Context.
For a moment, take a careful, disloyal glance at the rest of the league. The Western Conference is too scary to contemplate. Let's just limit our perspective to the East. Teams like Toronto, Washington and Boston appear to have a head start on a coherent business model. The Sixers may be good and terrible, but they are good and terrible and about to gain an infusion of yoots. Overtaking both the Bulls and Cavaliers is much more the notion of a NYK first round draft selection and one free agent signing.
That is five solid franchises with a head start in the Eastern Conference. They are all focused on getting better. Same as we are.
Brooklyn does not matter because their owner feels that money heals everything. We know that gold is for fools.
As fantasy transactions and draft picks are our few means of healing our wounds, let us always bear in mind that talent alone is never an answer. Fuggedabout Amare and Melo... Spencer Haywood and Bob McAdoo should be our cautionary tale to remember.
This in an open invitation for all resident experts. Yes, we will be different... perhaps sooner than later... but the question is not change for the sake of change, but change for the sake of building a core that can be trusted to play quality basketball... and do more than compete... dominate the competition.
Will Uncle Phil stay on the east coast long enough to build this thing from the ground up?
Can he acquire three dominant players who can play this game the way he wants it played?
Can we wait five years for it to cohere?
Find the right trade for Melo.
Realistically:
Do nothing. Let all contract expire and let all of them go.
Tank to the highest pick possible.
In the summer get a couple 2-way winning players.
Continue to build next year.
Bonus:
In addition to above:
Lose to the point Carmelo will want out. Trade him for cap space/picks.
Trade other chit for any assets with no cap eating contracts.
Realistically, probably not. My best case, realistic scenario is that we draft one of Okafor, Towns, or Turner (as of now I'm leaning towards Towns but that'll change 20 times before the end of the season) this Summer and hope that he very quickly becomes the real deal. Offer Jimmy Butler a max deal and hope Chicago doesn't match. Offer Tobias Harris the rest of our cap space, around $11M probably, and hope Orlando doesn't match. Re-sign Shumpert at $7M-ish a year. We'd go into 2015 with a team of Calderon-Butler-Harris-Melo-Towns with Shump, JR, THJr, Early, and Aldrich off the bench. That team is probably good enough to be top 4 in the East. Then, in 2016, the cap jumps and JR's contract comes off the books and we'll have a bunch more money to spend.
Can Any Transaction or Trade Transform The Knicks In Less Than Five Years?
Just for fun.
Amare to the Pacers for Hibbert and West.
Dalembert, Jason Smith, to the Kings for Kevin Martin,
Andrea Bargnani, Jr Smith, Cole Aldrich to the Hornets for Lance Stevenson, Gerald Henderson, Bismack Biyombo
Shane Larkin, Pablo Prigioni, to the Brooklyn Nets for Jarret Jack. (Trade Exception)
Hibbert/Biyombo
West/Melo/Acy
Melo/Henderson
Martin/Stevenson
Jack/Calderon/Stevenson
newyorknewyork wrote:Can Any Transaction or Trade Transform The Knicks In Less Than Five Years?
Just for fun.
Amare to the Pacers for Hibbert and West.
Dalembert, Jason Smith, to the Kings for Kevin Martin,
Andrea Bargnani, Jr Smith, Cole Aldrich to the Hornets for Lance Stevenson, Gerald Henderson, Bismack Biyombo
Shane Larkin, Pablo Prigioni, to the Brooklyn Nets for Jarret Jack. (Trade Exception)
Hibbert/Biyombo
West/Melo/Acy
Melo/Henderson
Martin/Stevenson
Jack/Calderon/Stevenson
that was really fun
Nothing against melo but I felt and sign and trade would have been good for both him and us. He would be able to go to a contender and the Knicks could get back some good young assets/picks and do a true rebuild. Even with melo we are a lottery team so if he went to Chicago we would have been guaranteed to get okafor. Instead of trying to spend max money and 1 guy we should use it wisely on players who fill certain roles
I don't know if it can happen with this group
But someday a group peyote trip
In the California desert will be necessary
There be demons in the garden
The only solution now is magic
and cleansing ritual
arkrud wrote:Realistically:
Do nothing. Let all contract expire and let all of them go.
Tank to the highest pick possible.
In the summer get a couple 2-way winning players.
Continue to build next year.
Bonus:
In addition to above:
Lose to the point Carmelo will want out. Trade him for cap space/picks.
Trade other chit for any assets with no cap eating contracts.
I agree with you on this. Sometimes you just have to do nothing.
Easy to think "anything I can say is better then 5-22"!!!!
Easier to write it.
It's daft to predict that far ahead- we're all burned out from watching that team, and a lot of people feel we'll never get better. Just because we can't conceive a good future in 5 years, doesn't mean it won't happen. Basketball, like life, is unpredictable, all we can do is put ourselves in good stead to improve and take advantage of opportunities that come up.
smackeddog wrote:It's daft to predict that far ahead- we're all burned out from watching that team, and a lot of people feel we'll never get better. Just because we can't conceive a good future in 5 years, doesn't mean it won't happen. Basketball, like life, is unpredictable, all we can do is put ourselves in good stead to improve and take advantage of opportunities that come up.
So well said, and SO true. In the bleakest moments (as a sports fan), opporunity may lie just around the corner.
Of course, all this losing can help us land a big fish in the draft.
KEEP ON LOSING, Knicks! The mo the betta.
With one signing, "Knicks are Back!" We watched an out of position All Star 4 get burned out with double doubles in a half season with his old coach. Yoots were playing, swishing and dishing. Then the beaStat got hurt, predictably, uninsuredly hurt.
With one The Trade, we left the 23 win, IT playoff desert debacle years firmly behind and entered the varsity seasons.
With two hirings, we are now a franchise that loses without forced interventions from the commish's office and are without truly deranged back page drama.
Phil started the blow it all up now with the Tyson/Felton download and the predictable Woodson & company banishments. We have Melo and a cast of disposable crewmen, young and old, ala the old original Star Trek series.
Anything can transform the Knicks in fairly short order, Mister Answerman. Or not.
Continue to play the games and monitor the Zen, and we shall see.
There are always players who have underperformed or haven't emerged for a variety of reasons that become available. We need to identify those players. Maybe Greg Monroe or Tabias Harris will sign here and become a star. Maybe we draft the right player. All it takes is a little luck to change things quickly. Last year at this time Toronto was ready to trade Lowry and rebuild. Now look at them. Things change quickly when players come into their own or are discovered at the right time. Maybe we will have some luck for a change.
a team requires a series very good draft picks, preferably in the lottery and then a few good trades and signings to get from really bad to even mediocre. knicks have melo already. but really have nothing else. even the young players are fringe end of roster guys. you have to hit a home run in this draft and since you are not picking again til 2017, you need to sign at least 2 quality nba rotation FA's. the prospects of the team actually contending at some point depends if you draft the next ewing or barkley with this draft or sign another superstar.
No trades or transactions will change the direction of this franchise. Durant is the only possible game changer, but that is super unlikely.
Nope, Melo in 2 years will barely even be a starter for a contender he will be so burnt out and useless.
Only hope is the draft.
Next draft is the luck factor. That's the only shot this team has of being anything.
Draft a sensational player that makes Melo completely secondary and maybe it can be better.
Best thing is to dump Melo now and get more picks and get ready for the draft.
Melo sucks. Get rid of that idiot.
djsunyc wrote:a team requires a series very good draft picks, preferably in the lottery and then a few good trades and signings to get from really bad to even mediocre. knicks have melo already. but really have nothing else. even the young players are fringe end of roster guys. you have to hit a home run in this draft and since you are not picking again til 2017, you need to sign at least 2 quality nba rotation FA's. the prospects of the team actually contending at some point depends if you draft the next ewing or barkley with this draft or sign another superstar.
Or Peyote.
