callmened wrote:In the future, I think acquiring young talent will lean towards "thinking outside the box" rather than traditional draft picks. Yes there will always be stars to draft in the lottery and sleepers that turn out to be good. But since the college game is getting worse and these kids arent ready, alot of them end up overseas or in the DLeague "to finish their education". By the time they "graduate", theyve improved their game and maturity (humbled into good work ethic). I think teams like the spurs (green, splitter, neal) and recently the knix (copeland, gani lawal) are onto something.

Dont me wrong, draft picks will always be valuble but not like before. More teams are looking elsewhere since the college game sucks

Any thoughts?

I think you will see more and more players, American and otherwise being picked up from the Euro league. They seem to teach better fundamentals and even end of the bench guys over there are often superior to the guys we have coming out of College here. Copelan is a great example of that. So was Gallo.

Nalod wrote:NEw trend? SAS been doing it for years. Parker was a low 1st rounder and Manu stayed in europe a few years. Bulls got Kukoc, and even portland took a pick on Sabonis years before he came over. Orlando got burned on a 13th pick on Fernandez, Knicks with Milo's and "Fearful Freddy Weis" really never even tried.

Nets been doing it a few years and it may pay off. Besides their Euro's they have Tayshon Taylor, from Kansas who did some time in the Dleague who might be their backup this year. Teams don't always strike gold but if they are patient and willing to "invest" it one way of growing assets.

Knicks don't seem to have a track reacord of success in this. Copeland is on of many players that can play but need an opportunity. Same for Lin.

Good Morning

Lin isn't/wasn't a euro player or, were you simply commenting on guys that could be successful with playing time?

NYKBocker wrote:Yeah. This is not a new trend. SAS has been doing this for years. The BIG differences are the following...

1. SAS tanked and lucked out with Duncan. Timmy basically guarantees any team a winning season and help pacify everybody and they have all their assets.
2. SAS owners worked with the front office and gave them a lot of leeway.
3. SAS fans are a patient bunch.
4. SAS has a top notch scouting team. Euro or Collegiate.

Can the Knicks do this? I don't think so.
1. We have Melo but we have no assets and front office is working with one arm tied behind his back. So no.
2. Dolan. Big fat no.
3. This is 50/50. Too many talking heads like Screamin A Smith that will not let this happen.
4. We did well with DLee, Gallo, Wilson, Nate and others. We bombed on Lampe, Frye and others. So a maybe?

You bring up good points and having Duncan was a big plus. He also only played with one coach his whole career. Very rare indeed!

Continuence is important.

Duncan is a great player no doubt but when they rebuilt the team after Robinson retired it was with Parker and Manu. They were not on the first team that one.

Im reminded how impatient we were with Ewing and how impatient Ewing was as well. Its all well documented but the fact is our best chance came with two bone head cast offs (Mason and Starks) and it took a great coach to get them to play. IN the end it was kid of their lack of pedigree that made them volitile and unreliable. Parker lost his job to George Hill three years ago. We would have called for parker to be moved. Its been 6 years since they last won.

Duncan has also re-emerged as a player.

Give SAS credit, they built around Duncan with out of the box talent and patience! Splitter took a long time to come here and to be a good player! We use guys like that as "throw in's"!