SocraticBallin22 - your post is spot on, don't let anyone tell you different. Wasting our time playing Calderon and Vujacic, trying to uncover a diamond in the rough, etc. -- I couldn't agree more. I've been saying the same thing for months. I've been talking about Kilpatrick since back in Sept., first as a better option over Wesley Saunders for training camp, then as a guy we should've signed as a backup to Afflalo before Sasha Vujacic was even being discussed. Then I've talked about him several times since as an option for the open roster spot or replacement for Vujacic who, let's face it, hasn't done a good job this season at all, exactly what some of us thought would be the case, and should've been waived a long time ago. Sasha should've never even been signed to begin with. No other GM out there would've picked Vujacic to be their backup SG--I think this was a personal decision for Phil more than sheer talent assessment or anything else. The Vujacic signing came off like nothing more than Phil looking to throw a bone to one of his former players. Maybe Phil felt like he owed him something for that big 4th quarter he had for him in the Finals, I dunno. What I do know is that Sasha failed badly with the Nets the last time he was in the NBA, his skills were and still are obviously in decline, and the Knicks didn't owe this guy a thing. He didn't help us win anything.. Back to Kilpatrick--you could just tell watching him in summer league that he was a player. None of the success he's had in the DL this year or now for the Nets is a surprise to me.
Nixluva - I don't think adding Kilpatrick at any point this year would've been a "stupid" idea. Hardly. And how does he not fit exactly? You wanna explain that to me..Dude would've been a quality addition anywhere along the way here, even as a training camp invitee before the season officially started. As for the "guys like Kilpatrick aren't worth breaking the plan for" statement, that's another comment I don't understand. What plan? Vujacic was a mistake and most of us thought so when he was signed. So now what? Tony Wroten? He was Phil's plan all along?? Dude wasn't even made available until Christmas time--before that, he was the Sixers' property and it looked like they were trying to rehab him, hopeful to get him back at some point. They wound up cutting him right before the new year; we get him a couple of months later (if he was part of the plan, why'd it take so long to sign him?) with the idea now of shutting him down for the rest of the year before giving him a look starting next summer. Don't get me wrong--I hope he makes it back 100% and I find him as intriguing as anyone else but to use "Tony Wroten" and "Phil's plan" in the same sentence is misguided. Wroten's a guy for next year, an uncertainty. Kilpatrick is someone we could've gotten to help the cause this year, a guy that could've helped galvanize the team back when it all went to **** after we hit .500. I mean "blindly acquiring talent"? Really?? How does making an honest assessment about how a productive SG from the DL could be an upgrade over Sasha Vujacic or at the very least a good candidate to occupy the 15th roster spot even come close to that characterization?
