If the Knicks can't get Crawford and still want a versatile G for their backcourt, would they consider Murray?

He comes with his downsides (erratic shooting, poor decisions, lots of turnovers), but he's also athletic, a slasher, and a very good scorer.

How do they get him? I think Seattle bites on Mutumbo and Trybanski for Booth and Murray. Mutumbo does what Booth does, that is come into games and block shots. Both Knicks are expiring contracts, so next year Seattle would have a TON of cap room (they'd have less than $12 million committed to players), and they need to re-sign Ray Allen this offseason and Collison and Ridnour the year after that.

Murray gives the Knicks that versatile G that can play either backcourt spot, and I think he'd be a definite positive. Booth is one-dimensional as a shot blocker, but the Knicks don't have one so he'd be helpful for 10-15 minutes per game.

If Etan Thomas is going to be matched by Washington, I'd say the Knicks split the MLE on Doleac and either Chris Mihm or Chris Andersen. I like Doleac and Mihm, because this gives Marbury three bigmen (Doleac, Mihm, and KT) to run the pick and roll with, and it also adds a lot of depth to the frontcourt. I'd expect KT to be dealt at midyear when Sweetney has proven he can start each game. Until then, I'd imagine the team looking like this:
PG: Marbury, Williams
SG: Houston, Murray
SF: TThomas, Penny
PF: KThomas, Sweetney, Mihm
C: Mohammed, Doleac, Booth
IL: Ariza, Johnson, Anderson
Buy out Moochie Norris, keep Anderson b/c Houston might get hurt again.

With Houston healthy, to me, that's the 4th to 5th best team in the east behind Indiana, Detroit, and Cleveland. Miami, if they sign Blount, Dampier, or EThomas, goes above them as well. NJ I think will decline and struggle with depth and injury problems, and New Orleans is now in the West. I think the real ace in IT's sleeve is KT, as he could be dealt midseason to a team needing height and they could really improve themselves at the halfway mark, possibly adding draft picks or things like that. If Houston's healthy and Sweetney continues to improve, that's a very good team.

And you said my trade suggestion in the kerry kittles thread is unrealistic...?

Seattle is shopping Jesus...one of the reasons is so Flip can step in. and you think they'll give him up for trybanski..? trybanski which is probably the one error in judgement that jerry west ever made?

Seattle keeps picking up guards so you don't know what they want. Just take a look at their roster.

The way they disrespected Flip last year who is to say they want to keep him just because they are trying to trade Ray Allen. Flip was gonna be an all-star before Ray Allen came aboard.

McMillen is the worst coach in the league as far as I'm concerned. He proved that to me back when Seattle played the Spurs in the playoffs when they had Vin Baker.

So whatever.....I think Flip Murray would be a cheap alternative to Jamal Crawford. Flip is not a great decision maker but he can score with the best of them. His handle is also very good and I can see him in sharing the backcourt with Marbs.

Crawford, Flip, Jackson, Quinten.....any of those guys would be a hugh upgrade.

they will be a liability on the defensive end. As a knick fan over the years, we have seen what teams can do to us when they exploit the defensive liabilities of our players.
Examples, Mark Jackson (speed), ward and childs, although developed pretty good defense (size),

Marbury's not a defensive liability

i might be very defensive minded, but majority of the teams that wins the finals and go deep in the playoffs are the stronger defensive teams. Thats the reason why Mavs will not go anywhere with that nucleus and the Kings(as good as they are) they are missing a lil vs their competitors. Im not saying all u need is defense to win, however, its a very strong part of the game.

And back on marbary, I ur right he shouldnt be poor defender because hes a VERY strong pg but he just choooses not to play many times. Marbary has to emerge as a defender and leader if he is our franchise

"realistically....my targets in FA are Rasheed, Etan, possibly Dampier, and Q"

How is that realistic? The only person they MIGHT have a chance at getting is Etan Thomas, every other guy signs for much more than the MLE easily.

Rasheed wants to come here and may take the MLE,that's what makes it realistic.

You're right Dampier is unrealistic, I'll replace him with Foyle

If Denver gets Kobe, the Clippers may or may not pay him, and there may not be a huge market for him.

Chico call me ignorant again, .....Try sticking to basketball, if you're limited knowledge on the subject is exceeded by the intelligence of the discussion, keep quiet. To me we may be able to sign them....I gave my list, how about you give yours, smartass...

Posted by Nalod:

Sheed only gets here in a sign and trade.

Sheed is not a charity. He wants to play here, but not to give up 3-5 million dollars.

No need to trade for a starter to replace houstan just yet. he may heal.

I would agree normally but his agent is sayin (I now it's his agent) that Philly and NY are options because he wants to play in both....He wants to be in a place hi family is comfortable, money isn't important to him at this point...at least that's what he says...It may or may not be a load of BS.

Posted by joec32033:

Rasheed wants to come here and may take the MLE,that's what makes it realistic.

You're right Dampier is unrealistic, I'll replace him with Foyle

If Denver gets Kobe, the Clippers may or may not pay him, and there may not be a huge market for him.

Chico call me ignorant again, .....Try sticking to basketball, if you're limited knowledge on the subject is exceeded by the intelligence of the discussion, keep quiet. To me we may be able to sign them....I gave my list, how about you give yours, smartass...

to you we may be able to sign them. so what? to you maybe pigs can fly. to you maybe the sky is yellow. This is the real world, where people don't take half pay cuts because "you think they can." i didn't call you ignorant, i called your statement ignorant. then i backed it up and explained why. for your whole argument to be "to me we may be able to sign them" holds absolutely no water. its not an argument. its just ignorant

to be honest, i'm more comfortable suggesting trades than free agent signings. obviously i would love any of the guys on your list to be knicks, but I think they're going to go for the money. Especially with the union negotiations going on next year and offseason. These guys want to lock up their contracts now, with the max money, before the rules change on them. This is one reason Spree is willing to give up a guaranteed 15 mill next year. he'd gladly renegotiate now, because who knows whats gonna happen. Already the union is threatening work stoppage. The league is in worse shape now than when they stopped work before. It really could happen. Guys have families and lifestyles and legal bills that are just more important than playing in NY or playing for Zeke.

The media seems to think our best chance is jamal crossover. I'd be psyched if we could get him, but i'm not so sure. We have a much better chance of getting 2nd and 3rd tier free agents later in the summer with our exceptions the way atlanta ended up with stephen jackson. I'd consider Jamal a 2nd tier fa. I'm not as concerned with who we're gonna sign, My biggest priority by far is moving out junk to clear out roster space. We have 13 guaranteed contracts and a bunch of young guys on our summer league roster who i'd rather have on the team than half our roster. to me, this summer is about moving guys in 3 for 1 and 2 for 1 trades. Who we move is almost more relevant than who we get in return. If we can move 3 bums for 1 high priced bum, I'll take it, because it opens up 2 roster spots for 2 potential non bums. People don't want Walker on the Knicks, but if we can move Kurt, Deke, and Harrington for Walker, I'd jump in a second. Dallas has the wherewithal (both financially and gumptionwise) to buy out Deke and Othella immediately and then they'dve traded Walker for a useful physical roleplayer in kurt, one whose locked up for a few years and doesn't chuck shots up every 2 seconds. His scoring would go down, but he would just be needed to rebound and play defense. Dallas' offseason priority (and Sac Town's) has to be defense, Kurt provides some. For us, we will have opened up 2 roster spots and would only be stuck with Walker for a year max. Those 2 roster spots could be filled with youth (from summer league, cba etc) building for the future. Zeke knows that we need to rebuild on the run. We have a deep team, but one that is made up of 4th, 5th and 6th options (except for Steph): decent role players, but not good enough to be legit 2nd or 3rd options on a winning team. I, for one, don't believe Houston will come back healthy and think his knees (not one but both) will continue to be a problem until he's forced to retire. I don't believe he will even last out this contract as a player in this league. Penny, Tim Thomas, Nazr, Kurt...these guys are decent role players but nowhere near what Stephon needs on the court. We're like the opposite of the Lakers or Minnesota. The Lakers have the best one two punch since MJ and Scottie but no depth and Minnesota has a legit 1, 2, 3 options in KG, SamIam and Spree, but little depth and no big man to speak of. Dallas has a team stacked with 2nd and 3rd options, but no superstar and no role players to speak of. We've got a plethora of pieces that can really help a winning team, but we need to get those 2 nd and 3rd options (a cassell, a spree etc) to go with Marbury. The Nets made it to the finals with a legit superstar (Kidd) and a legit second option (Kmart) and a legit third option (RJ) and a couple of hardworking guys who barely qualify as role players. We have pieces, and I'm optimistic about using them in trades, but I think people are smoking crack when they talk about us winning 50 games with the roster as it stands... (not necessarily you, but all kinds of overly optimistic posts that i read, that don't appear to be grounded in reality, but instead in people's dreams and wishes)