I think that this off season is going to be a big step in whichever direction we are going on....There are 3 scenarios I see and all 3 have very different results....

1--Sign Larry Hughes.

Have a guard rotation of Craw, Steph and Hughes....Stay put to grab Taft or trade down to get Petro....use the second 1st round pick on Jack...have a lineup of

Taft/Butler
Sweets/KT/Rose
Ariza/TT/JYD
Hughes/Craw
Marbury/Jack....

1b--Sign and Trade for Hughes...

Using Craw and KT or Craw and Sweets and a future pick, getting Hughes and Kwame. Use 1st pick on Wayne Simien (if we have to trade Sweets, use it on a Taft a C/PF) and second pick on Joey Graham. Maybe Jack or Gilchrist slip into the second round, hopefully...



Kwame(or Taft)/Jackie
Simien(or Sweets)/KT (or Kwame)/Rose
Ariza/TT/JYD
Hughes/Graham
Marbury/Jack (or Gilchrist)

2--Trade for Maggette and Wilcox

Looks alot like 1b in the sign and trade for Hughes and Kwame, just different names in our lineup..

***1, 1b, and 2 help us win now, while helping the future***

3--Stay with Craw, stand pat.

Use the picks on Taft(a kid who can play center) and Graham or grab Graham first and try to trade up to get Petro or stay put and grab Channing Frye) hopefully a point slips into the second round.

****This is full rebuilding mode. Trading TT, Penny isn't a must but draft picks are included in any type of deal or picking up of a player that is young and promising with someone with a bad contract. Trading KT is a must, so younger players can develop at the 4 and 5 spots...

And I think that Herb is the perfect coach for this...I would love to see him hkeep this job.

[Edited by - joec32033 on 03/16/2005 12:15:19]

if they made a KT, Mo T, Ariza & the lottery pick for Finley & Josh Howard, & then signed a C w/the MLE, i think they could contend next season.

C - MLE fa (Dalembert? Brown?) / draft pick / Butler or other Summer leaguer?
PF - Sweetney / Rose / JYD
SF - Howard / TT
SG - Finley / Penny
PG - Marbury / Craw
IR - Houston

you realize that you have included Ariza in that trade????????????

uh yeah...that's why i have Josh Howard coming back in the trade.

Posted by TMS:

you realize that you have included Ariza in that trade????????????

uh yeah...that's why i have Josh Howard coming back in the trade.

it amazes me how people think Ariza is better than Howard! Howard already is everything Ariza wished he can be and everything we are HOPING he'll be.

And anyone banking us somehow landing Maggette & Hughes is setting themselves up for major disappoinment. Just go the the Washington Wizards boards and see what they think about it. Kwame is still a great possibility at C but not Hughes.


I will settle for Finley who can average 20pts and is a very good perimeter defender especially since we're getting the gem of the deal Josh Howard!

Nobody can seriously answer this question. To many things can happen to either make us contenders or destroy us.

All we can do is hope the next Stoud, Nowtizki, J'Oneal falls to us at around the #8 spot since all of them have been 9 or higher. And hope we can use the expiring deals along with the late draft pick maybe even Sweetney &/or KT depending on the player to land a high quality player.

But I really like the core of JYD-ROSE-ARIZA-MARBURY-CRAWFORD. And im lost with what there going to do with Sweetney but if they keep him great. JYD-ROSE-ARIZA are defense & hustle which make Marbury & Crawford better players. We need a shot blocker or 2 and some outside shooting, and another solid PG bad. I wonder if we could snatch up combo Dee Brown.

Guys I love the deal too but Cuban is not trading either one of them. He has no reason to make any deal that involves Howard becuase he runs his team the same way the Knicks do which is spend tons of money but Cuban has done it much smarter then the Knicks by spending money on players that can play. The Mavs are a team thats in the running for the championship with the roster they have and a big part of that is becuase of Josh Howard, he has no reason to trade him away for KT and friends when it will not improve their team.

[Edited by - nyk4ever on 03/16/2005 15:59:44]

TT stats this year are virtually identical to his career averages. He is what he is. If every vet has to have a career year and all your youngsters have to develop to contend in the worst division in basketball you are NOT contenders.

In two or three years who knows maybe we'll be better - maybe we'll be worse. But management is going to have to be very good or very lucky to get this team to be legit contenders in that time.

good article in the papers about what if on the 7 games we lost with 7.6 seconds or less:

http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMjcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NjcwODUmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

Do the math, though, and it's clear what a difference such defeats have made.

Had Philadelphia's Jackson (a layup with 1.0 seconds to play Feb. 14 for a 106-105 victory), Padgett and Detroit's Billups (two free throws with 2.6 seconds left Dec. 15 for a 94-93 victory) not done what they did, the Knicks likely win those games.

Give them those three victories instead of the losses and they're 29-33, just 1½ games behind Orlando (which played the Clippers late Wednesday) for the East's final playoff spot.

All I'm saying is that the team, as they are currently constructed, could just have easily be in the thick of the playoff hunt.

Add two key pieces (shot blocking center and pure SG) and we contend in 2 years.

The defeats:
Fading away at the buzzer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Knicks have lost seven games in the final 7.6 seconds this season. Here's how:

Date, Opponent, Score, How

March 15, Heat, 98-96, Dwyane Wade jumper at buzzer

Feb. 14, at 76ers, 106-105, Marc Jackson layup at 1.0

Feb. 4, at Kings, 116-115, Matt Barnes free throw at 7.6

Jan. 21, Rockets, 92-91, Scott Padgett floater at buzzer

Jan. 17, Bulls, 88-86, Ben Gordon runner at 0.1

Jan. 15, at Bulls, 86-84, Eddy Curry finger-roll at 2.4

Dec. 15, Pistons, 94-93, Chauncey Billups 2 FTs at 2.6