knicks1248 wrote:why would phil say that getting a defensive big man is a key in the triangle, but he sign JASON SMITH, and traded for a slow way-past-his-prime Dalenbert, and then waived him a few short months later.
Neither Smith nor Dalembert were permanent solutions to the teams needs. This season was always a transition year. That's why Smith doesn't have a long term contract. Clearly Phil wants a big who can defend and score effectively.
Here is Phil's full statement on a big he's like to draft:
- Phil said he "knows" whom he wants to draft. "We want a player that has multiple skills." He also mentioned "We have zero big men" under contract next year. Asked if he'd prefer a big man who can pass and score or one who can defend, he didn't even wait a millisecond: "Defender." This led to an elaboration on why he traded Tyson Chandler, namely Tyson's injuries last year and the fact that he's in his thirties. But he did cite Chandler as the type of big man he wants to add, citing that with "so many screen/rolls, so many threes" in the game now, you need a big man who can contend with all that.
knicks1248 wrote:Why would phil fire woodson, more so because the players weren't totally on board with his philosophy, then hire a guy who has no philosophy.
Woodson had to go. Phil wanted a coach who was more closely aligned with his way of thinking. That's perfectly logical. Fish clearly has a philosophy and it's based on what he was taught by Phil primarily and what he's also learned from other coaches.
knicks1248 wrote:Also, why would phil state that signing Amare for a 100 mill only to see him breakdown little after (in so many words) cripple the future of the franchise in the coming years , yet he resign a 30 yr old MELO for 24 mill more with a no trade clause, only to see him break down right after.Zen master has been full of contradictions when ever it's convenient.
Phil's issue with Amar'e wasn't about the injury as much as the plan. He said the Knicks went after pretty much one guy and didn't have a plan after that. So they settled just to try and save face.
- One of the most telling things Phil said was towards the end. He said in the nicest way possible out of respect to Amare that we messed up by signing him in 2010 (again, he literally corrected himself as he said this as he was trying to be nice). Said that in 2010, the organization targeted one guy specifically and when we missed, we tried to make up for it by signing Amare but that contributed to us being in the situation we are in now (in terms of not having much flexibility). He emphasized that the guys we target this upcoming free agency will be guys that we have identified as fits for this team and these will be guys that we hopefully already have a pretty good understand of whether or not they are interesting in coming to NY.
In the end none of the critiques of Phil will matter if he's successful this summer. Unlike this past summer he'll have a full opportunity to build a team the way he really wants as opposed to the interim roster he had this year. People can hold that against him all they want but really it's meaningless at this point. The moves he makes this summer should be much more reflective of Phil's philosophy on team building and will have much more impact on the team's future.
