TwinkieFoot

After reading alphaorange's most recent article, "I got the feeling," I was left wondering what should be the first steps the organization takes to right itself. Does it fire Isiah? If so, does that really improve the roster? What changes would be made personnel wise (and please be realistic)?

TwinkieFoot

As much as the general consensus from Knick nation complain about winning now, I believe I'd continue to add as much youth as possible. I hate having the even suggest this because it'll just stir up the Marbury bashers but every year in the draft we seem to be missing out on extremely talented point guards that have a knack for running an offense efficiently. The list includes Deron Williams, Chris Paul and likely will add Mike Conley Jr. in a few years. I hope we're not wasting our time standing by Marbury if their is a legitimate chance to land this caliber player for the future. With Isiah's penchant for finding players in the draft, I'm starting to wonder whether we should devote all our time to just trying to obtain draft picks with the players we have and go from there. As much as we might suck early on, we might have a team worth waiting to see grow and develop.

TwinkieFoot

Even if we do suck, there might be a glimmer of hope from everything we've invested into the Zach Randolph project. Even if he and Curry never mesh, I'll be satisfied with the trade if Curry learns to diversify his game. In his present situation, I do not believe that Curry has a choice but to step out of his comfort zone and expand his game.

I've always been one to defend Curry and will continue to do so because I believe he can be one of the two offensive pillars we can build our team around. Despite all his shortcomings, I always remained optimistic because Eddy's first experiences playing against guys of equal talent, skill wise and physically, has come in the NBA. That has only been 6 seasons of playing worthy basketball that could put him to the test. What it all essentially boils down to from there is experience. This is exactly what he'll be receiving now due to his improved conditioning that will lengthen his time on the court and opportunity for extended productive play.

Hopefully Randolph could be one of the final pieces to help Eddy take his game to the next level; Zach has a wealth of knowledge of how to play an inside out game and be a solid rebounder. I think Zach is one of the stages we'd like Eddy to reach. Eventually we'd like to see his game expand defensively which may be a possibility with Zach effectively duplicating Eddy's bread and butter on offense; Eddy might have more time to focus on the other aspects of the game but continue to develop his main weapon, offense.

TwinkieFoot

If everyone is settled into the idea of choosing Randolph over Curry, what do you all think of an Eddy Curry, Ronaldo Balkman and Demetris Nichols trade to the Sixers for Andre Igoudala and Samuel Dalembert? Post scoring is at a premium in the league, I believe the Sixers would have no objection about adding a player whose contract pays him a paltry $8-9 million per season on average for some of the league's best interior scoring. While Curry does have several holes in his game, he's still young and could improve. Balkman and Nichols help to sweeten the pot by adding solid play at the swingman positions.

Again, I'm not a fan of moving Eddy Curry but no one player is bigger than the success of the Knicks. I believe those two players, Igoudala and Dalembert, are much more critical to our immediate success than say Curry (unless of course we move Randolph). My next step would be to move Marbury and hopefully gain either some financial flexibility or young prospects, preferably young prospects.

alphaorange

One-sided trade in favor of the Sixers. Dalembert is a role player and Iggy is very good but no superstar. Curry is the best low-post scorer in the league (maybe behind Yao), Balkman is very respected, and I believe Nichols will suprise.

TwinkieFoot

Expand the deal to include Marbury, cash incentives, with a first round pick and have Philly give up Andre Miller and Kyle Korver (would probably have to add Webber's old contract to balance everything out). Miller is more of a pass first PG and works the lob pass very well which would work well with our bench players and Igoudala and Dalembert. The deal might be even more attractive to the Sixers because of Marbury's contract which is up after next year while giving up horrendous contracts owed to Korver and Dalembert. They also get scoring which I don't believe their team could do much of well.

TwinkieFoot

At the same time, I believe your only looking at things from an offensive perspective. We lose some of our firepower but could improve defensively to the point where we might actually be considered a good defensive team.

alphaorange

Thats a reach at this point. Iggy is inferior to Balkman on defense and while Dally is a decent shot blocker, he is not a good man defender. Miller is a good defender, but so was Marbury last year. Marginal improvement at best on defense and we lose a low post threat which is more difficult to find.

HB

Iggy is inferior to Balkman on defense? How so

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ChosenFEW

ride it out......what is the next guy going to do that isiah couldnt?


the next guy is just going to wait until the current big contracts expire. by then anybody off the street would be a good GM because we will finally have some cap flexibilty (I think)

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TwinkieFoot

Despite the number of teams I've seen pursue cap space, I am still not a fan of destroying a team only for the HOPE of signing a talented free agent who never shows. After all of that, your team more likely than not will suck for even longer waiting to eventually stockpile enough draft picks to eventually gain a faint view of what kind of identity your going to choose for your team. After that, you got to worry about developing all of those young players which takes at least an additional 3-4 years. Despite all of that turnover, you'll still suck but only with a foundation to build on. What is the point of all of that?

I think the Knicks are in an excellent position right now where if they choose to "rebuild," they'd have the assets to do so very quickly and very efficiently. Although we might not have the best TEAM assembled, we have some very impressive young players that should fetch us a pretty penny in return. Like I said earlier, Isiah's bread and butter is drafting so we should focus all those assets in acquiring draft picks to do just that more frequently and quickly.

TwinkieFoot

I got to ask the same question as the other guy, Iggy is an inferior defender to Balkman? His rookie season, I believe he was leading the league in deflections with the aggression he played on the defensive end of the floor. Athletically, he might be one of the quickest and strongest guys laterally in the league. On top of that, he is emmensely more polished than Balkman at this point and even has the potential to be an all-star. That equates to him being much more starter capable than Balkman who appears geared more to a bench role.

As much as Dalembert might not be a first team all-defense caliber player, I think he is significantly better than what we have at the position. He's a solid help defender because of his athletic gifts and shot blocking abilities which is valued more on a weak defensive team than a solid one on one defender at a position that hardly has many scorers. Besides Dalembert is young and still learning the nuisances of the game.

urwhatueati8god

I completely agree.

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