Knicks · Knicks give up Greek draft pick in Felton trade (page 1)

Not only will the Knicks lose Linsanity, they will lose their Greek flavor.

In the Raymond Felton deal in which a source told The Post spells the end of Jeremy Lin in New York, the Knicks gave up their second-round pick Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiakos, selected 48th on June 28th.

Papanikolaou will not play next season but was slated to join the Knicks in 2013-14. On Draft Night, GM Glen Grunwald acknowledged Papanikolaou could be used as a trade chip because of his future stock.

Also in the deal was his teammate, Georgios Prentezis, whom the Knicks acquired from Dallas in the Tyson Chandler sign-and-trade in December. Prentezis' salary at Olympiakos made it impossible for them to bring him this season either.

The Post reported last night on its website the Knicks will not match Lin's $25M offer sheet with the $14.9M balloon payment because of the Felton deal, citing an NBA source. The Knicks also gained another former player in the Felton package, 39-year-old power forward Kurt Thomas. They signed and traded their free agent Jared Jeffries in the Felton deal.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/knicksblog...

And we are letting Lin go. Man, what looked so good after the unions decision on bird rights has just taken an about face. Amazing job Dolan.

Anubis - We gave up somethings for a player nobody wanted. Think about that.

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

Bonn1997 wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

The problem is that there should not have been any reason to do an of this. Dolan's just looking for reasons to overpay players and give away as many draft picks as possible. He did the same thing (throw away picks) with the Camby S & T. He did the same thing the past 12 years actually.

Do you hear yourself. Knicks are trying to compete for a championship. That means rolling with the vets. They are trying to win as many games as possible to ensure a high draft seed. No time for developing players.

This is as clear as day. Knicks are being very transparent with their intent to compete RIGHT NOW. They are acquiring proven vets.

IrishKnickFan wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

You are dumber than i thought

No, Im not obsessed with believing every 2nd rounder the Knicks draft is a futre star.

AnubisADL wrote:

IrishKnickFan wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

You are dumber than i thought

No, Im not obsessed with believing every 2nd rounder the Knicks draft is a futre star.

Well, we will never find out now. We got Fatso to be our PG out of this brilliant deal.
Papa was (I believe) the #1 rated prospect coming out of Europe (or that league) - for Felton. Really, think about that. For a free agent that teams WHO NEED PG's passed on. Really, think about it...

AnubisADL wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

The problem is that there should not have been any reason to do an of this. Dolan's just looking for reasons to overpay players and give away as many draft picks as possible. He did the same thing (throw away picks) with the Camby S & T. He did the same thing the past 12 years actually.

Do you hear yourself. Knicks are trying to compete for a championship.

Nets got great deal with ex Bull Watson for a 2 year *player option*
Delonte West would be seeking more, but if we can could have signed him, he could have been a steal.

While I agree, Papa is a good prospect, nothing else we gave up has value.
He would be offered a poison pill in our future, plays the same position as Melo, and only way of avoiding poison pill is using the 3m MLE to sign him.
We gave up much more in the trade for Camby in terms of flexibility and value.

I am sure, Knicks tried to acquire Foye or whoever, but lets be honest, what team would be willing to trade with us, with just 1 2nd round pick in 2016, JJ/ Gadzurich's contract to offer?
What kind of player could we actually get back with that package?
A player not much better than the veteran's minimum, or a veteran's minimum player to a multi year deal like Reggie Evan's caliber.
Felton is far better than a such an acquisition.

If we could have traded for someone like Foye/Gary neal, without giving up Papa, I would prefer such a deal, but I don't think we can....

A better question would be, would it be better for the team to trade their 2016 or 17 or Papa that could be getting a poison pill after his 2 years?

*I don't know if we can trade 2016 pick cause Denver owns better of it*

This is where, overpaying for Camby hurts us....

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

Has to do with a mindset. On another post I said the Greek would be gone soon, although I did not expect it to be this soon. Shumpert will be next.

One of the nice things about following a team is watching your young players mature and become productive. This is especially true in the NFL and MLB. They all don't work out, but that is how things go.

We've become a team with no youth and we are going to be dependent on whether or not the appropriate set of free agents are all available when the respective contracts of our present crop of players end. Young players, especially those who are part of a good franchise, are given a chance to play minor minutes, learn a system, and eventually emerge as starters. We have obviously decided that this is not a good idea.

Dolan is trying to build a team around 2 second level stars, one of whom may never be the player he was if his back does not heal, the other a guy who has decided that the team's offense has to revolve around him or he is not going to give a 100% effort. We now have 4 players who are 35 years of age, or more, and 3 who are 38 and above.

Can't wait for Herb Williams to suit up again, and Allan Houston to make a comeback.

Paladin55 wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

Has to do with a mindset. On another post I said the Greek would be gone soon, although I did not expect it to be this soon. Shumpert will be next.

One of the nice things about following a team is watching your young players mature and become productive. This is especially true in the NFL and MLB. They all don't work out, but that is how things go.

We've become a team with no youth and we are going to be dependent on whether or not the appropriate set of free agents are all available when the respective contracts of our present crop of players end. Young players, especially those who are part of a good franchise, are given a chance to play minor minutes, learn a system, and eventually emerge as starters. We have obviously decided that this is not a good idea.

Dolan is trying to build a team around 2 second level stars, one of whom may never be the player he was if his back does not heal, the other a guy who has decided that the team's offense has to revolve around him or he is not going to give a 100% effort. We now have 4 players who are 35 years of age, or more, and 3 who are 38 and above.

Can't wait for Herb Williams to suit up again, and Allan Houston to make a comeback.

Good point about Stat - we hope he is ok. And IF he isn't, our other great scorer in Lin is gone.

Draft express btw - had Papa as the #1 rated International prospect. We traded that and more for Felton? The Brooklyn (where I'm born) Nets are looking better and better as an outlet. That would piss Dolan off if the fan base starts to leave.

earthmansurfer wrote:

Paladin55 wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:We gave up a rookie Euro who would have collected splinters all year? I dont see the problem.

Has to do with a mindset. On another post I said the Greek would be gone soon, although I did not expect it to be this soon. Shumpert will be next.

One of the nice things about following a team is watching your young players mature and become productive. This is especially true in the NFL and MLB. They all don't work out, but that is how things go.

We've become a team with no youth and we are going to be dependent on whether or not the appropriate set of free agents are all available when the respective contracts of our present crop of players end. Young players, especially those who are part of a good franchise, are given a chance to play minor minutes, learn a system, and eventually emerge as starters. We have obviously decided that this is not a good idea.

Dolan is trying to build a team around 2 second level stars, one of whom may never be the player he was if his back does not heal, the other a guy who has decided that the team's offense has to revolve around him or he is not going to give a 100% effort. We now have 4 players who are 35 years of age, or more, and 3 who are 38 and above.

Can't wait for Herb Williams to suit up again, and Allan Houston to make a comeback.

Good point about Stat - we hope he is ok. And IF he isn't, our other great scorer in Lin is gone.

Draft express btw - had Papa as the #1 rated International prospect. We traded that and more for Felton? The Brooklyn (where I'm born) Nets are looking better and better as an outlet. That would piss Dolan off if the fan base starts to leave.

Have fun rooting for the Nets.

Yep, it's worrying we have no assets, but as Lin and Fields have shown, under this cba it's going to be impossible to keep them anyway once it's time to get paid. Better to get cap space and poach another teams player (which they can't keep due to the new cba). In 3 yrs we can either rebuild or retool.

smackeddog wrote:Isn't this the same pick people were crying about on draft night, claiming we wasted it and he wouldn't come over for years if at all? Now it's been traded and it's a terrible, tragic loss.

Yep, it's worrying we have no assets, but as Lin and Fields have shown, under this cba it's going to be impossible to keep them anyway once it's time to get paid. Better to get cap space and poach another teams player (which they can't keep due to the new cba). In 3 yrs we can either rebuild or retool.

We're not getting cap space, what are you talking about? For the next three years, the length of Lin's contract, we're in cap hell anyway.

VCoug wrote:

smackeddog wrote:Isn't this the same pick people were crying about on draft night, claiming we wasted it and he wouldn't come over for years if at all? Now it's been traded and it's a terrible, tragic loss.

Yep, it's worrying we have no assets, but as Lin and Fields have shown, under this cba it's going to be impossible to keep them anyway once it's time to get paid. Better to get cap space and poach another teams player (which they can't keep due to the new cba). In 3 yrs we can either rebuild or retool.

We're not getting cap space, what are you talking about? For the next three years, the length of Lin's contract, we're in cap hell anyway.

In 3yrs all our contracts expire, we can then use that cap space to reload. Until then, as you said, we're locked in.