Looking at the team the last few games, I've come to the following conclusions:

1) Ariza and JYD should be the only small forwards on this team. With the Marbury/Houston/Crawford (when he gets back) backcourt that will rotate in, there will be plenty of scoring. They need a defensive minded, active small forward. Tim Thomas is lazy, uninterested, and really bad. I'd look to trade him immediately, but if not, he should see reduced minutes. Ariza handles shooting guards well, and JYD can deal with any type of forward, so put them in when appropriate depending on the matchup. Having Tim Thomas in with the hopes that every 10 games he'll give you something is ridiculous.

2) Why doesn't Sweetney get more playing time? This really boggles my mind. Kurt Thomas is effective in the Knicks scheme becuase he is so effective in the pick and roll with Marbury. However, his rebounding and defense is very overrated. The man can no longer jump, his vertical is, in my opinion, in the single digits. KT's time should be reduced, and Sweetney should get time. The Knicks need a legitimate back-to-the-basket scorer, who can draw double teams and doesn't need plays run for him. Sweetney can do this, he's proven he can do this. It's time for him to play well. Double his minutes and you're looking at averages of 14 points and 8 boards. He also gets to the line. Marbury is playing the best basketball of his life, taking games over at times, hustling and at least trying on D, getting everyone involved, and they're winning more than half their games. Hooray. When Crawford gets back to the Knicks (and when he was on them in the beginning of the yr.), their offense to me seemed like:

OPTION A: Marbury off the KT pick and roll.
OPTION B: Marbury takes his man off the dribble, leading to either a layup attempt or a dump to Nazr.
OPTION C: Option A and B either weren't attempted or didn't work, so the ball is swung to Crawford or Houston. They go in ISO and take their man off the dribble, which converts about 45% of the time.
OPTION D: Mohammed posts up.
(You notice the problem when none of the above are in, IE when the Norris/Ariza/JYD/Thomas/Sundov??????? line goes in). All the options are gone, and the offense therefore stops. (Has Lenny not figured that out yet?)

In my opinion, the offense would be more efficient saving Marbury so he can win games in the 4th, not just get them close, and by letting Sweetney have more shots. The offense has looked to at least have some sort of ball movement, so that's a positive. Regardless, I see no reason to at least start giving Sweetney more minutes, leading to Thomas being more effective since he'll be fresher, and hopefully everyone else will be more effective b/c Sweetney can take some of the load off.

3) If possible, trade any of the following to upgrade the frontcourt: Tim Thomas, Penny Hardaway, Moochie Norris, Kurt Thomas, Nazr Mohammed, Bruno Sundov. I see no reason to attempt to trade Crawford since he's improving, creates shots, and when he's on a roll he wins games by himself. Marbury won't be traded, Isiah would rather fire himself than trade him. Houston, let's get serious, he gets paid $20 million a year to shoot Js and play mediocre D. I like him, but he's not getting moved. Let's keep Ariza and Sweetney, not throw them in for a loser like CWebb or something ridiculous. They're young, they're cheap, they hustle, let's keep them and let them blossom here.

Obviously this brings some big questions to the table, most notably: Who wants that garbage? I have no idea. But I know the Knicks usually are willing to take back a lot of money (see: every move Isiah's made) and they have a lot of expiring contracts coming up. Also, Mohammed and Thomas are obviously the most tradeable of the above, as they are moderately priced and are actually good basketball players. A 2-for-1 deal maybe? Who knows.

With Sweetney providing a back-to-the-basket presence and JYD and Ariza improving the team D holding down the 3, Houston, Crawford, and Marbury figuring each other out in the backcourt, obviously the pieces should be used for help in the frontcourt. Shotblockers, leapers, athletes, anybody really. Looking around the league, would Golden State package Adonal Foyle and Troy Murphy together to get some cap relief NEXT summer? They're losing, and Foyle's been an outright disaster. I'd rather have him blocking shots than TT bouncing balls off his feet and not caring as he walks back up the court looking for KMart to call a fugazy. The guy's a distraction. If the Hornets are really having a fire sale, could the Knicks give them cap relief to get Jamaal Magloire? Call me crazy, but I'd be more than willing to give the Pacers Nazr Mohammed, Kurt Thomas, and Moochie Norris for Austin Croshere and Ron Artest (actually, call him crazy). Artest is arguably the best 2-way player in the NBA, I'd love to have him on my team, even if it means the Knicks 4 best players will be guards. (Obviously in that case, they could move Penny and/or Timmy w/ Ariza in the summer in a sign and trade for a big man.)

Those are the steps I'd take to improve the Knicks. Give Sweetney more PT at 4 (helping the team offense), give Ariza and JYD free rein at the 3 (helping the team defense), and making a trade to obtain some more talented big men (even if it means giving up KT and Mohammed, let's face it, their value won't get much higher, buy low sell high is the motto on Wall St. I believe). Baby steps. Do that, make a solid draft pick in the first round (I'd absolutely love Nate Robinson to be Marbury's backup over Norris) and making an impact FA signing or sign-and-trade and they're moving in the right direction.

[Edited by - bigsm00th on 01/06/2005 02:09:32]

I think KT plays so much cause they're shwocasing him. They boost his stats so that a contender will be interested to get him as the "missing piece" of the bench to make a run. Dont see any other explanation. Sure he collects doublesdoubles, but as nazr's ones, they have no impact on the game.

Now, i TT is untardable right now, or we would loose to much.

Sad i think but we'll have to bite the bullet this year, and get something valuable next yr with all the expiring we have.

Before that and unless we can get the abdur rahim patterson trade fish proposed the other day, i guess we're stuck with what we have.