Posted by rain:
Nick Van Exel is not the answer. He's on the downside of his career and is a situational player at best. Vujanic is a better long term solution.
The downside of his career? He's playing some of his best basketball right now. Sure he's only averaging like 11 ppg, but that's because he's a role player for the Mavs. When given the time, he can still score 30. Being a nine year vet doesn't mean you've peaked out already. Look at guys like Webber, Mashburn, and Houston, all drafted the same year as NVE. They're still putting up great numbers, and you can bet Nick's digits would sky with all the extra time/looks he'd get with the Knicks.
I don't know if it is such a bad trade considering Milos. He will be a european rookie, and we need to give him a break. All the pressure to come in and make an immediate impact isn't necessary with a Nick Van Exel starting at point. Let Milos get his feet wet. Maybe learning from a guy like Van Exel would help. Milos isn't guaranteed to come in and dominate the game, guys. But NVE would bring immediate impact. And once Milos gets the hang of things, Van Excellent steps back down, playing quality bench minutes. I love it!
The biggest problem I have is losing a solid inside presence like KT, but ya gotta give some to get some. Maybe we sign a solid, young center, or better yet, draft one. Losing our front court for back court could backfire this season, and condemn us to the lottery when we had a chance. And then again it might not. Maybe NVE would push us to the playoffs and further then KT could ever have.
Either way we'd be set for the following seasons. When Dice comes back, we get back our bang under the bucket, and the double tandems of NVE/Dice and Houston/Spree, who, repsectively, have already shown brilliant chemistry together, would make us an early Eastern conference favorites next year.
