What if EC doesnt come back from his knee surgery? And if he does how can it be acceptable to play EC and Zach together again--its a recipe to lose 50 games.

Posted by BRIGGS:

What if EC doesnt come back from his knee surgery? And if he does how can it be acceptable to play EC and Zach together again--its a recipe to lose 50 games.

BRIGGS this is a great question and possibly the most important roster decision. EC + Zach doesnt look to be a good mix. If you keep Zach + DLee you are playing small ball or relying on Morris w/ Big Snacks (yeah right!). Is it even possible to trade Zach at this point? Probably not. This is one puzzle with many pieces missing.

I don't think we have a true center. Last center that played for us ,if i am not mistaken,was Camby then Nazr
Mohammed. Curry plays center he isn't a true center since he doesn't block,alter shot/rebound/box out/just doing whatever it is big guys can do on d. And his his scoring is above average but not as cotributory to the team,since all we have are scorers starting. Qrich is like the only one with any def skills . .Ironically if Chandler was starting we'd have 1 guy out of 5 that definately plays d.

If the Knicks trade Zach or Curry they are not gonna get equal value......they are gonna have to take a packedge of rejects probably. That effects the entire team cuz the Knicks will need to shuffle other dudes around....Knicks can only carry 15 players.

This is Donnies mess to fix.

I think we should just keep Curry. It is Zach that needs to go. He is a blackhole despite putting up All Star-like numbers. I understand why Portland let him go for basically nothing. Zach will always be Zach. Curry at least is bigger and IS a true center if he would just play with confidence and less tentative. Now that Knicks seems to trying to win these last meaningless games, we might as well draft a big defensive player like Deandre Jordan who kinds of reminds me of a young Camby. I wouldn't mind Deandre unless we win the top two picks.

the more i think about it, lopez should be considered if they get a top-3 pick.

It might be interesting to see what Ewing could do with Curry. I don't think he has really been coached since he has been a Knick.Brown didn't want him. Isiah featured him in his offense and he did well on offense the first year. He did not have ebounding or defensive expectations under Isiah. Ewing has coached Ming and Howard. Those guys are cut from a different cloth than Curry as far as motivation is concerned. However, Curry is a tremendous undeveloped natural talent who lacks motivation and has not shown improvement in his game since coming to NY (coaching?). I know Curry is well liked by his teammates and is a good guy off the court. I believe his contract is shorter than Zach's and in the right environment with coaching he might improve.

I never want to see that fat ass Curry in a Knick uniform again to be honest. I hope we can deal him for an expiring and a late 1st rounder at the draft.

Posted by BigSm00th:

the more i think about it, lopez should be considered if they get a top-3 pick.

You know what Big, Brook Lopez looks to be a nice prospect with size, good ability and an NBA ready body. No question he can play in the league right now. His brother Robin, on the other hand, should stay in school - why this kid is coming out this year is beyond me. I think he's getting terrible advice imho - he's not his brother. Nice big defensive presence and hustler but what else at this point? I'm betting Robin's one of the prospects that slips the most in this draft. All the way to the second round maybe. With the talent that's still gonna be on the board mid-late 1st round, I can't see a team taking a chance on him with a first rounder. Stay in school Robin, keep adding to your game, carve out your own niche, make a name for yourself, then start thinking about the draft next year or as a senior.

Anyway, Brook's a solid prospect but if we're really gonna consider taking a center in this draft, I'm with Briggs - JaVale McGee is my guy. The guy looks to have off-the-charts type ability. Unlike the Lopez brothers, I've never seen this kid McGee on TV, only the YouTube clips - and although I agree with the dude that posted about not putting too much stock in these YouTube highlight clips the other day (the Jeffries highlight mix was funny bro), on the same token, it's tough to ignore the glimpes of brilliance that they can provide.

I'm with Briggs and a few others on this all the way - if we're not gonna be in the top 2, trade down a few notches to get McGee or just outright take him with the 5-7 pick. Oh, and I've been saying this for a while now (and I know my buddy TMS will be shaking his head at me right now in disgust - sorry bro) but TRADE DAVID LEE RIGHT NOW while his stock is high and you have a chance to get something nice for him in favor of the rebuilding process. Plus, you're right Briggs, not sure I want to pay Lee 10 mil. a pop to basically come back here and continue being a role player, albeit a real good one. If we had the cap flexibility, it's a no-brainer, but with our cap mess???? Guys like Lee are a plus, but also guys that are immeniently replaceable. Just going through other teams' rosters/D-league prospects I came up with about 50-60 some-odd guys a couple of months ago that either provide or have the potential to provide the same intangibles as our buddy David Lee. I personally would've looked to move him right before the deadline - you mean to tell me there wasn't a playoff team out there in either conference that couldn't have used Lee for the stretch run and the playoffs??? Come on, you know there were it's just that our ignorant buffoon of a team pres. didn't entertain offers for Lee. Who knows what those offers were but I'm willing to say there were some substantial ones.

Anyway, JaVale McGee looks like the closest thing to Marcus Camby you're ever gonna see. Lopez and McGee are 5's with different games (if anything Lopez is more Patrick O'Bryant than McGee - wtf draft.net???) but I don't think there's anyone out there from Jay Bilas on down that'll even embarrass themselves by telling you Lopez has the higher ceiling. Briggs has been over this, but let's take a look at the pluses for Mr. McGee:
- Incredible size, wingspan, agility and motor
- Great energy, plays with heart and passion
- Despite what draftexpress.com & nbadraft.net say about his lack of strength, footwork and passing ability I say this - (1) would we really want him to bulk up with 30 lbs. of muscle? I would think that might hinder his game, myself, not help it. He's listed at a legit 7'0" 235-240 pounds. That's plenty. We're not talking 7' 200 lbs. here. Marcus Camby's body can never be mistaken for Karl Malone's. Different bodys that allow(ed) them to play entirely different games. Having said that, he does need to get stronger and take his conditioning super seriously (unlike Eddy Curry - haha, joke!!!) if only to stay as healthy as he can for a grooling 82-game NBA schedule. Camby, with us anyway, was hurt all the time and every time he took a hit he went down like a ton of bricks, the only couple of negatives with the Cambyman. I wouldn't want to see that for McGee. (2) Regarding his "lack of footwork" - huh??? If anything, that 8 min. clip showed he had excellent footwork. nbadraft.net, look at Eddy Curry's footwork as he steamrolls right over his defender out of control then get back to us about footwork. His footwork looked to be one of his stronger attributes. (3) I'm sure he does have to work on his passing as every young player does, but come on, that clip showed him hitting his mates with some really nice passes. That behind the back pass was a doozie.
- Excellent potential on both sides of the ball
- Legit shotblocking presence, almost 3/game this past season in about 27 mins/per. Something we haven't had since Camby and Ewing.
- Showed great improvement stat. wise overall from his prev. year - 10 mins a game up to about 27-28 mins. a game as a sophmore
- Potential to be a real offensive rebounding machine, a-la Camby. Great nose for the ball, unlike Channing Frye. 8 min. clip really showed him fighting for rebounds inside. I loved it - I was drooling all over the damn keyboard man!
- Suprisingly looks to have long range ability with the jumper - taking and making college threes with excellent form. Only a plus. His good touch and fine form on the jumper only suggests to me that the FT % will eventually go up after time.

Needs to get a little stronger, develop the off-hand a little, and show his stuff against some better competition....but sky's the limit man. World-class ability. I can honestly say with a straight face if we wind up getting, say, the 6th pick, there's a chance this kid might not even be there and we might have to SETTLE for a Brook Lopez - I think McGee's that good. Wait 'till teams start bringing him in for workouts. Can't wait for that buzz....

After the lottery, if we wind up in the 5-7 range instead of 1-3, I would try to bring McGee in as early as possible for a private workout and if all goes well, I'd consider secretly give him the guarantee with our lottery pick. It would put a stop to any other teams working him out at least. Any thoughts?

Posted by Finestrg:

After the lottery, if we wind up in the 5-7 range instead of 1-3, I would try to bring McGee in as early as possible for a private workout and if all goes well, I'd consider secretly give him the guarantee with our lottery pick. It would put a stop to any other teams working him out at least. Any thoughts?

I like Mcgee and Randolph--they are two players with almost every attribute a faster NBA wants out of big men.