I hate AW. You make a lot of sense though.
At least this time around.
ooh ah, its called rebuilding, not win just enough to fall short of the playoffs. plus signing walker to that deal, you can forget about having a chance to be under the cap in 2 yrs.
It's called making the playoffs and having a chance to advance past the first round OR throwing a bunch of rookies and role players to the wolves and another year of watching every other team whip us and being sickened and just hoping we land a big pick.
Everyone is stuck on the cap and yet Isiah does not seem to being setting up the Knicks to free up tons of cap money, at least not before Allan Houston's contract is officially history. So why does everyone keep going on about it?
Basically, PER weights all the stats you'll find in a boxscore according to how valuable they are, adjusts for minutes played and team pace, then adds up the weighted positive stats and subtracts the negative ones. In essence, it's the ultimate stat.
I looked at http://www.alleyoop.com/prates/prates05.htm and http://www.alleyoop.com/prates.shtm . It's interesting, but not enough to convince me that Stromile Swift is anything more than a very efficient role player. Check out the 2004-2005 page or the archives and you will see some players peppered in that are simply not in the same class as the others.
Sure, Swift is limited. But he does seem to play within his limitations, at least. Walker can do a bit of everything, but he doesn't do many things particularly well and he certainly doesn't play within his limitations. The end result is that Swift gives his team very efficient and effective play whereas Walker winds up hurting his team a lot with all the possessions he wastes with missed shots or butchered trips to the free throw line. It might be the case that Walker brings more positives, but he also brings a lot more negatives, which winds up detracting a lot from his overall production.
All I can say is I don't agree.
There's something to be said for being a go-to guy who can take and make the last shot, but if I were to compile a list of guys who I'd want to take the last shot for my team, Walker would be waaaay down on the list. 42.2 fg%, 32.3 3p%, 53.9 ft%? That's not a guy I want to count on to score when it counts.
Swift has him slightly beat in Field Goal and Free Throw Percentage. Swift's career 3 point percentage is .059. Considering most of his shots are dunk attempts, I don't find him that efficient offensively. 33% from 3 point range equals 50% from 2 point range.
This list of guys you would rather have shoot ahead of Walker, is even one of them available to the Knicks?
Besides, if I had Swift instead of Walker on the team, there's a better chance that I wouldn't need my team to be taking a last second shot in the first place, because the team would probably be up a couple of points instead of down.
That's why Swift has such a storied career in terms of team success and playoff performance! Oh wait, 2005 was his first year in the playoffs and he only averaged 16 minutes per game. His numbers were about the same and he had no blocks.
In my book its simple, I wouldnt take Antoine Walker. Id rather be patient. Im going to very patient. My main goal for the year is to make sure Frye is set up into a nice role and becomes succesful, and that the other guys are given ample opprotunity to succeed as well[nate will be fine for sure] Thats why I was a little disapointed the other night when i heard he had 10 fouls in the first half against scrubs. Its very important to the franhcise that Frye succeeds.
Patient is not throwing Frye into the fire.
But we all have to learn to be patient now, fans, knicks management, ownership. Dont panic buy, be careful and let things develop. Dont get into huge deals with Antoine walkers. Lets be patient see how the team doesn--if you can get young guys like Drew Kwame on the cheap--do it. You can say what you want, but in my book antonie walker is not a good choice for this franhcise. I want better for this franchise and Im willing as a big fan to be patient.
Okay, I respect your opinion, but whatever it is you are waiting for seems to be very vague. Patience is a virtue. Drew Gooden on the Knicks...Maybe. Kwame Brown...that is just buying other people's problems...he would be Jordan's final victory over the Knicks.
I agree here. Walker wouldn't be my first choice (or second or third for that matter) but if Isiah is truly "hellbent" on getting this guy, then give him the MLE. This isn't like the Crawford situation last year, where Chicago forced us to take bad contract back. Craw was restricted, Walker is not. Why should we take Blount or LaFrentz? If he really wants to play here, go ahead and take the 5 mil and lets get on with the offseason. If not, there are other options out there.
I wouldn't fall all over myself trying to sign Walker if I were Isiah, that's for sure. Not because he's not good, but because Danny Ainge doesn't really want Walker. (But he doesn't want him to get away for free.)
I am just curious who your first three choices over Walker are. Are they the career role players that people seem to think will become stars or good full time players for no good reason? Are your choices available in any way? Are there really that many options out there for the Knicks?
Walker for the MLE 5yrs 30mm is one thing. Having to give up Sweets+ expiring deal in a S/T + give Walker 50-60mm instead of 30mm + taking on another bad contract? No way.
I wouldn't do that either.
oohah
7/13/2005 3:09 PM
