martin wrote:s3231 wrote:I'm surprised a lot of people here think this means that Melo really doesn't want to play for the Knicks. To me, it speaks to the Knicks' inability over the past few years to accumulate the assets necessary to pull a deal like this off. Or if you don't want to look at it that way, you can also say that maybe Donnie just didn't want Melo that badly as he knew the price wouldbe extremely high (would confirm the notion that the Knicks showed a lack of aggressiveness in this pursuit). I don't see how you can put this on Melo though considering be has left a lot of money on the table up till now and every report has suggested that he was waiting on the Knicks.Truth is, this has gotten so out of hand that Melo basically cannot go back to Denver (making a trade more likely and diminishing our chances at him). I think he could have handled this better if his ultimate goal was to be a Knick (e.g He could have turned down Denver's extension outright and said that he wanted to wait until free agency to ensure the team was going in the right direction, which he had a right to do). By staying quiet though, he has turned into the bad guy and given Denver enough leverage to force him to determine his fate now (and not in FA). He could have shrewdly put this on Denver by making them look bad for trying to trade him but he missed that opportunity. LeBron outplayed Melo on this one.
2 years ago Donnie inherited a crap of a roster, the #6 pick in 2008, #8 pick in 2009, no pick in 2010. How do you accumulate assets?
I'm not blaming Donnie for everything as I think he's had a strong off-season and didn't have much to work with in the beginning. I'm just saying, we weren't able to add enough to get something of this magnitude done without depleting our roster. I don't think I'm saying anything controversial with that statement.
I do think a higher pick in 09 would have helped tremendously (after trading Randolph+Crawford, we clearly did not have the talent to compete with other playoff teams) and maybe one tank season would have helped us out. I don't like tanking as much as the next guy but being mediocre usually ends up being worse if we look at NBA history. Hell, the Nets were a joke last season but that will quickly be forgotten if they get Melo out of it.
Again, not being a pessimist here as I like the current squad a lot but just saying, I don't think it makes sense to blame Melo for the Knicks not getting him.
I think Donnie has done a solid job with what he has inherited but as I've said before, I do wish we had done some things differently. It kind of puts you down when you realize that we've been losing for the last decade and we are still playing catch up with assets (again, I don't put that all on Donnie as Isiah screwed us over more in that department). That's why I said the "Knicks" inability to get assets and didn't mention Donnie by name.
"This is a very cautious situation that we're in. You have to be conservative in terms of using your assets and using them wisely. We're building for the future." - Zeke (I guess not protecting a first round pick is being conservative)
