- this team is underachieving - its just undertalented. there are no two way players that can play offense or defense. Its either one or the other. and the other isnt that good. This team should "tank" and i dont want to hear abuot trades or upgrades to attempt to improve this team. It doesnt deserve and i doubt it will help anyway

- coach fisher is a new coach and will take some lumps. i expected that. i hope he learns them now and corrects mistakes before we improve.

- melo is a talented player but he simply isnt buying into the triangle. still too much iso and he hasnt learned when to pass or shoot. i heard he has a nagging knee problem and will rest. thats great....rest a long long time. hes a long term investment for better or for worse so we have to guard his health as he ages

- Prigoni > Calderon...i wasnt over hyped about jose but i thought he was a solid player. he still is but he doesnt initiate or create much. hes pretty much a back up spot up shooter. Prigoni on the other hand makes things happen on defense and on passing. weve invested 7mill to an aging back up for the next 3 yrs. (sigh)

- Shumpert is starting to regress back to his mean = a streaky shooter who plays over zealous defense. i still like him on my team but just as a back up. i dont know what phil thinks but it wouldnt surprise me if he just cleans house with the old regime

- JR is being JR and i cant stand it. i hope he gets high and takes his act somewhere else

- timmy is a streaky shooter, exciting fast break player who is allergic to the concept of defense or rebounding. I can see why a coach would bench him. but my question is: if the rest of the team is the same way...why bench your young prospect?!?!?!

- Amare - one of the few bright spots on the team. his best position (thru out his entire career) was as an undersized center. its not surprising me that hes showing production. i hope he puts up good numbers the rest of the reason so he can get a nice contract...SOMEWHERE else. im not his biggest fan, but ive never questioned his offensive talent or perseverance

- Dalembert - um..lol...he doesnt fit the triangle. One needs a low post scoring presence - and that he is not. same for Cole-train. I liked the signing of j.Smith but we can see why no one wanted him

- Larkin - doesnt even play anymore...good bye. exciting but too erratic for me.

- Bargnani - i know there were a couple people here who still believed in him. this has to go down as one of the worst knicks trades ever. (sigh)

- speaking of trades: like i said during the summer dallas fans on their site were laughing at us for getting the bad part of the deal. they took advantage of our demand to get rid of ray. not only did we trade the best player in the deal, but we got back jose (washed up), larkin (not good), greak freek 2.0 (doubt will ever play meaningful NBA mins) and early (injured - but i still have hope)

2. PLAN

T.A.N.K....LOL. theres no point for the rest of the season except to protect long term assets like melo, let fisher make mistakes on the job and let these vets play out their contracts. i DONT want to see any trades to try and upgrade this horrible team

3. DRAFT

- this years draft is full of big men: okafor gets all the hype but i think towns has more upside. the rest of those kentucky towers are tyson chandler clones (tall athletic bigs who play defense 1st and dunk off pick n rolls). there are a couple PGs but im not a fan of young PGs trying to learn on the job. very hit or miss...like their jumpers. I vote to draft a big man

- the problem with scouting college talent is the rules dont allow for individual play (too many fouls and coaches play zones to triple team stars). plus offenses are designed to share the ball as if this type of democracy will make scrub role players valuable

4. FREE AGENTS

- no winner (like gasol, aldridge) will come to a rebuilding situation like the knicks. Id sincerely question their judgement and desire to win. (sigh). instead, there are lower tier free agents that are just between role players and stars: W matthews, Monroe, Millsap, Tob Harris to name of few. From what i understand, out cap room will be about 30 mill. each of these pseudo stars will likely as for 12-14 mill (based on the new nba deal), so therefore we can only afford one (assuming that we plan to find eight other players to fill out the roster. One other plan could just be to pay Rondo the max and fill out the roster with cheaper players. I love rondo and melo needs a PG on the team.

well thats all i can think of for now. any thoughts?concerns? criticisms?

BRIGGS, RonRon, and the other characters - what do you think?

Splat wrote:

smackeddog wrote:Wow- it's the 10th of December already- the 15th is a-coming. We are now entering the final days of the JR Smith era...

Goodbye JR Smith
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to smoke some crack
While those around you balled

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a jackass on the court
Never knowing who to pass to
When your jumper failed

And I would have liked to have not known you
But I was just a fan
Your candle burned out long before
Your contract ever did

Beautiful- remember the first time we saw him don a Knicks jersey? He'd just had a line freshly shaved across the top of his hair which looked like a hair band of baldness and looked amazing:

I do actually like JR, but it's time to go