Posted by nixluva:

Posted by arkrud:

It's a very good point.
And for Knicks as currently constructed we need ALL young players to become well rounded.
The probability of this to happen is close to "0".
The teams like Spurs, Pistons, and Jazz are constructed for decades according to strict plan and direction. Even injuries, some bad trades, and coaches’ change cannot derail these well oiled machines.
Knicks has erratic leadership which changes the plan and direction after each blander or unfortunate event. This will never work regardless of which talent happened to be available.

To me you never really have a PLAN until you have a player to build around. ie Duncan. It's easy for SA to have a plan when they have an all time great in the middle. We finally added a player that may not be an all time great, but is certainly good enough to base a team around. Now we have to continue to develop the roster and if we don't have what we need then we look to add the missing pieces.

We all have a pretty good idea of what this team needs to add and what we need to improve on from within. It's not as much as some want to make it seem.

1. With Curry inside it would be good to get better shooting from 3. With that improved threat we can help Curry to avoid some of the offensive fouls he gets, which is part off the reason we have so many TO's
2. We need another good post feeder and it looks like we have that in Mardy. I think getting Jamal back will help that as well.
3. We need for Curry to improve his passing and he's already started to do that.
4. We need better passing and I think having Mardy play more will help that too, but more important is for the team to get better at making the pass inside and back out.
5. We need a more forceful PF alongside Curry. This may end up being Morris or we may make a trade for someone like JO or Pau. Who knows we might even draft a guy like Sean Williams if he's still there.

The thing is that most of these things are easy to solve. We may just get what we need from within. I remind you all that we have many young players who could easily develop those skills.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by arkrud:

Which "Player" is the one who defined the plan for Jazz, Pistons, Suns, Dallas?
There are a lot of players and they must feet in the plan or be traded.
You look like intelligent guy Nix and you are old time fan. How can you put the "player" in front of the team plan and direction? "Player" can be injured, go to jail, fold, whatever.
Organization cannot rely on one player. This is stupid and almost never works.
Do you think LeBron will get to the finals with directionless Cavaliers? No way

I've seen a LOT of BB over the years and from what i've seen it's one thing to do what Chicago and Utah have done, but in terms of winning a title, you really are looking at teams that have a team focal point. The Pistons are the only team to have won a title in the modern era without a true focal point or 2 on the team.
I'm not saying that it can't be done, but for the most part teams can formulate a style of play or attack once they have something they can actually attack teams with.

What you're describing in Chicago and Utah aren't actually plans as much as a philosophy. They look for certain types of players. Guys that play hard and play smart. Guys that can play traditional BB which can lead to winning BB. Until Detroit did it, very few teams tried to build a winner that way. NOW it's become more fashionable and in some way that's a good thing, but it's still not the way the majority of teams look to build a team. Just ask Boston how much it hurt not to get a shot at Oden or Durant? Do you think they'd trade most of what they have for a chance to get that Stud Focal point?

Now Isiah could be wrong about Curry, but the idea he has isn't wrong. He may just have found a player that he can base his team around for a decade. That is worth taking a chance on. We really didn't have any guarantee that we could get a guy like that if we just looked to rebuild and hope to get lucky in the draft. Just ask Memphis and Boston about how that worked out for them. So he went out and got his guy and now he has to refine the team around him, so that it all works. We can see how effective it could be if we can just get a bit better at executing. You know we just got finished seeing that this guy can hardly be stopped if we can give him just a little room. So why are so many so pessimistic is beyond me. Teams with other bigs like Howard, can't stop Curry either and that's without us having it all together yet.

luva, I'm all for giving Eddy a couple more years to see what he can do, but this emphasis on what he is as a scorer is over played. He's 29th in the league in scoring, and that's while being the primary focal point of the team. Having the 29th highest scorer out of 30 teams isn't quite the irrepressible advantage you make it out to be.

Posted by BlueSeats:

luva, I'm all for giving Eddy a couple more years to see what he can do, but this emphasis on what he is as a scorer is over played. He's 29th in the league in scoring, and that's while being the primary focal point of the team. Having the 29th highest scorer out of 30 teams isn't quite the irrepressible advantage you make it out to be.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by BlueSeats:

luva, I'm all for giving Eddy a couple more years to see what he can do, but this emphasis on what he is as a scorer is over played. He's 29th in the league in scoring, and that's while being the primary focal point of the team. Having the 29th highest scorer out of 30 teams isn't quite the irrepressible advantage you make it out to be.

That's 20pts while shooting 57% only avg'ing 12 shot attempts per game. Go back and look at everyone else on that list ahead of him and see what their FG% is and how many shots they're taking per game to get those points. He's right there with Duncan and Amare offensively. Of course he has to improve in the other areaas as well, but he's not as far off as some would have you think.

I think you're making the same mistake that many of us keep making. You're looking at this year as some kind of indication of what this can be when it's done right. Curry and this team have a chance to be a VERY potent force on offense. We haven't even seen how good this guy can ultimately be when we get this right. This was just a dress rehearsal for what this guy will eventually be. He can easily get to 24 ppg this year with just a bit more improvement. We have to get this guy to up his FT%, Asts, Rebs and Blks just a bit and he's in elite company.

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by BlueSeats:

luva, I'm all for giving Eddy a couple more years to see what he can do, but this emphasis on what he is as a scorer is over played. He's 29th in the league in scoring, and that's while being the primary focal point of the team. Having the 29th highest scorer out of 30 teams isn't quite the irrepressible advantage you make it out to be.

That's 20pts while shooting 57% only avg'ing 12 shot attempts per game. Go back and look at everyone else on that list ahead of him and see what their FG% is and how many shots they're taking per game to get those points. He's right there with Duncan and Amare offensively. Of course he has to improve in the other areaas as well, but he's not as far off as some would have you think.

I think you're making the same mistake that many of us keep making. You're looking at this year as some kind of indication of what this can be when it's done right. Curry and this team have a chance to be a VERY potent force on offense. We haven't even seen how good this guy can ultimately be when we get this right. This was just a dress rehearsal for what this guy will eventually be. He can easily get to 24 ppg this year with just a bit more improvement. We have to get this guy to up his FT%, Asts, Rebs and Blks just a bit and he's in elite company.

I'm actually looking at his 6 year history. Few players, even among those who come straight from high school, change their games significantly after their 6th year. Many of Eddy's numbers were higher, on a per 48 basis, in prior years. I'm not sure upticks in Eddy's stats are what we need. I look at the Bulls and they too were looking for much more from Eddy, but really the key for them was in changing the rest of the team. Asking too much from Eddy nearly ended his career.

Anyway, it's put up or shut up time for Eddy. With the weight he's carrying I wouldn't expect his legs to last forever, especially if we're riding him for 35 mins per game to carry the offense or justify the trade. He could end up a Derrick Coleman, who some thought had the talent to be the best PF in the game, but his will was in question and he peaked early in his career, never to become the impact player his fans expected hi to be.

If Eddy's got some tricks up his sleeve it's time to pull them out. He's not gonna get a 3 year reprieve just because he's working on his jumper. It's about overcoming his indifference so he doesn't get lost for two quarters on offense and 4 on defense. 25 years is old enough to show he cares.