Nalod wrote:

holfresh wrote:

Nalod wrote:

fishmike wrote:

Silverfuel wrote:

fishmike wrote:we overpaid... and anytime you overpay as time goes on the trade will look worse and worse. As Melo leads us to first and 2nd round exits with volume shooting and poor defense people will wonder if maybe, despite Melo's most glorious talent, this was a poor trade for the Knicks and will eventually come back to burn us.

Gallo will NEVER come back here. Why would you come to a classless organization like the Knicks? Who would ever want to play here for this ownership? Oh yea... Baron Davis. Thats who.

You think there was a way to get Melo without giving up what we did? Cause it didn't seem like Melo was going to wait around for the off-season to sign here as a free agent.

and whats wrong with that? Im sorry... is Melo Kobe? Or Lebron? Or Wade? Melo is a top 20 player, not a top 10 player. He doesnt defend and if you follow his career pads his stats against very poor teams. He repeatedly is outplayed in the playoffs by the other teams star. I mean hell... we saw 34 year old Paul Pierce clearly get the best of Melo against the Celtics.

Melo is a really good player, but has he shown in this league he's worthy of a trade that guts your roster and future draft picks entirely? I dont think he has... Not with Amare already here.

If the Knicks were willing to give up 3-4 prospects, a 26 YO PG who was very good at both ends of the court, multiple future #1s they could have built a better squad than MElo/Amare and junk.

I dont like the trade for one simple reason. We put ALL our chips on Melo. We are stuck building around him and Amare for the next 3-4 years at least and that strikes me as a core that wont be competing for a title anytime soon.

If they get a healthy Chris Paul next season OK... I'll bite. Do you really see that?

Carmelo Anthony is a very very good basketball player.

He is Kiki, Aguire, King, Glen Rice and Big dogg,

....but "MELO" is a star.

Stars in NY.

Fans love stars. Stars like to see other stars.

Fans love to be in the same building with stars.

It sells tickets.

I hope to hell I am dead wrong and he is all world best player and leads the knicks to the promise land!

I get your infatuation with Gallo...I have to ask...Do you really believe Gallo and Moz could have led the Knicks deep into the playoffs at any point in their careers?...As true contenders?...

HOl,

Read this by Vescey and thought it was timely to todays rants...........

Welcoming Back N.B.A. With Open Yawns
By GEORGE VECSEY
How are people reacting to the end of the N.B.A. lockout?

Tepidly, I would say, judging from a quick swath of television interviews over the weekend. Even men in the playground, shooting hoops, professed ambiguity over the return of the rich guys.

Then again, maybe it was the warm weather in the Northeast. People were outdoors, feeling good, not thinking ahead to being cooped up inside and needing diversions on the tube when winter finally arrives.

Or maybe it is hard to be worked up over yet another sport when there is such a creepy pall spreading from Penn State football and Syracuse men’s basketball. The depravity oozing out from those two Northeastern hotbeds — you should pardon the expression — is not going away any time soon.

Meantime, we have our diversions, as the N.B.A. prepares to certify a shortened season starting on Christmas Day and lasting into June.

That leaves plenty of time for all right-thinking fans to unite in true continental sporting teamwork, anticipating LeBron James’s tossing up bricks in the final month of spring.

Every franchise in the N.B.A. will have its own reaction to the end of the lockout. In the New York region, we have two teams, but so much else going on that it’s hard to get worked up over a revival of pro basketball.

My first flittering reaction was what scientists might call a false positive. I couldn’t remember why, but I found myself harboring a vague fondness for the Knicks. I had an impression of alert young players moving the ball, setting up Amar’e Stoudemire, playing the heady basketball we claim we like in New York.

But then I remembered I was wasting nostalgia on a team that was blown up last Feb. 21. That team does not exist anymore, since the big trade of four rotation players, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler and Timofey Mozgov; a first-round pick in 2014; and second-round picks in 2012 and 2013 to Denver, in return for Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.

The Knicks had a 28-26 record when, as far as I can reason, the Madison Square Garden chairman, James L. Dolan, engineered the trade, ignoring the builder instincts of his president, Donnie Walsh, who has since been relegated to consultancy.

Now it all comes back to me. Billups, a wise old head, was in charge of getting the ball to Anthony, who could not waste his time playing defense because he needed to shoot every time down the court. Stoudemire’s body pretty much wore down by springtime. The Knicks had a 14-14 record after the trade, then lost four straight to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

We are told that the Knicks’ moves cannot be judged until next season, when the team might afford the salary-cap maneuvers and sign a younger star point guard. So much for this season, now looming over us. My euphoria faded fast.

I had a vague recollection that I also liked the Nets, the other team in the New York metropolitan region. But the more I thought about it, my momentary reaction was based upon their brief era of glory, when they reached the finals two years in a row in the springs of 2002 and 2003. They were really fun to watch, with Jason Kidd making everybody better, but that team has not existed for many years.

My flicker of enthusiasm for the Nets included their move from that dismal spot in the swamps into that struggling, but recognizable, urban center, Newark. Next year they will move into a much more vibrant place — the land grab near downtown Brooklyn being a separate issue. Just the mention of Brooklyn evokes the scent of restaurants and walks in cool neighborhoods.

Then reality struck. Quick, I said to myself, name one player on the Nets. There’s the guy whose marriage to one of the Kardashians was shorter than the lockout itself. Hey, Kris, what did you do during the off-season? That guy. And didn’t they make a trade for Deron Williams, who has been keeping his shooting arm warm by playing in Turkey? And Brook Lopez. I envisioned him, too.

But just like the Knicks, the Nets seem to be a year away from anything.

Do we really need the N.B.A. to come back this soon? The N.F.L. will dominate the tube until the end of January. If we can get Penn State and Syracuse out of our nostrils — no sure thing — then we have college football into January and college basketball for four more months. The best soccer in the world has become a multiple-network reality in this region. We still have three hockey teams in our area. And call it habit, but on these long, dark evenings, I feel the urge to hit the clicker just to get the Yankees and Mets scores. Won’t be long now.

The N.B.A. players and owners may have demonstrated their irrelevancy. In the first days since the tentative labor agreement, vox populi seems to be reacting to the 66-game schedule by asking: That long, huh?

E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com

Maybe it was not the players, maybe it was the type of ball that was being played and it was fun to watch. Then the trade happened and expectations were raised, and I got grumpy knowing it could never be met in the short run. While many cheered the new star, the actual product on the floor was not worthy.

Can't tell me otherwise.

The potential is there. We cheer potential now?

Over the next few months it will all reveal itself on the court. I'll be cheering and watching just like many of starphuching idol worshippers and if it falls short there is always hope of the next superstar to join the mix.

No, Gallo and Moz might not have been the end all, but it was fun, it enthusiastic and it was uncertain. Its ok to be uncertain in my book.

very well said nalod. Uncertainty is not a bad thing all of the time

nice rant by Vescey...

Nalod wrote:Maybe it was not the players, maybe it was the type of ball that was being played and it was fun to watch. Then the trade happened and expectations were raised, and I got grumpy knowing it could never be met in the short run. While many cheered the new star, the actual product on the floor was not worthy.

Can't tell me otherwise.

The potential is there. We cheer potential now?

Over the next few months it will all reveal itself on the court. I'll be cheering and watching just like many of starphuching idol worshippers and if it falls short there is always hope of the next superstar to join the mix.

No, Gallo and Moz might not have been the end all, but it was fun, it enthusiastic and it was uncertain. Its ok to be uncertain in my book.

So we fondly cheer for uncertainty now?

We spent years cheering for a rebuilding process and patiently (maybe for some) acknowledging the brilliance of Donnie and the jettisoning of the rotting carcasses of the IT era. Years. I remember them.

Yeah, so we had a gawky Italian kid, DollarBiLLandryWingoRiordan, the Russian project and spurts of sterling P&R. Big deal; the difference was two more wins. I'll take the second coming of King anyday.

VDesai wrote:I miss Gallo.

I was way too young for the early part of Ewings career. Would love to see the Knicks develop a star player from start to finish. I was emotionally invested in the guy, but I suppose the trade had to get made.

I agree. Don't get me wrong, I liked Gallo and it was great watching him improve, and hoping to see him have a break out game kept things interesting in what were hard times as a Knicks fan. I still remember that game where he got the best of Melo. But, if you take a step back, he really seems to have hit a wall, development wise.

He wasn't great when he went to Denver, was pretty poor in the playoffs, seems to have lost his 3 point shooting ability, and if you look at his euro league stats over the past few weeks, they're poor (what's happened to his shooting?!). I hope he has a great year this season in Denver, but I really don't see him breaking out, I think our expectations of him were too high and he's just an average player who shot the 3 pointer well for half a season, 2 seasons ago. I liked his competitiveness, but sometimes he disappeared or wasn't assertive enough, too.

Personally, I think Candler was the better player, but people seem to focus more on the loss of Gallo.

2012 first round draft pick to Houston
New York's own 2012 1st round pick to Houston (top 5 protected in 2012, top 5 protected in 2013, top 5 protected in 2014, and top 5 protected in the 2015 Draft). If Houston does not receive a 1st round pick from New York by the 2015 Draft, then New York will convey their own 2015 2nd round pick and 2016 2nd round pick to Houston. [Houston - New York - Sacramento, 2/18/2010]

2012 second round draft pick to Phoenix
New York's own 2012 2nd round pick to Phoenix (top 55 protected in the 2012 Draft). If New York's own 2012 2nd round pick is in the top 55 picks, then New York's obligations to Phoenix shall be extinguished. [New York - Phoenix, 7/8/2010]

2014 first round draft pick to Denver
New York's own first round draft pick to Denver in the "First Allowable Draft". (The First Allowable draft shall be the draft that occurs two years following the year in which New York satisfies its existing obligation to convey their own 2012 protected first round draft pick to the Houston Rockets from the trade involving Jared Jeffries). [Denver - Minnesota - New York, 2/22/2011]

2016 first round draft pick to Denver
If New York is obligated to send its own first round pick in the First Allowable Draft to Denver prior to the 2016 draft (see the details regarding the 2014 protected first round pick from New York to Denver), then Denver shall also be permitted to swap its own 2016 first round pick with New York's own first round pick. However, if the First Allowable Draft does not occur until the 2016 draft, then Denver will not be entitled to the additional first round swap and instead shall receive New York's own 2017 2nd round pick. [Denver - Minnesota - New York, 2/22/2011]

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed#ixzz1fDlwkGRT

Enjoy Melo now and pay later.

LIke I said, it will be years before we know the full value of the trade.

I hope we are hoisting banners instead of hoisting post counts in the years to come.

DrAlphaeus wrote:Come on, allow a Gallo-love thread be guys, at least until games start up! Natural to be a little misty-eyed for some, see your baby boy growing up. I was watching "The Other Guys" with Marky Mark & Will Farrell and they were at a Knicks game with Gallo & Nate running a break... one waxes nostalgic. Not only for our community-nepotism pick, but for these old threads of conversation!

Where are the has gotta go threads?!?

Gotta get some youTube practice videos videos first before we can fully evaluate.

Your right, I gotta move on cuz the more I think about it........

Two no 1's, Randolph, Mozzy, Gallo, Felton and chandler for basically Billups and Melo.

And I would not do that deal for King either.

I loved King. He put on a good show and did well in a bad knick era.