Posted by Rich:

Posted by HARDCOREKNICKSFAN:

Isiah is not done dealing, fellas. Watch how his next move or two helps bulk up our frontline.

As far as the last trade, what did we really lose?
Frank williams: we got Crawford, thus strngthening the backcourt.
A 40-year old Deke: If the Dampier moves goes smoothly, it will only amount to a frontcourt improvement.
Othella Harrington: At this point, I'd rather have the JYD.
Cezary Trybanski: a mere throw-in that we won't miss anyway.

Let's see what issues we have by training camp. I believe that this will be a dead issue by then.


[Edited by - HARDCOREKNICKSFAN on 08/08/2004 10:29:48]

We lost all the Knicks' expiring contracts, the most marketable trading chips Isiah had. Talent for talent, the deal was a no-brainer.

[Edited by - Rich on 08/08/2004 18:33:29]

We did not lose all our expiring contracts. We did not even lose our best ones. We had $86 mil in expiring contract over the next 24 months and we "lost" about $10 mil of that. (Or is your claim that expiring contracts matter only this year because all of our rebuilding for some reason must be complete this year???)

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 08/08/2004 18:55:03]

Like someone said before... we didn't have size to begin with... Mutt and Trybanski didn't play anyways.

We are actually the same size but more athletic and younger. Now I doubt we will work out any sign and trade with Dampier because if we traded Kurt and Nazir we would be left with 4 big men.

Sweets is a rookie and will be in foul trouble really often and who really knows how well Baker will perform, and can JYD really start and play major minutes and still be effective? So that would only leave us with Dampier as the only rock solid big man. Now imagine if one of them got injured then we would have 3 big men splitting 96 minutes? And not including foul problems? Then what would we do, have T.Thomas play PF?

You need at least 5 big men to play a season, so it's either we get Damps for the exception or trade ONE of our big men (Thomas?/Nazir?) +? for him.

Posted by BigSm00th:

If we don't get Dampier there will be a lack of size.

If we do, I'd imagine you'll have:
Dampier (6'11")
Baker (6'10")
Thomas (6'9")
Mohammed (6'10")
Sweetney (6'8")
Williams (6'8")

This is a problem that plagues a lot of teams, though. Hopefully they'll find something to combat it.

Over and over I keep reading about "expiring contracts"! Expiring contracts cannot rebound, shoot or block shots! Expiring contracts like the ones we just traded means we can dump them for players whom have even bigger contracts. And its a player the team does not want or need. HOw long can we be over 100% over the cap? It just can't be a successful model.

Isiah has done a very good job getting them competitive. Dolan will always make sure they are a financial success before going all the way, sucking it up, and install the building blocks of the highes caliber. Rebuilding has its degrees of risk, that is why its much easier to build a PRETENDER tan a true contender. THey need to be on tv and fill the seats. The methoed we go about it just does not build in such a way.

Yes its better than Laydog, we have some youth, some vets, and a far more interesting and competitive team, but it cost a ton to rid ourselves of last years disaster, but think about the expiring contract concept and how it really works.

sometimes I think some of you posters fall into the trap of thinking basketball is about being tall.

Give me 5 michael jordans or Kobe Bryants on one team and watch that team win 82 games!

Its talent and skill and it doesn't matter so much where its playing as long as you have it.

The lakers had the best center, but did they win this year? No.

San Antonio and Minnesota have some of the best power forwards in the league in Duncan and Garnett, but did they win this year? No.

Michael Jordan's Bulls won all those championships with who playing center?

Well, I can't remember them all, but I think Luc Longley, Bill Wennington, Scott Williams, a declining Bill Cartwright and some others that aren't in any record books and never made much money were the ones.

Yes, he had some solid, if not stellar play our of power forward with Grant and Rodman.

The Knicks can win with their front court if the skill players bring it every night, are healthy and develop chemistry.

I am happy to have Marbury, Crawford, Houston and Tim Thomas as my scorers.

If the Knicks can get some 'good effort' from Nazr (who showed some nice scoring flashes), Kurt Thomas, Junk Yard and Sweetney, we'll be fine. And if Penny can be a regular contributor, great.

Now, I wouldn't mind adding Dampier to the mix and Vin Baker, if he comes back, is the wild card.

How many wins does this team potentially have in them? I'd be happy with a high 40's win total- 45 to 49.

Who in this league has size up front?

The Pistons won with a 6'7" center!

here's the thing. Size impacts the game beyond the stats. I was argueing just this point the other day with a friend I work out with. I was saying that since the Suns have 3 starters to play 2 positions in Richardson, Marion and Joe Johnson they should look to trade one for a center to complete the roster. My point was those players are nice, but they need size or they just arent winning.

The arguement was as follows: My point was despite the fact that Marion is more productive and probably more talented, if you traded him straight up for either Brad Miller or Rasho Nesterovich the Suns are better team plain and simple. If you cant control the boards or get stops in the post your not winning games, plain and simple.

The Bulls are a perfect example. They ALWAYS had a 7 footer playing center. In their last 3 titles they had a guy in Rodman who averaged 15 boards a game and was the best rebounder in the league (by alot). The Piston's had 2 7 footers off the bench in Okur and Cambell, and an abundance of long players as starters.

There is no way around this need... plain and simple. I dont think its as bad as Briggs makes it out to be but its main thing keeping us well short of Det and Indy. Forget the Heat, until they have more than 6 players on their roster I'm not worried about them. Shaq misses 20 games a year and their next best frontcourt player is Rasual Butler. Oooohhhh.. quaking in my boots over here.

bottom line is you don't get size only for the sake of getting size. The league is full of stiffs. I'd rather have an undersized but figthing guy at 6-8 instead of a jerome james, calvin booth, eschmayer... and so ever, why keeping on ? this list is endless.