IrishKnickFan wrote:Maybe the knicks feel that they have a chance to do a S/T next year for paul tahst my only explanation. I mean we know Paul/Melo are tight and melo has said Paul has a good chance to come here so maybe the Knicks are preparing for that?

I think Paul/Chandler were pretty tight as well when they played together in NO

Gymkata wrote:Preface: I like Lin. A lot. I think he's a good guy, a good pro, and Linsanity was the most fun I had with this team since the '99 run. If he's gone, I'll miss him.

But it strikes me that this team is executing a vision. Between Woodson and Grunwald, they're shaping the roster to take on a new persona and a new style. There have been murmurs that these moves--and the resistance to eating the Lin poison pill--might be part of some grander scheme to land Chris Paul, but that seems untenable.

Based on nothing but my own speculation and observation it appears to me that the Knicks are being built for a singular purpose: to beat the Heat.

For the next X amount of years, all paths to the promised land must pass through the Superfriends and looking at the deals I feel like Grunwald is positioning this team to capitalize on the Heat's (few) weaknesses and minimize their strengths.

In another thread nixluva noted how Woodson's system seems to be transforming into a half-court, stingy D, old-school style, sacrificing pick-and-roll and motion offense for a slower, war-of-attrition type of approach. On offense, working through the post (Melo, Kidd, a hopefully-new-and-improved Amare)and staying away from the PnR would take away the Heat's greatest defensive strength, their ferocious trapping and disruption of the passing lanes, which leads to gimmes on the fast break. They're the best team in the NBA at that trap-and-rotate D. But they can be punished on the block and made to pay on the extra pass out of the double team. A penetrating PG is also wasted because they have mastered the art of flopping--er, sound, positioning to take the offensive charge.

On the defensive end, how do the Heat kill you? Dribble-drives and kick-outs to open threes, which they will be far deadlier executing with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis camping out behind the arc. Meaning, you can't cheat off the shooters to help. Wade and LeBron will get into the paint--they're in the top 10 of all time in my opinion at doing that--so you either cheat to help or bank on your bigs to protect the rim. You cheat, you get torched. So what's the alternative? More punishment, delivered by Tyson, Camby and Crazy Eyes (who I am thrilled is back with us). If Joel Anthony beats you, then so be it.

As such, I just don't see Lin and the skillset he brings as being the best way to execute this strategy. In a vacuum, Lin is young and talented and has great potential, but the Heat have changed the landscape. A team needs to be built to match-up against them.

It might be a good idea. It might be a bad idea. Maybe it will all implode and we'll be back to lamenting the state of our franchise. This is just my take on what's happening at the Garden and if it's close-to-accurate I'm actually encouraged that our basketball brass have been given the freedom to do this. Because as much as Dolan is a little puke, isn't letting Lin walk--the human cash printer that he is--the opposite of Dolan's modus operandi?

Then again the Knicks could match and I just wasted all of Andrew and Martin's bandwidth for nothing!

All you talk about is slow half court offense. Good luck with Camby, Tyson and Kidd running back to defend fast breaks.

To lose a top prospect (on and off the court) like Lin for nothing is absolutely idiotic

FlipPoker wrote:Definitely. That's too much money(+luxury tax) for a guy who has just 25 starts. Also, he apparently didn't want to be here. Look what he secretly did with Houston to renegotiate his offer: NY Post article: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/source_knicks_won_match_lin_offer_IaFOfENCk85407zzt3ynxK

the Post reported on its back page Saturday the Knicks were furious the Rockets changed the offer sheet for Lin and upgraded it to a $25 million guarantee over three years, according to a source. The Knicks were bitter because they told Lin immediately the club would match the original offer and Lin apparently shared the information with the Rockets. Lin and Houston then plotted to redo it.

Lin secretly flew into Las Vegas without informing the Knicks to renegotiate the contract and sign it.

The Knicks had been set to match Lin’s original offer sheet of four years, $28.9 million that had a $19 million guarantee before the Rockets threw a financial curveball that called for a $15 million third year that would have doomed owner James Dolan’s luxury-tax predicament.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/source_knicks_won_match_lin_offer_IaFOfENCk85407zzt3ynxK#ixzz20hovqEoj

If that article is true then let him go. He screwed us- he either didn't want to be here and was helping Houston devise a deal that we wouldn't match, or he got greedy and decided to get another $5mil out of us, regardless of how much luxury tax we'd pay. It's the fact that we gave him the courtsy of telling him we'd match, then he went away and held secret re-negotiations.

Even if he wanted to leave, he could have at least been honest about it- if he'd told us about the deal before he signed it, then we could at least have got something back in a S&T. Instead he left it til we'd traded away nearly all our assets and finalized most of our roster moves. Thankfully we just got Felton (I know he's not perfect but can you imagine if we couldn't even have gotten him and Lin left too?).

Ironically, if he did want to play here and was trying to get an extra $5mil, then it's backfired big time- he would have made way more than that by playing in NY and getting endorsements. Good luck on being as marketable in Houston.

Ppppfffff.....

smackeddog wrote:

FlipPoker wrote:Definitely. That's too much money(+luxury tax) for a guy who has just 25 starts. Also, he apparently didn't want to be here. Look what he secretly did with Houston to renegotiate his offer: NY Post article: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/source_knicks_won_match_lin_offer_IaFOfENCk85407zzt3ynxK

the Post reported on its back page Saturday the Knicks were furious the Rockets changed the offer sheet for Lin and upgraded it to a $25 million guarantee over three years, according to a source. The Knicks were bitter because they told Lin immediately the club would match the original offer and Lin apparently shared the information with the Rockets. Lin and Houston then plotted to redo it.

Lin secretly flew into Las Vegas without informing the Knicks to renegotiate the contract and sign it.

The Knicks had been set to match Lin’s original offer sheet of four years, $28.9 million that had a $19 million guarantee before the Rockets threw a financial curveball that called for a $15 million third year that would have doomed owner James Dolan’s luxury-tax predicament.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/source_knicks_won_match_lin_offer_IaFOfENCk85407zzt3ynxK#ixzz20hovqEoj

If that article is true then let him go. He screwed us- he either didn't want to be here and was helping Houston devise a deal that we wouldn't match, or he got greedy and decided to get another $5mil out of us, regardless of how much luxury tax we'd pay. It's the fact that we gave him the courtsy of telling him we'd match, then he went away and held secret re-negotiations.

Even if he wanted to leave, he could have at least been honest about it- if he'd told us about the deal before he signed it, then we could at least have got something back in a S&T. Instead he left it til we'd traded away nearly all our assets and finalized most of our roster moves. Thankfully we just got Felton (I know he's not perfect but can you imagine if we couldn't even have gotten him and Lin left too?).

Ironically, if he did want to play here and was trying to get an extra $5mil, then it's backfired big time- he would have made way more than that by playing in NY and getting endorsements. Good luck on being as marketable in Houston.

Ppppfffff.....

That's what he did

IrishKnickFan wrote:i liked felton when he played here but lets be honest he is not the same felton and MDA i not here anymore. I know lin had a small sample size but he played well under woodson also be fore he went down. I just think it s abig mistake after making a lot of good moves this offseason this would be teh first bad move

To play devils advocate, cant you say the same about Lin who's #'s dipped when MDA was fired?

Uptown wrote:

CTKnicksfan wrote:Letting Lin walk for nothing is dumb. I'm ok if he's not part of the master plan, but then at least match and trade him on Dec 15th. The shine will still be on Linsanity, and there will still be interested teams that will take a chance on him even with the 3rd year balloon payment (The GSW for one, and maybe even Houston especially if they strike out on D12) At least get some picks/prospects out of him if you're not going to keep him.

Do you really think that contract is that tradeable? That 3rd yr of his contract would scare many-a-team off.

Yep- say we match with the intention of trading him in January. If he is exposed in the months before then, he becomes untradeable. If he is merely average, he is untradeable due to having a max contract in the third year. It's a big gamble- if he's anything other than great, we'd be in a mess. Still, it's tempting to take that gamble.