Bonn1997 wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Would we have been able to keep:

Gallo
Felton
Chandler

I mean they have contracts that expire when 12? I'm sure they would have all wanted a raise? I think we would have lost two of them.

They were trade assets. We could have used them to get young, two-way players and/or draft picks. Nevertheless, I'd rather just lose them than be tied up in 5 years of Melo on a max contract.

So can you tell me a team that has built players from the draft and is actually competing to win a title? People always make it sound like the draft is this sure thing. It's not, if that was the case, all these small market teams would be winning. Only team i can think of OKC, philly is playing well, but seriously are they contending for anything?

I'll take Melo, amare, Chandler for the next 5 years over the draft.
This team has talent and right now has chemistry issues. Can we please put this whole trade thing to bed, seriously?

MDA needs a point guard, if anything GM of the year, Grunwald severely over estimated what he had with Toney Douglas.
They filled one hole with Chandler and opened another up with cutting Billups.
I really hope Baron Davis can come in and play. His IQ alone will be better than anything we have.

Knixkik wrote:

loweyecue wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Would we have been able to keep:

Gallo
Felton
Chandler

I mean they have contracts that expire when 12? I'm sure they would have all wanted a raise? I think we would have lost two of them.

They were trade assets. We could have used them to get young, two-way players and/or draft picks. Nevertheless, I'd rather just lose them than be tied up in 5 years of Melo on a max contract.

Exactly what is you gripe against Melo?

Yeah not sure why the Melo hate. Along with Kobe he is the best 4th quarter player in the league. The best scorer along with Durant. He is a winner, just needs the right pieces around him. This is why people make fun of Knicks fans, they are all over the place.

he needs to learn how to come off screens.....learn how to shoot off the dribble

Bonn1997 wrote:

Michael6835 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Would we have been able to keep:

Gallo
Felton
Chandler

I mean they have contracts that expire when 12? I'm sure they would have all wanted a raise? I think we would have lost two of them.

They were trade assets. We could have used them to get young, two-way players and/or draft picks. Nevertheless, I'd rather just lose them than be tied up in 5 years of Melo on a max contract.

So can you tell me a team that has built players from the draft and is actually competing to win a title?

Sure, it's every team that is competing right now except Miami: the Bulls, Lakers, Magic, Mavs, Spurs, and Thunder all got their key player(s) through the draft and then built around those players with good trades and FA signings.

Bonn this is a ridiculous response. All these teams had the #1or #2 pick in the draft and got a superstar. If we didn't do the Melo trade we were never going to get a superstar as a cornerstone of this team. How about other teams that tried to build thru the draft but didn't get lucky?? Nets, Toronto, New orleans, etc, etc. People that bitch about Melo are the same people that bitched about Ewing. How many people blamed him for everything? Now he is a god. Melo is not the problem, we need to surround him with players. How about a shooting guard that actually has an outside shot? Point guard we all know about. People need patience.

BigRedDog wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Michael6835 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Would we have been able to keep:

Gallo
Felton
Chandler

I mean they have contracts that expire when 12? I'm sure they would have all wanted a raise? I think we would have lost two of them.

They were trade assets. We could have used them to get young, two-way players and/or draft picks. Nevertheless, I'd rather just lose them than be tied up in 5 years of Melo on a max contract.

So can you tell me a team that has built players from the draft and is actually competing to win a title?

Sure, it's every team that is competing right now except Miami: the Bulls, Lakers, Magic, Mavs, Spurs, and Thunder all got their key player(s) through the draft and then built around those players with good trades and FA signings.

Bonn this is a ridiculous response. All these teams had the #1or #2 pick in the draft and got a superstar. If we didn't do the Melo trade we were never going to get a superstar as a cornerstone of this team. How about other teams that tried to build thru the draft but didn't get lucky?? Nets, Toronto, New orleans, etc, etc. People that bitch about Melo are the same people that bitched about Ewing. How many people blamed him for everything? Now he is a god. Melo is not the problem, we need to surround him with players. How about a shooting guard that actually has an outside shot? Point guard we all know about. People need patience.

I agree with you 100%. The impatience is baffling when we haven't placed the proper players around Melo and Stat yet. Melo had great players around him in Denver. He was one or two pieces away from leading them to a championship in 2008-2009. The things they had that we don't include a quality PG, wings who can shoot, and depth. As it relates to Melo, the shooters are most important. As it relates to Stat, the PG is most important. So let's see how we look when we get those things first.

BigRedDog wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Michael6835 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Would we have been able to keep:

Gallo
Felton
Chandler

I mean they have contracts that expire when 12? I'm sure they would have all wanted a raise? I think we would have lost two of them.

They were trade assets. We could have used them to get young, two-way players and/or draft picks. Nevertheless, I'd rather just lose them than be tied up in 5 years of Melo on a max contract.

So can you tell me a team that has built players from the draft and is actually competing to win a title?

Sure, it's every team that is competing right now except Miami: the Bulls, Lakers, Magic, Mavs, Spurs, and Thunder all got their key player(s) through the draft and then built around those players with good trades and FA signings.

Bonn this is a ridiculous response. All these teams had the #1or #2 pick in the draft and got a superstar. If we didn't do the Melo trade we were never going to get a superstar as a cornerstone of this team. How about other teams that tried to build thru the draft but didn't get lucky?? Nets, Toronto, New orleans, etc, etc. People that bitch about Melo are the same people that bitched about Ewing. How many people blamed him for everything? Now he is a god. Melo is not the problem, we need to surround him with players. How about a shooting guard that actually has an outside shot? Point guard we all know about. People need patience.

In a nutshell,
A) use financial advantage to get multiple 1st rd picks each year and have better odds at getting the top rookies;
B) sign small contract FAs;
C) continue making the team more attractive to legitimate excellent FA players. It may take many years of sucking (but that's gonna happen anyway) but eventually you're going to get lucky in the draft, improve the team a lot, and make it a destination that top FAs want to go to.

colombian0725 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BigRedDog wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Michael6835 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Would we have been able to keep:

Gallo
Felton
Chandler

I mean they have contracts that expire when 12? I'm sure they would have all wanted a raise? I think we would have lost two of them.

They were trade assets. We could have used them to get young, two-way players and/or draft picks. Nevertheless, I'd rather just lose them than be tied up in 5 years of Melo on a max contract.

So can you tell me a team that has built players from the draft and is actually competing to win a title?

Sure, it's every team that is competing right now except Miami: the Bulls, Lakers, Magic, Mavs, Spurs, and Thunder all got their key player(s) through the draft and then built around those players with good trades and FA signings.

Bonn this is a ridiculous response. All these teams had the #1or #2 pick in the draft and got a superstar. If we didn't do the Melo trade we were never going to get a superstar as a cornerstone of this team. How about other teams that tried to build thru the draft but didn't get lucky?? Nets, Toronto, New orleans, etc, etc. People that bitch about Melo are the same people that bitched about Ewing. How many people blamed him for everything? Now he is a god. Melo is not the problem, we need to surround him with players. How about a shooting guard that actually has an outside shot? Point guard we all know about. People need patience.

Sure using the draft doesn't always work. The key thing is though that unlike our starphucking, at least it doesn't *always fail*!
BTW, the key players on the teams I listed ranged throughout the top 10 in the draft except for Kobe (who was #13). Now once we didn't get Lebron or Wade, I would have been happy to rebuild through the draft and small FA signings while still keeping cap space to pursue top 5 players in the league when they were FAs. If they're not interested, keep improving the team through the draft and small FA signings until eventually the team is good enough to appeal to the top FAs. That's far from a guarantee but it would work a lot better than our starphucking does. Don't forget we have a financial advantage and can purchase more draft picks and have better odds of getting stars on cheap rookie contracts than any other team - if only Dolan were willing to use the draft more.

In a nutshell,
A) use financial advantage to get multiple 1st rd picks each year and have better odds at getting the top rookies;
B) sign small contract FAs;
C) continue making the team more attractive to legitimate excellent FA players. It may take many years of sucking (but that's gonna happen anyway) but eventually you're going to get lucky in the draft, improve the team a lot, and make it a destination that top FAs want to go to.

+1

My question is all those years we were bad and trade our picks away to get Curry and Marbury. Who have those pics turned out for other teams?