Just wondering what everyone's opinions are?
1) Why has Knick's management fail to do something about this? It is been over a decade, our best starting center has been
Camby, then Mosgov, and its probably Jerome Jordan as we speak...
I think virtually all of us feel we need a starting quality center before we can become contenders. Amare, Melo, and at least
Billups have said they need a center that can anchor our defense, protect Amare, and protect the paint.
2) How much would Wilson Chandler's game suffer if added back to this team right now?
After Fields hit his rookie wall and game suffered from the lack of ball movement, how much would Wilson Chandler's game change?
I have always loved Wilson Chandler's game because he is so universal and can play 3 different positions. Out of the trade, I thought we would
have missed his game the most. He was our best shot blocker, a great rebounder, and one of the best defenders that guarded 3 positions.
I think Felton's and Gallo's defense were also missed but I think Wilson Chandler's was the most important to the team because of his size and
versatility.
Of course Mosgov's game was also very missed. In my opinion, he was the 2nd player that was the most important to us. We miss him setting nice screens,
we just miss the true size of a center, and he could provide some defense and rebounding. Most importantly, he was find with his role and never
demanded the ball and was content with the role.
Defensively I don't think the addition of Melo would change Chandler's game up much aside from him being able to play his natural position, the SF.
But the lack of ball movement would limit his touches and the amount of bad shots Amare and Melo takes, especially to me Melo.
I don't mind when Melo has to take a bad shot if time was out and he didn't feel they would be able to get a better look but he takes a lot of
bad shots. I know Wilson Chandler did that while hw as here too at times. But my main point of pointing out Melo's bad shot selection is
because its hard for players to know to crash or not and when to do it? If they go crash too early, they could draw a defender
to the paint, limiting Melo's options at driving in or taking a jump shot. If they don't go in fast enough or at all, its one less chance to
grab an offensively rebound. This is one of Field's strength's, as well as Chandlers. I think Dantoni would have used Chandler at the
SG and PF a lot, with Amare at center. Chandler normally has a size advantage on SG. He can post him up, and when if the SG
isn't a good shooter, he would cheat a lot, where he helps for the shot blocking and rebounding. He just doesn't have the quickness to
actually guard guards. At PF, just as long as its not an elite PF, Wilson Chandler is pretty strong and can make the PF uncomfortable,
spreading out the floor or driving past the PF when he commits to denying his shot. Defensively, it was like russian roulette,
we never knew if it would help us or hurt us. His game has similarities to Shawn Marion in the Phoenix days.
Anyhow, I wanted to see if Wilson Chandler should be a target next summer, if we missed out on Dwight Howard, Deron, and Cp3?
If so, it would be great to use all the cap space to fill all of our holes. Is Wilson Chandler a luxury or fills the starting
SG and back up Forward options?
3) How much do we miss Gallo and are there a lot more cost efficient players? There are a lot of players that I think have a just as good as a shot as
Gallo, play the same position, and maybe even more consistent but not as good all round game, most importantly most can be a lot cheaper.
I am really interested to seeing what kind of a contract Gallo will get.
I am trying to think of players that can play the SG/SF, some are probably closer to SG but I am not even including a lot of PG/SG deadly shooters.
Omri Casspi Wesley Matthews Turkoglu Reggie Williams Klay Thompson
Delfino Nocioni Budlinger Barnes Al Harrington
Kapono Theadous Young Belinelli Pietrus Marcus Brothers
Dorrel Wright Nick Young J.R. Smith Francisco Garcia Tristan Thomspon
Peja Stoj Mike Miller Batum John Salmons
Anthony Parker Rashard Lewus Harden Donte Greene
4) What do you guy's think of the combination of Amare and Melo after watching half a season together? I personally don't think they fit too
well together. However, I understand it takes some time before they can gel. They are both volume scorers and neither one has shown
they can do anything great aside from scoring and having the ball in their hands. Don't get me wrong, I think they are both very skilled
players! My opinion is just, I don't think they work very well with each other, for 2 main reasons.
1) Both are average defenders at best, I think that would be I am sugar coating it already. Melo shown that he is willing
to play defense as a Knick. He is a pretty good rebounder, however, a lot of the times he leaves his guy open so he can
grab that extra stat, even when he was guarding a dead eye shooter like Delfino.
2) Amare early on showed he could be a decent help defender, he is a horrible man to man defender. Did Amare deserve this credit,
or does it go to the overall team's defense with Felton, Fields, Chandler, Gallo, TD, Turiaf, and Shawne Williams?
3) They are players that need the ball to be effective and are both volume scorers. Melo can create his own shot better a lot better than
Amare, however, he often takes a lot of bad shots.
Dirk was never known as a great defender however, Dallas played great defense the whole year and in the playoffs/championship. I don't think
Dirk gets enough credit because physically he is very long and has very quick feet. His defense is similar to Jared Jeffries but he is even longer.
I wonder if we decide to trade either player, who should it be. Of course I am not talking about trading either one just for the sake of doing it.
We will never get back the value of Melo that we gave up for sure but if a trade can be made to improve our team and get back good talent, we should
look at it to see what kind of value we have from the league for them.
A) a trade with Washington
Like if we can get back a player like McGee, 1st round pick, and Rashard Lewis's
expiring, Maybe also one of Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton, or Nick Young. This would possibly leave us 2 FA's next summer and the addition of McGee,
1st round pick, a rookie SF, and a SG/SF in Young.
B) a trade with Twolves
Kevin Love, Beasley, Brad Miller or Darko, and a 1st round pick
Love, Beasley, and Randolph all have qualifying offers for next summer. This players would give us back depth, a 1st round pick, another big body
center, but not really any cap space unless someone offers a contract to these qualifying players and we don't match. We can substitute Webster and
Randolph in there for somebody. Webster has a team option and not pick up the qualifying offer for another player? Then we might have enough
cap space to sign 2 max players.
Love, Beasley, Webster, Randolph, and 1st round pick. We can choose between Love or Beasley, depending on who we trade. We can keep one and have a lot
of salary for next summer.
I have been looking at Melo's rookie year and comparing to how he looks when he goes to these CBA meetings, he plumped up a lot. He just got his big
contract and just the thought of having a Eddy Curry part 2 just scares me. I believe both Amare and Melo still have a lot of trade value now but things
can change so quickly if things don't go right. I don't know if we can rob someone the way Denver robbed us but if possible I think we have to
at least look at these options. Amare and Melo are both at stages of their careers that things can go down quick, right with their values.
With the way Walsh has said they don't want to jeopardize the summer of 2012 and the way our current roster is standing. I just don't see us being
championship contenders. I don't know if I am being too negative as a Knick's fan, however, you can blame me, its the side effects of this 10 year
misery. Yes we would be playoff contenders but if either player gets hurt or things goes bad quick, their values can go down
dramatically. With these trades, I believe we still would be playoff contenders as well, however, we would get to redo the summer of 2010 again with 2012.
Most importantly, if we agree that Melo and Amare aren't a good combo, these are ways of breaking it, being competitive for playoffs, adding back
talented young players, a possibly high pick, and get to reshape our roster for the FA in 2012. We regain back the flexibility, cap space, nice young
players/assets that Dolan messed up by interfering with Denver in DW's negotiations/low balling. It's not too late to admit that we messed up with the
trade, just as long as we find a way to fix it.
I think the Washington trade is realistic and the Wolves one isn't fair at all. However, there is a lot of talent in Twolves and they will have lose some
regardless. Same theory people said about "Wilson Chandler and Felton" for us in the Melo trade. "We can't resign them anyway if we sign a max player this
summer and next, therefore we wouldn't really lose anything anyway"
7/5/2011 7:13 PM
