If the Knicks were able to finagle the cap to basically leverage their cap space and pick in this draft to acquire the Hawks' core and impending free agents, how good would they be?

STARTERS
Jeff Teague...PG
Demarre Carroll...SG
Carmelo Anthony...SF
Paul Millsap...PF
Al Horford...C

ROTATION
Alexy Shved...G
Langston Galloway...G
Kyle Korver...SF
Mike Scott...PF
Pero Antic...C

I can't help but think that they'd be the toast of the East. The Hawks' main problem is that they lack a star scorer that can act as a gravity well and prevent teams from shutting down a Teague pick and roll or an iso for Paul Millsap. Melo fixes all of that. And obviously, with their ability to move/pass the ball, they'd be one of the more prolific offensive teams in the league while running the triangle. On the defensive end, that roster's ability go switch everything (like we did during our 54 win season), can really help in hiding Melo's defensive deficiencies. Giving up a top 3 pick that will yield a franchise player is tough but I think I'd do it in this scenario since I think we'd have a legitimate chance to win a title.

Knicks will work on it via free agency, draft and possible trades. I dont see anyone on the Hawks that might play for the Knicks. Maybe Millsap but i dont see anyone else.

NardDogNation wrote:

WOODMANnYk wrote:This current Hawks team will never win a championship. You need at least 2 stars, team defense and a great bench. They dont even have a star.

Knicks will work on it via free agency, draft and possible trades. I dont see anyone on the Hawks that might play for the Knicks. Maybe Millsap but i dont see anyone else.

Millsap is a star in his own right and Jeff Teague is an "irrational confidence" guy who can masquerade as one. I think that roster with Melo would be better than pretty good.

nixluva wrote:We talked about this off and on over the year, but my contention was that Phil is clearly trying to do a Hawks style upgrade of the team with our Top 5 pick and Melo in the mix. There are a lot of quality role players who could be signed from different top teams. I think that could put this team over the top of a team like the Hawks if he was able to accomplish that. Not in year one per se but eventually I think you could build a team with a higher ceiling. It's basically what the Mavs did, winning at title with one Elite player and a lot of really good role players.

BigDaddyG wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

WOODMANnYk wrote:This current Hawks team will never win a championship. You need at least 2 stars, team defense and a great bench. They dont even have a star.

Knicks will work on it via free agency, draft and possible trades. I dont see anyone on the Hawks that might play for the Knicks. Maybe Millsap but i dont see anyone else.

Millsap is a star in his own right and Jeff Teague is an "irrational confidence" guy who can masquerade as one. I think that roster with Melo would be better than pretty good.

Playoffs aside, Teague has played like a top 10 PG. And you can't beat his deal.

Fair but is that sample season enough to justify his other missteps/shortcomings before this season? Teague was on the block just last year and his stinker in this year's playoffs might have them reconsidering his status with team long-term. Personally, I like Teague as a no.3 guy on a contender but asking him to be the 1st or 2nd best player on a nightly basis is a bit unreasonable given his talents, especially when you consider the PG position. In the playoffs, you can expect him to consistently be playing guys like John Wall, Kyrie Irving, Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowry who are all better than him. And things will get worse if guys like Elfrid Payton and Michael Carter Williams find jump shots and fulfill their potential; not to mention the fact that you have D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay about to be drafted.

crzymdups wrote:I think Phil's vision is to pair Melo with a low post stud, be that Marc Gasol (lol not happening), LMA (maybe a 5% chance), Greg Monroe (more likely) or Jahlil Okafor (20% chance, I guess) and get a defensive big man to pair with that low post stud.

So that'd be a two-pronged star attack for the offense. He's also said he wants someone who can drive the ball to the hoop from the perimeter. Traditionally in the Triangle this has been the SG with the PG more of a facilitator who can shoot the three from the top of the arc.

So I think we know what kind of team Phil wants to build, more or less - the questions are: who will be the low post stud? who will be the SG or driving guard (I think he'd still like Russell or Mudiay if we get pick 3 or 4)? and who will be the other big man down low? First domino in figuring that out is when we hear the draft lottery and then the next is seeing who we draft.

Anyways. I think the Knicks can build a better team than the Hawks - Hawks are a classic example of being better than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately, without a real late game shot maker/superstar, I don't know how far a team like that can go. You put Melo on that Hawks team and they'd be pretty interesting, but they'd probably have a lot less ball movement.

Why? At this stage of Melo's career, isn't it more likely that he reverts to being Olympic Melo much more frequently than all-star Melo?

nixluva wrote:I was making this very point in other threads this year. There's nothing stopping the Knicks from putting together a good roster full of high quality role players. Not the usual low level role guys but the cream of the crop role players that make a difference. That's why I made the WS/48 list. It's clear that there are a lot of highly productive role players we can add. This is what I believe Phil plans to do.

+1