Sorry Caretaker, but I agree with THE BIZ about your "similar point with Layden" comments. Absurd. That whole roster is out of the league with the exception of Doleac and Harrington.
Trades.
Frye's value needs to be re-established. N8 shows much talent if less maturity.
Trade Mardy? Are you kidding me. Improvement he showed was massive. Had no shot, ZERO, at beginning of the season. Wanna trade a Knick who can actually play defense.
Jamal. I know that Bo and many others are rattled by his inconsistency.
Infuriating to be sure, but might some of that be put on his bad ankle.
If Jamal is here, we had a 50/50 chance of pulling out wins in all of those close losses.
Trade him?
I know the operative word is fantasy, but...
Read my lips...
How you gonna trade Jamal when he is married to Eddy at the hips?
Look, the blockbuster trades all of us speculate on are pretty remote.
My wish would be to bring in some ex-Knicks, like Ewing, and even the politically incorrect Oakley, to tutor our pups in the application of defense. And to bring with them a certain Knicks pride and tuffness. Our guys proved they have tenacity, and will not quit, but haven't gotten to the point where they can impose their will on another team.
Again, with Eddy this summer, another level of conditioning, maybe shed 15-20 pounds, and work both on a jumper, free throw shooting and footwork...ballet, tap-dance, yoga...anything to improve lateral and vertical quickeness. He vastly improved his endurance and agillity on offense. He upped his rebounding. No reason he could not improve his defensive presence. Eddy showed me something in that final game. Hammy was bothering him, he coulda taken a pass, but he wanted to come out, wanted that win. And he played big.
We need him to play bigger still.
Hey, Stephon evolved, and was playing very tenacious defense, when he finally broke down.
No reason, our players cannot improve over the summer.
Color me a pompom girl, but so many of those losses were so close.
I fully expect isiah to be less cuddly with the team next season.
A lot more accountability, especially on defense. Jeffries and Frye sat much of the last game, while Malik Rose did his best David Lee impression with 15 rebounds.
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The bad ankle excuse again.
Ray Allen had a bad ankle. So Did Dirk. It's a long season. 6 months of pounding. Everybody has a bad ankle, or dislocated finger, or bad back (TMac), or turf toe (how'd Marbs do that?)
Has Crawford had a bad ankle for 6 years?
The guy is what he is. A poor shooting shooting-guard with poor D. Yes, he is willing to jack up end game shots, however wild. Crawford's a below average SG, and a poor fit with Marbs. Maybe it's time to take away Curry's security blanket? Better to trade Craw before his age and salary creep up and make him less and less desirable.
chip,
I did not say trade Mardy (but I would given a decent trade). Everyone seems to assume all these players will get better. Some will get worse. And Curry may just stay the same or get worse - his heart concerns didn't get washed away by gaterade.
And, Bo, I am with you on Crawford. This is a six year vet, compare him to Ray Allen. C'mon. Are we developing a Brady Bunch show or a basketball team?
I think we need a strong, independent GM.
Mr. West, courtesy phone...
FWK - what makes you so certain Eddy Curry cannot improve? You've said it several times now.
I like the part about bringing in some KNICKS
Biz,
Eddie's been around for a while. What will make Eddie better in a hurry is surrounding him with talented starters.
Lester posted a link here somewhere about Eddie's so-called "improved" stats this year. All the up stats come from more minutes not better performance.
So what will change if nothing's changed in the last two years?
He's a good center but what we see is what we have. It ain't bad but he isn't going to suddenly turn into someone else without help from teammates.
Artest is to Curry what Oakley was to Ewing. You just have to have these kinds of pairings given the center you have. If not Artest then find a rugged somebody in the draft. He won't be somebody likely to graduate (just guessing).
FWK,
You make a convincing case for Artest, I must say.
re Eddy's improvements - I see an improvement in his game. In the past, he may have had the same stats per 48 minutes BUT a) he had more foul trouble, so at least now he's doing the damage for longer and b) now he does his work against double teams. He didn't do this in the past.
It is not outside of the realm of possibility that the improvement Eddy showed in terms of footwork and focus this year is recaptured elsewhere - probably passing - next year. I do not see him satisfying our needs defensively, however. That is what concerns me the most. We need an Oakley type player at the 4.
Well, at the three or four.
I'm glad you can read through my argument to know I'm not down on Curry and I buy your observations that his footwork is better.
Maybe I'm locked into a Knicks archetypal team that's obsolete but a guy like Artest seems to be key.
Detroit has gotten this kind of mileage out of Dice and Rasheed in recent years. Phoenix has Amare.
Winning teams just need a no-F'n-around player down low. Lee is going to be great at PF and given the hole at SF, I don't see Jeffries or Balkman being a full-time answer there - let alone an intimidating presence.
Hey, we have lots of pieces. I'd do Jeffries and Nate for Artest in a heartbeat and I wouldn't worry a bit about making the playoffs, we'd have teams worried about surviving matching up to us.
At that point we're talking Knicks basketball. Just making the playoffs holds no sway over my tastes that's just bullshit.
And that's where I was coming from with the Layden comparison - when Dolan and Isiah say, "I like what we have!" Uh-uh. Show us that what we have can win. Then if they want to say, "we're good" with 50 wins, I'm okay with that.
I think Isiah is in the same kind of rut some of us are in. He thinks the framework of a winner is having superior guards - that might be his bias.
I used to get great pleasure out of watching Ewing and Oakley and Chollie and Starks. I make no apologies.
FWK,
On Artest, Isiah's coached him before and Vescey has reported that Zeke couldn't stand Ron Ron while in Indy.
So Isiah probably knows better than anyone whether or not Artest can be managed.
Interesting, I had not realized that.
Maybe RonRon has grown as a person in the past few years.
Still, Vecsey could be blowing smoke. After all, Ron requested a trade TO NY while Zeke was here and that started the whole Indy controversy. And don't tell me Zeke wasn't thinking about it.
AND, Zeke has got Nate around as an enforcer ;-) Those two on the floor together questioning an elbow from the other team would be worth paying for.
Absolutely, Vescey could be blowing smoke.
In fact, I would be heartened if Zeke thought he could handle Artest and traded for him because Artest is a top-20 player when sane. Which, recently, has been never. But I trust Zeke on this call more than I do on any other personnel decision.
(by the way, Vescey also writes that Zeke did not think highly of Jamaal Tinsley, who is a lock to be included in any JO blockbuster)
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