Knixkik wrote:One thing is for sure, having a star big man is so important in this league. I look at how Kobe needed Shaq or Gasol to even think about competing for a championship. Wade needed Shaq to win. Unlike these star wings, Dirk did not need another superstar alongside him to at least compete for championships year after year. Even though he didn't win one, he was right there in the mix every season and went to the finals once. Duncan won a bunch of titles and had great supporting casts, but it can be argued that he never played with another true star, just very good secondary stars. Even now, you can't count them out because of his impact. Celtics weren't a contender until Garnett came to help them win and allow them to continue to contend every year after his prime. Dwight got to one final, will probably get to more, and has been in the mix every season without another true star next to him. Only Jordan and Lebron have won or at least been to a finals in the last 20 years without a superstar big man.

My point is that you can compete for championships every year with a star big, but not with just a star wing. Kobe proved this, he wasn't good enough to get to a finals without one, but Dwight, Dirk, Shaq, Duncan, etc can compete without another star. We are very lucky to have Stoudemire because i would say at this point there are 3 bigs you can compete with them as your best player and those players are Dwight, Dirk, and Amare with Gasol close as well. Shaq, Duncan, and Garnett are past their primes, but are still doing their thing for contending teams. Since we are fortunate enough to have one of those major pieces, we need to put as much around Stoudemire as possible, as soon as possible. We need to build this thing up as soon as the Melo situation gets resolved. I would say we have the 5 years of Stat's contract as the window of opening for competing with him playing at a high enough level to lead to championships. If we don't get Melo we need to put as many pieces and secondary stars around him as possible, because we can compete for a championship starting next season if we do that.

Duncan won his first with David Robinson and has always had Parker (Star) Manu (Star) and good supporting players. STAT needs a 2nd stud aka MELO and we're on good shape.

I like Turiaf as a 20 MPG guy off the bench- but we need someone to play the role some thought Mosguv might play, or even Randolph.