TripleThreat wrote:H1AND1 wrote:Honestly though I really don't get the Calderon bashing. I still get nauseous thinking of Felton's play last season. Calderon has to be an upgrade.
Not sure anyone has "bashed" Calderon on the site.
He is an elite shooter, he will space the floor, he provides Zen Master with a leverage point against the other longer established Knick players ( Calderon is loyal to Jackson since he brought him here, he has no ties to the Melo/CAA regime) and he's clearly leaps and bounds better than Felton.
Doesn't change that point guard has the lowest positional value in the league. While some teams like Detroit and Utah and the Knicks have struggled to fill the position in recent seasons, most other teams are able to get heady and strong play from 2nd rounders, backups, veteran cast offs and street free agents. Look at the Bulls. Guys like DJ Augustin and Aaron Brooks were able to get some strong run for them. Ray McCallum picked it up very well for the Kings last late season. Jarrett Jack is pretty much a quasi starter wherever he goes. Hawks get some good run out of Shelvin Mack, their backup.
Calderon will be a Knick on a virtually untradeable deal ( not without said asset push to get him off the roster), heading to the wrong side of his 30s, with more decline in his already poor defense while most of the league is able to get by without taking such massive trade offs and cost at the position.
If you can't fix your power forward spot and point guard spot in the league at a value, you probably aren't a franchise heading on the way back up. If you struggle to fill the elite two way wing positions and elite defensive center with health and youth and passable offense, then you are just joining the rest of the league in the search for the most coveted type players.
But when you have a coach killing ball hog like Melo, with a powerful agency behind him, sadly you will struggle to find a point guard he won't try to drive off the roster ( god forbid Melo has to do something like learn to move off the ball like most wings) unless you need about 100 million dollars in a splash GM and head coach signing. ( Where Melo is forced to realize he can't drive off someone that expensive off the front office and that the 11 ring reputation will be enough where if the Knicks keep failing, the media will blame only Melo for those failures, because they love Phil Jackson)
The Knicks keep spending assets to fix a position that didn't need to be fixed until Melo broke it yet again. Good organizations don't need to spend precious resources to manage their players egos instead of just trying to win.
Completely disagree about your take on the pg position in college it's the most important position on the floor. And while not the same in the pros a really good pg can be a franchise changer examples over the last 20 years include magic j Kidd Steve Nash a overseen and obviously there are much more. ANY position in the nba could be a high talent important position. Just depends who is playing said position. But if I'm building a club I'm looking up the middle i.e pg &c first unless there is a generational wing there. We've only seen 4 of them Kobe Jordan James wade
