Randolph's worth trouble
June 29, 2007
The cheers erupted at the Theater at Madison Square Garden last night, as though the Knicks actually had made the playoffs.
The trade that would bring Zach Randolph to New York, agreed to in principle, was met with rip-roaring approval from the Knicks fans present. They would have cheered almost any trade Isiah Thomas could have made last night, and I probably would've done the same thing.
I've been arguing since the trade deadline that this team needed to deviate from Thomas' stated plan of being patient with youth, landing another Mardy Collins or Renaldo Balkman in the boring part of the draft and waiting until they're finally close to getting under the salary cap in 2009 to do something big.
Given their payroll and some of the untradeable money contained therein, it was obvious that in order to get better, the Knicks were going to have to take someone else's problem and try to make him fit.
It would appear that taking someone else's problem is not such a bad idea when the problem is only 25 and averaged 23.6 points and 10.1 rebounds last season.
To me, Zach Randolph is a good problem to have.
So he once punched Ruben Patterson, a registered sex offender, in the face during a practice. So he supposedly was caught street-racing with loaded guns in his car. So he was spotted in a strip club on the same night his team was playing a home game, at a time when he was supposed to have been taking bereavement leave.
Hey, we all grieve in our own ways.
No one is going to make light of an alleged sex crime, but the fact is Randolph was never charged after a Portland woman made a sexual assault claim against him last year. Randolph is currently being sued for $2 million over the allegations.
But let's be honest: Most of you don't care about any of that. All you care about is whether the guy can play. And there is no question Randolph can play.
More to the point, with all this baggage and with four years and $61 million left on his deal, the Blazers are just happy there's a team like the Knicks out there to take him off their hands.
Randolph - or Ron Artest, or Rasheed Wallace - was exactly the kind of player Isiah was going to have to target if he was going to make a big splash this summer. Throw in the fact that Steve Francis' $33.6 million over the next two years is gone, along with Mr. Softy, Channing Frye, and there can't possibly be any harm in this.
So let's see what we have, besides the potential for some interesting reports down at the precinct.
Eddy Curry and Randolph in the low post, Quentin Richardson at small forward, Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford on the perimeter and David Lee, Balkman and Collins coming off the bench. It's not the '86 Celtics, but could a team like that have gotten in Cleveland's way if they'd met in the playoffs? Absolutely.
Only four other players averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds last season. The others? Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh.
Randolph thrived in Portland as the No. 1 option but wasn't going to be the focal point there with Greg Oden joining LaMarcus Aldridge on the blocks. Randolph won't have to carry the load with the Knicks. More importantly, Curry doesn't have to carry it now, either.
In that way, they're perfect for each other.
The Celtics got better last night by pairing Ray Allen with Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson.
The Knicks got better, too, because taking someone else's problem isn't really a problem for them.
Let's go Knicks. That's amare
