Knicks · Knicks draft Suns' guy with an eye towards Steve Nash By Adam Green/ArizonaSports.com (page 1)

Knicks draft Suns' guy with an eye towards Steve Nash By Adam Green/ArizonaSports.com
Published: June 24, 2011 @ 2:28pm
When the Phoenix Suns took Markieff Morris with the 13th pick they did so knowing their other target, Iman Shumpert, would not likely wear a purple and orange uniform anytime soon.

Or will he.

On Friday Sports 620 KTAR's John Gambadoro, on the Gambo and Ash show, brought up an interesting reason for the New York Knicks selecting Shumpert with the 17th pick.

"There's something fishy about this pick, there just is," Gambadoro said. "Mike D'Antoni just drafted a player who can't shoot and plays defense. Not something Mike really likes."

True that. During the head coach's time in Phoenix, no shot equaled no shot to play for D'Antoni.

"I don't think there's any doubt, in my mind, and I spoke with some people in the NBA...that pick may very well have been made to somehow, some way, down the road land Steve Nash in a Knicks uniform," Gambadoro added. "Because the Knicks now have a piece that the Phoenix Suns really, really, really want.

"Really want."

It would not be shocking to learn the Knicks made their choice with an eye towards making a deal, and if the Suns did elect to move Nash the Knicks, with D'Antoni and Amare Stoudemire, would seem like a great fit.

Would the Suns be willing to not only trade the face of their franchise, but also let him create a little "Suns East" in the process? Watching Nash win that elusive championship with D'Antoni and Amare would have to be a little painful, but the threat of Nash leaving once his contract expires is very real.

And now that the Knicks have a guy the Suns have real interest in they may decide to get something in return rather than lose their best player for nothing.
http://arizonasports.com/category/suns-a...It seems like a lot of speculation but it at least seems true that the Suns wanted Iman unlike Balk.

i just don't buy it

Yeah let the conspiracy theories roll

I don't buy it at all. After all the defensive issues the Knicks had this postseason, they came out talking D. There was talk of a defensive assistant, during the workouts they stressed D so much that prospects mentioned that about the workouts. Then you have STAT talking only about defense. I'm telling you that they were looking for a defensive playmaker. Even their interest in Singelton was based on his D. This is gonna be a serious focus by this team and since we already have the offensive power the defensive end is all we need. A few years of an old Nash versus many more with a young stud Iman doesn't make sense. We're already a better Offensive team than our comp in the East. This story is bogus IMO.

They always come out talking about defense.. Does that ever change anything?

liono wrote:They always come out talking about defense.. Does that ever change anything?

You are missing the point. They have been stressing it at every opportunity. You never hear them say anything else now and they are backing it up by drafting 2 DEFENSIVE players in the draft. They could've gone after offensive players that were left on the draft to be taken. So do you understand the difference now?

If we trade our young players for a guy who is one of the worst defenders in the NBA I will then get on the "this franchise is back to pre-Walsh days" bandwagon.

Come on, the reasoning is just absurd, and coming from a supposed professional, even more. So the pick is fishy because the player supposedly can't shoot and plays D? Thats the reason for the speculation?

That's as off target as a Lebron 3-pointer in crunch time.

Knicksfan wrote:Come on, the reasoning is just absurd, and coming from a supposed professional, even more. So the pick is fishy because the player supposedly can't shoot and plays D? Thats the reason for the speculation?

That's as off target as a Lebron 3-pointer in crunch time.

IT underscores the degree of D'Antoni hatred there is out there. I think he can't win for losing with most people out there. Despite the fact that he has had a defensive guy like Iman before, ie Raja Bell and he's played guys like Jared who don't do much of anything but defend. They still keep pushing this idea that he won't play defensive players. The Cory Brewer incident just added fuel to the fire. Thing is that Brewer has been a low minute role players and traded and still isn't a starting player in this league. Brewer is OK, but he wasn't worth the money we would've had to dish out to keep him.

Iman is a slightly different player in that he's a PG/SG and covers an area of weakness for this team. Besides MDA loves playing bigger players against PG's and this is a better fit in that it's not Jared playing that role, but an actual Guard!!! That is the best of both worlds. We get the big defensive perimeter presence but don't have to have one of our bigs out away from the basket. It just makes so much sense. Like most defensive players, Iman can go hard on D, cuz he's not in there to score tho he can. It's about being able to focus on D and that will change this teams effectiveness on D.

I hope we go on to win big this year and shut up all the fans and media out there that think this isn't going to work.

martin wrote:i just don't buy it

I know from inside Iman's camp that:
a) the Suns did want him
b) the knicks wanted him so much, they did ask him to shut it down but he didn't because the suns were so high on him and they pick before the knicks.

All of this equals, I don't buy it. Is Steve Nash really the answer for us at PG going forward?

Doubtful. It'd be a horrible PR move for the Suns. Like trading Derek Jeter. WOuldn't put it past our management post Walsh, but I don't think that's what is being done.

We know MDA doesn't like players who can't shoot, but he goes on record saying he was shocked how well Shumpert can shoot. So Gambadoro needs to do a little more homework and not make stupid generalized statements.

Knicksfan wrote:
That's as off target as a Lebron 3-pointer in crunch time.

Perfect analogy! And another thing; if this conspiracy theory comes to fruition, I'm gonna be pissed

I think the plan is also to change the name of the team to the New York Suns.

BasketballJones wrote:I think the plan is also to change the name of the team to the New York Suns.

And then move the team to Phoenix.

BasketballJones wrote:I think the plan is also to change the name of the team to the New York Suns.

Obviously Mike has a certain philosophy on BB and that means he's gonna look for a certain type of player. We need a PG that can setup our scorers and also create havoc on the opposing D, by penetrating. So quite naturally Nash comes up cuz he's one of best at doing that. However there's a chance we can get things done with our own players. I think the Knicks are trying to work with the players they have and provide coverage for their weaknesses. Iman can do that. Nash is a sieve on defense, but with Iman we can fix one of the big problems they always had with Nash. Nash would make the offense a bit stronger, but the D would get even worse so I don't see it helping if we send Iman away. You'd have to keep a kid like Iman around if you added Nash. As it is he's covering for CB's poor D against quick PG's.

93BUICK wrote:

BasketballJones wrote:I think the plan is also to change the name of the team to the New York Suns.

And then move the team to Phoenix.

and call it the Phoenix Knicks.

Knixkik wrote:We know MDA doesn't like players who can't shoot, but he goes on record saying he was shocked how well Shumpert can shoot. So Gambadoro needs to do a little more homework and not make stupid generalized statements.

Yeah, and it's not like Quentin Richardson or Raja Bell had reputations for being long range marksmen before they got to . I think D'Antoni has shown that he's willing to work with good wing defenders as long as they shoot well enough to keep defenses honest or if they're lottery busts who attended IU.

i think Iman Shumpert is going to surprise some people, whenever basketball resumes.

I'm shocked we passed on Singleton. Really shocked. Shumpert is an interesting athlete, but this isn't Russell Westbrook or something. The Suns do like him so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

VDesai wrote:I'm shocked we passed on Singleton. Really shocked. Shumpert is an interesting athlete, but this isn't Russell Westbrook or something. The Suns do like him so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I think you're wrong. Iman is a R. Westbrook type of player. He's a good defender, can run the point and play as a SG. He's big, quick, explosive, rebounds, creative with the ball... In what way is Iman not like Westbrook? When this kid gets it going I think he's going to be a special player. Iman got to the line almost 6x a game and hit at 80%. Iman is bigger than Westbrook, but almost as fast end to end and he's even more explosive than Westbrook, which is hard to believe, but true. Iman is a ball hawk and since he rebounds well, can start the break for this team and push the ball more than we've been getting from our PG's so far.

I'm curious to hear why he's not like Westbrook.