One of the teams the New York Knicks could easily turn into is the Washington Wizards. If we get one impact big (center) in the draft, and Wally Szerbiak at the 3. We could feasibly be better than them, because of Steph’s playmaking skills. Wally would get as many open shots as he can handle, and depending on what kind of hands and bball IQ that big has, he could get about 8-10 ppg next year. Not to mention KT’s 11 ppg. We could be better than them on O, and probably slightly worse on defense.
or

We could be a diminished version of the Houston Rockets next year with a player like Zydrunas Ilgauskas, not including the player we draft. Granted Stephon Marbury is not Tracy McGrady, but Steph and Crawford will combine to score at least as many points as T-mac and Wesely. Houston has a better bench than us, but then again, who doesn’t? In addition this Knicks team would have 3 guys who could put up 18 + each night, as opposed to 2. Houston gets bigger and more consistent contributions from role players than we do. If you factor in that we get a successful big in the draft, our starting lineup could be better than Houston's, they get very little from the PF position.

or

If we added a player like Shareef Abdur-Rahem and a ‘play now’ athletic, shot blocking big from the draft, we could be somewhat similar to Memphis. SAR plays the role of Pau and they do have almost identical numbers except Pau is taller, can play the 4-5 and is a better shot blocker, where SAR is a 3 point threat and can play the 3-4. Steph is hands down better than J. Williams, but Mike Miller (while avging less points) plays his role better than Craw plays his role (whatever the hell his role is). The also have some high energy and important pieces coming off the bench in Swift and Bonzi and where we would likely have Sweetney or Taylor as our best offensive options off of the bench. I could see Taylor being a good 6th man for us especially if our drafted big is a presence in the middle on D. Another comparison the Knicks could make if we had these kinds of players would be the Chicago Bulls.


The point here is that we could be on our way with one impact FA and a good draft. I know people here have problems with the particular players I have used in my examples, but the point really is that we could be good next year, with one FA, while still having young talent to develop. That young talent could (and should if Isiah does well) develop to become a key piece of our team and not just a role player/contributor.



[Edited by - Killa4luv on 04/23/2005 10:49:17]

As a matter of fact, with no FA signings and a good draft, we could be something like Philly. We could draft a player like Dalembert, because he is really that raw on offense. But damn does he have an impact. If we followed Philly more closely we would just pile up some more young'ns and run, run, run. Stationary 4 who shoots jumpers and rebounds. They are number 1 in the league in forced turnovers and steals. They play tough defense. We could probably pull that off the easiest (with a coach), and that seems to be what most on this board wan.

I agree with you.