jsa

I do not believe Indiana has given up on Bender at his young age. Talent wise, Croshere is better than Ward and Knight alone , without Bender in the deal. I recognize the salary cap issues, but the Knicks have nothing to offer anybody except Spreewell, and he obviously has baggage. Houston would help some teams, but his salary is to high. Ping pong is a good game, and the Knicks will have plenty of ping pong balls to use at the end of the season.

BBallFan

If you do recognize the salary cap issues, do you really think it's possible that the Pacers are going to be able to keep Brad Miller, Jermaine O'Neal, Ron Artest, Bender and Reggie Miller (they already signed Foster... I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but it was a longterm contract)?

I can't see how it's possible to keep that many of them, unless they get rid of Croshere's longterm contract.

Also, the Knicks supposedly are trying to get out of spend mode... but I think they'd be willing to take on money to get young potential.

The best way to create a winning franchise in today's free-agency (before the best way was to sign Shaq) is to put a collection of young talent together, and watch them grow.

Even though its obviously in the Knicks best interest to do something... I was starting to think that they were goign to wind up doing nothing. However, with the signing of Lee Nailon and this quote, I fully expect them to go out and get some more young(er) talent, even if it means taking on bad contracts to do it.

MPK

this should be layden's goal by the end of the year: end the year with atleast 3 out of 5 of these young players: bender, sczerbiak, crawford, fizer and croushere
if he can do that then maybe there is a future

also, nailon sign, but where did the money come from, the midlevel exception or the injury exception, i hope not the injury exception

__________________
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."
- Frank Lloyd Wright

BBallFan

They used a portion of their midlevel. It didn't touch the injury exception.

As for the young players you listed... Croshere shouldn't be a goal, and should only ever be acquired if it means getting a young talent as well (Bender or Artest... but I don't think they'd give Artest, because he contributes too much to the current team. And Artest's a big reason why I think they're going to wind up trading Bender). And Szczerbiak won't leave Minnesota, I don't think... and even if he was going to, I don't think the Knicks have the value it'll take to get him.

Fizer & Crawford, or Bender & Croshere seem like they could be possible though (unless Indiana is unwilling to eventually admit that it's impractical and impossible to sign all of their FAs).

MPK

if they ended the season with those 4 players i would be very pleased. donnie walsh is smart enough to realize that he can't resign everyone

for arguements sake, lets say the knicks make these deal and get lebron

in the future the starting lineup will be some for of lebron, bender, crawford, and fizer. all they need is a servicable center. suddenly the knicks future looks brighter

__________________
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."
- Frank Lloyd Wright