Personally, I think we'd easily make it to the Conference Finals in spite of Derek Fisher's inexperience and extreme roster turnover. The East is as wide open as it has been in quite some time, while this roster is particularly saavy, balanced and deep. I think the only structural issue with the roster, comes with the lack of athleticism with its post players. That issue led to the demise of the Odom-Gasol-Bynum Lakers but I don't see any teams in the East that could thoroughly exploit it aside from maybe the Cavs, Wizards and maybe the Hornets or Bulls (if Rose stays healthy).

TripleThreat wrote:I don't think the Knicks could make those trades ( or more to point, I don't see incentives in place for other teams to make those trades with the Knicks. I reiterate again, STAT and Bargs have close to zero trade value. )

But let's say the Knicks could get that roster hypothetically.

1)It's an aging roster
2)It's not a roster that could actually contend for a ring
3)It would cause the Knicks to jettison future draft picks ( which is why the Knicks are in their current hell right now, they spent far too long dumping their picks, almost casually in a frightening way, for aging and/or declining players with troublesome contracts.
4) It would cause the Knicks to take in aging players, many on bad contracts or a poor risk given the players history of health and age and likely decline.
5) It would cause the Knicks to almost certainly lock into the repeater tax. While the Knicks have financial might, the stacked penalties reduce actual roster options and moves that could be made otherwise. Outside of money, there are team building factors in choosing to avoid the luxury tax and esp the repeater tax.
6)Pau Gasol and/or David West and/or Joel Anthony and/or Luis Scola and/or Jason Smith cannot defend the rim consistently and offer plus defense.

Affalo would be a good get IMHO, but I just can't see the Suns giving up a cost controlled high upside rookie like Ennis, in a deep draft, for Calderon, Larkin and other parts.

At some point, folks have to start figuring out if the Knicks want to actually win and have legacy of winning again, they need to HOLD ONTO their draft picks and young players.

I don't understand why those trades couldn't happen. Is Evan Fournier and the 54th pick for Afflalo better than Iman Shumpert and the 51st pick? Because the former is exactly what Afflalo got traded for, yet the latter features a better player and better pick. And Jarrett Jack and filler is exactly what the Cavs dumped for $9 million worth of cap space. Why would they object to sending that to the Knicks if they had the money?

And again, stop with the "Amare and Bargnani have zero trade value" argument. We've had this conversation before and I pointed out several instances where expiring contracts were used to acquire assets (e.g. the Bobcats using Corey Maggette's expirer to get the 8th pick in this year's draft; Mo Williams' expirer to acquire the no.1 overall pick (Kyrie Irving) in the 2011 draft for the Cavs; the collection of players that the Kings traded to get Rudy Gay; Kris Humphries, Keith Bogans and Marshon Brooks' expirers the Nets used to acquire KG and Paul Pierce; the expirers the Nets used to acquire Joe Johnson; Jerryd Bayless' expirer to acquire Courtney Lee; Rashard Lewis' expirer for Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor, etc.)

At least with Affalo you do have a solid #2 option. David West starring as Charles Oakley. That trio would be interesting to watch in the Triangle, but I do think you're just out of the playoffs.

And we get George Hill, too? Why not trade Scola (he's a bench player for us?) and JR for Hibbert and be done with it? The NY Knacers! Get Reggie as an assistant coach. Would be great drama watching him and Spike interact during long losing streaks...

tj23 wrote:I love Afflalo and West but Jack is more of a sixth man to me and the only guy I've ever seen get Gasol to play D is Mike Brown. It's amazing that him and Marc have the same DNA. Hill might play better back at 2 guard but Prigioni is still a weak pg, even for a backup, triangle or not. I think they could do very well but I wouldn't pick them to knock off Cleveland or Chicago. I would think they get to the 2nd round at least. They remind me a bit of Atlanta the past several seasons.

You don't think George Hill could start at PG? If we don't start Hill, I think he could consume the bulk of minutes at both guard positions to help minimize Prigioni's role. As for Pau, I think he played excellent team defense during the Lakers three runs to the Finals. I can't see him being any worse than Chris Bosh on that end of the floor and the Heat managed to make 4 Finals runs with him. Otherwise I agree with you. I think that it'd be a tossup between us and Chicago but I think that the Cavs would beat us handedly.

NardDogNation wrote:

jrodmc wrote:Pau gets hurt and we get to watch the implosion of Jason Smith and the continuing saga of ex-Knick killers like Jarret Jack who turn into horsesheet once they're brought here.

At least with Affalo you do have a solid #2 option. David West starring as Charles Oakley. That trio would be interesting to watch in the Triangle, but I do think you're just out of the playoffs.

And we get George Hill, too? Why not trade Scola (he's a bench player for us?) and JR for Hibbert and be done with it? The NY Knacers! Get Reggie as an assistant coach. Would be great drama watching him and Spike interact during long losing streaks...

You really think that Jason Smith is bad? I was pretty happy with his signing, if he can stay healthy. You're not going to find many backup bigmen that are more talented than he is.

I don't think he's that bad, as a backup, and for some weird reason I happen to like that funky McHale j. I just don't think he'll be on the floor long enough to make an impact if Pau goes down.

NardDogNation wrote:

jrodmc wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

jrodmc wrote:Pau gets hurt and we get to watch the implosion of Jason Smith and the continuing saga of ex-Knick killers like Jarret Jack who turn into horsesheet once they're brought here.

At least with Affalo you do have a solid #2 option. David West starring as Charles Oakley. That trio would be interesting to watch in the Triangle, but I do think you're just out of the playoffs.

And we get George Hill, too? Why not trade Scola (he's a bench player for us?) and JR for Hibbert and be done with it? The NY Knacers! Get Reggie as an assistant coach. Would be great drama watching him and Spike interact during long losing streaks...

You really think that Jason Smith is bad? I was pretty happy with his signing, if he can stay healthy. You're not going to find many backup bigmen that are more talented than he is.

I don't think he's that bad, as a backup, and for some weird reason I happen to like that funky McHale j. I just don't think he'll be on the floor long enough to make an impact if Pau goes down.

I have those same concerns too. That's why I thought that having veterans behind him would be critical. Kenyon Martin is no stalwart but I think that he can fill the gaps when Smith is hurt. Joel Anthony isn't much of anything from a talent perspective but he's been a solid defender, who can at least protect the rim in limited minutes ala Kendrick Perkins. Neither guy would be a good long-term solution but I think they can give us meaningful minutes as stop-gaps until our rotation guys get back on their feet.

I hate when Plan A (Pau) is so bad you have to worry about plan C and D. I think your lineup would work better if you just let Cole stay on as at least your plan C, and possibly your actual plan B. Counting on Granpa Martin to back up a soft Pau and an injury prone Jason Smith isn't much of a plan. Joel Anthony hasn't been worth talking about for going on two years. No love for Aldrich? Didn't you see that Love-like game at the end of last season?

And I can't believe you're not being burned at the "We can't trade Shump" stake for your trade scenario #4.(Just read it now)
We essentially trade two promising yoots for a bunch of second rounders and what's left of the Pacer's tanking guts?