shot and very little playmaking ability. And his d is honestly horrible.

Knixkik wrote:

holfresh wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:We don't have superstars. We have all-stars. They're at points in their careers where improvement is highly uncommon too.

Melo is a top 10 player and Amare is a top 15 player...To me, Melo is a superstar and Amare is a borderline superstar...Melo creates on his own as well as any player in this league if not better, that's super stardom...Chris Bosh is an all star, Carlos Boozer is an all star, Joe Johnson is an all star, Gerald Wallace is an all star,...I think you can see the difference...

Agreed. If you don't consider our guys superstars then you must think there are only a few in the game.