Another thing we desperately lack

misterearl wrote:gunsnewing - Mike D'Antoni left the building years ago.

This is 2014 and one thing is certain, the league changes every day.

We desperately need a lead guard with young legs.

TeamBall wrote:

misterearl wrote:gunsnewing - Mike D'Antoni left the building years ago.

This is 2014 and one thing is certain, the league changes every day.

We desperately need a lead guard with young legs.

We need a lead guard who plays like one. Toney Douglas had young legs and he didn't work out so well

Yea at the bare minimum you need adequate playmaking and ball moving ability, ability to knock down open shot to keep defense in its toes and lock down defense. Fisher, ward and chalmers. Bare minimum out of your starting pg. Offense and Magic/Kidd like abilities is a bonus

gunsnewing wrote:

holfresh wrote:How come McHale doesn't think that or why are the Rockets better with Beverly?

Chemistry. With Harden, Howard and parsons Rockets don't need a pg who gets his own shots. Beverly is a good defender is all they need at the starter. Thats why Lin is perfect off their bench. Heck they might want to keep him in that role instead of trading him.

On the Knicks he is instantly becomes our starting pg. 25yrs old and will flourish providing Woodson and Melo accept his skill set as a playmaker and not a caddy to Melo. Dynamic duo

Totally agree with you there...I actually think Lin is more of a scorer than a guy to run your offense...I wouldn't want him to run the Knicks either...He is a score first guard..The Knicks need a guard who can hit the open jumper and create for others...Lowry better fits that role...But all that said, I think if Woodson asked Lin to play the role that Felton is playing, that he too would break down...

His problem is he is getting older and fatter and less stamina so a team like the Lakers who are looking to run is going elsewhere.

Felton's next gig will be as a bench player where he can sulk and eat more cupcakes until he is out of the league. It's sad but sometimes it's inevitable

but

Most importantly when they lose their physical abilities and are unable to adjust and adapt to the NBA with their loss of speed/quickness, athleticism, jumping ability, strength, and especially for players with lack of skills (shooting, midrange and deep ball), passing ability, boxing out, and lack of IQ

just some players in mind

Marbury, Fred Jones, Tracy McGrady, Gereld Wallace (was highly productive just 2 years ago), Ron Artest

and

now with Tyson Chandler, Melo, Felton all approaching that age, like many players, you will not see the drop off coming
and that is why I don't think resigning Melo at anything over 15m with our lack of talent around him is NOT a smart approach to building around him because the downside of his career
We wouldn't be able to surround him with the talent needed with all the UFA's in 2015

Now if Dolan wasn't to continue to make Melo in to our super Hero and pay him big $$$, I don't care as long as it is AFTER 2016 summer, as long as we can build a core of STARs around him for the next 5years so we can build a philosophy and system similar to how Indiana as many talents that FIT, DEFEND, REBOUND, and DEFEND at a high level together

If Melo opts out this summer instead of letting his contract run out in 2015 summer and resigning a player option at a lower rate to contend (under the table deal like we have done with the Smith brothers, we are better off trading him right now for whatever we can along with Chandler or anyone on our roster and preserve salary cap

While buying/trading for as many late 1st rounders to high to mid 2nd round picks in these next few years, along with signing young talent/undrafted players on a DEEP draft (with TEAM options 2year deals) while bringing in a coaching/development staff is the best choice

Valuing young players and finding/developing our own Lance Stephenson which will take time, patience, and a good coach/development staff to develop
Finding a GM, Coach, and staff that value's all these qualities and has the patience and abilities to mentor/teach the talent is the key along with the right combination of mentors/players on the court to mentor their development by showing them how to train on and off the court

We can only sign a limited number of quality proven TALENTs with the new CBA and structure of the salary cap, so that is why developing our own core of young players is a NEED because they do not make much $$$
However, if we resign Melo this summer, we wouldn't be able to sign the talents needed to ever build around him with the holes/talent needed to contend

The truth is with our development/coaching staff currently, Lance Stephson would have never developed in to the player he is now with Pacer's
just like how Trevor Ariza, Jordan Hill, and I believe (Iman Shumpert would have developed much better if he was on another team like the Pacer's)
We did a pretty good job with collecting and developing players from the Isiah to Donnie Walsh players but were unable to add players that fit together with the horrible deals we had in place

Nate Robinson, Trevor Ariza, Jamal Crawford, Channing Frye, David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Gallo, ZBO, and Jordan Hill have shown to be quality players but they were never with the right group of talent COLLECTIVELY as a whole

Especially with Crawford, Nate, Ariza, and ZBo, they have proven to be productive players but simply were asked to do too much on our roster, weren't put in the right talents together to succeed, were asked to do more than they were capable of with other holes on our roster, or/and was with a TEAM didn't fit well together

Even with Jordan Hill and Channing Frye had we took the time to build their games and confidence up, they could be solid players
but
We wanted them to be the next STAT and Duncan/Dirk, which just wasn't realistic
We wanted to strike a home run with the players instead of letting them develop to what they were capable of being, if we didn't see the results we wanted in limited time, we would trade them, repeating the same mistake and this NOT FULLY DEVELOPING our own young players, opting to overpay for "proven" talents instead

Ray Felton was halfway decent four years ago. Today he is inconsistent and inadequate. Tomorrow he will be a roster cut, coming out of training camp.

"If you are not getting better, you are falling behind." - unknown

Knicks are 7-3 when Felton manages to shoot better than 40%. Just 3-12 when he shoots 40% or worse.