Personally, I don't think swapping Galloway for Calderon in the starting lineup is going to do much for us at all.
The fix for this year (after things had clearly gone south) was to first explore trades for known quantities at the deadline. No doubt we did that--we heard Jeff Teague, Dennis Schroder, even rumblings about trading Melo in a couple of hypothetical blockbusters.
Then when all that went nowhere and the deadline came and went, I contend we should've jumped on 2, not one but TWO of the PREMIER DL guards--I think we needed the guard help that bad. Still do. I recommended Russ Smith and Sean Kilpatrick (or Terrico White). That would've been 1 much faster/much more dynamic ball-handling guard with good passing ability/two-way skills and 1 SG with enough size/strength + innate scoring ability (White also possesses extreme athleticism which, along with Russ Smith's speed/quickness could've really helped out D-Will realize his full potential on that 2nd unit--potentially an added bonus. Not only could we have improved the guard play tenfold, we could've also gotten more production/better play out of one of our existing rotation reserves). Hey at least we brought up Jimmer Fredette. I personally would've lined up these other guards first but OK--let's see what Jimmer's got. There are a few drawbacks (lack of size, lack of a true position, his teflon D) but some positives as well (he can really shoot it and he doesn't lack confidence). Anyone who thinks all DL guys suck or whatever (beyond narrow-minded imo), think of the dreck we're throwing out there every night--guys that aren't getting it done.
Now there's a couple of problems here: (1) right off the top, Melo should've welcomed Jimmer much more than he did. Not a big deal I guess but it bothered me. If you all recall, his first public reaction to drafting Iman Shumpert on twitter was poor (bitter we didn't draft his boy Josh Selby). Then he never embraced Jeremy Lin. Then same thing when KP was first drafted. Anyone else see the ****ed up pattern with him? The dude's a baby, man, point blank. Very immature, bordering on low class. This guy's no leader. Real leaders, esp. ones in his dire situation, embrace the help any way they can get it not to mention make any new teammate feel welcome..Instead of mocking Fredette, calling him "Jimmy," and then after knowing Jimmer was on his way, saying to the reporter, "I thought you were telling me we were about to sign someone," maybe he should've been more diplomatic about it and taken the high road. Why take the low road all the time? Believe me, people see that. Who did Melo recruit this off-season exactly? Did we land any of the premier FAs last summer? Not a one..
Problem 2: Phil/Rambis think they owe guys like Calderon, Galloway, Vujacic etc. WAY TOO MUCH. THESE GUYS SUCK--OPEN YOUR EYES!!! Collectively, they've gotten a chance and haven't done a thing with it. When do you turn the friggin' page already?? You get the feeling they're not ready to. They're still doling out the loyalty to these 3 by the truckload. Rambis just came out and basically said Jimmer's not displacing any of these guys. The problem is Jimmer was just brought in for window dressing when what they really need to do is yank the damn window right outta the wall because it rotted out and replace it. Even if they replaced it with a cheap window from Home Depot, it would be an improvement.. I feel this is just gonna be another one of these BS 10-day contracts you see all the time where it's just done for insurance and that's it. Meanwhile, there's a chance Jimmer could really help or at least show he's a player we could retain for next year on a good contract...That's how I see Russ Smith, Sean Kilpatrick and Terrico White as well. Not that I'm wishing injury on any of our current guards but that's what I think it'll take to really see Jimmer get some extended PT.. I think that's a mistake.
And another secondary problem I've always suspected -- I don't think Dolan likes waiving/buying out people and eating money. Hey, I get that--he's had to do that in the past with Marbury, with Larry Brown, etc., but those were high-profile personalities that weren't working out with a lot of money still owed to them. Still he did it but I get the feel he may have said "never again." What I'm saying here is that if Phil ever came to him and said "look, we need to clear Sasha V off the slate so we can bring in another guard," Dolan's gotta be on board with that. Is he?? It's such a nominal amount of cash (the prorated amount that's left on Sasha's deal). Again, this is a secondary issue but something I wonder about. Of course, something like this has got to come from Phil first though. Is he ready to go to Sasha and say 'look, we're bringing in another guard we need to take a look at for the rest of the year. I'm sorry but you've been waived"? And then is Dolan prepared to cut Sasha a nominal severance check and move on? Again, all these guys--Phil, Rambis, Dolan--need to be ready to turn the page, be aggressive and try different things. That would've been my play to fix things. I don't think these guys are ready to go at it like that.
2/24/2016 5:51 PM
