Knixkik wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

jazz74 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:Another player who would really fit if Paul is not available is Andersen Varejao who would be an ideal center here. DPOY candidate, good rebounder, athletic, good passer, and finisher. Cleveland might want to deal him to completely rebuild with what they have in young talent. Maybe Turiaf, Douglas, and Walker for Varejao. That gives them talent at the SG which they badly need. I have a feeling Paul will be traded to the Thunder for Wesbrook. It just makes too much sense for both teams if Paul accepts a deal there.

C Varejao
PF Stoudemire
SF Anthony
SG Fields
PG Billups

With an upgraded bench that is a contending roster.

well, i am sort of looking for long term solutions. do you want to re-sign billups next year?

I can see Billups remaining solid for a couple more years. Hopefully Shumpert can develop behind him and become a starter after a couple of years.

Outside of the great PG's it's always tough for young PG's coming into the league. It's not helping that there's a lockout either. I like the raw skills of Iman, but this is a really tough offense for any PG much more so for a combo guard. He need reps running PnR and learning to control the defense to get them to move the way he wants them to go. Nash is a master at this and it's the one thing that has been missing from out PG's trying to run this system. Nash knows that you have to use misdirection to get the defense to fall for the PnR. He often disguises his use of the PnR. Nash will dribble away from the Pick man and then come back to him after the defense is out of position to give help. The PG has to be aggressive in this offense, but with an eye towards opening up scoring opps for his main scorers. It's not rocket science, but for some reason a lot of guards have trouble with this. Balancing scoring and distributing the ball.

My belief is that the Knicks will use their cap space to fill multiple spots rather than squeeze another max player into the remaining space. Getting a big like Verajao would be a great move. This team just needs higher quality big men.

I feel like that is the first priority, to get a good upgrade at center. As for the PG situation, we have time to figure that out. Billups still has a lot of good basketball left, and this season will probably give us an indication of how much. This season will also give us an indication to what sort of potential Shumpert has. Maybe he can learn from Billups and develop into a starting PG in 2-3 years. Maybe not. I am seeing some solid PGs around the league developing and i'm hoping we have one to continue the trend. Jrue Holiday is a player i'm hoping Shumpert can take a similar path to. But we need to figure out this center situation asap.

well, there seems to be many quality pg's in this era of the nba and we can get lucky and pick up one while billups warms the seat. but we have to be leery of billups getting older and injury prone. i have also seen times when he is a liability on the defensive end, which is a day i thought i would never see. it will get worse.

y2zipper wrote:Priority 1A in Free Agency for the Knicks should be Dwight Howard. A frontcourt of Amare and Dwight Howard is basically "good luck everybody else." If Howard fails I want Williams and then CP3, unless one of their teams decides to hedge and he comes over at a discount.

Yeah, they need a point guard, but they could bring Billups back a cheaper salary or sign somebody cheaper who can pass.

i would love to have howard but its almost a forgone conculsion that he will either stay or go to the lakers.

I think one key is getting more out of Fields, Williams, TD, Walker, Rautins and Iman. These kids are the assets we already have that still haven't maximized their full potential yet. As these kids improve that can really elevate the overall production of the team. Just being more efficient. Looking to do a little more in other areas besides hitting 3's. Defending harder. All of these little things will make a huge difference.

martin wrote:

Moonangie wrote:We need a great playmaker, otherwise we will not get the most out of our studs.

not sure I agree with this. Lakers and Miami seem to be OK without one.

Don't think NYK have comparable-type pieces as Lakers and Miami. Kobe, Wade and LeBurgerKing are self-directing players. Melo, and to a greater extent, Stat, are not.

martin wrote:M

jrodmc wrote:

martin wrote:

Moonangie wrote:We need a great playmaker, otherwise we will not get the most out of our studs.

not sure I agree with this. Lakers and Miami seem to be OK without one.

Don't think NYK have comparable-type pieces as Lakers and Miami. Kobe, Wade and LeBurgerKing are self-directing players. Melo, and to a greater extent, Stat, are not.

The knock on Melo is he in an ISO guy. I have no idea why you would think he doesn't create his own shot.

What the hell are self-directing players?

Players like STAT, who need someone to run the PnR with, and Melo, who being an ISO guy, makes no one around him any better, and is a bit limited in his choice of when and where to get anyone else involved.

martin wrote:

jrodmc wrote:

martin wrote:M

jrodmc wrote:

martin wrote:

Moonangie wrote:We need a great playmaker, otherwise we will not get the most out of our studs.

not sure I agree with this. Lakers and Miami seem to be OK without one.

Don't think NYK have comparable-type pieces as Lakers and Miami. Kobe, Wade and LeBurgerKing are self-directing players. Melo, and to a greater extent, Stat, are not.

The knock on Melo is he in an ISO guy. I have no idea why you would think he doesn't create his own shot.

What the hell are self-directing players?

Players like STAT, who need someone to run the PnR with, and Melo, who being an ISO guy, makes no one around him any better, and is a bit limited in his choice of when and where to get anyone else involved.

Topic was whether or not Melo and Stat needed a great player around them to be effective, so I am not sure why you bringing up Melo and the fact that he is not effective making anyone around him better.

Melo and Stat were both top 6 in all of the NBA for PPG. Both were indeed helped by team pace but neither had what I would call great play-making PGs next to them.

If they are fit into a good enough system, they will be effective. Chris Paul next to them would make them almost unstoppable.

Adding CP3 is the dream scenario, but I doubt we get to see it. I'm hopeful that we can still find a way to coax more passing out of CB and Iman. If everyone gets on the same page I can see this team being a real monster to deal with. Once STAT and MELO signed for the full freight rather than take a slight reduction, it made it real hard to add a 3rd Max player.

Now we'll have to grow one. I'm betting on Iman being able to provide a real spark once he gets his bearings. He's the most athletic guy on the team so IMO he's the likeliest player with enough upside to actually be an impact player aside from TD and maybe Fields.

jrodmc wrote:

martin wrote:

jrodmc wrote:

martin wrote:M

jrodmc wrote:

martin wrote:

Moonangie wrote:We need a great playmaker, otherwise we will not get the most out of our studs.

not sure I agree with this. Lakers and Miami seem to be OK without one.

Don't think NYK have comparable-type pieces as Lakers and Miami. Kobe, Wade and LeBurgerKing are self-directing players. Melo, and to a greater extent, Stat, are not.

The knock on Melo is he in an ISO guy. I have no idea why you would think he doesn't create his own shot.

What the hell are self-directing players?

Players like STAT, who need someone to run the PnR with, and Melo, who being an ISO guy, makes no one around him any better, and is a bit limited in his choice of when and where to get anyone else involved.

Topic was whether or not Melo and Stat needed a great player around them to be effective, so I am not sure why you bringing up Melo and the fact that he is not effective making anyone around him better.

Melo and Stat were both top 6 in all of the NBA for PPG. Both were indeed helped by team pace but neither had what I would call great play-making PGs next to them.

If they are fit into a good enough system, they will be effective. Chris Paul next to them would make them almost unstoppable.

The question was whether or not we need a great playmaker, not a great player around them, to get optimal performance. STAT had 3/4 of season without a great PG. Do you really think his performance pre-Melo was the norm? Really?

Are you really going to maintain that a great playmaker would not optimize Melo's skill set?

Deron Williams next to them would make them unstoppable as well, right? Why? Both CP and Deron are great playmakers.

feel free to re-read my post. I obviously meant to say playmaker instead of player in first sentence, and you entirely missed my last sentence.