TripleThreat wrote:nixluva wrote:His arguments in his article are poorly conceived.
The NY Knicks have a limited asset base during the contract timelines of Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson.
I don't see how that is poorly conceived. It's just a fact.
For 40 percent of Phil Jackson's contract timeline, the Knicks don't own a draft pick. There's a good chance, in a future year, there will be a lockout. When you only have 1 first round draft pick in a three year period, albeit hopefully a high one, it does put immense pressure on that pick panning out.
The Knicks IMHO have the least talented 15 man roster in the entire league. Or more to point, count how many players on other teams 2nd and 3rd units would be INSTANT starters on the Knicks current team. And ask yourself how many of the current Knicks would even crack the basic 15 man roster of said other teams.
The Knicks will be reliant on free agency to rebuild most of the rest of their roster. Relying heavily on free agency to do such a massive roster makeover, historically considering the NBA's recent past and the turnout of free agents, it's a pretty dicey proposition.
A young rookie, even a first overall ( and the Knicks might not win the draft lottery ) will need time to develop his game. With a lockout and labor war looming, that might be a full season of development in the tubes. That means when said high impact rookie, if he pans out, starts to really stretch his leges, the contract timelines of Melo and Zen Master will be near the end.
I see almost no discussion here, when lots of people talk about getting a top shelf rookie in this draft, that said draft pick won't jump out of the womb running. Picks take time to develop. Players need time to gel with other team mates. It takes time for guys to be put into established roles and understand their place on a team.
I don't think Kurylo's viewpoints are poorly conceived ( though he could have fleshed them out more), I think they cover some unpleasant issues about rebuilding a modern NBA team that some fans don't want to discuss or accept.
Phil will have picks during his tenure. Who knows if he won't be able to add one for 2016. In any event he's been finding other ways to add young prospects to the roster. In addition to the fact that he picked up 3 picks for last draft.
Knicks 1st Round Picks Knicks 2nd Round Picks
2015 - Own 2015 - To HOU2016 - More favorable of NYK and DEN 2016 - To HOU (via POR to SAC
to DEN then other to TOR then removal of protection from NYK)
(via DEN swap for NYK)
2017 - Own 2017 second round draft pick from Houston
2018 - Own 2018 - Less favorable of NYK and LAC
then other to PHL (via PHL swap of LAC for NYK)
2019 - Own 2019 second round draft pick from Cleveland
2019 second round draft pick from Houston
2020 - Own 2020 - Own
2021 - Own 2021 - Own
What is this notion you keep touting about "unpleasant issues rebuilding a modern NBA team"? The Hawks aren't impossibly constructed when you look at the players they have. It's not impossible to find the kind of players they've collected. What's so special about DeMarre Carroll that we can't bring in a player like him who bounced around the league before finding a home in ATL and really finding a good role this year in ATL? Is a player like Millsap going to be impossible to get? I mean the way Kurylo and you talk about this idea of building a team you make it sound like a search for the Holy Grail or Lost Ark.
Rk Player Age G GS MP REB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
1 Paul Millsap 29 65 65 33.0 8.0 3.0 1.7 0.9 2.4 2.8 16.9
2 Kyle Korver 33 64 64 32.7 4.1 2.5 0.7 0.5 1.5 1.9 12.4
3 DeMarre Carroll 28 58 57 31.4 5.3 1.6 1.3 0.2 0.9 2.3 12.1
4 Jeff Teague 26 62 61 31.0 2.4 7.1 1.7 0.5 2.8 2.0 16.6
5 Al Horford 28 64 64 30.8 7.4 3.3 0.9 1.3 1.3 1.6 15.2
6 Dennis Schroder 21 66 7 19.4 2.0 4.0 0.7 0.0 1.9 1.7 9.4
7 Thabo Sefolosha 30 45 7 19.0 4.3 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.7 1.3 5.1
8 Kent Bazemore 25 61 7 17.1 2.9 1.0 0.7 0.5 1.0 1.7 5.0
9 Pero Antic 32 52 3 16.3 3.0 0.8 0.2 0.3 0.8 2.1 5.3
10 Mike Scott 26 62 0 15.8 2.7 1.0 0.3 0.0 0.5 1.1 7.5
11 Shelvin Mack 24 42 0 14.2 1.3 2.5 0.5 0.0 0.9 0.6 5.3
12 Elton Brand 35 26 2 13.8 3.2 0.6 0.5 0.8 0.4 1.7 2.7
13 John Jenkins 23 17 1 11.0 1.7 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.4 0.6 4.9
14 Mike Muscala 23 26 2 9.1 2.4 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.3 0.9 3.6
15 Adreian Payne 23 3 0 6.3 1.3 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 1.3 1.7
The fact that the roster is bad and lacks starting talent doesn't mean that with some key acquisitions that this team can't be competitive. Besides you're doing the same thing that Kurylo did and that is talk about the team in a vacuum. There's no point of reference to what constitutes an acceptable improvement next year and the year after. Since when is this a one season proposition? I thought most teams were a process of development.
In the draft we don't know if the player we draft will be an impact rookie or not. No one can know that for sure. Yes history would suggest that a rookie will have his struggles adjusting to the league but then again he may be able to contribute enough to help, which isn't an outlandish expectation from a top draft pick.
Regarding Free Agency, it remains to be seen just who we pick up. In the NBA a team can be highly competitive if they have at least 6 starting caliber players. We don't need an entire team full of All Stars just to make a substantive improvement. Role players look a lot worse when they have to log heavy minutes and take on a heavier load than they should. When a role player can fill in around a group of Starting caliber players they tend to look a lot better. That's why they call them ROLE PLAYERS. So with the Knicks being aggressive buyers in Free Agency I have to say TOTAL BULLISH to this idea that the Knicks can't be a much improved team next year. Of course they won't be immediate title contenders if they have no depth but we have to take this a step at a time and also allow some of our youth to continue to develop.
Also you assume that Melo is going to drop off the face of the planet real quick and we don't know that. That's purely and pessimistic assumption. Even on one leg Melo was still a dangerous scorer so why should we necessarily be expecting failure from him?
3/20/2015 10:00 PM
