jimimou wrote:fishmike wrote:Cle roster is upgraded w/ Jamison (33 years old). After that you cant sit here and tell me Cle is better than the Knicks (minus Lebron). Of their rotation guys Hickson, West and Gibson are all scrap heap players. Varejo is terrible and would look like Jarred Jeffries if he wasnt sandwhiched between Shaq and Lebron. Mo Williams is a good player but pretty damn one dimensional. When that shot isnt falling he's not doing anything else to help you win. Shaq and Big Z (assuming he comes back) are 100 years old and done.I'm sorry, but if you look at next year Jamison, Mo Williams, and a bunch of scrap heap roleplayers isnt any better than Lee, Chander, Gallo + our scrap heap role players (Douglas, Giddens, Walker, Sergio). Its a push at best.
The Knicks are awful because we dont have enough size and we dont have a guy that gets us easy buckets (play maker). Your not going to win games in this league if your smaller everynight AND have to work harder to get off good shots.
fish - your optimism is commendable but you gotta take off the rose colored shades and see things like they are - the cleveland squad plays d, they take winning personally and even without lebron, would hand this current cast of sharacters their heads.
let's look at it like this:
position knicks cleveland advantage
pg srod mo cle
sg tmac parker cle
sf gallo james cle
pf will jamison cle
c lee shaq/z/hickson cle
where do you disagree fish?
scratch Shaq, because he's hurt and most likely not there next year.
So what I see is Lee is better then any frontcourt player they have. He's not a good defender but he's a better passer and rebounder than Jamison (and 8 years younger).
I think if Lee played next to a star 8 years from you would have a HOF debate. A frontcourt guy that gives you 20/12 every night, a guy that moves the ball like a guard, doesnt need shots and scores at 55% or higher. The amount of easy buckets he would get playing with a guy like Lebron is just silly. Lee would go from a fringe all star to a stud that fills the stat sheet out every night.
Parker is old and Chandler/TMac are better.
Mo Williams is good, and better than anyone playing PG we have.
Jamison is a really solid veteran player.
So I see Lee as better than anything Cavs have next year. Mo Williams and Jamison are better than Gallo/Chandler right now. Guys like Parker, Gibson, West, Verajo are all role players who look good because they play next to stars.
Cle has a good team, they arent a bunch of scrubs. But the motor is the best player in the NBA, and yes, I have zero doubt that the Knicks would win 55+ games with nothing but Lebron added next year.
When you lose every night you stop playing hard on D. You have to judge this Knick team by the first half when the games meant something.
"winning is more fun... then fun is fun" -Thibs
