crzymdups wrote:So the Knicks are losing their best point guard, third leading scorer in Lin. They're losing one of their most versatile defenders in Jeffries. They lost their plus/minus leader Landry Fields.All of those guys could have been retained if they'd approached them with reasonable contracts on July 1st.
But, nope, they had to get used by Steve Nash who said "NY was never really an option." All that cost us was Fields and pissed off Lin who then decided he wanted to go to Houston for real.
This is one of the most horribly managed off-seasons I've ever seen.
Lin, Fields and Jeffries were three of the best players on the team last year and some of the only reasons the team made the playoffs along with Melo, Tyson and Shumpert.
So the Knicks essentially gave up half of their functional rotation, overpaid Novak, retained JR Smith (they'll have to overpay him next off-season), downgraded PG, signed two 40yr old backups... and traded like five second round picks in the process if you count this year's... Shump is out for half the season to boot.
oh, yeah, Amar'e Stoudemire is now the longest tenured Knick and he punched a fire extinguisher thus ruining any chance of being competitive against the Heat.
Do people think that the record next year will be better winning %?
There is no guarantee that Fields and Lin would've stayed if we offered them deals. In Lin's case, he definitely wouldn't have signed on for the maximum contract we could have offered him. I wouldn't have either. As for Fields, well, nobody on this board thought he was going to wrangle a $20 million deal. Despite what Toronto says, there's no way in heck they are thrilled with overpaying Fields. Toronto made a gamble and now they have to live with it. Can't be too upset with the Knicks on that one.
Jeffries? Good role player, with heart. He wanted to play for us. But c'mon. How much burn is Jeffries getting for either team in this year's NBA finals. Or the Celtics and Pacers. He's a good passer and he plays the passing lanes well, but let's not overrate him. Houston barely played him when we traded him the first time and he'll probably get little to no burn in Portland.
It's not the best off-season this Franchise ever had, but it's not the worst either. Heck, I thought Jerry Reese had a worst offseason last year and the G-men won the Super Bowl.
I think the Knicks will improve their record this year with a full training camp and few injuries to our big three.
Always... always remember: Less is less. More is more. More is better and twice as much is good too. Not enough is bad, and too much is never enough except when it's just about right.
- The Tick
7/16/2012 7:34 PM