I don't think we need a point guard to take us to the next level next season. We will still have Billups and Douglas. What we need is a big man to take over the center spot who can rebound and defend and block those pesky little point guards driving in on us every few minuets like what Cleveland did. We need a big 7 footer.

1) Draft Kenneth Faried and move STAT over to the 5 at least to start start the game.

2) Pick up Marcus Cousin on the cheap this offseason. Utah called him up & has him now--hopefully that just turns out to be a cup of coffee and they don't give him a serious look and plan to retain him..Hopefully he becomes available to us this offseason. I think he'd be perfect.

3) Monitor the Jeff Adrien situation in GS--if they don't give him a serious look and he becomes available, we should jump on him too..Same deal as Faried---STAT moves over to the 5 to get Adrien on the floor at the 4.

4) Sean Williams looks much improved and more mature this year. Might be worth a shot. If we don't give him a look I think he's back in the NBA next season helping somebody else, maybe even one of our rivals.

5) We'll have to wait for him to develop a little, but maybe we can grab Keith Benson in the 2nd round..Go primarily with a Turiaf/Cousin combination in the middle for next year while Benson sits, learns and gets stronger..Benson's then ready to contribute by year 2..

6) I actually like what I've seen from Vernon Goodridge this year in the DL..He plays bigger than he is and really knows his role..I can see why we had interest in him over a month ago..Have no idea why we abandoned that interest. This guy could've helped us this year. Still can with a little roster juggling.

7) For what we need (some size and rebounding inside), I can't for the life of me see why we never gave 6'11" Dwayne Jones a shot here on a 10-day contract..Maybe we finally give this guy a look.

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You mentioned Cleveland--let's take a good look at that team..I think they prove my theory correct..They've stood toe to toe with us and beat us everytime this year with the following frontcourt players not named Jamison: Anderson Varejao (solid NBA role player who was great against us that first loss in Cleveland); since then it's been guys like JJ Hickson, Samardo Samuels and Luke Harangody---all 3 underdog-types, not one 7 feet tall, that play very hard & never once backed down to us..Samuels wasn't even drafted. Why can't we benefit from guys like that?? We most certainly could.

misterearl wrote:Did Somebody Say McDonal... I mean... NBA Finals?

Let's not get crazy papabear. After a decade in the draft lottery, be thankful our beloved Knicks are stuck the number 6 slot in the Eastern Conference. Are you suggesting that a NBA power ranked team at 16, leapfrogs the entire league in one season? C'mon son!

How can you support such a rose-tinted thesis in the first place?

The only possible answer is that it must be a trick question because versatile and talented seven footers are on lock. No franchise is risking size for smaller speculation.

Nunna dem.

With that said, The Answer Man is completely on board with the Finestrg "underdog types". Anderson Varejao would be perfect and Samado Samuels would fall in love with the Jamaican restaurant choices in New York.

Bring Mozgov back home.

I think using the pick to bring Mosgov back would be my first choice. Hopefully the Knicks and Nuggets made a deal under the table to swap out end of year.

misterearl wrote:Did Somebody Say McDonal... I mean... NBA Finals?

Let's not get crazy papabear. After a decade in the draft lottery, be thankful our beloved Knicks are stuck the number 6 slot in the Eastern Conference. Are you suggesting that a NBA power ranked team at 16, leapfrogs the entire league in one season? C'mon son!

How can you support such a rose-tinted thesis in the first place?

The only possible answer is that it must be a trick question because versatile and talented seven footers are on lock. No franchise is risking size for smaller speculation.

Nunna dem.

With that said, The Answer Man is completely on board with the Finestrg "underdog types". Anderson Varejao would be perfect and Samado Samuels would fall in love with the Jamaican restaurant choices in New York.

Bring Mozgov back home.

Actually, I shouldn't even have mentioned Varejao..I threw his name out just to show how a role player stood toe to toe with our star player and even outplayed him that particular game (point being role players have value) but in actuality, I can't condone spending big money on that type of role player for this team..Not yet..And that goes for guys like DeAndre Jordan & Marc Gasol as well..Those guys are pretty good but a move like that boxes us in salary-wise to that particular team, a team that wouldn't be good enough for a chip, and takes away any and all flexibility to do other things, esp. during the summer of 2012 when some big PGs and other pieces become available..If we don't preserve the cap room now (or most of it anyway) we won't be players then. Simple as that..The last thing I'd ever wanna see happen now is for them to field a good team but not one good enough to compete for a championship year in and year out..If that requires one more year of patience and smart tinkering, I'm willing to tinker only & wait one more year..

As such, I'm more focused on what cost effective bigs might be able to do for us next year (among other positional players--DL SF DeShawn Sims is a guy I'd love for them to consider at some point---this dude could make us forget all about Wilson Chandler and what he brought off the bench)..Say we drafted a PG in the first round and that was it for the draft---if we then added Marcus Cousin and Jeff Adrien for less than $2M combined next year, we would've GREATLY improved the team in my estimation over what we have now...Cleveland is proving that you can get some decent play out of cost-effective role players..

As for Mozgov--PASS..For one, I'm not interested in taking back his salary for reasons stated (we have enough to worry about trying to find an eventual taker for Balkman) and two, he's nowhere near ready to play fulltime in the NBA (I remember the Detroit game well--no need to remind me of that. That game was an anomaly where everthing clicked that one afternoon, not the norm..Countless other times the boy just looked lost at sea--if you watched him on every play this season like I have, there's no denying that fact)..If he at least excelled with rebounding and interior defense, poor offensive instincts aside, forget trying to bring him back--I would've wanted to keep him the first time..Unfortuantely he just didn't show me enough to convince me that he was a keeper esp at that price (remember every penny suddenly counts around here now)..Maybe I'm in the minority here but for what we need, gimmie one of the guys I talked about, even some of the guys 5-6 inches shy of 7' I don't care, that at least already possess that one discernible skill they can hang their hat on..STAT could easily slide over to the 5 part-time every game to accomodate a Kenneth Faried or a Jeff Adrien and we wouldn't miss a beat..In fact, we'd be improved..GREATLY IMPROVED I feel..We need that more than a 'maybe someday' 7 footer with a $5.3M dollar price tag over the next 2 years..Just my humble opinion on Mozgov.

as in, if the NBA goes to a hard cap but doesn't roll back player salaries much or at all, teams like Dallas will have no money to sign Tyson Chandler - their cap number next season is an Isiah-ish $88M. if there is a hard cap of say $65M (a hard cap probably means a higher cap number), Dallas might have to let Tyson Chandler go. or move brendan haywood to make room for chandler.

Washington might be ready to let Javale McGee go.

There are options out there. Just have to be patient and ready to get one when they're available.

1.) Draft
2.) paying Billups his $3.7m buyout, letting him go, signing a free agent.
3.) if the MLE survives in some form.
4.) trade (what "asset").

Understand any of the last 3 takes the Knicks outta ANY shot of a 2012 FA.

Knickoftime wrote:Only way the Knicks can add anyone this summer is:

1.) Draft
2.) paying Billups his $3.7m buyout, letting him go, signing a free agent.
3.) if the MLE survives in some form.
4.) trade (what "asset").

Understand any of the last 3 takes the Knicks outta ANY shot of a 2012 FA.

Nothing guaranteed about 2012 and its whole different year. If we could get nene and use the pick to improve the team as well--I dont think we will do much better. I look at the lakers who have won 3 championships--we dont need a all world PG Derrick fisher wouldnt even start on many bad teams--bt we do need a C and more quality depth. I think TD a vet PG and possibly a drafted PG should be more than enough for that position. Our real concern is 5 and the bench. I think TD is good enough to be a quality starting PG and thats all we need.

BRIGGS wrote:

babyKnicks wrote:Nene

we could draft a PG drop Billups and sign nene

Well, anything is an upgrade at C for us but do you think Nene would fit in well with us? He is an ok rebounder and ok on offense in close but he is paid pretty well and is going to want 11 million or more I'd guess. We'd have to do more than drop Billups I beleive. How did Nene compliment Melo in Denver and does anyone think Nene would be good with Stat and on this team? (I don't know his game well and see him more as strong body in the middle).

I'd like Faried in the draft, drop off offensively from Nene but big cost savings and rebounding monster and great Defender as you know.

technomaster wrote:Without considering contracts, I like the idea of bringing in Dalembert. His career MPG (~26mpg) are just about what we're looking for out of our center position. Let's figure that D'Antoni's coaching style and Amare's makeup really dictate him getting some minutes at the 5 spot, taking away from any center's ability to get true starter minutes on the Knicks.

I'd be wary of relying on big minutes for a young player/rookie/former headcase if we're looking for a final piece.

We'll get a much better gauge after the playoffs for what we need to truly compete at the NBA elite level.