OK Phil answer me this 1 question. You said we will keep many players on the roster. I havent figured out 1 player who plays the right way. Can you even point me to one consistent player on the current roster--1? 1 that plays a good brand of basketball?

Also why not drop a few guys and bring up 3 from the dleague that might just have more upside? The guys we have now are terrible.

Galloway plays good basketball- team concept- but he isn't that good.

I'd tweet at him if I knew how to really do that- are the Knicks going to win another game this season?

And on a more serious note- does he really expect whatever player he drafts, whatever FA actually come here and whatever part of the roster comes back next year to be really that much better?

The more I let this season's disaster sink in, rationally thinking about next season - 30 wins tops.

Healthy Melo? Maybe he was hurt all year badly - but he marched out there with this group & helped produce 14 wins.

He comes back healthy next year, with this group- do they win more than 20?

BRIGGS wrote:

franco12 wrote:Briggs - we have some guys that play 'good' basketball - but they themselves aren't 'good' or 'great' players - probably because they are inconsistent.

Galloway plays good basketball- team concept- but he isn't that good.

I'd tweet at him if I knew how to really do that- are the Knicks going to win another game this season?

And on a more serious note- does he really expect whatever player he drafts, whatever FA actually come here and whatever part of the roster comes back next year to be really that much better?

The more I let this season's disaster sink in, rationally thinking about next season - 30 wins tops.

Healthy Melo? Maybe he was hurt all year badly - but he marched out there with this group & helped produce 14 wins.

He comes back healthy next year, with this group- do they win more than 20?

The scary part is this

Right now we have

0 frontcourt players signed

0 Point guards signed

1 undersized inconsistent smallish combo guard signed

1 NBA all star level player coming off major knee surgery

What do I not like about the guys we have--lack of athleticism lack of shooting touch lack of rebounding skills ball movement to me has been porous the D has been shaky--I really honestly cant say 1 good 1 word about what splaying right now and why they should stay.

Briggs- you're technically wrong- Melo is a front court player and he is signed!

Our problem isn't that we don't have enough D League level talent on the roster. Phil is talking about bringing in NBA starting quality players to form a new top 6 rotation with. That's where the real improvement will come from. They can always bring in some young prospects to develop and to fill out the bench next year. I would think all of the top D League guys would be brought up by other losing teams too at this point. If a player is still in the D League right now there could be good reason. Maybe they're being stashed like Thanasis or they just don't fit the needs of any of the other losing teams or they may just not be good enough.

I think they are OK with starting one of the guards and Melo, and the offseason should be to find 3 other starters. One via the draft and two via FA. The rest are just bench guys.

holfresh wrote:

fishmike wrote:good chance of coming back:
Cole, Early, Galloway, Shved, Admundson, Wear, Jose, Melo, Thanisis

I think they are OK with starting one of the guards and Melo, and the offseason should be to find 3 other starters. One via the draft and two via FA. The rest are just bench guys.

9 guys from a 14 win team returning??

I mean Towns is a really athletic player so I could see someone like Cole playing nicely next to him. Cole can always guard the less athletic guy in the front court. A Mark Eaton type. Zaza Pachiula... a guy who takes up space, clogs the lane and fights constantly. There is a reason he fills out the stat sheet every time he plays... now the thing with Cole is he's got limitations, and when he gets exposed they are glaring. But a better system with better talent around him to help protect some of those? Well Cole could be a 10ppg 8rebs 55% 1.5blocks type of center in 25 minutes a game. Superior talent will elevate the output of the role players. We saw this with Melo two years ago. He was playing so well for stretches it just made it easy for guys like Novak, Copeland, JR, etc and their play was at career highs.

I think most of the guys I listed can be very good role players on a winning team if surrounded by talent. As a group they are terrible. I mean that's not a lot of talent, but we shouldn't be asking Galloway to run the point, guard the best wing and play 48 minutes a night. We should be asking him to hit the open 3 when the ball swings, pressure opposing guards and go balls to the walls on D for 20 minutes a night. In that role I think he's a good player and a great find for us

holfresh wrote:

fishmike wrote:good chance of coming back:
Cole, Early, Galloway, Shved, Admundson, Wear, Jose, Melo, Thanisis

I think they are OK with starting one of the guards and Melo, and the offseason should be to find 3 other starters. One via the draft and two via FA. The rest are just bench guys.

9 guys from a 14 win team returning??

no way that 9 guys will return.

BRIGGS wrote:

mreinman wrote:

holfresh wrote:

fishmike wrote:good chance of coming back:
Cole, Early, Galloway, Shved, Admundson, Wear, Jose, Melo, Thanisis

I think they are OK with starting one of the guards and Melo, and the offseason should be to find 3 other starters. One via the draft and two via FA. The rest are just bench guys.

9 guys from a 14 win team returning??

no way that 9 guys will return.

The question Id like Phil to answer is which of the current Knicks after 1 year embodies what you see in a player so the fans can understand your philosophy?

the only glimmers for me were Shved and perhaps Galloway. Those guys may have showed a possible upside. Some of the other guys may have shown heart but are not keepers.

No player has embodied the mold for future generations.

VCoug wrote:

nixluva wrote:I'm not against the Knicks taking a look at D Leaguers. However, I think it's a bit much to think any team would want to try and put 3 new D League level players on the team this late in the season. They wouldn't know the system and what to do, on top of having to adjust to the level of play in the NBA. It would not create a good learning environment for them nor a good showcase for them. I think perhaps the Knicks feel they've got enough young developing players on the pro team to deal with at the moment.

Our problem isn't that we don't have enough D League level talent on the roster. Phil is talking about bringing in NBA starting quality players to form a new top 6 rotation with. That's where the real improvement will come from. They can always bring in some young prospects to develop and to fill out the bench next year. I would think all of the top D League guys would be brought up by other losing teams too at this point. If a player is still in the D League right now there could be good reason. Maybe they're being stashed like Thanasis or they just don't fit the needs of any of the other losing teams or they may just not be good enough.

Are you arguing that 11 days ago was more than enough time to bring up a D-League player, Ledo, but today it's too late?

You just read what I wrote so why are you asking what I was arguing? My post was in response to the suggestion of bringing in 3 new D Leaguers to the team. That's perhaps too many raw players to just mix in at this time. I don't see the benefit of doing that at this point. If they did, so what? I don't see it as a reason to bash what they're doing just cuz they haven't done that.

We're pretty close to the end of the year and a nearly complete rebuild of the top 6 rotation players. That's going to be the most important aspect of the teams attempts to improve. We've already got a lot of young prospects who aren't likely to be in that top 6 rotation spots, much less some D League guys we bring up right now.

As an example of what a top 6 rotation could look like.

1. Melo
2. Shved?
3. Green?
4. Draft Pick - OK4 or KAT
5. Monroe?
6. Thanasis?
7. THJ/Early?

This isn't to say this is the exact roster, so let's not go crazy. It's just to suggest that most like any D Leaguer we added would likely fall lower on the rotation for next year. So why should we get nuts over the fact that they haven't brought in more back of rotation players?