For the Joe Johnson haters out there... I get the panic about his age and the Jalen Rose comparisons, but if you could pair one player in the league with the players we have on the roster, I think that Johnson is in the top five you could design to put with this bunch.

Because of his ability to operate the offense out of the post and pass from that position while drawing double teams he's going to help Gallo a ton.
Because of his ability to run the point, he instantly makes Douglas a more viable player.
The fact that he's a forward with guard skills means that he can play defense with a group of rangy players in Wilson and Walker and switch without worry.

Plus, he's going to make New York a better destination to pull one of the other Max FA's.

Childs2Dudley wrote:Games aren't played on paper. We've been the kings of NBA Live before but have sucked in reality.

Amare Stoudemire has had microfracture surgery on his knee, has a pus$y attitude, plays no defense and doesn't rebound worth a lick.

Joe Johnson is 29 years old and has already reached his peak as a player. He chucks shots and rarely makes the players around him better. As the leader of a Hawks team that is BETTER than ours (without JJ) he took them as far as the 2nd round where they got destroyed by Orlando and he averaged 12.8 ppg on poor shooting percentages.

I'm not signing anyone just because we'd rather be decent than not suck. That's not how you build a team. You always build a team with the big picture in mind. You build a team with championship intentions, not playoff intentions. A team that YOU KNOW one day can make the Finals if everything falls into place. What ceiling does a team with Amare and JJ as the core have? 2nd round exit AT BEST. Don't believe me? Come back to me in 3 years when we're discussing how to trade these guys because they suck and can't get it done. Then let's see who would want an aging SG and PF who are still on max contracts. Amare Stoudemire and Joe Johnson are not going to become surprise superstars on the Knicks. They are what they are. And what they aren't is superstars.

For the record, that team is a crappier, weaker version of D'Antoni's Suns teams.

I don't care how that team looks in comparison to this one because in the end both teams do not win a championship and the goal in sports is to win a championship. Unless you want to be mediocre and then go back to sucking in 4-5 years and start this process ll over again (while wasting another decade in the process) then I would steer clear of Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudemire.

Okay, say Lebron/Wade/Bosh all spurn us and go elseway. Give me a plan for the Knicks moving forward.

VDesai wrote:I don't get why you'd go out and offer this guy the max as your first move. Its almost as if you just want to make sure you dont come away empty handed. Just getting Johnson wouldn't make this team better.

Joe ain't my first choice, but the Knicks want to nab Johnson to lure in LeBron or Bosh, same way Boston had to grab Ray Allen before KG would agree to come to town. If Bosh really is planning on going to Miami with Wade, NY wants to grab at least one guy to tell LeBron you're not alone.

Johnson boosts the value of TD and Gallo tremendously in my eyes, and then you have room to bring in another star? It could be a lot worse than that folks.

Who is keeping us out of the 2nd round anyway? Chicago, Orlando and Miami will be the power teams it looks like and everyone else will be pretty bad.

How do you report something like this? Knicks will offer LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Amare, JJ Max contract at the beginning of FA season. Same with CHI, MIA.

TMS wrote:

sidsanders wrote:

MaTT4281 wrote:

VDesai wrote:But the problem is- would you want Johnson at all if you don't get Lebron or Bosh? Johnson alone is not good enough to make you better and he's gonna take up a ton of cap space that could've been allocated differently.

I think for the Knicks brass, it really is just LeBron or bust, and our chances of getting LeBron are better if we have JJ on board.

I agree with you though, I don't know if I'd necessarily take the risk, but even if you strike out on LeBron, you can resign Lee, deal with one more season and make a push for Carmelo in 2011.

Johnson/Melo/Lee is not a bad trio by any means.

unless this goes down: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-anthonynuggets062310

that's when the "2012 plan for Derrick Rose & Kevin Garnett" goes into effect... it's all about having contingency options my man.

not enjoying this lead up to FA... you gotta hope jj == max AFTER they get some direction on what lbj does./will do (as in signs with ny). i see little point recreating an older ver of the suns, unless it includes a potential HOF pg, or lbj.

Hopefully we will not be dissapointed.