here is what we need to do- we need to tank this season, perhaps next-

The one thing missing from this roster is a superstar.

I'd be happy with this line up




C- Eddy Curry
PF- Zach
SF- Chandler
SG- Nichols
PG- Collins

Bench
Lee
Balkman
Crawford

Obviously- a big if on chandler/nichols.

What we need is one superstar- and either Chandler becomes it (doubtful), or you draft one during the next two years.

That would be my strategy, but clearly Isiah is trying to win now at any costs.

Yo Bobs, this isn't the NFL or the NBA of ten years ago. Show me the team that's been in the lottery for a couple of years that is bound to be a contender?

Are you going to tell me the Bobcats? How long will that take them, and they haven't even made the playoffs.

Are you going to say Seattle? What if Durant is as good as T-Mac? They still won't make the playoffs.

Are you going to say the Bucks? How's Bogut working out?

Maybe Toronto? They look good. Championship good? No.

Point is, I'd rather Isiah keep throwing ideas against the wall and try to pull an Arenas, Nash, type sleeper pick out of the middle of the first round. Our Lottery Picks have been Sweetney and Frye, and our later picks have clearly outclassed them.

So we should tank the season and maybe the next too huh? Good idea...

I think this team that we will put on the court next season may be the best one we have had since 2000. And, I only see it getting better. We have a 1st round pick next year and plenty of assets to trade. It has taken longer than most of us hoped, but we should make the playoffs this season and build from there. I don't understand all the gloom and doom talk before the season starts and the idea of tanking games is simply untenable.

[Edited by - thegame on 07-23-2007 09:15 AM]

I would say a few years ago the following teams had no hope.

Miami (same situation as us, but riley went for it and gambled and will lose long term), Cleveland (Lebron), New Orleans (Paul on player, one smart trade, one nice value pick and they are in great shape)

The fact of the matter is the nba is filled with guys that don't understand the concept of wait, don't overpay, pick charcter guys, try to hit the home run, because everyone is worried they would get fired.

For Instance:
Minny had Danny Granger on the board a year ago, McChale for some reason elected to take McCants a guy noted for talent but being a space cadet. They make a smart selection last year and have an unreal draft ahead of them, but instead of moving KG when paxson could have sent them chandler, the knicks pick and deng he held pat ended up missing the playoffs.

Minny would have: Foye, Deng, Granger, Thomas, Chandler, lottery selection

Ainge: Decides he wants Telfair over Foye, Roye and Rudy Gay for whatever reason a player that hadn't put together a good week in two years was more viable?

Bird: Indy has no pg, last year they have a selection Williams, Lowry and Rondo are on the board and they draft a sf when they have jax, harrington, and granger on the board. Compound the mistake by rushing a deal for two over paid non defenders, and still have no pg

Hawks: Obvious flaws inability to draft the pg they need for three years

Lakers: Trade away a 20pt scorer for potential in the kwame deal, backfires as usual as does the lakers ability to make a trade for the bigtime pf kobe needs.

The league suffers from the isiah syndrome everyone thinks there is some magic formula nad they know something that others don't instead of just using common sense when making deals

the Zach Randolph trade tells me Dolan hasn't learned jack squat from past experience... like my signature says...

Cut Marbury = Sav the knicks.

The downfall of the knicks has been simple. Ever since we lost our balance as a team we have been bad. The 99 team had Ewing, Camby, KT, LJ, Spree, Houston, Ward, Childs & even Dudley. Every single part to that rotation was a good fit if you look at all there skill sets. They had balance & talent. Laydens teams didn't have balance. Isiahs teams didn't/don't have balance.

People wonder how Philly was able to win games with what they had last season. And off course all the credit goes to Andre Miller since he was the one they traded for Iverson. But the truth of the matter. While Miller was a big help in there turn around. Philly's balance & strong defensive frontcourt is what had them winning games. Defenisve anchor(Dalembert), lanky man/help defender(Hunter), perimeter pest(Iggy). Iggy was there all around SF and star in the making. Kover was there high % shooting threat. Miller was there distributer. And while Philly was missing a strong scoring big which was holding them back to taking to another level. They had an instant offense player like Willie Green. & a glue type of player who does the dirty work and has a decent skill set in Joe Smith.

Every single player in the rotation had a role which was there best ability. And each players skill set complimented the next players. Each being put in a position of strength.

I believe Iverson downfall with that team was the balance was gone with him as the main player. When they had nothing but lunch pale defensive role players and allowed him to take as many shots as he wanted to. He went to the finals. But replacing Snow, Mckie, Lynch with guys with more scoring ability like Green, Korver, Iggy and playing Iverson at PG wasn't as good a fit as swapping him with Miller even though the Iverson lineup had more talent. It wasn't about addition by subtraction by unloading Iverson. It was balancing the there rotation. They went to the finals with Iverson when they had him in a position of strength with a bunch of role players that brough balance to his amazing scoring ability.

I think its clear you have a better shot at winning with balance over talent than talent over balance. But when you have balance with talent thats when your a contender so thats what this team needs to be shooting for. We have talent, if we could make some moves taking back less talent but adding more balance to the team. We would be better off.

Well because the three players that would really balance the roster aren't going to get the minutes they deserve.

But there is balance
1. Me first guards, that turn the ball over, don't play great defense. Marbury can pretend he is all about the team all he wants, but i would say all about the movement.

2. We don't have one great shooter on the entire team

3. We don't have one great shotblocker on the entire team.......

What we do have is a collection of good young role playing talent, that will suffer because isiah panics and makes high cost low reward moves.