Newsday

i As last season deteriorated, concern grew within the organization that Brown was more focused on making personnel changes than he was on coaching the talent in place.

i Brown wants to bring in established veterans, but Thomas wants to develop a youthful base around Eddy Curry, Channing Frye, Nate Robinson and David Lee.

- Greg Logan

Forget the frontroom politics for a moment. The draft is around the corner and there are decisions to be made...

As fans, do we each prefer established veterans or yoots?

Youth

Caseload - we HAVE two first rounders in a very evenly rated draft.

And a skilled drafter.

what's the problem?

Posted by misterearl:

Caseload - we HAVE two first rounders in a very evenly rated draft.

And a skilled drafter.

what's the problem?

and we're going to suck next year

Caseloads - don't be such a crybaby, if the 8 (yes eight) fragile young Knicks players (26 and under) could tough it out and survive Larry's snipings/45 lineups and 23 wins - you can survive 2006-7

"you play to win the game"

Unless your negative crystal ball is guaranteed, Why not see how it all plays out?

then again, you can always root for another team




[Edited by - MisterEarl on 05-16-2006 09:39 AM]

misterearl, i don't know why you don't think a number 3 pick is more valuable than than a pick in the 20's, regardless of how "evenly rated" you think the draft is.

and to have swapped #1's with a team in the playoffs bodes poorly for a team who's committing to youth and will be reasonably expected to fare worse than them next year.

Posted by misterearl:

Marv - pick, schmick... NBA history is littered with hundreds of high draft picks that were unemployed in months.

A high draft pick is no guarantee of certified performance

Would we love a top three? Certainly.

Three years ago EVERYONE, and I do mean everyone, was in love with Eddy Curry.

See how it works?

I just have a different opinon.

I don't like Eddie Curry's performance. I'd much prefer our own pick this year and next. Still rebuilding either way, I just don't rate Curry that highly and would much rather take my chances with the 2 picks.

This team has a VERY nice young core and I think Isaiah is right to want to stay with the young players, who CLEARLY were our best players last year. They always seemed to help us get back into games that the vets were blowing.

Look at it this was, since last years trade deadline, we went with youth and added Butler, then drafted Frye, Lee and Nate and then added Curry and Quentin. Durin the season instead of adding Lynch as Larry wanted we got Woods, who seems to be a fairly talented player. I much prefer this route to going with old guys again. We really need some specific role players now and I believe Isaiah will be able to find some in this draft.

Youth

you need a balance. a roster of 10 guys that are 1-3 years in the league will not do anything for you.

but it looks like the guys lb wanted gone weren't young at all - they were isiah's "prized" acquisitions of steph, francis, rose, james, and mo.

so i don't see what the problem is.

from day one, lb has said that he doesn't think you can throw rookies out there from day one. they need to be groomed. i agree with that. again, the problem was that our vets blew chunks and actually were more harmful than helpful. so he's probably asking for some better vets while he developed the young kids.

i think the whole lb doesn't play rooks thing is bullsh t. under lb's watch, these rooks played more than any rook for the past 10+ years, including last year when the season was done and sweetney was still only getting 20 mins.

in fact, isiah, at a season subscriber q&a when asked by my friend why sweetney and ariza didn't play more responded "i don't think young players should have anything handed to them. they need to be developed and they need to take the spot".

this was before lb got here.

earl - i would hire you as PR b/c you make this sound like it's a positive.

how's this - the 2nd round pick we traded away for mo taylor is only 3 picks away from the #1 we got from the spurs this year. but the hoopla is that isiah acquired 2 #1's for nazr, but nobody talks about the pick he traded away 3 spots down.

What is the question? Who would we prefer: guys like Frye and Lee vs guys like Mo and Marbury?

Does that even need to be asked? And is that really a matter of age?

Aside from 3 or 4 guys who still think of guys like Steph, Francis, Mo and james as young and impressionable, I doubt you'll find a lot of votes for the vets.