Bonn1997 wrote:I'm glad that after 26 months, Phil has gotten respectable players for 3 of the 15 roster spots.
I think it's a little better than that, and there's also a bigger equation to look at. You don't want to invest in players longterm you don't think will be part of a championship level team. RoLo, Melo, Porzingis and Grant are on contract longterm, and all 4 have shown why. Melo's an all-star, RoLo is a very solid 2-way Center, Porzingis has immense potential to be a star and already is a top 10 PF in the East, and Grant has shown towards the end of the season he is a very decent guard to have in the rotation. There's Lance Thomas who before the concussion and injuries showed he was a valuable rotation player. Now that leaves 3 more spots, to get together a 8 man rotation that's good enough to square off against Cleveland, Toronto, Atlanta ... in the playoffs.
You can't go out and just sign or trade for those 3-4 extra players just to get a little better, and instead the team went with short gaps like Afflalo, Calderon and has taken some chances on Galloway and Wroten. We either can be patient and sign, draft or trade the right longterm players, or do the quick fix which is to go after the expensive veterans who will command big contracts but not yield the results.
The way things are set up right now, the team has the potential to knock on the playoff door with a core of Lopez, Porzingis, Melo, Grant, Calderon and Thomas (when healthy and next year I expect both Porzingis and Grant to be more consistent) plus we can add players through free agency in 2017 and 2016. Both years we can go to work. This is a way in the past the Knicks have never gone at it. They've always tried to jump from 30 wins to 45 wins by trading or signing the biggest name on the market, thus mortgaging the future and killing the cap situation. The way the Knicks are currently set up, they can both try to make the playoffs the next 2 seasons, develop a potential franchise player in KP, and also keep the option open through free agency of getting a ton better by signing a star like Durant, DeRozan, Westbrook (and more) if any of them have interest in leaving their current teams.