http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/story/263709p-225775c.html.

I agree with the article to some extent. They can keep bringing up the money issue. But Marbury, Crawford, Sweetney, KT are the only ones that have contracts that exceed 07. Sure he added more salary at this point but the only players with long term contracts are the players we will count on in the future like Marbury, Crawford & Sweetney. In the Layden era thats that same time we were waiting for Eisley, Houston, Shandon, Spoons contracts to end.

Sure we will probably add more long term contracts by signing FAs & the draft. But im pretty sure it won't be any Andersons or Spoons. As long as Dolan is willing to pay it it really isn't that big of a deal since we have tradable pieces. Plus Norris-Hardaway-TT-Baker soon in there walking and we go from 108mil - 68mil. The next season Houstons 20mil comes off the books & Shandons buyout expires.

Anyway this team has played 14games that have come down to the wire out of 24. They will be very tough come playoff time. Hopefully we can add some more size by then though *cough* Dalembert *cough*.

I disagree with the article just cause it's written by Mitch Lawrence. Has this guy ever had an insightful piece? I can't remember that I read one.

If they are dead, critizise that they don't even give an effort to play. When thei give an effort, say they aren't even watchable. When they are watchable, say they aren't young and athletic. When they get younger and more athletic, say they don't win games. When they start winning games, say they aren't contenders and aren't close to a championship. Please, give them a break!

Im tired of this people believing that everything Isiah or the Knicks do is bad and never appreciating the good steps forward that have been done. We still aren't championship material, but who said we would be in the first year of Isiah being GM?! Who even said the Knicks would be above .500 with isiah? Who of this guys said that NY could get younger and athletic with Isiah? None! It was always impossible to trade anyone, and the Knicks would be losers for a long time. Now that things are starting to get together, suddenly its not enough! Give me a break!

We are making the right steps to become a contender soon. We are becoming a better team right now with every player's improvement. A good young Big man, a player with brain at SF and we could be there. It isn't really kool aid but, we should be happy we have a team thats interesting and is winning considering how we were a season ago.

Posted by Marv:

Good post, Knicksfan. And btw

Posted by Knicksfan:

a player with brain at SF

is already here. Ariza's going to be ready before long.

I can't wait for his time to come!

Posted by Silverfuel:

Posted by Marv:

Good post, Knicksfan. And btw

Posted by Knicksfan:

a player with brain at SF

is already here. Ariza's going to be ready before long.

Are you sure thats not too much faith Marv? I am not a good judge of yound talent so this might not mean much but I think he is about 2 years away from being a good starting SF.

Well, we will have TT for another season after this one, so maybe he will then be ready for big minutes and a bigger role...

[Edited by - knicksfan on 12/20/2004 16:09:56]

I think we are 2 pieces away from championship material. Acquiring those pieces would mean not giving much up though, because our team is solid if it were somehow possible to add pieces without losing key parts we would be there.

That, of course is not possible. I just love the knicks man screw that guy. We had a huge payroll when Zeke arrived which gave him 2 options

1. Cut salary by trading for expiring contracts and letting our expiring contracts fall off of the books. This approach would make our team worse than unwatchable. Think NJ nets b4 vince.

2. Make moves that don't reduce the payroll but make the team better. This is what he did. You can't have an unwatchable team in NY, fans don't want it and wont come to see the games. You use expiring contracts to acquire talent, ala Marbs and Craw. If no really good trades come our way, he could wait until the offseason and pick up some talent as well as use the expiring contracts to get some more.

If you don't understand that, you really don't understand the whole picture of NY basketball. This is NY, dolan is making more money than other owners so he can have afford a bigger payroll. Zeke is just doing what he can to make that payroll work for us to the best of his abilities. He is doing a fantastic job. We have a bonafied star in Marbs he is in his prime NOW in these next 3-4 years. Then we have a young soon to be all-star caliber player who is in a decent contract.
Then we also have to young up and coming guys in Ariza and sweets.

I have been a Knick fan since I was in the womb and not since we drafted Pat Ewing and Mark Jackson back to back did we have young talent on our team like we do now. Go Zeke and Go NY!!!!!!!!!!!1

Isiah has done more than anyone expected. It was widley assumed he would either blow it up, or Starphuch it.

He did the unexpected. Took a high payrole and made it sky high! Higher than anybody writer ever thought he would given carte blanche too.

This is something the NBA had yet to witness!

I wonder what we do now, give up the youth and try to win now, or keep going long by converting KT into youth.

Do we take two steps back to take 10 forward?

CWebb or Curry???

We might know soon enough!

Posted by newyorknewyork:

I couldn't have said it better myself Knicksfan. Knicks will never be good enough until they win it all. NY has the most demanding media & fans. But with the ticket prices u can't blame them. Also Knicks are funny because say they are playing the Spurs. U are thinking alright this is one of the best team in the NBA and we are only a 500. team so they will probably hand us a but whooping. Then all of a sudden the game is close we have a 5 point lead with 2mins remaining and we all of a sudden blow the game. Now instead of thinking alright they played better than I thought they would. The Knicks now suck because they lost a winnable game, Wilkens needs to be fired, Zeke mortaged the future, Marbury isn't a leader, Crawford is a chucker, TT is fugazy, Houston is done forever.

Well, no, TT is fugazy even if they win that game.