Finestrg wrote:

You know what, I'll actually answer these..We've got time, Earl's still at the deli.

-- I think in THEIR MINDS, they have addressed some of their needs with these two signings..I just don't agree with them..Let's see how it translates..Peronally, I think we're still a poor rebounding team..HUGE gapping hole that wasn't plugged here at all..And like I said, just my humble opinion, but Jeffries is a waste..

-- Never said Murphy addresses defense, I mentioned his rebounding and his offense, two skills simply doesn't have..Jeffries can't even hold a candle to Troy Murphy brah, it's just that simple..Tell you what though, just talking defense, I'll take Murphy's 6'11" 250 lb body for POST DEFENSE over Jeffries any day of the week. How 'bout that..

-- Who else is out there? Come on dude, you've been participating in this running discussion over the past couple of days..You know the guys we've been talking about..Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just say somewhere on here that you'd rather have Marcus Cousin or Murphy over Jeffries?? Almost positive you did, and I agreed with you..Now if you're saying, 'well, these are the guys we got, so let's see what happens,' OK, I agree with that too. What other choice do we have now?? This is my team and I'm gonna root for any player wearing the orange & blue. I just think we could've done better..Sounds like you do too, or at least you felt like that a little while ago..

Honestly, I don't have much faith in an NBDL guy to come in and break into the rotation. Derrick Brown might, because he's played in the NBA this season and played well in small stretches. That immediately makes him more ready and thus more valuable to the team.

When we made our lists, I didn't know Derrick Brown was available, or I would have rated him higher.

I've been a proponent of bringing Jeffries back for several weeks now. I think he's a great fit with this team, in all seriousness. His skill set works in D'Antoni's defensive scheme. That's all there is to it. Is it a prototypical defensive scheme? No. Did his scheme just work pretty well against Miami? Yes.

The move I'm most upset about this year, actually two of them, is not giving AR or Corey Brewer a real shot at playing time. I think those two guys have really special athleticism and could have been molded into something... but, hey, the bottom line is I'm just rooting based on highlights and draft websites and limited times I've seen these guys play. Walsh, D'Antoni and their staff have extensive footage to review and see these guys in practice every day. So, at the end of the day, I'm going to root for guys whose games I like, but I'm not going to claim to have much expertise or really anywhere near all the information as to why certain decisions get made on these end of the bench guys.

Would I have picked Shawne Williams over Patrick Ewing Jr to start the year? Heck no. Am I glad as hell the coaching staff knew better than I did earlier in the season? Heck yeah.

I'll trust in Donnie and trust his staff. They've made some damn good decisions. No one here can claim to have known a thing about Landry Fields at the draft and he's worked out well. We are, at best, armchair GMs here. It's fun to play the GM fantasy game, but I think it's a little absurd to get upset when professionals who have scouting footage, personal experience with the players and recommendations from colleagues around the league make a move. They have worlds more information than we do about these guys.

Knickoftime wrote:

martin wrote:Second, "I doubt we come in over the cap in the off-season". Let's use real numbers. Just in case you were not aware: http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_york.htm. Most likely, the Knicks WILL be over cap.

And even if there were slightly under the cap, it does not disqualify you from using the MLE. A team $2m under the cap can use the entire MLE.

Being under the cap doesn't disqualify you. EVERY team gets it every year. This rule is almost universally misunderstood.

You just can't COMBINE the MLE with cap space, so teams well under the cap usually renounce it to open up PURE cap space to offer larger contracts.

For example. If an NBA team goes into the offseason with $45m in guaranteed salaries and free agent amounts (otherwise known as cap holds) and the cap is $60m, the NBA by CBA rule divides that up, placing the appropriate amount into the known exemptions. Around $5.7m of the $15m will be designated as the MLE, and around $2m the LLE, leaving a team with the full MLE, full LLE and THEN $7.3m of free cap space.

So if a team wants to sign a free agent to a MAX contract, they have to renounce the MLE and LLE, to move those amounts into the free cap space category.

But if team goes into the offseason with a payroll of $57m, the team will still have the full MLE and LLE to spend to take them over the cap. The $3m they were under the cap will simply be counted as part of the MLE that year.

Juice wrote:

Finestrg wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

Finestrg wrote:

FistOfOakley wrote:derrick brown was such a great move by donnie....

this guy hopefully plays more than jeffries....

I honestly don't get it --- not saying Derrick Brown is worthless, he's a good athlete and he's still got some promise, but what he is is a smallish PF (basically another wing) that doesn't address the rebounding issue. And to me they just competely overrate Jared Jeffries and what he brings to the table---they think of Jeffries as some monster defensive guru and he's not. Can he attempt to guard PGs and centers? Yeah, but he guards neither well enough to justify playing him big mins....I just don't get it...We either needed a legit C or a PF that plays big & rebounds where we're OK moving STAT over to the 5 (which I never had a problem with as long as we got a big enough dirty-work type PF). Jeffries stinks, end of story -- at least Brown's got some ability but these are two suspect moves here. I think we could've done much better.

Brown is a guy who will fit the style of play already installed here. It's a good pick up.

He's an NBA guy - expecting the Knicks to bring up an NBDL guy at this point of the season and try to work him in is just unrealistic.

Not if he's a much better fit it isn't..No difference between a capable DL player ready to take the jump and a guy like Derrick Brown..Now if they would've gotten Troy Murphy, that's a different story..NBA established double-double guy--excellent rebounder and shooter that's 6'11". Brown hasn't done anything noteworthy in his career yet, he's smallish and he doesn't address the rebounding problem..Again, I'm not saying he's useless, there's upside here for sure, but what hole does this guy plug?? What are they looking for when they brought him in?? Derrick Brown is a hybrid F that's not even as good or versatile as Wilson Chandler..I mean heck, if they wanted a skilled 3/4 off the bench to take over Chandler's 6th man role, I would've preferred DeShawn Sims..I think Sims is more skilled that Brown. Not that familiar with Vernon Goodridge but I gotta wonder if he would've been a better fit that Derrick Brown as well..Goodridge, when you watch the clip, plays bigs--rebounds it, blocks some shots, etc..That's not really Brown's game..Come to think of it, Brown's game is pretty hard to define right now..What is he exactly??

I've talked about quite a few guys but the guy everyone would've been extremely satisfied with would've been Earl Barron..7', rebounder and he can bury mid-range jumpers..PERFECT FIT..PERFECTO!!! Why is this guy not in a Knick uniform right now??? I can't wait to hear the explanation on these two signings..Don't tell me about Jeffries' defense when we had a younger, much better defender, much better overall player in Corey Brewer that we just cut loose (heck I prefer Balkman over Jeffries when you get right down to it) and don't tell me that Brown fixes the rebounding problem or anything else..Does Brown even have a potent enough offensive game to act as primary scorer off the bench?? I don't see it..

Key is you have to think about things going into the off-season. Much easier to retain a guy like Brown than someone like Murphy who will require long-term salary commitment of some sort at a larger rate than someone like Brown. Plus we don't need to get any older than we currently are. We need to get younger looking for players with youth upside. Reports are Murphy isn't really looking our way it's Miami and Boston...he's also very much overrated. We'll have 5 guys under contract in July who are 27yrs or older and only 3guys 25yrs old and under with exception to Walker being picked up. We'll probably be looking for players who'll sign 1-2yr deals at best until 2012 on the cheap therefore picking up guys like Brown fit the plan going forward.

I know you are happy man.....

Finestrg wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

Finestrg wrote:

simrud wrote:I think all these waiver moves are marginal one way or another. We are not going to get a rebounding, shotblocking big body player from the garbage bin of the NBA. Going to have to use the MLE and LLE to complete the front court in the summer. At least we have a decent backup PG in Carter now. I think getting a couple of decent bigs to split the C minutes is doable in the summer with MLE and LLE. We shoud be ok at backup PF between Turiaf, the 2 Williamses etc.

I don't agree dude..First off, there were/are rebounding/shot-blocking big men available--legit Cs and PFs--we just didn't target any of them apparently..And I don't think we have to throw MLE or LLE-type money at a player for the fix..There are so many players out there that we could've gotten to plug holes..Isn't that the name of the game now, plugging holes? Regarding the MLE btw -- I doubt we come in over the cap in the off-season (the only way a team can use that exception) OR they might wind up doing away with it altogether in the new CBA...And then there's the overpaying issue--throwing too much money (full MLE) at a bad player like Jeffries got us in trouble once before; I'm not looking to repeat that mistake..The cap needs to be managed wisely now..No more mistakes -- we make some bad signings now, forget it--it'll take us right outta the running a couple of years from now for another big piece possibly..To me you use a MLE deal when you're ALREADY championship caliber, not before..It's a death sentence to use it before and cap yourself when you're not on that level yet..And I don't agree we're OK with Turiaf and the two Williams at back up 4/5...Turiaf IS NOT a good enough rebounder or scorer, Shawne Williams is competely out of position and overmatch trying to cover other teams' big guys inside and the coach might never even give Shelden Williams a chance anyway (regardless, dude's had an underwhelming career to say the least).

I do agree that we're OK with Carter as another PG/ball-handler off the bench though..All of our energy should've gone into identifying and getting the best frontcourt players possible -- Bigs that play big and fill holes..We didn't do that..Why I don't know.

what makes you think they aren't addressing that in their minds?

jeffries and dbrown are big and athletic and fit the style this team likes to play.

the idea that troy murphy is a better defender than either jeffries or dbrown is LUDICROUS.

who else was out there? if they'd wanted earl barron on this team, they could have signed him at any point over the past three months. it's pretty clear they weren't too enamored of his skill set after seeing him up close last spring.

You know what, I'll actually answer these..We've got time, Earl's still at the deli.

-- I think in THEIR MINDS, they have addressed some of their needs with these two signings..I just don't agree with them..Let's see how it translates..Peronally, I think we're still a poor rebounding team..HUGE gapping hole that wasn't plugged here at all..And like I said, just my humble opinion, but Jeffries is a waste..

-- Never said Murphy addresses defense, I mentioned his rebounding and his offense, two skills simply doesn't have..Jeffries can't even hold a candle to Troy Murphy brah, it's just that simple..Tell you what though, just talking defense, I'll take Murphy's 6'11" 250 lb body for POST DEFENSE over Jeffries any day of the week. How 'bout that..
-- Who else is out there? Come on dude, you've been participating in this running discussion over the past couple of days..You know the guys we've been talking about..Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just say somewhere on here that you'd rather have Marcus Cousin or Murphy over Jeffries?? Almost positive you did, and I agreed with you..Now if you're saying, 'well, these are the guys we got, so let's see what happens,' OK, I agree with that too. What other choice do we have now?? This is my team and I'm gonna root for any player wearing the orange & blue. I just think we could've done better..Sounds like you do too, or at least you felt like that a little while ago..

GustavBahler wrote:Walker and Shawne Williams don't take it to the rim very often and they rely on the 3. I'm guessing Walsh and D'Antoni figured they needed a forward off the bench who could take it to the rim and draw fouls with the loss of Chandler/Gallo.

not to mention Williams has been in foul trouble since the trade limiting his minutes

crzymdups wrote:

bergenadamek Steve Adamek
D'Antoni on Derrick Brown: “When Raymond [Felton] came in from CHAR, he said ... ‘If you can ever get that guy, that’s who you should get.’”

He's just a wonderful kid..... D'AnToni will see this right away. Stephen Jackson also said he was the player most impressive in their camp during the summer. Man this signing has a lot of potential. So happy he's with us. Hopefully he gives us something and becomes a long term solution as a Knick