THE DRAFT


Look at the schedule. http://www.nba.com/knicks/schedule/


Let's say we go 4-6 through December 2nd. That would make us 6-10 through 16 games.

Let's say we keep last year's pace, and finish the season .500. I'm being generous.

Projected over 82 games, that would give us around 38-39 wins.


Teams are going to finish with better records this year though. So 38 wins is the new 35. Philly and Indiana finished with 35 wins last year, and picked 11th and 12th.


Let's say we pick 11th.


NEEDS?

Pass-1st Point/Interior Defender/Shooter/Franchise Player.

CANDIDATES:

PG Ty Lawson UNC
PG Darren Collison UCLA
C Hasheem Thabeet UCONN
C Roy Hibbert Georgetown
SG Eric Gordon Indiana


According to DraftExpress and NBADraft.net, that's basically what we're looking at. Only guy out of the bunch with franchise talent is Eric Gordon (33 points in Indy debut).

Hibbert & Thabeet are elite shotblockers.

Collison & Lawson are elite pass-1st points.

We could trade up for Chase Budinger (Arizona). He's projected to be picked around 5-8, so we'd have to give up the goods (ie: Balkman/Lee).

And then there are PF's like Kevin Love & Darrel Arthur, but we're stacked at that position.



Thoughts?

i'm not sold on budinger. i go to school in the pac-10 and have seen him play, but not too sure how his game would translate into the NBA. i think by the end of the year, barring injuries, eric gordon will be top 5 easily so he's out. i like collison, would like to see how he plays the rest of the year with ucla. at this point we need solid guard play - our 4/5 is set with randolph, curry, lee, and i think q/chandler/balkman can get it done at the 3. crawford is inconsistent, would be a great backup combo guard, but we could use a pass-first pg and a consistent sg that can shoot the ball. so as of now i'd say collison is our best option. maybe we could get ratliff, etc. to play a backup 5 role for us