TripleThreat wrote:jrodmc wrote:Is this a click-bait thread?
Actually, no it's not.
If it was up to me, I'd do it. RWB has his limitations, none of them are a big secret. His max deal will scale to any drop in the cap. The Knicks would lose draft position as a first round playoff exit/treadmill team, but I see that as OK too. He's still a future HOFer and an All Star.
He always plays hard. If anyone tries to dog it for effort, he'll get in their face. He's a low BBIQ player but has a killer instinct. His jump shot might be toast forever at this point. He's a stat padder and he'll hurt you on defense. He's got a bulldog mentality with the press, but so what. The NY press goes hard on players, they can handle him going hard back at them.
The Knicks can still try to build much like the Heat did with Bam and Herro (middle round picks). A big cap hit with one player opens up roster spots to try flier type prospects. Also it negates the need to sign the Gibson/Portis players of the world to hit the cap floor. Having a lead player established would also allow the rest of the roster to fill out into specific roles.
This is still a very good player. He is on the decline and some recency bias will work against him, but MRob and a late first plus a Frank N dump isn't that horrible a price to pay for an All Star. Houston would almost certainly throw in House and he could be as effective as anyone the Knicks took in the late first round this year.
Westbrook/Randle/RJ Barrett, barring injuries, I can see that getting that last playoff slot in the East.
I think part of the problem is the idea that you should never trade young players on rookie deals and draft picks. Which is true 90 percent of the time. But like anything, it depends on the context of your situation. Billy Beane covered this heavily when he traded for Johnny Damon and then later for Jon Lester - Assets exist to be used given opportunity.
Given the relative options with the open cap space and looking at the market conditions with the pandemic, I think this is the best market based move given the time and place.
Yesterday, Alan Hahn hosted a Facebook, pop-up discussion about the possibility of trading for RW. He was both enthusiastic and juiced about the possibility of the Knicks "getting back into the NBA". He cited a somewhat rosy scenario that once again would make the Knicks a compelling team.
Berman's article similarly waxes poetic. Both seems to be more enthusiastic about Westbrook over CP3.
Hahn's Trade idea is Randle, Portis, a Clippers or Dallas pick, and Ntilikina which Hahn considers acceptable.
I have to confess that back in the day, Westbrook was one of those guys I had hoped the Knicks would draft and I have been highly critical of doing something like this - CP3, RW, et al.
But Trip, I'm also old enough to remember what happened when the Yankees nose-dived for years in the late sixties. The early Billy Martin teams were filthy populated with cast-offs and questionable acquisitions who did something unexpected - contend.
Speculatively, this falls into the DR. Strange category of imagining every future possibility of success... but here goes...
If and only if (IFF) this FO has the brass balls to try something like this *there's a chance* it could work.
So, in an ultra-high-risk category of speculation, what if Rose, Thibs, and staff sat down and simply said let's roll the dice.
Let's adjust Hahn's trade to include House (Houston's problem child). Knicks offer two packages -
1) Randle, Portis, DSJ, a future second rounder
or
2) Randle, Ellington, Payton, DSJ, a future second-rounder
Follow up with acquiring Beasley from Minny
Oh, and Harrell is being shopped by the Clippers.
Now, This isn't the cutesy "let's bring in CP3 and sing Kumbaya" restructuring at all.
This is really looking more like a mid-seventies, smash-mouth Yankees kinda-thing to do.
I'm not advocating it but its intriguing AND, if anyone could make it work, its Thibs.
#Ultra-high-risk
10/16/2020 6:02 PM