This has got to be the plan:

(1) Draft night --- We get a bigtime scorer/outside shooter with some size (we need someone who can slide right in Q's spot next season if he continues to have back issues - either a big 2 or a legit 3 like Almond, Rudy Fernandez or Marco Belinelli) with our own 1st rounder AND find a way to acquire an additional low 1st rounder and then turn that into shotblocker Sean Williams.

(2) Teach Eddy Curry how to pass out of the double-team. If we're lucky enough to have perimeter threats like Crawford, Marbury and an Almond/Fernandez or Belinelli on the court with Curry he's got to learn how to hit them with the pass. He's got to learn how to hit a guy driving to the cup for two or hit the guy on the perimeter for the jumper. No more confusion or slow, looping passes out of the double-team. Throw the pass like you mean it goddamnit! He's light years behind where he needs to be in this area. I don't care if he doesn't get a rebound or a block all season next season just learn how to pass out of the double. Absolutely essential...

(3) Sit Lee down and tell him that he's the PF of the future, not Frye, and tell him to put on 10-15 pounds of muscle and work on the mid-range jumper. He's got the frame to put on more muscle and in the process he shouldn't lose his natural quickness. With his apparent excellent work ethic that should be no problem whatsoever. His play has impressed me more than anything this season - almost 11 rebounds a game off the bench and the improved FT shooting really puts a smile on my face when I think of him - Lee's made himself into one of the few guys on this team that I have confidence in to go to the line and knock down 2 FT with the game in the balance. That says a lot. Unlike Frye his game has shown "significant" improvment (LOL!). His off-season has got to be weight room, weight room, weight room and 1000 12-15 footers everyday. If he comes back next season bulked up and a little stronger and confortable shooting 12-15 footers when he's open, it's a rap - he'll be an Eastern Conference all-star next season and for seasons to come.

(4) Develop a reliable jumper for Balkman. With his energy and hustle he needs to be on the court 20+ minutes a game next season - I'm talking part of the regular rotation with consistent minutes. But he's got to hit the gym hard in the off-season and work on that 15-23 footer. He's got to make it an easy decision for Zeke to play him. Same as Lee - a 1000 jumpers a day until it becomes second nature. Same with the FT shooting. Also I'd like to see him tighten up on his man-to-man defense. Improved footwork, keeping his man in front of him, that type of thing. I would love to see him develop into a Bruce Bowen-type. A defensive specialist with a reliable jumper. You can tell that that's a distinct possibilty, he's just got to put the work in.

(5) I wouldn't mind seeing Zeke hire some specialists to help him out in practices and on the bench in games. Hiring a shot doctor and a defensive specialist (a Dick Harter-type maybe) should be top, top priority. For every great coach (and for the record I really don't think Zeke is bad at all, he just needs help) there's a top righthand man (Phil Jackson has Tex Winter, Avery Johnson has Del Harris, etc...). Outside of Aguirre and Phil Ford (I'm linking Curry's improvement this season especially with the decreased number of silly offensive fouls directly to Aguirre and Marbury's improved defense to Ford until someone tells me different) I don't know if Zeke really has the help he needs at this point. No offense to Herb Williams...

(6) Eventually they're gonna need a PG after Marbury. Collins and Nate aren't the answer there. There's time left with Steph still playing at a high level but they've got to start thinking about that now. I mean this sounds absolutely crazy I know but do you tank the season next season to get your hands on a Derrick Rose, OJ Mayo or a DJ Augustin or Darren Collison? Think about that for a second. Crazy I know, but behind closed doors who knows. I mean look at what the Spurs did to get Duncan, you know what I mean? I'd love to see one of those four end up in a Knicks uniform. If they did that smart Knicks fans would be able to pick up on what was going on halfway through the season. If that's too crazy for them, they should at least be sending scouts to every college and high school out there that has a decent PG prospect.

That's it. Gimmie those improvements/adjustments and the following line-up next year (what would amount to a 10-man rotation, 9 if you wanna sit Jeffries) and I'm ready to really start moving forward with this team:

1 - Marbury/Craw/Nate
2 - Craw - Almond,Fernandez or Belinelli
3 - Q - Almond,Fernandez or Belinelli - Balkman - Jeffries
4 - Lee/Sean Williams/Jeffries
5 - Curry/Sean Williams

That's overall strength and depth at every position, youth, interior and perimeter scoring and interior and perimeter defense (finally a legit shotblocker in Williams).

Thoughts???

Didn't you make this thread like 5 days ago?

Posted by Finestrg:

Bored. Just cooked it up now handsome!

Haha, I just looked, I was thinking of you're Frye trade thread. My bad dude!

Posted by nyk4ever:

I think overall, like your Frye thread you have some good ideas on how to move forward.

Getting the proper SG for this team is absolutely huge. I know the Morris Almond banwagon has already started taking members and I'm one of them, but we have to look for other guys because there's a very good chance that Almond won't be around when we pick. Personally, I like your idea of targeting either Belinelli or Fernandez but Isiah won't draft euro's so we gotta look for other guys in the college ranks. Guys like Nick Young, Brandon Rush(who I don't like) are the guys that Isiah is going to look to drafting. In a perfect world, Almond would be our guy because of his size and his absolute dead-eye shooting ability, these other 2 guys don't even come close to being the shooter that Almond is.

I hear ya bro. Almond's my first choice also. But if you youtube these other two guys - Belinelli and Fernandez - they look to have close to a complete offensive game (athletic drives, dunks, threes). Obviously they're European so basically nobody around here's seen them but nbadraft.net actually has Belinelli's jumpshooting ability rated higher than the other two. Interesting...

And another thing regarding #5 in my original post - I'd like to see Zeke hire a real good personnel guy to run the controls as the acting GM while he focuses on coaching. Who the hell is this Gunwald guy anyway?? We haven't heard a peep outta the guy since he's been here which was suprising especially around the trade deadline. I think they might have put a gag-order on all execs except Isiah, but still come on man. This is the New York Knicks for God's sake. I want more outta my GM than some empty suit doing God-knows-what all day long. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in this dude's office. What's he do all day long? Sharpen pencils and work on the Pensky file no doubt...

But serious, just another area the Knicks should upgrade. Too important and proud a francise to have a guy like this guy as your acting GM. I want better.

If we want to move up, I think a package of Nate and our pick would get us into the high teens with the right team if Almond is still available. But is Almond really our man. I would want a SG like Brandon Roy or Joe Johnson. Someone who can not only shoot but can also play defense and pass the ball at a high level. Is Almond that guy?

We also need a PF that is versatile enough to guard on the post and the perimeter, and who can also block some shots. I would not solely look to SG with the first pick. I would pick the best prospect at the SG or PF (from a defensive prespective) spots. If we can get a solid player to fill any of these two needs, I would be happy.

[Edited by - thegame on 03-22-2007 1:44 PM]

Posted by TheGame:

If we want to move up, I think a package of Nate and our pick would get us into the high teens with the right team if Almond is still available. But is Almond really our man. I would want to want a SG like Brandon Roy or Joe Johnson. Someone who can not only shoot but can also play defense and pass the ball at a high level. Is Almond that guy?

We also need a PF that is versatile enough to guard on the post and the perimeter, and who can also block some shots. I would not solely look to SG with the first pick. I would pick the best prospect at the SG or PF (from a defensive prespective) spots. If we can get a solid player to fill any of these two needs, I would be happy.

I hear ya Game on the PF spot at least. That's why I'd love to land this kid Williams. Fuck it, we traded John Starks, everyone's favorite player, and took a chance on Sprewell and we ended up in the finals. I'm fully prepared to go after Williams and go after him hard, off-the-court problems and all. If he's gone I like Briggs' idea of going after the kid Herbert Hill from Providence. Looks like a Kurt Thomas-type only a better shotblocker...

As for the 2/3 spots I'm really looking for a reliable outside shooter over defense in the draft to be honest. Q with the back is unreliable and Q, even when he's in there, together with Crawford, are low % shooters to begin with. We need a better perimeter threat. I'm not trying to sell perimeter defense short - you're right on man, it's very important. But with Q (if healthy he's a good defender), Balkman (with the proper amount of polish and guidance I'm praying he turns into Bruce Bowen, hopefully more) and maybe one day they get their act together and bring in a top-notch defensive-minded assistant coach to help Zeke set up a reliable gameplan on the defensive end of the floor --- maybe they can address it that way, you know what I mean? But you make valid points, as always.

I forgot to mention Arron Afflalo as another guy I'd target in the draft as my shooter to go along with Almond, Fernandez or Belinelli. He really reminds me of Rip Hamilton in a lot of ways. Great mid-range game and a good ability to wanna take and make clutch shots with the game on the line (much like Crawford). Out of all these shooters I've actually seen this kid play many times - he's the goods.

Posted by kam77:

The word at the deadline was that no teams wanted to make deals involving giving up #1s this year. So its hard to bank on being able to trade n8 or frye for a #1 like you could in other years.

Well I gotta believe that he's on par talent-wise with a guy like Nick Fazekas (I've seen this kid play - he can shoot it like Frye for a big guy but he's not as coordinated. This kid might be a better rebounder though) who projects to go late-first round and might even have more upside than other bigmen projected to go late first round (guys like McRoberts, Aaron Gray, Tiago Splitter or a Kyle Visser). Like him or not (and I really don't like his game not for us anyway) he's a young 6'11" C/PF that can shoot it like a guard. He should be enough to fetch a pick in the 20-30 range, you would hope. Package Nate or Collins with him and who knows. You gotta believe man. We absolutely have to acquire an additional 1st round for this draft. Top priority.

Just don't get your hopes up is all i'm saying. Its unrealistic to think a team is going to trade out of what is considered a deep first round, where a pick in the late teens would be worth a late lotto pick in other seasons.

Posted by TMS:

Posted by buddapaw:

If the Balkster can give us what what Lee usually give why not package Lee to see what we can get. Lee's value is very high right now and we would surely be able to get better value than Fyre or N8 would give us. Thought?

Balkman is not nearly the passer that D Lee is, & he's not as good of a finisher either... D Lee has better overall basketball instincts IMO also... if anything, i'd want to trade anyone BUT D Lee & Balkman, cuz those are 2 guys that most of us enjoy watching everytime they step on the floor.

Balkman is a better defensive player and shot-blocker and has the ability to start the break. They both are excellent players and I agree, we should not trade either one. If they both can develop jumpshots, I thing we have two potential future all-starts at the SF and PF spots.