kam77 wrote:

Markji wrote:

kam77 wrote:Yeah its disappointing that we got bent over by HOUSTON and still did't get LeBron ...

But that was the price DW paid to get into the Lebron sweepstakes.

I didn't like it. But i understood it and ultimately we had to do it.

It didn't work out. Well Hello... that's life.

Nothing is guaranteed. But you gotta be in it to win it.

Yeah, but we paid $100 for a $1 ticket. That is the problem.

We knew that was was could happen going in. Our haul wasn't LeBron_Bosh $100 but Amare-Felton-AR aint just a dollar. (You gotta set the floor at at least $50 and then we could argue about something it between 50 and 100.)

When we lost the sweepstakes, we cashed in Lee for something, which we could not have done AND still gotten Felton had we not opened up the money. We didn't spend foolishly IMO. And we still have cap flex.

TheSage wrote:ENOUGH DW rolled the dice-he did not win but did not crap out either. He acquired one of the top PF's in the league, a solid PG who fits the system, a serviceable backup center, a 6-11 freak with unlimited potential and a SG who, if he gets healthy has tremendous skills. Unlike a certain unnamed predecessor he did not acquire over the hill, over hyped individuals who were flawed. Yes the results were not as hoped for but there is hope and huge upside to what he acquired.

He did a good job with his plan B. But failed in Plan A but that was understandable because plan A already knew their destination nothing he could do about it. Big issue with T-Mac deal was loss of first round picks. If he could have saved a pick then Plan A would have still been attainable. Except it would have been for Melo in a trade. Walsh did a great job of creating cap space but a terrible job in the deal to create cap space. Regardless I don't think in his wildest imagination that he thought Melo would be available to the Knicks in a trade. He probably had it planned out that Melo would be available in Free Agency. On a side note Walsh should have bought into the first round this last draft.

Also, whoever said we couldn't have gotten Randolph, that's not exactly true. Don't forget the salary cap went up, and we would've been about $25-26M under the cap without the Jeffries/Hill trade. If we needed to clear more room, we probably could've dumped Hill for a future 2nd rounder or something. That was enough money to make the DLee trade, and then sign Amare. The real casualty (or benefit) of the TMac trade would've been Felton/Mozgov.

kam77 wrote:Yeah its disappointing that we got bent over by HOUSTON and still did't get LeBron ...

But that was the price DW paid to get into the Lebron sweepstakes.

I didn't like it. But i understood it and ultimately we had to do it.

It didn't work out. Well Hello... that's life.

Nothing is guaranteed. But you gotta be in it to win it.

Word. +1 to this post. It's not some average, run-of-the-mill all star we had targeted: IT WAS LEBRON JAMES, who is certainly a once-in-a-generation talent. We had to get into the game, and we missed. That was always a possibility. We still turned the team around with the moves we made, and we retain our cap space and flexibility moving forward. Now hopefully we don't blow t by offering too much for Melo, who is a great scorer, but not a great all-around player.

TMS wrote:i give Donnie props for being man enough to admit he may have made a huge mistake in making that trade... making trades is not an easy business, no one ever said it was... but we're not being paid millions of dollars to make these types of decisions that will effect the future of the franchise for years to come... i think plenty of us felt that unless Donnie had some kind of guarantee that Lebron was going to come to NY that it was an ill advised trade to make... i hope he never repeats the same mistake & gambles aways future assets on a completely unknown outcome.

I agree with you, TMS, for the most part. But when it comes to rolling the dice to land a player like Lebron James, I think the potential outcome is well-balanced with the risks. We had to do it or else be seen as non-players in the sweepstakes. We were essentially pushing our chips All In. We didn't win that hand, but we may finish in second place on the final table.

alau53 wrote:why couldnt donnie done just what reilly did to get lebron..he traded his assets when a deal with lebron was about to be made..not during mid season like donnie did..even donnie admits this to be a mistake..but many of you guys stil think the jhil/tmac trade was good and you'd do it again..reily could have traded beasley in mid season to open up cap space for another max fa..but he was smart and waited to make that deal after the season when he knew he was able to get lebron and bosch..why couldnt donnie just wait and do what reily did and open space by trading 1st rd picks, j hil and expiring jeffries contract when he has a deal with lebron/bosch in place..this way even if lebron went elsewhwere the knicks would stil have the valuable aforementioned assets for a trade down the road for withcarmello or paul etc..with some of the posts im reading from many knick fans i completely disagree that ny has the most astute sport fans in the usa..just read this thread and listen to wfan and you'll agree that ny does not have the smartest fans of all..

cause donnie would have had to find a team that had ~$10M in cap space that would want to absorb Jefferson and Hill AND without taking anything back. How many teams are there? None. Beasely was the #2 pick and was $5M, much easier.

Oh, and recall, Miami didn't have to trade Beasley to make room for LeBron... Beasely was trade to make room for Mike Miller, etc AFTER LeBron, Bosh was added.

alau53 wrote:many teams would have taken an expiring jeffries and j hill and the knicks 2012 1st rd pick for nothing back at end of year instead of mid season..if the knicks stil had these assets they could proly get the carmelo deal done..too many knick shills on this board

you missed my point. Who are the teams that had $10M in cap space? I don't think there were any.

alau53 wrote:many teams would have taken an expiring jeffries and j hill and the knicks 2012 1st rd pick for nothing back at end of year instead of mid season..if the knicks stil had these assets they could proly get the carmelo deal done..too many knick shills on this board

the sad irony of all this is that we gave up the assets to go after Lebron & didn't land him, & because we gave up those assets we will likely miss out on Melo too... but hey, at least we got Ray Felton with the extra cap space.

earthmansurfer wrote:

TMS wrote:

alau53 wrote:many teams would have taken an expiring jeffries and j hill and the knicks 2012 1st rd pick for nothing back at end of year instead of mid season..if the knicks stil had these assets they could proly get the carmelo deal done..too many knick shills on this board

the sad irony of all this is that we gave up the assets to go after Lebron & didn't land him, & because we gave up those assets we will likely miss out on Melo too... but hey, at least we got Ray Felton with the extra cap space.

But we wouldn't have been far enough under the cap to S&T (or resign) David Lee. So, we wouldn't have A. Randolph right now as an asset. And if that is true that means we'd probably have to part with Gallo. What assets would we have besides Jordan Hill and our almost 2 draft picks to go after Carmello? Chandler?

We would have ourselves one gutted team and a Carmello who doesn't play defense and perhaps Gallo and Chandler would be gone who do.

why would we have to part with Gallo in your scenario but he's not an available asset to use in a Melo deal? you're not making any sense... Gallo, Hill & 2 future 1st round picks doesn't stack up to what NJ is offering? DEN wouldn't have been interested in a D Lee + future draft picks deal for Melo? there were all sorts of options available to us had we not rushed to push in our chips before the summer even hit & we even knew what Lebron's intentions were.

i've gone through the numbers many times already... the salary cap this year is set to $58M... that means we would have had $29.8M in cap space had DW not made the T-Mac trade, enough to easily sign Amare to his contract & more than enough flexibility leftover to swing a D Lee S&T... after making that trade we not only missed out on Lebron, Wade & Bosh, but now because we made that trade, we also may have lost out on Melo too.

CrushAlot wrote:

TMS wrote:

alau53 wrote:many teams would have taken an expiring jeffries and j hill and the knicks 2012 1st rd pick for nothing back at end of year instead of mid season..if the knicks stil had these assets they could proly get the carmelo deal done..too many knick shills on this board

the sad irony of all this is that we gave up the assets to go after Lebron & didn't land him, & because we gave up those assets we will likely miss out on Melo too... but hey, at least we got Ray Felton with the extra cap space.

You forgot Roger Mason. As a fan I almost broke my arm patting myself on the back with the cap space available to make that signing. Its all about shooting and the pick and roll.

Plan B my friend.