Posted by nyballer:

i think most people understood what he was saying, he said isiah will never manage the cap. then fishmike added, like a winning team. the point is teams like san antonio and detroit don't win championships by spending exorbitant amounts of money and taking on players that other teams give up on to build around. theyre in a good financial situation so that if need be they can lose some players and make free agent signings. I personally think the knicks would be better off with a flexible cap situation so that they could do what phoenix did - lose their one big contract (marbury) and get a key free agent and start over. that kind of flexibility is how a team in new york with an unlimited budget can avoid being a lottery team 4 or 5 years in a row.

If San Antonio and Detroit could afford to spend money like us, they might.

But, what they can do, that we have yet to prove we can, is get good, talented players.

Posted by franco12:

If San Antonio and Detroit could afford to spend money like us, they might.

But, what they can do, that we have yet to prove we can, is get good, talented players.

Yes - and they don't build their team around players they can get for expiring contracts. Sheed was a nice piece, but the point is that the teams that acquire players while being financially responsible are the ones that are champions.

Posted by islesfan:

I know you don't care about the salary cap but at least understand the basic workings of the cap before saying things this nonsensical.

Think of it as a 5 year $30 mil contract with the money escalating in the later years when his production (if you can call it that) is going down (if that's possible) while his trade value becomes nil. It's a good thing Isiah bent over for yet another agent.

isles, i think the way our cap is handled is the only thing we may agree on...

we HAVE to get cap manageability. seriously. this constant contract swapping absolutely SUCKS. we have proven it TIME AND TIME AGAIN that it just doesn't work. it's been 5 years proving this already.

look at the lakers. they had two players making their ENTIRE cap, but even they see now that getting under is valuable - hey, that's how they got shaq in the first place. so they have this 2 year plan in place for when grant comes off the books.

that should've been our goal ALL ALONG. get under the cap when h20 comes off. but then we add malik - no matter how many times the 2 picks come up, he still takes about $7 mil out of the cap after h20 expires. jamal i understand b/c he's young a full of potential. but then he obliterates it again with mr. oreo cookie.

like franco said, we'll see what's up in how he deals with tim and penny.

this amnesty rule was made SPECIFICALLY FOR US!!! the league is trying to HELP US OUT b/c they need us to be successful. how sad is that when the league has to step in and create some rules b/c of how idiotic we run our cap....

btw, this is not an ANTI-isiah post. the youth on the team is impressive but the process is taking longer than it probably should have. and i'm not talking about the process to get back into the playoffs, but the process of building a championship level team.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 08/10/2005 20:11:06]

Don't know what all the fuse is all about. Haven't you guys heard it is cool to be a Knicks fan now! Check out the current NBA MVP.

Is that Jamal's little brother on the far left?

Posted by simrud:

Is that Jamal's little brother on the far left?

The little black guy in the front is tiny TT!

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by fishmike:

I 100% agree with the article. This guy has been a bad player every year he's been in the league. Every year he misses a significant number of games. Every year he's started the year in bad shape w/ weight issues. Every year he has been totally unable to stay on the floor because of foul trouble. These are facts. Now he's 30 and we are looking for something to happen thats never happened before.

Passing on the 300+ games he's played only looking at 5 playoff games and saying "he can play" based on that is new levels of dumb.

This is a bad gamble for us, ESPECIALLY when you look at the mid level players that signed for other teams.

I hope it works out but I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Just so I know how long do we get to give Isiah a pass on bad trades or signings becuase he got Larry Brown?

OK Fishmike, which of those guys could be our starting Center? Its simple. WE NEEDED A CENTER! He doesn't have to be Shaq, he just needs to at least be equal to Nazr in Scoring & Rebounding, but better in terms of Defense. I don't think it will be that hard for him to do. Remember Nazr hadn't done a thing until he came here either. A center will feed off of all the things our other players do just as Nazr did. Thing is Nazr really didn't play good D. We know James can do that.

I don't care so much about what a player does on another team. I only care about how they'll play on this team. QRich is another example of that. I don't expect him to play exactly as he did in PHX. We won't ask him to play that way.

The reason that we put so much faith in the playoff run that James had is because it was the 1st time that they actually made the game plan with him involved more than just setting picks for their jump shooters. You have to understand that Isaiah is not a fool and does his homework. He's seen the stats on what this guy does when given the opportunity. All he has to do is remain on the floor and he'll get numbers.

Im looking at this very closely. I think we overpaid, but that point is mute. I'm looking at production. If he produces, if he produces even 8 points 6 rebounds and 2 blocks in 25 min--- its worth the money. James career has been plagued by a bad attitude, bad work ethic, the inability to stay out of foul trouble, he gets hurt to much, too easily and he is an absolutely BRUTAL BRUTAL BRUTAL BRUTAL rebounder for a 7-1 275 pound man. I have to assume 8-6-2 although it represents a fairly hefty % increase in his career play. Usually when you hit 30, you start going backwards, but not always the case from the Cs, they seem to be able to keep a reasonable level because they dont need to use their legs as much as a G o F.
Isiah has been kind of lucky to miss a lot of scrutiny, he has played musical chairs with the roster. I EXPECT JAMES AND FRYE to be IMPACT type players. Im not talking 20-10 Im talking 8-6-2 for James and 13-14 +6-7 for Frye. I have a better feeling for Frye, I like Frye somewhat because of his offensive skill level for his size, he's likeable and it appears that he's physically trying hard to improve his body. In many ways Frye and James did the same thing--they had a big time run of games late last season. But I also believed we passed up an impact C in this league in 2-3 years to get Frye. Frye isnt going to grow and he isnt going to put on weight--he's going to be what he is, so I hope he is good right away. This is not a 19 yo building into his body, this is a mature 22 yO who has had the ability to fully fill out and train with big time trainers at AZ and now in Chicago. I expect him to be an impact player. No 6 points 4 rebound BS.

None of us, meaning the people who don't support the signing and I can see there are plenty. 8/6/2 is decent, but that's hardly even being much of a presence.

In the wise words of HARDCOREKNICKSFAN: "The season can't start soon enough." I can't believe people don't think James has a chance of helping our team next year, unbelievable.

James was cheaper than Dampier

The difference is $73 mil vs $29 mil and I'd actually prefer to have James than Dampier. In that context, it's hard to get too caught up in James' salary.

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 08/11/2005 07:49:32]

Posted by Knight:

In the wise words of HARDCOREKNICKSFAN: "The season can't start soon enough." I can't believe people don't think James has a chance of helping our team next year, unbelievable.

then you havent read a single post in this 10 page mess. Nobody said that James wouldnt or couldnt help this team. Everyone agrees that at least in the short term he fill an immediate need and should help us. What people (myself) are pissed about is that once again we have added a bad contract attached to a player with a bad history. That has proved time and time again to hurt us far more than helping us.

Again, we could have put ourselves in position to really build a title caliber team by stocking up on more of the young talent we have and giving ourselves the option of max cap space in 2 years. Instead Isiah would rather add 2-3 wins now regardless of how it might hurt you down the road. Thats bad management.