BRIGGS wrote:nyknickzingis wrote:The team was 14-10.
Now they're 25-38.
They have gone 11-28. That's a little less than .300 level play over the last 40 games.They have 19 games left. So they won 5 or 6 of them. It's not the worst thing if that happens. Teams have drafted great talent around 10th or lower. Where did Philly pick up Dario Saric? He was a nice get for them. Where did Boston get Paul Pierce? He was a 10th pick.
Let things fall into place. The team has done so much self inflicted wounding already, that I see no reason it won't contiue to shoot itself in the foot and blow games. What I do like is what Lance Thomas is bringing to the team. Ron Baker. We're seeing their effort and defense be infectious. KP is playing much better defense as well. I want to see this group try, because most of them are coming back next year.
If they go to work thinking about what their summer plans are, man that will be ugly and it will be bad for next year. You want players that give a damn, that want to win and that compete hard. I don't want guys who don't give a crap and already checked out. Many tanking teams have that kind of mindset and those kinds of players. Screw that.
Absolutely foolish train of thought. Think like this-- the last two seasons we had aberrations to start the seasons but rea lly we are a .300 team a .300 team NEEDS top tier talent to add. We need as much amno to run for a top 3 pick as any club in the nba please stop telling me how much talent we have--- we stink and we need better players. At the same time it gives the Knicks 15 games to look at younger players and maybe a couple of d leaguers. What do we get out of playing Rose and melo? Nothing
The team needs top talent that can be top talent right away. You are in hopes that the players you draft at 4 5 or 6 in a draft are guaranteed top players vs players you could draft at 9, 10 or 11.
Dirk Nowitzki was picked 9th.
Paul Pierce was picked 10th.
Paul George was picked 10th.
Kobe Bryant was picked 13th.
Kawahi Lenoard was picked 15th.
Isiah Thomas was picked 60th.
All I'm saying is usually in each draft, there are 1 or 2 clear cut franchise players, and the rest of it is about how the player develops, how your situation allows him to grow and whether this player works hard enough.
I don't look at this draft and say, man we are getting another Chis Paul, or Lebron James or someone like that. We are not even going to get someone like Towns or Kristaps at 4, 5 or 6. There are some good players in this draft after the top 2, but it's not like any of them are guaranteed to be great players.
I don't want a losing culture installed on Kristaps, Willy, Lance, Ron, and other players I think will be with the team for a while. It's really a bad thing to do, and proven to be a very hard thing to get out of. Yes you look like a great young team on paper, but not a single one of those teams actually ends up becoming any good right away and it takes you getting lucky and getting a franchise talent like a Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Chris Paul to actually turn it around soon.
I've made countless posts about the examples of teams that have been tanking and still are not even close to good. They're still stuck looking for a player even as good as Kristaps. We already have a really good player, we need to stay competitive and then draft the best possible, regardless where we are. The fact is with Willy, Kristaps and the way Gaines has scouted, I feel good about whereever we draft that we will get someone good.
If I knew tanking would lead to a top 2 pick, and a guaranteed franchise player, I would do it. It's not the case. We're not in that position where we're going to finish with a bottom 2 record. Teams with talent like KP, Rose, Melo, do not fiish bottom 2 in the league. We need to make changes, we need to draft well, but competing should not be thrown out of the window. All the Knicks have to do is make sure they draft well, regardless of position in the draft.
The Nuggets best player is not Emmanuel Mudiay. He was their "tank" pick. Yet he borerline sucks. Guess who is their franchise player possibly moving forward? Jokic. He was not a tank pick, he was a great late pick. The Spurs franchise has kept running for years because of great scouting, drafting international players late in the draft outside of the top 10 of the lottery. To me they are the best model to follow.
Willy is not a great talent, but he is better than alot of first round picks in his draft. He is probably right now a top 20 player from his draft. That's how it works. You succeed by drafting well, regardless of position. I trust Gaines will give Phil the right information. I think Phil will draft whomever he feels is the best talent at that time. I hope we get a hard working kid, someone who is not just happy being a millionaire and putting up stats. I am excited about the lottery, but I'm never excited about making players like Kristaps, Willy, Lance, Ron (and others who will be back next year and maybe for a few years) play in meaningless games where it's so obvious a tank job is going on.
Let things play out. We stay healthy, Rose and KP play well here on out (like they have been) and we win 6-7 more games. We draft 10th or 11th instead of 5th or 6th. So what, it doesn't mean we are guaranteed a horrible player and the team drafting at 5 or 6 is guaranteed a great player. Let things play out. Falling lower in 2015 (4th instead of 2nd) made the decision of drafting KP over Russell or Okafaor much easier. You don't know how things will play out and what talent is available at 9-10-11. I also think if we're at 9/10/11 in the draft, and we do well this offseaosn in a trade, who we draft and some role players in free agency, we will be in playoff contention maybe next season. Moving from 9/10/11 in the draft to 15 and lower is easier than moving from 4/5/6 to there.
3/6/2017 7:07 AM