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Finestrg
Posts: 27296
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 1/1/2006
Member: #1069
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Happy New Year to all BTW!
I like Lowry a lot but I really might want to try and get a point guard in this upcoming draft somehow. Either at the top with a guy like Derrick Rose or a little lower with a guy like Darren Collison or DJ Augustin. Not against dealing Lee though. Along with firing Isiah, who absolutely must go, how's this:
David Lee & Marty Collins to the Hornets for Hilton Armstrong and their 1st rounder in this next draft (right now slated to go in the 25-30 range).
Why the Hornets might do it - Hilton just doesn't get the burn he needs to be effective with N.O. for some reason. I don't know if it's just the fact that Byron Scott doesn't like the dude or the fact that West and Chandler each log big minutes at the 4 and 5 on a nightly basis or what (prob. a combo. of both), but he just doesn't play nearly enough to be effective. I thought trading Cedric Simmons away (a Scott favorite) would open up more minutes for him, but not the case. He played only 6 mins. the other night against the Cavs at home and was a complete non-factor. There's been a few of those this season and, unfortuately for Armstrong, probably many more to come. They'd love Lee, he's a double/double every night, still young and might be the steady big man contributor for the rotation that Scott's probably looking for. Plus, Collins would be a real nice pickup - a defensive backup for Chris Paul - a big, heady guard who might never be a star but can eventually be a serviceable backup at both guard positions and has good overall instincts & potential (remember he played well down the stretch for us last year when guys went down and believe me people around the league took notice). Could turn out to be a real defensive stopper, a-la Bruce Bowen, minus the 3-pt shooting. That's valuable. Even right now, buried on the bench with the Knicks, he'd make a better backup that Jannero Pargo in MHOP. Pargo's another guy Scott doesn't seem to trust with a lot of mins. He's nothing special anyway, a Howard Eisley ultra-light-type. And as far as surrendering the draft pick, the Hornets are 20-10 right now, a game out of first place. You gotta believe they think they're a team that's really on the verge of making some noise, possibly de-throning the Spurs as the annual Southwest champ. I know that's what I'd be thinking if I were a member of the Hornets' front office. Lee and Collins (esp. Lee) would help them immensely in trying to accomplishing that goal and I'd like to believe they'd think that packaging that low 1st rounder in this deal would be a small price to pay.
Why we should do it - We grab Armstrong and jack his minutes up to at least 25 minutes a night. Even more if Curry continues to flounder. It might not result in wins right off the bat, but it's the right move moving forward in finally starting to strighten out this poorly constructed roster - well the frontcourt anyway. Curry, Randolph and Lee just doesn't work for me. The proof is in the pudding guys. I mean does it look like it's working? At a legit 6'11" he can play both 4/5 with no problem and w/o giving up any size (while Lee's small for both spots, esp. the center position), has the defensive potential and shotblocking element Lee (or any of our bigs for that matter) doesn't and will never provide and when it's all said and done he'll be a better offensive player than Lee. Good, quick moves around the basket and a sweet fluid jumpshot out to 20+ feet. With the proper playing time, he WILL BE the player guys like Charles Smith and Channing Frye were supposed to be - the player Sean Williams is becoming with the Nets. I think he's that good and that well-rounded. It might look like Lee's the better pro right now but if Armstrong gets the PT he needs to be successful, the numbers will be definitely be there. Rebounds, blocks and if they need him to score, points too. You can't expect the guy to have any kind of an impact with 6 mins. of PT. And you take that pick and couple it with our own 1st rounder and start to rebuild this thing through the draft. Say we tank and get lucky enough to crack the top 5 in the draft - there's suddenly a lot of different ways we can go and God knows we need so many holes to be filled it isn't funny. PG, SF, SG, C - basically everything except PF - I think we can win with Zach at the 4 moving forward. 25 years old, 20/10 basically every night, wants the ball, huge contract and not going anywhere anyway. You pencil Zach in as your PF and you leave him alone. He's not the problem. Enough said about Zach being a cancer. In this draft coming up in the summer, any one of these projected top 5 guys can be a star and a guy to build around. Hey, at least a better option to build a team around than Eddy Curry! Beasley (SF), Rose (PG), Jordan (C), Gordon (SG) are all going to be stars and are such better players than the guys we have at those positions now, it's not even close. I think guys like Budinger, Mayo and Hibbert have great potential also, and again, would be vast improvements over any of our current players at those positions. WE ABSOLUTELY NEED TO LAND ONE OF THOSE TOP FOUR then we could use that lower pick from the Hornets for a guy like Darren Collison or DJ Augustin (Agustin in particular might slip because of the lack of size), or a guy like Brandon Rush, who's got size at 6'6" and would be an instant upgrade over Q. Richardson. Or, now that Utah just acquired a lights-out shooter in Kyle Korver, maybe we flip that lower pick to Utah in exchange for Morris Almond - the guy I wanted in the last draft all along. And I also try and unload Curry on a team for future draft picks. I'd trade Curry for almost anything at this point as long as I'm not taking back longterm contracts and as long as I can get at least couple of future 1st round picks in the process - that's about the best the Knicks can hope to do. You do that and you move on. Turn the page on Curry already, for Christ's sake. No matter what, we need to cut payroll and do whatever it takes to acquire picks in these drafts to improve the club. Who knows, that's my take on this mess. Any thoughts?
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