Posted by firefly:

Im sorry finestrg, im sure you make great points here, but I just cant read it.

Paragraphs dude, paragraphs.

Posted by Finestrg:

If the Knicks do nothing else the rest of the way, these are the main things I want to see happen:
(1) Get Marbury healthy - I like that they're thinking about resting him 'til after the all-star break. Good move. He's obviously hurt and needs an extended break. Hopefully the rest will do him good and he comes back after the break ready to go at full speed for the second half.

(2) Ride the rest of the season out trying to win every single game left on the schedule, which is important since Chicago, one of our chief advesaries in our conference, has our #1 pick for the next draft. Because of this, I want to see an urgency to win games, whether we make the playoffs or not. We just can't cave in. The more we win the worse that Chicago pick becomes. Jalen Rose will help us with that - he might be good for 5-10 games by himself, if not more. Screw Chicago if you ask me...

(3) Do not deal with Portland unless they're willing to give up their lottery pick. If not, hey go pick someone else to dump you're garbage on... Every player we're considering from the Blazers is a last-piece-to-the-puzzle type guy and the Knicks are just taking their puzzle out of the box for Christ's sake. I mean do you guys really want any of the parts Portland's trying to get rid of? Ruben Patterson has baggage being a registered sex offender, and though he hustles a little, is undersized and not a big enough scorer. Darius Miles scores a little though he's woefully erratic and, oh yeah, he's hurt. And Ratliff has some miles on him now and has shown a sharp decline production-wise, especially with his shotblocking - he's no longer the best shotblocker in the league. Not to mention Ratliff and Miles have bad contracts. Not to mention there's no immediate need for Miles or Patterson now with Jalen on board. So let's just forget about these rediculous scenarios with Portland. Not one of these three players helps us short or long-term.

(4) Play all the young guys sink or swin and that means David Lee. With Rose now on board hopefully Brown will come to his senses and return Lee to his natural position at PF and make him the primary big man off the bench. With Davis gone, Curry should start up front with Frye and Rose. Curry gets into foul trouble, Frye moves to the 5, Lee is in at the 4. I might even slide Lee over to the 3 to spell Rose sometimes depending on matchups but I want him playing primarily at the 4. I want Lee playing period, and I want him playing closer to the basket so he can utilize his natural quickness against slower players. His homework for the offseason should be to put on a few more pounds of muscle and increase his overall strength, develop a few solid post moves and continue to work on his mid-range jumper and his FTs. If he does that and comes back next year having worked hard in those areas he could be special. Bottom line is I want Curry, Frye and Lee as my main power players up front. No Taylor, no Malik Rose. If mounting foul trouble dictates, I'd rather see Jackie Butler get time up front over Taylor and Rose. I wouldn't mind see Jackie hitting the D-league rather than just sitting around if Larry is not going to get the kid any playing time.

(5) I wouldn't be too upset seeing Trevor Ariza included in a smaller deal if the right deal came along. This kid really doesn't seem to have a future here. I personally don't like him as much as some of you guys (his offense and handle never really developed and he's an overrated defender - he's more of a gambler than the lockdown defender a lot of people think he is. I think that with the dunk he threw down on Big Ben Wallace still fresh in a lot of GM's minds (he does have some talent) the time might be right to include him in whatever the next deal Isiah has up his sleeve.

(5) If Zeke doesn't wind up dealing our 2 1st rounders for an even higher pick, I'd like to see those pick turn into Hilton Armstrong with the higher pick and maybe Brandon Roy or Hassan Adams with the lower pick. I would like to see exactly how this current team would play with a legit shotblocker/interior defender and a young legit 2-guard that plays both sides of the ball. There are other players in the draft that might help the Knicks, sure, but these are the guys I would target that I think would help most.

(6) Again, if the right trades don't come along (and those trades would have to involve solid draft compensation if it were up to me - I want solid draft picks now for the Knicks more than anything), first I let Penny's contract come off the books then I let all the following contracts expire after next season: Jalen Rose's, Taylor's, Houston's, Shandon Anderson's and Jerome Williams'. Hopefully then we'll be on the right track as far as finally straightening out this horrendous cap situation. Until then, though, I want to keep this group together at least one more season with a healthy Marbury, our young guys getting as much experience as possible and the two out of three guys I mentioned above from the upcoming 2006 draft added to the mix. Then let that team play together and see what you've got. If it doesn't work out then, then hey, we tried, and then I would consider blowing the whole thing up and the first thing I would do at that point would be to trade Marbury. But ya gotta give it until next season's all-star game. Me personally, I know I'd want to try to surround Steph with as much talent as possible before I ever pulled the plug on something I was trying to build. Rome wasn't built in a day - let's not forget that. This is hardly a finished product - we gotta give Zeke a little more time to finish building the team around Marbury while Steph is still at the top of his game.

Anyway, those are the steps I'd take for the team's immediate future.


[Edited by - finestrg on 02-06-2006 4:01 PM]