Who are we building around?
Are we going young or veteran?
What's our style of play?
Who is our coach and what is his philosophy?
What is our style of management?
What type of players are we targeting?(not should we target but are we targetting)
Who are the mentors for the young players?
Who is our unquestioned leader?

Many others, but these are the first few that I am having trouble answering. I notice when I look at the teams in the playoffs these answers are a little easier to come by. While some think it's all about LB or Marbs I tend to think it should first be about answering these questions.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 06-08-2006 11:37 AM]

Posted by Bippity10:

Who are we building around?
Are we going young or veteran?
What's our style of play?
Who is our coach and what is his philosophy?
What is our style of management?
What type of players are we targeting?(not should we target but are we targetting)
Who are the mentors for the young players?
Who is our unquestioned leader?

That all depends. Who's available for expiring contracts and 1st rd picks when the winds are blowing south? That determines everything around here.

athletic youth, we're playing a suns type style but have the advantage of an athletic big man. The heat are in that mold (look at shaq these days, he's like old shaq). Outside bombers giving some free reign (ala jayWill) and preferably a lock down PG.

I see it like this:
Dynamic PG (crawford)
Consistent defensive SG (QRich/Nate)
Defensive SF with range can board (QWoods/Lee)
Lanky shotblocking PF with range and S&R skills (Frye)
Athletic Big that can post come playoff time (Curry)

That's what we are building towards thinking about the future.

Lee could eventually fill the SF roll should he improve his range and shed the excess weight.

Nate was a SG in college and basically his entire life, trying to force him to be a PG was absurd.

While marbs is the point guard in my mind, ability to score sets up others for easy opportunities, I think think he's more of a stop gap until our kids mature.

If marbury had a jumper even 90% of nash, then I'd say we were set, because the ability to hit a wide open jumper (and be allowed to shoot it regardless of shot clock) is what gives nash the ability to feed his teammates.

I think marbs penetration did the same thing, but with zone defenses, that's all but nullified, pre zones it was priceless.

Crawford has the range to play the type of point we need and want, still a bit streaky, but he has it. If marbs comes back this year with billups type range, he's the PG and Craw is the SG. But you were asking about the future...

The future is youth and athleticism. The game has changed...and the knicks are looking beyond this and next year, I honestly believe the knicks are preparing their REAL RUN in marbs last year of his contract or after he's gone and his expiring deal brings us the piece we need.

But a Mature lineup and bench of: (mature being mid next year)

Crawford PG
QRich SG
DLee SF
Frye PF
Curry C

and a bench of:
Nate, JJ, Jackie B and QWoods

Is a solid palyoff rotation IMHO.

How and when we get there, I'm not too concerned with, but these 9 IMHO are the team to be in 2 years.

also, I'm partial to DLee, but QWoods could be the starter because that kid is Fo'Real!

This was off the cuff bip, what you got?

Posted by Swishfm3:

Are we going young or veteran?
again...06 season I believe Management was going young. I think now (to satisfy Brown) we may see more veteran players here.

watson, dmiles, battier, kmart, evans, dalembert, ratliff, etc...

those were the guys rumored on lb's list and most of those guys are in their mid 20's. ratliff is the exception and he may be accompanied with dmiles or blake.

Oh, sorry, I didn't answer some of the question...
Who are we building around?
The 3 rooks and anybody under 26 that joined the team this year.

Are we going young or veteran?
young

What's our style of play?
Clog the passing lanes, run when you can, slow it down if nothing presents itself off the break. Feed the big fella and motion.

Who is our coach and what is his philosophy?
Larry or Isiah. That's all.

What is our style of management?
Is this a real question? What is the Chicago Bull style of management? I think you may be reaching on this question. What is the Hornets or Nuggets "Style of Management". come on Bip, this is a loaded question.

What type of players are we targeting?(not should we target but are we targetting)
Right now Role playing vets that want to relax until the playoffs. (JJ fits that mold)

Who are the mentors for the young players?
Currently, MalikRose, Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown and a player to be named later. The rest are me first ballers...patience.

Who is our unquestioned leader?
Currently, Marbury, soon Larry Brown, eventually QRich. (belie dat)

One year does not a dynasty make, it doesn't even a competitive team make, but the breaking down of the meFirst vets is only beginning. I'm confident that they don't want to be the league laughingstock anymore.

Summer league should show a lot as that's our playoff team next year.

1.) Who are we building around?
Curry? Curry is a guy that needs the ball to be effective. For him to be a part of the offense we need more of a grinding team. Surround him with a PG that does not need to take 20 shots a game. Instead we have four of them. Surround him with great jumpshooters. We have none of them. Surround him with a rugged defensive rebounder. We did not do this. I think Frye is the closest thing to a Curry compliment. Too bad he doesn't rebound well. Hope for improvement. I'd take one of either Francis or Craw or Marbs or Nate. But four of them does not do anything to mesh with Curry. All it does is take shots from him.

2.) Youth or vets. Brown's history does not show that he goes after veterans. This is a strict media creation. His team in Philly was young. Rip and Tayshaun were young players getting plenty of time under LB. This is a falsehood. But even if it was true, we aren't even sure he is our coach so how do we know what our coach wants. We effectively don't have a coach right now.

3.) What's our style of play? I defy anyone to spin this one. People keep trying to compare us to Phoenix. We are not Phoenix. When they run they play enough D to win the game. Our team can score with the best of them but has not gone out and gotten one defensive player. No Raja Bells. No Marion's. None of that. Add in plodders and lazy players and turnover prone guards and not sure that we are building a running team. Looking at the roster at a glance this seems to be the option by default not born of some plan.

4.) Who is the coach/philosophy? Once again those that hate Larry will use sarcasm to answer this portion. But the reality is noone knows if he is coach. This is our problem that some continue to miss.

5.)Style of management? I have no idea what our organizational philosophy is. I guess it's to go out and get whatever big name is available and pray he somehow meshes.

6.) What type of players are we targeting? We've traded away 1000 draft picks in the past couple years and added one high paid vet after another. I want to believe that we are targeting youth but truth tells me youth will be sold out in a minute to save a job or to "win now"

7.) mentors for the young players? Malik Rose and jalen Rose. Everyone knows they are gone within a year so what type of power are we giving our "mentors".

8.) Unquestioned leader? Marbs unquestioned? Are you kidding me. He is our leader by default. Anyone that even says this team has a leader is f'in kidding themselves.

Posted by Swishfm3:

Who is our unquestioned leader?
Regardless of what the media says....It's Marbury. Since the minute he has stepped on this court he has taken full responsibility of this team. and let's not forget the million dollars he donated to N.O. after Katrina

first of all, when has Marbury ever taken responsibility for anything since he got here? give me an example cuz i'm having a hard time coming up w/one... & what does the money he's donated to charity have anything to do w/his role of being a leader for this basketball franchise?

Open your eyes TMS and stop blaming Marbs for everything.

he's the leader.

he pumps his arms for the crowd to get into it, the crowd gets into it...even nate is mimmicking the motion. Lee jocks Marbs, and the rest of the team knows he's the best player on the team.

So LB and Marbury got into a public pissing match and the team suffered because of it...no way it happens again.

Marbs is the leader...is he your preferred leader, I'm gonna guess no way...but he is the leader of this gang of rebels and retreads, and I'm confident he can duplicate that 5 game winning streak with Lee and Frye and Curry and QRich/Crawford filling the lanes and the basket...I just believe it.

Because marbury is older these days and his knees have taken a pounding, I see no reason to not go with a Crawford, QRich, JRose, Frye, Curry line up with JackieB/Lee ready to fill in for Frye/Curry.

JJ, when needed, block shots and foul and clog the lane, get the board and outlet.

that's my team...what's yours?

Oh, I forgot, none of your favorite knicks currently play for the knicks.

Posted by TMS:

Posted by Swishfm3:

Who is our unquestioned leader?
Regardless of what the media says....It's Marbury. Since the minute he has stepped on this court he has taken full responsibility of this team. and let's not forget the million dollars he donated to N.O. after Katrina

first of all, when has Marbury ever taken responsibility for anything since he got here? give me an example cuz i'm having a hard time coming up w/one... & what does the money he's donated to charity have anything to do w/his role of being a leader for this basketball franchise?

Personally I'd like to see a direction.

If Curry is the guy we are building around. Then trade Francis, marbs, Nate and Crawford(some combination of this group) and bring in some rebounders, perimeter defenders and jumpshooters. WE can't be mesmerized by individual talent like so many here are, we need to focus upon building a team that meshes.

If Marbs is a part of the team, we need to marginilize his negative influence by brining in high character guys and give them the power to tell Marbs to shut up. We don't need to surround him with other question marks. The only way to make Marbs reach his true potential is to surround him with guys that are playing "the right way".

If we are targeting youth, no need for the Mo Ts and JJ's and Franchise's of the world. It's important to bring in vets to teach the youth, but you must have high character vets in order to teach the youth

If we are running bring in players that will share the ball. Get players that can play some defense so we can get out and have scoring runs instead of trading baskets.

If we are bringing in a coahc to turn this around let's give him full power to make decisions. Not give power to players so they can use the coach and the system as an excuse.

Let our management be professional. Fire or support the coach. At this point firing him is the only option, but do it with dignity so that NY remains a place of choice instead of a place to get paid. Set a standard of behavior instead of embarrassing yourself week after week. Accept constructive, honest and harsh criticism because this is the only way to see who you really are.

good point. Bip, I don't think we need to fire larry, I think larry can return and still effectively coach this bunch...if he is the summer league coach, then we are well on our way to solidifying the coach with the future of the knicks.

TMS...good to see that you love the youth we have on the team.

TMS/Bip, there is no question the vets we have on the team are losers (our record speaks volumes in this respect) but like I said, we get 2 or 3 solid players out of that group (jrose, marbs) and the rest can disappear IMHO.

Anybody but my Elite 8 and Marbs and JRose can never see the light of day on this team, but if they get morphed into anything it's a role player or a rookie...nothing more, nothing less.

So, Bip/Tms, I'd say we are in agreement...if Marbs, LB and JRose come back as our leaders, we are in good shape with the Elite 8.

Elite8 = Frye, Nate, Lee, JackieB, QRich, QWoods, Crawford, Curry

Everyone else is garbage.*


*If JJ can get in shape I'll take 5-8 minutes 2 blocks 5 fouls 3 boards. (for you fishy!)

*If JJ can get in shape I'll take 5-8 minutes 2 blocks 5 fouls 3 boards. (for you fishy!)

ball busting aside that would be nice. Dont we keep talking about rebounding and shot blocking? There will be games he's useless but there should be other games he can really have an impact. The problem is he's never in shape. So he doesnt get in games. Then he gets hurt, so he's on IR. He usually plays about 50 games a year, unless its a contract year.