Knicks · Keep ALL Options? Trading Down the #1-2 overall pick... (page 1)

a 1st Overall pick makes

$5,510,640 - Year 1

$5,758,680 - Year 2

$6,006,600 - Year 3

$7,574,322 - Year 4

2nd overall pick makes

$4,930,560 - Year 1

$5,152,440 - Year 2

$5,374,320 - Year 3

$6,782,392 - Year 4

Lets say we happen to win the balls and win PICKS 1 or PICK 2, it is a big difference with a PG and PF/C
But would CA really be okay with our ability to contend depending mainly of a rookie ability to develop, which would take 2 years if we are VERY LUCKY to contribute at a high and consistent level?

1- Would CA demand us to either trade him to a contender?

or

2- For us to do what Cleveland tried to with Kevin Love, to trade for a PROVEN STAR?

We all much remember that we have limited $$$$ to spend to begin with, every milion/contract making a difference, a reason why we did not extend the possiblity of keeping Larkin for a 3rd year to save 1m?
Well we would have $5m less to work with if we decided to develop the rookie

3- Would Muddiay attract any ALL STAR to come over with the way we look now?
4- Would OK4 or Karl Town's attract another STAR to come over?

5- Would any talents come at a discount?

6- Should we considering trading the pick down to another team, with other team's making a bidding war for a TOP Pick
There are plenty of teams that have many picks in this draft and future picks as well
With this one PICK, we have the ability to regain A LOT OF PICKS AND TALENTS in this draft and in future drafts....
Possibly some nice young pieces as well, like with Boston Kelly Olynicks and multiple draft picks in this draft and future drafts in both 1st and 2nd rounders
Some other teams include Philly (MCW/WROTEN), Sun's (Dragic), Bobcats, Bulls, Houston

7- Now Lets go back to question 1...

What if Houston offered us a great package for CA, while giving us some young players and many draft picks?
We could walk away with about as many draft picks Philly/Boston has been saving up for the past couple of years with these 2 moves....

We focus on building culture with new young hungry players and mold them without their bad habits, while waiting till 2017 to make a push at ALL STAR's when we have developed all these young guys/core to play with and probably will even have extra assets we could continually use to rotate/stash talent in Europe, like all these other teams are doing...

Who knows if CA will break down from 1year, 2year, 3years, or less down the road from now...
I don't believe CA or any FA's will be looking to come next summer even if we got the #1 overall pick, given our circumstances
However, in 2 years, if our young guys talents that could be comparable to Andre Drummond, Tyson Chandler, Greg Monroe, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff Green, Tony Wroten

As picks 10 and higher, we will have a lot of cap space, where we could have used to accumlate talent over the years and develop chemistry with but save enough for ALL STAR's like

Durant, Noah, Lebron, and a decent FA class 0f 2017

1- I am not saying I have the answer but if this is certainly one possibility and it goes back to CA's willingness to wait it out
2- And if a team like Houston would give us an offer that we would have trouble refusing for CA and CA interest in joining a contender like Houston where there is also NO STATE TAX
3- If we can create a bidding war if we win a TOP 2 pick that these teams with multiple draft picks can give us a great offer for multiple draft picks/and or young talent

Would it really even be considered a rebuild? Given that it is only taking 1.5years of our time?
I am sure as fans, the Garden will still sell out and would accept that over the STARPHUCKING because we have a chance to build a dynasty over a a 1 year ChampionShip Run
If this happens, Phil Jackson would have been worth EVERY PENNY, changing the way we mortgage our future for a short term fix and fail epically
We are talking about literally getting back all the draft picks we ever traded and by the time the new CBA takes place, we will have enough money to still sign 3 STAR's!

I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

All interesting but hypothetical stuff, RonRon.

The scenario that I'd definitely like to see is for Phil to flat out tell Melo that he wants
to abandon the (promised) "instant" fix and trade him on draft night for picks/young rotational players.
Then we can build a team from the floor up with young players....
complete with growing pains and more losing....but with a clear path to competitiveness.

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

Love cost the Cavs Wiggins and cap space though. They could have kept Wiggins and signed more veterans with the cap space they had available in the offseason really building themselves up into a power house.

Trading the pick for a established star would cost us a potential stud player as well as cap space to add more.

Also Tim Duncan just won a championship at 38yrs old on the young legs of Leonard and a deep versatile overall team. Duncan didn't need to be a superstar in his prime in order to win the championship.

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

The Spurs went from a.244 win% in 1996 to having 17 straight winning seasons at an avg of .700 ball and 5 championships. If you get the right player in the draft it can tunr around your fortunes quickly.

For years we have traded picks and lived to regret doing it. Its time to use the draft wisely and use our cap space for free agents

newyorknewyork wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

Love cost the Cavs Wiggins and cap space though. They could have kept Wiggins and signed more veterans with the cap space they had available in the offseason really building themselves up into a power house.

Trading the pick for a established star would cost us a potential stud player as well as cap space to add more.

The cap space point is reasonable and Love has been a disappointment. I think this still shows how hard it is to turn a bad team into a contender quickly though

BRIGGS wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

The Spurs went from a.244 win% in 1996 to having 17 straight winning seasons at an avg of .700 ball and 5 championships. If you get the right player in the draft it can tunr around your fortunes quickly.

Sure, in the history of the league, there have been a couple of examples of very dramatic 1 year turn arounds. They usually involve the addition of multiple HOF players. It's probably at least 100 if not a 1000 times more likely that a bad lottery team remains a bad lottery team in the next season.

newyorknewyork wrote:Also Tim Duncan just won a championship at 38yrs old on the young legs of Leonard and a deep versatile overall team. Duncan didn't need to be a superstar in his prime in order to win the championship.

You are right and this is why we need to get younger and find guys would can eventually take the pressure off of Melo so we have a chance to win when Melo is 34 or 35 but still extremely productive on less minutes and volume. He should always still be a good scorer and closer. Dallas has done a nice job doing this with dirk as well.

IMO it's only hard to turn a bad team around if you don't pay attention to the need to bring in 2 way impact players. Start with a stud in the draft. Then with at the very least $24 mil of cap space, maybe more, make impact selections. A 2 way PG is important. If then we could add another 2 way player like a SG then you're starting to really make an impact.

Let's say they came out of the draft with a Big like Okafor or Towns and then in FA sign Dragic or Reggie Jackson, then a SG like Matthews or Danny Green. At the very least you have stabilized your starting unit.

Okafor
Melo
Jackson
Green

It's not a finished product but you at the least have a roster that makes sense and you have fewer holes. Now you can continue to develop young role players and compete.

the league has changed. it doesn't take 1 draft pick to turn around a franchise unless it's lebron. it takes a series of draft picks and smart roster building. look around the league and you will see very few winnings teams built with a core that was not drafted. best example is houston but they have one of the smartest/aggressive gm's in the biz that takes a lot of gambles. everyone else? they have at least 2 draft picks as part of their core. the best way for the knick franchise to operate is to shed the "names" and really focus on youth. you guys were starting to do that but 2010 and then melo came up and you couldn't control yourselves.

Im not sure about Towns but Okfor will not take 2-3 years to hit his stride--he will be a 20-10 PF right away--he could average 20 points +55% in the NBA right now. Its VERY hard to determine what Knetucky bigs might do right away--theyre all good. Stein is not a 20 point player but he will really good at defense right away. Guys like Johnson and Lyles--man do they look good at times in short stints. Dakari Johnson is 7-0 260 with a soft touch and hes a good rebounder. Hopefully Kentucky players get opportunities to play a full 32-35 minutes on a few nights. I would really like to see Towns give a spectacular performance a couple of times. If you look back at the history of drafting big men at the top--IF they are good they are usually good right away. I don't know one player that took 3 years to pan out.

I asked Knickscity in another thread a few days ago about the idea of trading down

Makes sense for longer term rebuilding and stability

knickscity wrote:

F500ONE wrote:Not that we have too few of threads

Thought for a sec of starting a new one[which very well may surface in due time]

If we landed the #1 pick for the sake of discussion

Would you trade down if the draft proved to be deep

If so being realistic what would you be looking to do

If deciding to reply to my inquiry please be realistic

I don't wanna see "I'd only trade #1 for #2 and #5"

if the Knicks have the 1st overall or top 3 they better draft a player and keep them.

There's three to four players who will contribute immediately imo. I wouldnt trade the pick unless we somehow was in top 5.

BRIGGS wrote:Im not sure about Towns but Okfor will not take 2-3 years to hit his stride--he will be a 20-10 PF right away--he could average 20 points +55% in the NBA right now. Its VERY hard to determine what Knetucky bigs might do right away--theyre all good. Stein is not a 20 point player but he will really good at defense right away. Guys like Johnson and Lyles--man do they look good at times in short stints. Dakari Johnson is 7-0 260 with a soft touch and hes a good rebounder. Hopefully Kentucky players get opportunities to play a full 32-35 minutes on a few nights. I would really like to see Towns give a spectacular performance a couple of times. If you look back at the history of drafting big men at the top--IF they are good they are usually good right away. I don't know one player that took 3 years to pan out.

The two bigs that jump out at me as guys who kinda sat around for 3-4 years then exploded are these two:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/o/onealje01.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/millebr01.html

but as you mentioned neither were picked near the top.

Tyson Chandler took a good 4 years or so before he really became an impact player. His numbers dont totally reflect that but he went from being an unskilled athletic guy taken WAAAAAY to high to being one of the premier defenders.

Cousins put up some numbers but they were garbage and 3/4 year he started having a much bigger impact.

OK4 has an NBA skill set. Towns looks good but I think will have to take some lumps

BRIGGS wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

The Spurs went from a.244 win% in 1996 to having 17 straight winning seasons at an avg of .700 ball and 5 championships. If you get the right player in the draft it can tunr around your fortunes quickly.

The Nuggets went from a ,207 winning percentage in 03 to a ,524 percentage in 04. They ended a six year playoff drought and made 10 consecutive appearances. The Knicks have a big piece and should be able to add several pieces in free agency. I think the Knicks will be much better after next offseason.

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

Good post. If Cav's were in NY we'd have BLatts head by now.

I don't think "We" need to rethink the rebuild because we have no freaking idea how Jax will go about it.
GIven how hard it is to find foundational players and all stars you have to look at the possibility that having a top 3 pick cna do that, and have Melo.
While his contract is unsavory to some around here, its a reality.

season is not half way, Cavs are .600. Thats not the end of the world. Heat first season had many bumps with Lebron. Cav's lost Varajao which hurts.
The talent is there, getting it to gel is another story and one that need patience.

Phil knows this better than the hindsight internet fan.

CrushAlot wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

The Spurs went from a.244 win% in 1996 to having 17 straight winning seasons at an avg of .700 ball and 5 championships. If you get the right player in the draft it can tunr around your fortunes quickly.

The Nuggets went from a ,207 winning percentage in 03 to a ,524 percentage in 04. They ended a six year playoff drought and made 10 consecutive appearances. The Knicks have a big piece and should be able to add several pieces in free agency. I think the Knicks will be much better after next offseason.

thats crazy. Who did they draft? He must have been pretty solid.

CrushAlot wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

The Spurs went from a.244 win% in 1996 to having 17 straight winning seasons at an avg of .700 ball and 5 championships. If you get the right player in the draft it can tunr around your fortunes quickly.

The Nuggets went from a ,207 winning percentage in 03 to a ,524 percentage in 04. They ended a six year playoff drought and made 10 consecutive appearances. The Knicks have a big piece and should be able to add several pieces in free agency. I think the Knicks will be much better after next offseason.

Sure, if everything goes right, I do think we can become a .500 team again. It still took them 6 years to just make it to the conference finals, and we definitely don't have 6 years. That would be Melo's eighteenth season!

Bonn1997 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:I wouldnt trade pick 1 under any circumstance ZERO. This team and franchise needs a drafted building block. I would not trade the 1st pick even for Lebron--thats how high I am on Okafor. Okafor to me represents 15 years of winning Pick 2(probably zero as well) or 3/ it would have to be a king's ransom. I do not think the NY Knicks are going to base even a scintilla of thought process on how Carmelo Anthony thinks we should proceed. By the way I think the Cavs fcked up by trading what couldve been Jabari Parker for Love. We cant assume Parker wouldve been hurt but having Parker at a cost restricted level by himself is superior to Kevin Love's over rated play and contract. Trading a high pick for an established player has been brutal for the Knicks. I'd say its time to start rethinking how we build the team. I think pick 1 and 2 are probably set in stone to be Okafor and Towns. The Knicks need a foundational big player.

The Cavs are an example of how hard it is to turn around a bad team. Adding Lebron and Love to a .400 team only brings you to .600. What does that tell you about our sub .200 team?!
Wiggins numbers are terrible right now in Minnesota. He may someday be a good player but Lebron will be very old by then. Keeping the two together didn't make sense. They still have a long way to go if they want to bring the team up from .600 to .750 though.

The Spurs went from a.244 win% in 1996 to having 17 straight winning seasons at an avg of .700 ball and 5 championships. If you get the right player in the draft it can tunr around your fortunes quickly.

The Nuggets went from a ,207 winning percentage in 03 to a ,524 percentage in 04. They ended a six year playoff drought and made 10 consecutive appearances. The Knicks have a big piece and should be able to add several pieces in free agency. I think the Knicks will be much better after next offseason.

Sure, if everything goes right, I do think we can become a .500 team again. It still took them 6 years to just make it to the conference finals, and we definitely don't have 6 years. That would be Melo's eighteenth season!

The Knicks are winning at a rate of .152 right now. I do think they get back to a little better than .500 next year. I think conference finals in 2-3 years if they make the right moves.