RonRon wrote:

Sangfroid wrote:I just love all of these Melo traders. Just taking up space. Last I looked, he has a no trade clause in his deal. What would it take to make him renounce it?

1- Because his original plan with Phil Jackson was to build a Championship Contender with FA this summer, it doesn't look like we are attracting those #1 options
2- He gets to choose where he is going, realizing that we cannot build that team and will have to go young and develop our pick this year which will take time....
IF he wants to continue to build his "brand", he is going to have to do that with a contender are a team that has the ability to get better in the near future
There was interest in LAKERS and maybe he gets to "learn" off Kobe for a year before the keys are handed to him, eventually they will be taken away from him in NYK if we keep get the TOP 3 pick...

3- NY state taxes are HIGH, so if he goes to another team like Houston, he would make much more money with NO STATE TAX and A TRADE KICKER, while contending and having many versatile defenders with him, and Harden drawing WIDE OPEN SHOTS for him

Think it is a WIN WIN WIN for NYK's/Phil Jackson, Houston/Morey, CA, his bank book and % of contending

Harden
CA
D12

Beverely
Ariza

Josh Smith
Brewer/KJ McDaniels

6m MLE

Does he really want to continue another couple seasons of LOSING in NYK? With all this media and all these anylysts taking a crap on him and NYK's every day???

I would think that conversation takes place at some point.

fishmike wrote:

RonRon wrote:

Sangfroid wrote:I just love all of these Melo traders. Just taking up space. Last I looked, he has a no trade clause in his deal. What would it take to make him renounce it?

1- Because his original plan with Phil Jackson was to build a Championship Contender with FA this summer, it doesn't look like we are attracting those #1 options
2- He gets to choose where he is going, realizing that we cannot build that team and will have to go young and develop our pick this year which will take time....
IF he wants to continue to build his "brand", he is going to have to do that with a contender are a team that has the ability to get better in the near future
There was interest in LAKERS and maybe he gets to "learn" off Kobe for a year before the keys are handed to him, eventually they will be taken away from him in NYK if we keep get the TOP 3 pick...

3- NY state taxes are HIGH, so if he goes to another team like Houston, he would make much more money with NO STATE TAX and A TRADE KICKER, while contending and having many versatile defenders with him, and Harden drawing WIDE OPEN SHOTS for him

Think it is a WIN WIN WIN for NYK's/Phil Jackson, Houston/Morey, CA, his bank book and % of contending

Harden
CA
D12

Beverely
Ariza

Josh Smith
Brewer/KJ McDaniels

6m MLE

Does he really want to continue another couple seasons of LOSING in NYK? With all this media and all these anylysts taking a crap on him and NYK's every day???

I think there is a chance... Knicks draft a player, lets figure its Towns as we look to be a lock for a top 3 and the Knicks have scouted him more than anyone. Clearly they are gathering the data. After that the Knicks will offer max contracts to a few guys... Aldridge, Gasol, Dragic, maybe Love and assume they whiff. Then its Monroe, Milsap... the 2nd tier guys along with retaining our own in Shved, Cole, Lou, etc... and at some point we will start seeing a picture that paints something pretty far from a title team. At that point Phil approaches Melo and says something like "We want you here, nothing has changed, but its going to be awhile before this group can compete at a high level. Do you want us to explore trade opportunities, and if so give me your list of teams."

I would think that conversation takes place at some point.

I hope that conversation has already taken place, at least between Melo and his agent. Further, I hope the trade happens before the draft and we land the Lakers pick or Chicago's young studs (Butler/Miro). Melo has relatively little leverage, since the Knicks don't HAVE to trade him to anyone. We have our effing pick this summer. If Melo wants to leave badly, he will need to be a little bit flexible.

knicks1248 wrote:

Swishfm3 wrote:I think "true fans" are more fascinated with the whole drafting players process than actual nba winning basketball players..

It's the dumbest sht in the world, the 90's knicks never had a picked higher then 17(john wallace) and yet were were always a contender.

Some of you guys that are so obsess with draft picks don't really pay attention to history. The Dallas mavs won the finals 3 yrs ago, and just about the entire roster has been flipped and they remained in contention by going after vets, while every lottery team since then has been back in the lottery. That's why ESPN listed us as the worst front office in the NBA, and trustme, it wasn't a hate thing..

Yeah, let's ignore the fact that both teams were built around star players that they drafted themselves.

knicks1248 wrote:

Swishfm3 wrote:I think "true fans" are more fascinated with the whole drafting players process than actual nba winning basketball players..

It's the dumbest sht in the world, the 90's knicks never had a picked higher then 17(john wallace) and yet were were always a contender.

Some of you guys that are so obsess with draft picks don't really pay attention to history. The Dallas mavs won the finals 3 yrs ago, and just about the entire roster has been flipped and they remained in contention by going after vets, while every lottery team since then has been back in the lottery. That's why ESPN listed us as the worst front office in the NBA, and trustme, it wasn't a hate thing..

do the Spurs win without Duncan/Lenard/Manu/Parker/Splitter? They drafted those guys
do the Lakers win without Kobe? They traded into the lottery that year pick him
do the Heat win without Wade? They drafted him in the top 5
do the Celtics win without Pierce? He was a lottery pick
do the Bulls win without Jordan? Pippin? They drafted those guys
do the Pistons win without Isiah/Dumars/Rodman/Lambier? They drafted those guys
do the Rockets win without Hakeem? He was another lottery pick who won a title with the team that drafted him
do the Lakers of the 80s win without Magic?
do the Celtics win without Bird? McHale?

So there's 30 years of NBA champs and what do they all have in common? All rode players they drafted to titles, and none of them win without those players. Shaq is the only one-off, and he doesnt win without Kobe/Wade anyway so the trend holds. The only team in the past 30+ years or so that won a title without a franchise guy they drafted were the Pistons. Okur and Prince were nice but not stars and Billups, Sheed, Big Ben... most of those guys were imports.

So the moral of the story is if you have hopes of winning a title then you should brush up on your NBA history and start obsessing about the draft.