If Billy improves is he gonna be a 18-12 board guy night in and night out who can play tough D in this league or is he a rotation guy? Hard to say. I mean at 36 minutes, he's gonna get 14-15 points and 12 boards now. And can he and KP take us anywhere special? Bring in a D Fox and let these kids grow. I'd keep O'Quinn as he's not gonna fetch a first rounder and he's a bargain. Rose and Melo can leave and I hope Melo shoots 60% and scores 37 every night and then let Boston, LA take him off our hands with a 1st round pick in play. No Crawford, No Rubio and no Austin Rivers thank you. Bring in shooters, playmakers and guys who are athletic enough to play D all night and are tough. We will find our Paul Pierce. We will find our John Wall. We will find our James Hardin. Just stay the course and try not to solve it all in free agency.
It would help if our me first chucker didn't win completely meaningless games to get us further out of the lottery. I am sure his devoted fans are looking for blood. SMDH
Both KP and Willy arera locked in at the 4-5 for us.... Ron Baker might even be a guy we can look too as a rotation player and possibly a starter at the 2. This draft week bring us at least one more potential starter at the 1, 3 or 2 spot. I believe Melo will fetch another young player if he's traded. We gotta really grasp the fact we are building this thing from the ground floor. This is the way it's gotta be the next two off seasons at least
EnySpree wrote:Both KP and Willy arera locked in at the 4-5 for us.... Ron Baker might even be a guy we can look too as a rotation player and possibly a starter at the 2. This draft week bring us at least one more potential starter at the 1, 3 or 2 spot. I believe Melo will fetch another young player if he's traded. We gotta really grasp the fact we are building this thing from the ground floor. This is the way it's gotta be the next two off seasons at least
YUP! Gotta hope for a good draft spot cuz there are some really nice prospects at the PG, SG and SF spots. That's perfect for our needs. I actually have high hopes for those 2nd rd picks too. There are going to be some guys that slip thru the cracks with a draft like this. If Phil can get another pick in the 1st rd that could be HUGE.
Willy is at worst a very good backup
He may not be a starter on a good team. That remains to be seen. He has to improve his defense and his outside shot. He can do it, but let's see him do it first. Talent wise it's all there to be a 14/10 starter on a good team.
KP has talent to be a top 10 player in the league but is still far from putting all together. At worst KP is a great 3rd option who can stretch the floor and play 5/4. He needs to work on his post game and his defensive strength in post up situations. The floor for KP is what he is doing right now 18/7/2 as a 3rd option. I'm interested to see what he would do as the #1 usage player.
Who we draft is based on where we are. Yes we need a point badly, but you draft best talent available. We may not be able to draft a top 3 PG. If so a 3 or 2 is fine with me. Talent is talent.
We also have some other relatively young athletic in prime pieces I like.
OQuinn - 26 really solid backup big
Holiday - 26 really good backup wing
Kuz - 27 I like this guy he reminds me of Vlade Radmanovic
As vets I like Noah and Lee. Both have good personalities and intangibles. I also like Thomas as a vet. Good attitude and 2-way player.
This would be my team next year
Willy-OQuinn-Noah
KP-Thomas
Young defensive Starting 3-Kuzminskas
Holiday-Lee
Young pass first starting 1-Veteran Steady smart backup 1
I like our 5, 4 and 2 spots. I like Melo, but at 33 he is making so much money and not able to carrry the team anywhere good. We should spread the wealth as depth of the team with a Melo trade. Use free agency to help get some talent as well.
I see us as a competitive .500 type of team next year if we make some solid good moves this summer despite trading Melo and letting Rose walk.
Strength and defensive improvement will be the key to KPs and Wllly's (momma spelled it WIlly, Imoma spell it Willy
) futures. If Willy can improves as a defender it will help keep him on the floor with KP otherwise they will need to bring in an athletic big that has the ability to defend both big positions so that he can play alongside KP and Willy. Also, even if Willy improves it might still be best to bring him off the bench so the knicks will have a scoring punch while KP rests. I think Willy will become someone you can run the offense through because of his low post ability but most of all he is a passer. Yes, Willy and KP can still play together and close games together but it might be best to keep the seperated to start games. It just depends.
Heralded as a god by the board in his rookie season, blasted for not improving his second year
smackeddog wrote:Heralded as a god by the board in his rookie season, blasted for not improving his second year
Thing is he has improved
His shooting all across is better
His shot creating skills in one on one situations better
He just didn't focus enough on other areas
He clearly worked over the summer on becoming a better scorer but he needs to shift focus to his defensive weaknesses such as post D. Also needs to work on getting more comfortable posting up. I don't want the guy to add 30 lbs but he would benefit from adding more lower body base strength such that he won't get pushed in the post so easily.
yellowboy90 wrote:Strength and defensive improvement will be the key to KPs and Wllly's (momma spelled it WIlly, Imoma spell it Willy) futures. If Willy can improves as a defender it will help keep him on the floor with KP otherwise they will need to bring in an athletic big that has the ability to defend both big positions so that he can play alongside KP and Willy. Also, even if Willy improves it might still be best to bring him off the bench so the knicks will have a scoring punch while KP rests. I think Willy will become someone you can run the offense through because of his low post ability but most of all he is a passer. Yes, Willy and KP can still play together and close games together but it might be best to keep the seperated to start games. It just depends.
As much as I like Willy, and I can see him becoming a starter on a good team, I'm not sure that would stop me from drafting Lauri Markkanen in this year's draft. I know we need a point guard, but just imagine...
EnySpree wrote:Both KP and Willy arera locked in at the 4-5 for us.... Ron Baker might even be a guy we can look too as a rotation player and possibly a starter at the 2.
I can always count on you to say some off the wall stuff.
smackeddog wrote:Heralded as a god by the board in his rookie season, blasted for not improving his second year
Is he really being blasted or is that something that you saw Frank Isola post?
Swishfm3 wrote:EnySpree wrote:Both KP and Willy are locked in at the 4-5 for us.... Ron Baker might even be a guy we can look too as a rotation player and possibly a starter at the 2.
I can always count on you to say some off the wall stuff.
Did I say I tried to drink a fruity drink from a donkeys ass? No... not sure I said anything off the wall in that post
EnySpree wrote:smackeddog wrote:Heralded as a god by the board in his rookie season, blasted for not improving his second year
Is he really being blasted or is that something that you saw Frank Isola post?
Er, it's not his second year yet
I see him becoming a 15/10 guy. A good starter but not a star. KP will get to star level with time. If we find the right PG for these guys, we will rebuild very quickly.
Knixkik wrote:I see him becoming a 15/10 guy. A good starter but not a star. KP will get to star level with time. If we find the right PG for these guys, we will rebuild very quickly.
Willy doesn't have the elite hops but he's good at everything else and I suspect he'll refine his shooting and become a very good player for this team. Willy has already improved his defense and rim protection from the start of the year to now. His confidence level is up. He has to learn how much force he needs to play with at this level. Sometimes I think he gets surprised by the physicality of bigs but overall he can match up well already.
Just look at what he's been doing already in his rookie year. He's getting better with the increased minutes.
SPLITS GP MPG FG% RPG APG BLKPG STPG PFPG PPG
Last 10 Games 10 25.7 .549 9.9 2.3 1.1 0.9 2.8 11.4
February 9 25.1 .571 9.4 2.1 1.2 1.0 2.7 11.0
EnySpree wrote:Both KP and Willy arera locked in at the 4-5 for us.... Ron Baker might even be a guy we can look too as a rotation player and possibly a starter at the 2. This draft week bring us at least one more potential starter at the 1, 3 or 2 spot. I believe Melo will fetch another young player if he's traded. We gotta really grasp the fact we are building this thing from the ground floor. This is the way it's gotta be the next two off seasons at least
Baker sucks( maybe a 12th man) and if he is ever a starter on this team then count us in for another lottery
BigRedDog wrote:EnySpree wrote:Both KP and Willy arera locked in at the 4-5 for us.... Ron Baker might even be a guy we can look too as a rotation player and possibly a starter at the 2. This draft week bring us at least one more potential starter at the 1, 3 or 2 spot. I believe Melo will fetch another young player if he's traded. We gotta really grasp the fact we are building this thing from the ground floor. This is the way it's gotta be the next two off seasons at least
Baker sucks( maybe a 12th man) and if he is ever a starter on this team then count us in for another lottery
He can be a solid rotation player with his ability to play both guard positions but i never see him as a starter. We have 2 starting caliber players right now in the young core of Willy and KP.
Willy is 22. Kid has great passing instincts and moves well without the ball.
What a great pick!!!!!
Nalod wrote:Willy is 22. Kid has great passing instincts and moves well without the ball.
What a great pick!!!!!
An interesting side note, with Embiid expected to miss significant time, does Willy have a legit shot at rookie of the year, assuming his minutes increase for the rest of the season? There are very few options. It's one of the worst rookie classes ever. Embiid, while a rookie, is already 23 years old and the only one really putting up numbers. And for all of his potential, it is really looking like injuries could hold him back from playing full seasons.
He'd have to jump over Malcom Brogdon and Dario Saric. Its possible if he gets starters minutes and puts up the numbers.
I'd say Embiid has to miss the majority of the remaining games.
Nalod wrote:He'd have to jump over Malcom Brogdon and Dario Saric. Its possible if he gets starters minutes and puts up the numbers.
I'd say Embiid has to miss the majority of the remaining games.
I think he can jump over them with starter's minutes. And Embiid has only played 31 games. Can he really win it if he doesn't play, say, 45 games?
