fishmike wrote:Diva isnt the problem.Diva is awesome in what he does: score. The guy can play. He's bigtime. He wants to be in NY. He wants to be a Knick. For these things I salute him. You also cant fault Melo for the trade that brought him here. Losing Mosgov was a travesty because he was a legit bigtime prospect at 7'1 skilled and athletic. The kind of size/glue that pushes a talented combo of Amare/Diva into the elite. Thats gone and Walsh was uber lucky to get him in the first place.
For me the wait and see isnt Melo. I was a huge Amare fan before he came here and people know why now. Melo is a notch below but he's damn good. Not top ten for top 15.
The wait and see will be what Walsh has up his sleeve for building this team this deadline and next year.
Players will remember what happened to Felton/Mosgov... two players very excited about signing and staying here, then traded 50 games into the season.
This trade has massive downside to go with the upside.
Diva's contract extension will ensure the 3rd star isnt coming via free agency. So we need to find guys as talented as Rondo, Perkins, Jason Richardson, Jameer Nelson, Mike Miller, Josh Smith... because these are the "role" players on the teams ahead of us, and this problem isnt getting better anytime soon. We are capped out and owe picks all over the place and have no idea who our GM will be this summer.
If Amare or Melo misses a month with a normal BB injury we are in the lottery. I'm curious to see how we win games not playing defense and getting outrebounded every night. Should be interesting.
This move is for next year and the long-term as opposed to this year, but the Knicks will be pretty darn good team with Billups operating as the third star in the short-term, and that's a really underrated portion of this deal. Sure, they need a backup PG and a Center, but they had those problems anyway so the team is better and the weaknesses aren't necessarily worse. They also kept Landry Fields, who's a perfect fit as a role player. The way I look at it, the only net loss for the Knicks trade here is Gallo. Billups came back for Felton, which is at least a wash (although I like Billups more), Chandler, Curry, and Randolph would have been gone anyway had we signed Melo, and we lose Mosgov. So it's basically Mosgov/Gallo, picks and Cash for Carmelo.
I know Mosgov is a legitimate prospect, but if keeping him or letting him go is the difference between getting a player like Melo or not, then you do it. I also think that Walsh will keep his job now that the Knicks actually got Anthony. If he's the best center in the NBA in three years, we might have to admit that we gave up too much, but if this is done right the Knicks will be a title contender or have a title and it won't matter. I don't place a ton of value on potential in this case just because Carmelo's a superstar and protecting the unsure thing instead of taking the sure thing in Melo is stupid. I think the Knicks will be able to get players because they still have a 2011 first round pick (either their own or Houston's), and Walsh has done a really good job at finding guys like Fields and Mosgov. On another note, players won't care what happened to Felton/Mosgov. They understand that it's a business, and the pitch becoming "come play with Melo and STAT" should make it easier for Walsh (I'm going to assume that Walsh will keep the job now that Carmelo's here)to acquire underpriced veterans that don't really affect the cap and to use the draft picks smartly like he has been. Basically, they'll need to find a backup PG, a defensive C, and a 4th big man and they'll be fine.
Yeah, the defense is bad and they have a short bench and they get outrebounded, but that could just be a product of their head coach because those two things are signs of a D'Antoni team. I like D'Antoni, but with the acquisition of Melo he longer gets a pass because of the roster. If he doesn't coach these guys to be able to win, whether that's by playing defense or otherwise, he'll be shown the door.
