Hmmm. I'm not completely sold on Nichols. Watched him for the first 3 years at Syracuse and then not so much his senior year. I have read that he has made nice strides in his game in his last year. Don't know if he will be a great 1 on 1 defender, as he didn't need to much in college. I really don't think he is at Balkman's level defensively....or even close.

My overall impression is if he contributes, its not going to be for a while. I doubt we will see much of him this year.

I watched Nichols all of last yr, the guy is clutch and never played with a pg who knew when to get him the ball at the cuse.

The guys wanted to take the shots and begged for the ball, I think this is what turned Isiah on about the kid....He believed in his shot!

Demetris Nichols, 22, played the past four seasons at Syracuse, where he averaged a Big East-leading 18.9 points per game as a senior. The 6-foot-8, 216-pound forward was born in Boston and attended St. Andrew's High School in Barrington, R.I., before entering Syracuse in 2003. Nichols finished his career at Syracuse tied for 28th on the school's all-time scoring list and third in three-pointers. He earned a spot on the All-Big East First team for 2006-07, a season which saw him set a Syracuse record for the most points (37) in a conference game. In that game against St. John's, Nichols hit seven three-pointers. He also had seven three-pointers in a Big East tournament gave vs. Connecticut at Madison Square Garden.

Zeke must have peeped that game I saw that game against uconn on tv
__________________

He had a studdering problem, I heard him speak during interviews this past season

Posted by TMS:

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by TMS:

Posted by JohnWallace44:

KG and Zach is worse than Eddy and Zach in terms of needing to play in the same area on the floor.

the fact that we'd at least have a franchise calibre player on the roster would be good enough for me... we could piece it together from there... having Curry, Zach & KG in the frontcourt would be a nightmare for other teams... KG brings shotblocking, passing & a completely unselfish approach to the game which those other 2 don't really possess... plus being 1 of the best rebounders in the game doesn't hurt either, & combining him w/Zach's rebounding at the PF would basically cover for any of Curry's deficiencies in that department... i could stand not having D Lee on the team if it meant us getting KG... i could also stand not having any shot at Kobe or Lebron in '09 if we had KG on the team also.

TMS why are you bringing KG trade talks into this thread. Damn say atleast two sentences about about the guy before ranting about Randolph and KG.

uh, that was Caseloads who brought KG's name into the conversation... read up a little before you throw accusations my way... i was only replying to his post.

TMS,
What do you think is Lee's value in terms of dollars ? His contract is ending soon and he should be up for an extension. What kind of deal do you think he will take to stay. If everyone else in the league is high on him, what will they pay him ? I know he won't get a max contract, but how much is enough or too much for Lee?

Nichols is EXACTLY what this team needs. A great shooter with size. We need a guy like that to roam around on the floor and occupy a defender. Just his presence alone down the line will be a benefit to this team. From what i've read he's also a decent defender:

Defensively, Syracuse actually played man-to-man defense on quite a few possessions over the course of the game, so it was easier to get an accurate gauge on Nichols’ defensive abilities than in the past. Matched up against athletic swingman Anthony Mason Jr., Nichols showed no problems chasing him without the ball, getting through screens relatively easily and not giving up too much space to his opponent. Unfortunately, no St. John’s player made an attempt to take Nichols off the dribble, so his lateral quickness is still very much in question, as it’s normally masked by Syracuse’s zone defense. To Nichols’ credit, he showed good awareness in the zone defense, was active on the weakside when he needed to be, and did a good job boxing out on the defensive glass.

THE thing that i'm so happy with is that isiah has steadily increased this teams talent level in the draft and he's been plugging holes. AT this point the only thing anyone can have a complaint about is shotblocking. Other than that we have just about everything else we need from our developing young players. Lee, Balkman, Mardy, Morris, Chandler, Nichols and Nate is a lot of young talent to have.

And he's already comfortable in the Garden, SU's 2nd home. I can't wait to see this guy hit the floor late in a game and see the defenders try to figure out what they're going to do.

Posted by Michael6835:
TMS,
What do you think is Lee's value in terms of dollars ? His contract is ending soon and he should be up for an extension. What kind of deal do you think he will take to stay. If everyone else in the league is high on him, what will they pay him ? I know he won't get a max contract, but how much is enough or too much for Lee?

if he continues to be a bench player, he'll garner no more than a MLE level deal i'm guessing... say if we hadn't made the Zach trade, we could have still looked to trade Frye & Nate in an Artest deal (for example), improve the roster for the next 2 years, & still keep our options open to at least entertain the thought of targeting a Lebron or Kobe via free agency in 2 years when Marbury, Francis, Malik & Artest's contracts come off the books... btw, Q Rich & Turd James' contracts would also be expiring deals that year as well, so it's reasonable to think you could possibly deal them off as well, or just allow them to expire... bottomline, you'd have some OPTIONS open to you in 2 years... right now, we're completely handcuffed capwise until after 2010 at the earliest, which amounts to yet another year gone down the drain with no progress towards cap flexibility... but hey, we got Zach Randolph at least.

I wish what? They play there 8 times a year

understandable... they have some dude that's rated as the 6th best prospect for 08 apparently

Posted by CDB:

This was a great draft and trade for the Knicks, I seen Demetris Nichols play at Cuse and I for one am tellignyou that he is going to be great for us. We needed a shooter for Curry and Nichols will be a nice fit for him.

Great deal Zeke.

That's what I'm talkin' about son! Pump the positivity about this kid. He's built like 'shard, shoots better, just needs to develop the handle.