The only problem with your argument is that if Isiah REALLY wanted Jalen, he could've gotten him a long time ago. He didn't have to "chase" Jalen. Toronto has been wanting to get rid of him for a while now.
And how is that a problem? Isiah wanted Crawford since he got here too, and it took him a while to get him here too. It takes two to tango if you want to trade, and Isiah kept thinking that acquiring contracts could get him just about anyone he wanted(he traded all those contracts for Craw, he traded contracts for Steph....). Toronto wanted Anfernee and he expected to make another blockbuster and get a "true"(in his mind, anyway) star. Isiah traded a smaller expiring (Davis) for him and then used the bigger contract to acquire "star" Steve Francis.
The other thing is that at that point in the season, LB and IT weren't friends anymore. LB had been basically embarrassing him in the papers all season. Not to mention all the other behind the seens stuff.
No, we are talking pre-deadline here. Early February. They were fine, if they weren't why would Isiah trade a kid he loved (Ariza) but Larry hated for a guy that Larry supposedly begged for??
The undertone of what you're saying is to suggest that Isiah has no clue what he's doing. I disagree with that popular premise. Obviously most of those looking at what he's done with the team just can't grasp that coming from where we started it would be impossible to make direct deals for the EXACT kind of player you may want. He initially had to make moves to rid the team of the awful players we had, then he made deals to get the kind of players he really wants, thru the draft, FA or trade. His draft picks say more about what he's trying to do than most of his trades. In the end I think he's getting this team to the point he set out to achieve and he's done it inside of 3 full seasons. That's not bad. All that remains is for him to have a successful season this year and to build from there and all this talk about how bad he's been will be gone.
No. My premise is that Isiah has a plan on what he's doing and he just changes it constantly depending on many many factors that he really can't foresee.
He comes here and decides to go young we do better than expected. Decides to get Steph, we do ok. Decides all we need is a coach, fires Chaney, gets Lenny. Lenny does ok (with more of a half court approach), Isiah wants to run. Lenny didn't play fast enough, Lenny made some mistakes(health problems?), goes with Herb who does ok in a half court system. Decides to trade complimentary players and go young and runafter we did decent in the halfcourt). Now we have alot of young players who have serious flaws in their game for one reason or another. He decides to hire the best teaching coach in the game, instill a winning attitude. Whiney young players cry that LB is too hard on them. Isiah and LB have issues with the flawed roster he put together(Isiah said it best when he got Steph-He is a flawed player right now but that is why we were able to get him-Steph, Rose, Francis, Curry, Q are all flawed players, problem is they all have the same flaw, all are known as prima donnas that only play one side of the ball).
Isiah chooses players over Larry, now he HAS to win now because he obviously has an expectation of Larry to win now. Now Isiah has to win now, and after telling Larry these are your guys, and fully standing behind the uptempo offense routine and telling Larry he has enough guys to play D, he goes out and gets Collins(who Larry loved), Mardy(who Larry loved), Jefferies(who Larry loved) and is going to cut Mo(who Larry hated), possibly Jalen(who Larry wanted cut). Did I mention that he lifted the Marbury trade straight off of Scott Layden's desk?
It just seems that unless Isiah is following someone else's advice his moves are questionable(Taylor, Rose, Curry trade, Q trade...).
9/24/2006 10:56 PM