Nice to have Kidd, but it's 5-10 years too late. Ditto with Camby. Having Crazy Eyes back is nice for sentimental reasons and not much more. Felton can run the pick and roll, but I see him getting eaten up by the Heat in the playoffs. I'm not a J.R. Smith fan -- shoots too much, defends too little. Hopefully Shump comes back strong and Smith can go to the bench. The saving grace of this offseason is that this team is only together for 3 years, then almost all the contracts come off the books. They should be a smarter team, but they're older and slower. Let's see if Coach Woody can put a sense of urgency into this squad.

My complaint with the Knicks over the last few years is simple: I haven't seen them execute Plan 'A'. Enough of Plan B and C, cobbling mismatched pieces together. This is New York, for crying out loud! Show me Plan A!

markvmc wrote:

Markji wrote:

markvmc wrote:C.

He was doing well (A-), but in the past week this is what we've done:

Jeremy Lin
Jared Jeffries
Dan Gadzuric's non-guaranteed contract
Georgios Printezis
Kostas Papanikolaou
Cash considerations

for

Raymond Felton
Kurt Thomas

Equivalent of a student doing well over the semester, and just bombing the final exam.

Getting Felton was a great move in the context of the situation. When Lin came back with the renegotiated offer, the Knicks right then made the decision to not bring Lin back. IMO. So we didn't have a starting point guard. At that time, Felton was probably the best PG available and especially at our limited salary offer. Grunwald snapped him up as quickly as he could. If we didn't have Felton and we let Lin go, who would be our starting PG?

Fair enough, if you've decided not to bring Lin back, you take the best pg available. Doesn't change at all what we gave up vs. what we got.

The only significant piece we gave up was Jeffries. And he was a min salaried vet who was injured last year. I like him but he is very 1-dimensional - defense and taking charges. Nothing wrong with that but not needed as much by this team as a starting PG. Gadz was not going to get minutes and had a non-guaranteed contract. The 2 Greeks are future possiblilities but not likely to have an impact on our team. We just signed 2 of the top players in the EuroLeague - James White and Chris Copeland, and they will be fighting to get into the rotation. I don't recall what the financial considerations were??? I thought we spent our limit in the Camby trade?

Excellent trade, IMHO.

Letting go of Lin for nothing was a horrible decision. But that was Dolan.

This thread is grading Grunwald. The title of this thread "Grade Grunwald this off-season up to letting Lin go"

Markji wrote:

markvmc wrote:

Markji wrote:

markvmc wrote:C.

He was doing well (A-), but in the past week this is what we've done:

Jeremy Lin
Jared Jeffries
Dan Gadzuric's non-guaranteed contract
Georgios Printezis
Kostas Papanikolaou
Cash considerations

for

Raymond Felton
Kurt Thomas

Equivalent of a student doing well over the semester, and just bombing the final exam.

Getting Felton was a great move in the context of the situation. When Lin came back with the renegotiated offer, the Knicks right then made the decision to not bring Lin back. IMO. So we didn't have a starting point guard. At that time, Felton was probably the best PG available and especially at our limited salary offer. Grunwald snapped him up as quickly as he could. If we didn't have Felton and we let Lin go, who would be our starting PG?

Fair enough, if you've decided not to bring Lin back, you take the best pg available. Doesn't change at all what we gave up vs. what we got.

The only significant piece we gave up was Jeffries. And he was a min salaried vet who was injured last year. I like him but he is very 1-dimensional - defense and taking charges. Nothing wrong with that but not needed as much by this team as a starting PG. Gadz was not going to get minutes and had a non-guaranteed contract. The 2 Greeks are future possiblilities but not likely to have an impact on our team. We just signed 2 of the top players in the EuroLeague - James White and Chris Copeland, and they will be fighting to get into the rotation. I don't recall what the financial considerations were??? I thought we spent our limit in the Camby trade?

Excellent trade, IMHO.

Letting go of Lin for nothing was a horrible decision. But that was Dolan.

This thread is grading Grunwald. The title of this thread "Grade Grunwald this off-season up to letting Lin go"

Re cash considerations:

"The Blazers received cash considerations for Jeffries' contract of $1.4 million."

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1261947-blazers-trade-felton-and-thomas-for-jared-jeffries-draft-pick-and-greeks

If the Lin thing really was Dolan going over Grunwald, then fair enough. If Grunwald isn't making the decisions, I have no way of grading him though. My grade assumes that he's making the decisions.

Btw, it's not that I think the two Greeks were franchise saviors. The point is just that we gave up all of our assets for very little back in return.

http://www.sportspickle.com/news/9996/knicks-front-office-unsure-of-how-theyre-going-to-mess-this-one-up

Knicks Front Office Unsure of How They're Going to Mess This One Up
By Alex Watt / February 16, 2012

With “Linsanity” gripping the entire NBA, New York Knicks management has become especially excited.

“I honestly don’t think it’s possible to mess this one up, which is the first time I’ve felt that way about running a team,” said New York Knicks owner, James Dolan, who also released a public statement asking that he be referred to in the media as Jimmy Do-Lin. “Jeremy Lin is just so good and the team is absolutely flourishing around him. The guys actually look like they’re having fun out there — not just making millions to play a game. Even Coach D’Antoni is smiling. I haven’t seen him this happy since I jokingly told him we weren’t going to pursue Carmelo Anthony.”

Dolan — or Do-Lin, as he is now called — said that having a young, franchise point guard at the league minimum salary is something most team’s would dream of.

“But I don’t want to stand pat,” he said. “We can always improve, so that’s why I put in a call to see if Isiah Thomas would be interested in coaching to put us over the top. He didn’t pick up. He probably was worried I was calling to ask him to listen to my band’s latest single. But I’ll keep calling him. That said, Mike’s job is probably safe as long as we don’t lose another game.”

Assistant General Manager and former Knick, Allan Houston, says all the team needs now is another outside threat. That’s why the 40 year-old has departed to the mountains of Eastern Canada for yet another comeback attempt.

“Jeremy Lin, Amar’e, Carmelo, Isiah, me — we’ll be unstoppable!” said Houston.

But Knicks GM Glen Grunwald suggests that New Yorkers shouldn’t get too attached to Lin.

“Sell high, right?” said Grunwald. “People say we got ripped off in the Nuggets deal for Carmelo? Well, what if we can get Raymond Felton back for a guy who was in the D-League a few weeks ago? You have to make that deal. The only way this team is going to win a championship again is to make smart moves like that. You can’t over-think things.”

smackeddog wrote:To be fair, it seems Jared Jeffries has a serious knee issue- blazers gm even mentioned it after the trade. Looks like he's probably done unfortunately.

Grunwald got screwed by the Raptors, trying to block the Nash trade.

He got tripple screwed by the Morey, Lin and Dolan- not his fault.

He didn't really have much to work with. In retrospect giving the MLE to Kidd was a waste of money with no Lin. Could have used it on Camby and kept everything we gave Houston (Jorts, Jordan, picks, TD) and either kept them or traded them for a SG.

Worryingly a hoops world journalist tweeted that Felton has gained even more weight since the season ended. Ack- I'm rooting for Felton but I can't take the eddy curry esq wondering if he'll turn up to camp in shape every year.

We still need 3 players- a SG and some younger forwards, and we only have the minimum left.

Good post.

I really worry about Felton. He has something to prove, a chip on his shoulder and wants to be in NY, which is all good. But he's GOT to workout this summer. This photo of Felton is from one month ago, after the season, according to twitter:

fishmike wrote:

franco12 wrote:

fishmike wrote:

franco12 wrote:

Knicksfan wrote:

franco12 wrote:for those not giving F's, the knicks could have matched Lin and traded him in January to just about half the league and at least gotten back 2-3 first round draft picks.

Without looking at salary - we could have easily traded him to Orlando (trying to keep Howard), Dallas (restocking with Dirk), or Miami.

You can not defend any grade but F.

You might be right, but there is a possibility that even with Lin playing great, not many teams trade for him with that poisson pill. Whit the team we have, Lin was bound for a reduction in his numbers and who knows if the comments on players about his contract would've represented a future problem in the locker room that would've also affected him. Yes, these are suppositions, but have as much value as yours.

Again, I would have matched him and see what I could do later, but the Knicks considered that and still made this decision. Do they know something we don't? We'll see but I don't think it is necessaryly as easy as you mention it.

this is from my response to the Berger article thread about fans seeing this B&W.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is clearly black and white,

Simple - the Knicks match the contract.

If there is a personality issue, then the Knicks trade him January of 2013. Crap, you could keep him on ice the whole friggin time. You get back at least and ending contract and draft picks. Dallas, Orlando, Miami, Toronto- plenty of teams you could easily move him to.

If there is no personality issue, and they keep him, but is a bust, then they waive him and spread the $14M cap hit over three years. Dolan has blown bigger money on worst things.

If there is no personality issue, and the keep him, and his play is Linsane, guess what- he is worth every cent you pay in the luxury tax, and maybe you find a taker for one of the other big three contracts we have before the tax hit.

How the heck is that not clear, rational thinking?

Dolan's feelings were hurt and that comes before basketball, the Knicks and the fans

Sorry, but I've missed this. I've seen this written here that Dolan's feelings have been hurt.

How, where, and was there an article or news item or radio show about same?

I just think its irrational- and that isn't out of character for Dolan. But I would think Dollars and Cents would even get through to him.

If it is feelings- then part of it must be Dolan thinks its MSG that made Lin great, and in Houston, he'll just be another marginal star from a marketing stand point.

whats the other explanation? Either that or Dolan listens to Melo and JR Smith about Lin's ridiculous contract and the tension it will create in the lockeroom.

Dolan was at risk... If a Lin-lead team started to win MSG would have a monster on their hands. They would prefer yes men they can control. Melo is perfect.. big enough a star to be called a star, not good enough to bring the wins that allows him to call the shots.

Another explanation is that That contract for an unproven player was ridiculous? I'm all about spending dolan's money. But that contract was stupid. Would have been nice to keep Lin, but seriously, at what price?