- 6'4" 215 lb. (tremendous size & strength for a lead guard).
- contrary to everything I've read (mostly everyone's saying he's strictly a 2 in the NBA) I actually think he's got enough overall skill to operate as a point, albeit a scoring point. Givony over at draftexpress.com is saying best case: Ben Gordon, worst case: Rashad McCants and I don't see that at all. Those guy's are pure 2s --- I see more of a Stephon Marbury/Russell Westbrook/Derrick Rose best case, absolute worst case: Rodney Stuckey.
- Well above average in every necessary category: size for a point, strength, handle, athleticism, speed, quickness, ability to penetrate, ability to shoot the rock and he can definitely pass the basketball.

This kid probably would've been a lottery pick if he came out last year. Instead, he chose to stay and it backfired on him. He doesn't get along with the coach, that much is clear, so I have trouble seeing him going back to Oklahoma. That really could benefit us...Even though he does have some question marks, I think his overall talent level & upside are much too great for us to pass up on if we can grab a lower 1st rounder and he's still on the board. If we can land a better pick & that ankle's 100%, I'm very interested. I betcha D'Antoni might not be because of the highly publicized feud between Warren and his college coach but I feel as long as we succeeded in landing some star power through FA -- hopefully a top guy or two/all-stars that could command the locker room & keep everyone else in check -- this kid would be a tremendous fit that would conform & fall right in line, not to mention he looks like the substantial upgrade at the point we've been looking for (and I couldn't care less that he's not a "pure point." Who really cares? This kid's a phenomenal talent). If we can score a 1st rounder somehow (hopefully we can get 2 or 3), I think we're actually in a real good position to take a chance on some talented players that other higher-slated teams in this draft simply can't afford to... Willie Warren may be one of those guys. I personally can't see this kid lasting past 15 or so, but we'll see what happens. A lot of people may be down on him right now..If we can get Willie Warren & Sylven Landesberg through some lower 1st round move-up trades, that'd be an A+ draft for us imo.

Probably a late 1st.

I am also someone who does not see him as a true PG, but then I haven't really scouted the guy, so...

Still, if he was to slip down do us and showed something in his workouts, I could see us taking a shot.

Finestrg wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:He wreaks of a me first player who will shoot in the low 40's

I think this year was an aberration for him. He played in only 21 games. The previous year in 36 games with much better talent around him he excelled -- 47.3% FG, 37.2% on 3s...I see a lot of talent here. As long as that ankle's 100% & he's healthy, he'd make for one hell of a pick up in the late 1st round if he does indeed slip that far. I think he'd really excel here in NY if we succeeded in uping the talent level like we plan to. This kid would be a real nice piece to the puzzle...I never even would've considered him for the Knicks until just recently. Now all of a sudden it looks like he might be a possibility provided we can get in position by moving up into that 25-30 range. When you really look carefully at both players, I understand Warren's got some issues, but there really may not be that much separation between Warren and John Wall in terms of overall talent...If the Knicks can get there, they'd be nuts not to consider this young fella if he's still on the board..

Landesrberg is a good long term team prospect. I think he's young and needs more development-- two years out but not a player I would be upset with picking in our slot--hey 39 that's a good pick{I just dont agree with moving up for a player like that--let him fall to you}. You know what--I don't think I want to get involved with guys like Warren. Again we can bring up the valuation aspects of the pick in the late 30's and that could be attractive but is he a guy who represents winning basketball? He was a real arse to a very nice coach--Capel and they really were bad once they handed him the crown. Beyond the physical talent--is that something we want?

BRIGGS wrote:

Finestrg wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:He wreaks of a me first player who will shoot in the low 40's

I think this year was an aberration for him. He played in only 21 games. The previous year in 36 games with much better talent around him he excelled -- 47.3% FG, 37.2% on 3s...I see a lot of talent here. As long as that ankle's 100% & he's healthy, he'd make for one hell of a pick up in the late 1st round if he does indeed slip that far. I think he'd really excel here in NY if we succeeded in uping the talent level like we plan to. This kid would be a real nice piece to the puzzle...I never even would've considered him for the Knicks until just recently. Now all of a sudden it looks like he might be a possibility provided we can get in position by moving up into that 25-30 range. When you really look carefully at both players, I understand Warren's got some issues, but there really may not be that much separation between Warren and John Wall in terms of overall talent...If the Knicks can get there, they'd be nuts not to consider this young fella if he's still on the board..

Landesrberg is a good long term team prospect. I think he's young and needs more development-- two years out but not a player I would be upset with picking in our slot--hey 39 that's a good pick{I just dont agree with moving up for a player like that--let him fall to you}. You know what--I don't think I want to get involved with guys like Warren. Again we can bring up the valuation aspects of the pick in the late 30's and that could be attractive but is he a guy who represents winning basketball? He was a real arse to a very nice coach--Capel and they really were bad once they handed him the crown. Beyond the physical talent--is that something we want?

Again Briggs, we'll have to disagree on Sylven Landesberg -- I for one feel he's a fairly advanced prospect right now that does a number of things very well. It's not even so much my opinion, I honestly believe it's fact. Indisputable fact. This kid's really not as green as you're making him out to be. SL and 'long-term prospect' don't even belong in the same sentence together. Not based on what I've seen anyway...I absolutely think we should consider moving up 10-15 slots to ensure we get him, but hey that's me. I see an NBA-ready SG right now with a lot more room for considerable growth -- to me, that says SPECIAL...Right now I'd say he's better than at least half the pro 2s out there currently on NBA rosters. Even though he doesn't have the hoops a DeMar DeRozan has (and that's not to say he isn't athletic because he is), I just feel he's a better all-around basketball player than DeRozan is right now and the beauty of Landesberg is he should only continue to get better. As a matter of fact, I see him as the 2nd best 2-guard in this draft behind Evan Turner and a guy that made nice strides from an already productive freshman campaign...Now whether the Knicks like him or not is another story..I for one think he's a very good offensive talent at 6'6" & a guy Mike would like & wind up getting the most out of. Hey, the Knicks very well may not like him and think they have enough already with Chandler, Walker and Giddens -- My contention is, these 3 are nice players but aren't stars. Landesberg could be a star. That makes him worthy of going after in my opinion. And for a lower 1 in the 25-30 range, you couldn't possibly go wrong with him...No matter who the Knicks are interested in, I'm certainly not into this "let him fall to you" ideology at all. That's not nearly a proactive enough mindset for me...Regardless of who they like, I wanna see them zero in on the few guys they covet and move up to go get them. It makes zero sense to me for them to sit on their hands in their war room in the hopes that the top players left on the board fall into their lap...Again, we're not talking about moving up into the lottery -- moving up 10, even 15 spots from where we are now is doable imo with some of our lower-level assets: our 2 second rounders, possibly a future 2 if necessary and cash (and remember a boatload of which was just saved by the organization when the league ruled on the Cuttino Mobley situation - point is the funds should be there at Donnie's disposal. That shouldn't be an issue). I would look to acquire as many lower 1s as I could get my hands on -- this is a good draft with good rotation-type players projected to go late. Just not too late. I'm not looking for crumbs, I'm looking for a few of the cookies... Also you can exceed the cap to sign your own draft picks so no problem there as far as maintaining optimum cap space goes..If I were the GM I'd be looking to field the absolute best team I possibly could for next year. I'd approach it like that every year and wouldn't stop until I built a contender..

On to Willie Warren, how was he an ass to coach Capel? The only things I've read about are that they didn't get along too well -- well I'm a believer that it always takes two to tango, so who really knows the whole story...All I've read is that Capel benched him on a couple of occasions for 'undisclosed reasons,' possibly for turning the ball over too much, sloppy play, etc..I haven't heard anything about disrespecting the coach, teammates, fans or any off-the-court issues. If you did Briggs, please cite the instance (preferably with a link). I'm curious to know if there even were any. Sometimes guys don't like each other and personalities clash after awhile (WW did elect to go back to play for this coach for his sophomore year, so how bad could it have really been?)...I wasn't a fly on the wall obviously but to me it sounds like it boiled down to Capel becoming disappointed and frustrated with his only remaining star player early on in the season & overall just expecting much more out of him. Hey on some level I can understand that, esp. off the success Warren & the team had the previous year - I'm sure Warren expected that for himself as well. Then before he even had a chance to right the ship he came down with mononucleosis, then a bum ankle that refused to heal properly and the rest was history. The season was a wash. Now does any of this mean that he's done as a pro prospect and has no future? Finished?? Kaput???? Hardly..Some obviously may feel that way but not me. Talent is talent and it's easy to see that this kid has a ton of it...It now sounds like player and coach have since patched things up and are now on the same page regarding Warren's future pro career http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2010/news/story?id=5066752. That's nice to hear but not all that encouraging for us -- as a Knick fan, with only 2 2nd round picks and the hope of moving up from there, I want him to slip.

I think we're in a good position right now. Under normal circumstances, players like Willie Warren & Sylven Landesberg probably would never be available in the lower 1st round. They're both players higher-slated teams may choose to bypass on account of some minor issues that have been blown out of proportion..That's good news for us -- these are the two guys I'd target. I feel they're both very talented & would not only fit well together and complement each other but also fit right in on an improved overall roster as well. They're no-brainer selections lower in the 1st round..We'd be lucky to get one, let alone both but let's see how everything leading up to draft night plays out...

Finestrg wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Fin--another really good PG prospect--one that would fit my parameters on everything but height is Jerome Randle from California. He really should've came out last year--don't blame him because of the huge amount of PG's in the draft--but he's a special player who is easily a top 5 long range type shooter for guys coming into the draft. We have seen guys like Aaron brooks excel with the hands off the guards mentality they have now and shorter quick PGs who can really shoot have a real chance to excel in this league now. At 39 I think he's a solid value

I've thought about and commented on him myself quite often..Randle is a nice player. But he's tiny and paper thin -- we already had probably a better player like this in Nate Robinson and he didn't really have that big of an impact when it came to winning games (Nate's not even having that big an impact for a winning team like the Celtics now)...I like this kid, he a dynamic little scorer with some viable PG skills, but waiting around for Randle at 40 wouldn't stop me from pursuing Willie Warren or Landesberg earlier if I though I could get get them with lower 1s. If I succeeded in moving up a bit in this draft & secured the quality backcourt help that I wanted and still managed to have a low pick left over, I might then go best available big over a guy like Randle -- Varnado (I'm intrigued about finally adding a shot-blocking element to the mix), Chism/Brackins (Al Harrington clones), Booker (looks like Anthony Mason with a better jumpshot), or maybe a legit center like Parakouski (needs some work but he has some skill & I really like how he can get out and run the floor for someone 6'11" - that's a plus attribute in this system with how our coach eventually want to play) or Oglivy (not as bad as his numbers indicate - I think he's a fairly skilled offensive player that can man the 5 in the NBA)...Randle is an exciting little player though. No doubt....

I think the overwhelming theme is we have a chance to get two good players from the draft from the low 30's. Will they play anytime soon especially with he additions of max FA--maybe but low level possibility. But I am a proponent of development and keeping higher end talent for the future on the bench instead of putting two 38 year old vets there. Hopefully things will workout. When I see the final list of who is in and who is out--Ill try to mock round 1 and see who is possibly left. I like our position. I think I can Mock to 40 and come put with with good players at the end with a few left over.