GustavBahler wrote:We could get what Faried brings, maybe more, for a lot less if we had signed Diogu.
Agree totally. I wish they went about stuff like this...This is where the Knicks always **** the bed as far as I'm concerned. Player comparison evaluation, identifying and filling gaps and coming up with some good, cheap talent. Yeah, they do it once in a blue with guys like Chris Copeland but by and large, they just don't identify with the pool of league minimum talent out there. They tend to just dismiss it altogether. I don't get that -- we're capped out and missing a majority of our draft picks year to year moving forward -- if you wanna improve and strengthen the roster, and you're a team with no cap flexibility and a sudden dearth of draft picks going forward, this is where you look for fortification. Simple..
You mentioned adding Ike Diogu instead of trading Shumpert for Faried. I completely agree with that. Would much rather have Shumpert AND Diogu rather than just Faried and then having a hole at SG. Makes no sense. I'd trade Shumpert for Tim Duncan -- obviously, that's not happening -- so on to plan B -- come up with a skilled, hard-nosed burly forward somewhere else. Diogu can play and he could fill a Ken Faried role on this team nicely.
And I wouldn't stop there -- after that, to really up the talent level at the end of the bench, I'd cut Cole Aldrich and Toure Murry and add C Marcus Cousin and PG Jeremy Pargo (Chris Smith would be my other immediate cut that allows us to add Diogu). HUGE upgrade right there across the board...Cousin's a skilled 7' center that competes hard and brings a lot to the table offensively (he's a power player that has a real soft touch on the ball and can shoot it with range. Pretty damn good post game too. Think a more skilled overall version of Channing Frye) and Jeremy Pargo's widely regarded as one of the better PGs in Europe the past few years. Dude's nothing like his brother Jannero -- Jeremy's much quicker and a much better athlete (explosive athlete actually 
) that's more of a true penetrating PG (Jannero's never been much more than a mediocre spot-up shooter -- completely different PGs). We had interest in Bobby Brown this off-season -- Jeremy Pargo's a few years younger and flat out the better player. Think a more athletic version of Ray Felton. Both of these guys (along with Diogu) could really fortify this team right now in all the right areas.
