How long will Allan Houston be the main guy at SG?
Will he last three more years to fulfill his contract?
If he does make it and isn't traded in his final year, does he get re-signed?
If he gets re-signed, will he accept a bench role?

Isiah must upgrade this team in several areas but trading for, or signing a replacement for Allan Houston should not be one of them.

Isiah need look no further for a future Marbury partner than down the bench.
Frank Williams is worth keeping around, as a player, not just a trading chip.

Stephon Marbury and Frank Williams should continue to play on the floor together with Frank spelling Marbury from point guard duties so that Marbs can look for his shot. Allan Houston may go, but Marbury can provide a similar dangerous weapon at the SG spot. Shandon Anderson will very likely outlast Allan Houston, so will Moochie and also Penny can also lend a hand in the backcourt.

Rather than go after a Crawford or a Sura, Isiah should try and make a deal for a Center like Curry or Dampier and it at all possible keep the kids like Frankie and Sweets out of the deal.

I thought you were going to say DerMarr Johnson.

Frank is nice, but if DerMarr lifts weights and works on his defense he could turn into a really, really good player.

100% accurate. Demarr Johnson HAS to go into an intensive weight training regimen following the season. It is crucial for him to do so. He needs to have the power to drive and post up + more power to hold his ground on the D. Hes still so young, I hope that the Knicks and demarr really work on his body as well as sweetney.

Im with you big smooth on flip murray as well--i dont know what type of deal we can do, but the bottom line is we have to many PFs they have to many Gs---so I can see a match made somehow. I dont know what type of future H2O has with the Knicks--it seems as if he is going the way down the road that everyone goes, hes aging and his body is failing him.


If we can somehow get Murray and their pick in a package deal where we take back a bad contract and give up our second rounders + lets say NAZR and FW and swipe Arajuo in the draft, all of a sudden we really have made some real headway without spending more money.

If we go to battle next year with something like

Arajuo Dikembe Booth
Sweetney Thomas Harrington
T Thomas Andersen Johnson
H20 Johnson Murray
Marbury Murray Norris I think we take will be a 45 win team and a sure fire competitor in the playoffs.

Its pretty funny how this forum loves Frank and the heads of the Knicks dont. Today's Post says that if (when) Allen comes back Lenny's probably gonna bench FW, not DJ.

[Edited by - metra on 04/13/2004 13:43:55]

"You want to get what you need, but you also have to have some better give and take skills."

Why does the notion that Isiah overpaid for Marbury and Penny still bother some?

Two teams agreed to a deal, had Isiah offered less, Marbury may not be here. Why do people act as if they were in the room and on the phone while the deals were going down? You think Isiah just said 'ahhh hell Jerry, why don't you take Lampe too'?

Kam, I'm with you 100%. That's been bugging me too.

Don't know where this widespread notion that Isiah overpaid for Marbury comes from. There are a whole bunch of posters who seem to think that he could have gotten the same deal w/o giving Lampe, or could have lottery-protected this year's #1, or done any number of little things to make the deal a little sweeter. These are guys who otherwise like the deal. Well, for all we know, it was take it or leave it. We don't know. Maybe Isiah was prescient and refused to include Sweets in the deal despite Phoenix pushing for it?

In the end, we have to judge the deal as it was put together. If you don't like it, fine (I disagree, but that's ok). But don't assume we could have gotten more or given less just by holding firm.

Smooth,

Which is it. Frank Williams career backup,
or Frank Williams string of really good games.


some one posted this link on the NYTimes forum:
http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20040413-121657-1462r.htm

an excerpt:

  "Marbury's one of the top 10 players on offense," Winston says. "Everybody thinks this guy is a great player. But when he's on defense, he gives it all back."

Sounds like a bunch of bs to me. You are gonna tell me that a superb offensive guy is not really all that if he gives up on the D? How about understanding that defense is a team concept. Its much more about trust then about individual actions. Most prolific NBA scorers cannot be guarded 1 on 1 by anybody. Its about the system. Also, Dallas has not exactly been all that sucesful considering how much talent they got. And telling me that James is not the reason behind the turnaound in Clevalnd is beyond stupid. What these professors fail to understand is that basketball player are intechangable and perform based on the situation they are put into. Put any PF with a similar game to Boozer on that Cavs team and he'll look good. So Wade is so great? How about the fact that he has been out for a lot. So the Heat could not exactly rely on him to carry them to the playoffs. A certain guy named Odom did, and I bet he is not all that either according to the number crunching. Attempts at describing away people with mathematical formulars have failed before and will never ever amount to anything because being unpredicatable is what makes us human and what makes sports fun.