expiring contracts do not yield those high quality players anymore unless attached with really blue chip prospects (of which the knicks don't have any).

players are now re-signing with their teams or forcing trades to teams where they want to sign extensions before they becomes UFA's like kevin loven now. and the trades go down if multiple picks and prospects are exchanged (of which the knicks don't have any).

the 2015 plan is really going to yield nothing more than the next flawed player that fans can't wait to pick apart and run out of town.

the knicks have to re-sign anthony otherwise they have to massively tank. unfortunately for you guys, the tank can only really be maximized this season b/c the pick has been traded the following year.

fishmike wrote:yea... another guy who was counting the minutes till he could sign with the Knicks is off the market.

There will still be some good FAs...

Andrea Barganini, Amare Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert... some good choices. Hopefully we dont sign Melo so we have at least $40mm to spend on these guys

I lost faith in the 2015 plan, the minute we started sucking last season. With our primary targets falling off our radar, I think we need to scrap the plan altogether. In the past, the Thunder had used their cap space to trade for empty contracts like Kurt Thomas, Wally Szerzbiak, Joe Smith, and Delonte West in order to build a cache of late first rounders that led to guys like Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor, Reggie Jackson and the like. We should try that strategy and move Melo for the most that we can get.

djsunyc wrote:here's the knicks dilemma -

expiring contracts do not yield those high quality players anymore unless attached with really blue chip prospects (of which the knicks don't have any).

players are now re-signing with their teams or forcing trades to teams where they want to sign extensions before they becomes UFA's like kevin loven now. and the trades go down if multiple picks and prospects are exchanged (of which the knicks don't have any).

the 2015 plan is really going to yield nothing more than the next flawed player that fans can't wait to pick apart and run out of town.

the knicks have to re-sign anthony otherwise they have to massively tank. unfortunately for you guys, the tank can only really be maximized this season b/c the pick has been traded the following year.

Tank.. what prospect is worth tanking for?

fishmike wrote:

meloshouldgo wrote:I also agree with the asset accumulation approach. And patience. We don't need to convince ourselves that we need superstars right now. If we have the assets we will trade for or sign a superstar when the opportunity presents itself or we may be able to Draft one. What we have done over the last 40 years or so is go for the short term fix chasing whatever big name FA was available and willing to play here. Time to stop the madness.

Let Melo walk or trade for assets, let Amare and Bags expire or trade for assets. Is really not complicated. We weren't winning anything one way or another with these guys. Start over for real, just this once.

there is another part to that and thats winning. If you want to win anything now you need to resign your perennial all star and elite scorer. Doing so in no way jeapordizes your ability to accumulate assets. The opposite. If we have a 54 win season like 2 years ago except instead of Novak and Copeland hitting shots its Early and THjr. What does that do to their value? Makes them very desirable.Flips side is if they put up good numbers on a 25 win team they are not as attractive.

If you super max Melo then you still have $20mm plus in cap space next year. If there is a team desperate to dump salary etc maybe you move Bargs or Amare for a contract that eats into that cap space, but you get picks back. Then the following year when JR comes off the books you STILL have enough to max out Durant the year after or another guy.

My thing is retain the talent, add more and stay smart avoiding bad contracts namely to role players.

That's also a very good point. Never saw it that way but it makes a lot of sense. My only concern is if Melo can stay healthy for the duration of his contract with the stress he has to put on his body due to the lack of help he has.