Or should I say, sitting pretty? Waste that paycheck Ed, what happens to you when this year’s money goes out the window?
Do you know the chronological order of departure for Isiah’s boys? This was his team, this was not Scott Layden’s doing.
From left to right, this poster I have been systematically marking off one trade or buyout after another reads:
The Floor General, The Closer, The Rebounder, THE CENTERPIECE, The Warrior, The Defender, The Marksman, The Energizer.
Yes Dolan, lets bring Isiah back for more of this kind of basketball team.
One last thing for tonight, let’s stand pat with what we have, thank Walsh for eradicating 99% of the Isiah players and move on with our Knicks basketball team. No more LeBron talk, no more Chris Paul talk, no more Carmelo talk, lets talk Anthony Randolph, Azubuike, Ray Felton (I hope his heart is half what they say it is) and Danilo, not to mention our upgraded All-Star, Amar’e Stoudemire.
The future is now.
Oh yeah, and these guys are pussies, but they’ll probably win 60+ games this year because of the refs and how they treat superstars. No promises about the playoffs though. I hope they play some David vs. Goliath team (could be us in that 8 spot this year) that beats them with more heart and stronger team play.
I think we’re in very good hands with Mr. Walsh making the decisions.
I honestly don’t see a single mistake thus far, I agree with everything he’s done.
You could look at Brandon Jennings and say he MIGHT have a better career than who we picked a few years ago in the draft (Jordan Hill), you could even look at who else was selected after number 8 (or whatever number we had) and search for a player’s name with any amount of buzz and say that Walsh can’t draft.
We are now under the cap in New York City. For about a decade I heard that was impossible to accomplish because of the temptation to spend when our resources are endless.
Right now we have the resources and cap space, and Chris Paul is starting to mess with us and Orlando. Supposedly Carmelo has a desire to play here in a year too.
The media people that annoy me the most all seem to work for the same company. If you check the history of this blog, there was much anger directed at the New York newspapers for the tabloids they sold papers with, but for me, Isiah Thomas’ sex harassment case and Stephon Marbury’s “lack of a head” as Larry Brown once put it had as much to do with the craziness as the worst Frank Isola or Mitch Lawrence (does the grill even still cover the Knicks?) story.
ESPN has elevated the philosophy brought to the table by these New York journalists into a continuous national spectacle. ESPN has made a mockery of professional basketball reporting this summer, reporting tweets by insignificant people as gospel truth. I think Stern should rethink how the NBA will manage its reputation with all of these agents, entourage people, leeches, doormen, drivers, they basically report anyone with a twitter account as “Sources.” Very irresponsible reporting by Tabloid ESPN. I remember when I thought ESPN was a great channel 10, 15 years ago. Perhaps they started to turn to shit once Disney got involved and bought up all of Times Square.
Getting back to our Knicks in just a bit, let me say that ESPN are a bunch of Knick haters, that much is clear to me, and they want to control the direction players are taking by reporting “sources” when all they have is some tiny tweet from someone who may or may not be in the loop about the “superstar” of the day.
When it comes to Chris Paul, yes, Walsh should try to make a play for him. I always liked Okafor for his defensive skill and since Amare doesn’t have that in spades, why couldn’t they play side by side? Would it mess up our chances with Carmelo Anthony? Do we need to get screwed over by another superstar that may end up going elsewhere?
The last thing I will say tonight about this Chris Paul business is this: SINCE WHEN DOES ORLANDO HAVE MORE CAP SPACE THAN US? They’re capped out over there, we’re the ones that are managing our cap space, we should be the prime candidates to land Paul and any overpriced player such as Okafor. Will it mess up our chances of getting Carmelo? How serious is Carmelo about coming here to begin with? We have a young guy that traded baskets with Carmelo pretty well named Danilo Gallinari. Does Chris Paul have any interest in playing with Gallo?
Carmelo couldn’t come to Orlando next year if the Magic were to trade for Paul and Okafor, no matter who they send back to New Orleans, they’re not a factor for Carmelo in 2011 so how much does Paul want to play with just Dwight and maybe another two years of Rashard playing at a decent level before his game goes south? Don’t get me started on Vince Carter’s game.
Nobody is thinking a second round pick such as Landry Fields will be able to help the Knicks immediately, but for those of us in the know about this new New York Knicks roster, there is a big hole at the shooting guard position, and Walsh actually admitted it during one of the Vegas Summer League telecasts.
Most Knicks fans have penciled in Wilson Chandler as the starting two guard, but there are those that believe that Chandler is better suited at the three, which is where Gallinari is getting his minutes.
I still feel Chandler is going to be traded eventually because of this redundancy. True, Gallinari and Chandler have differing games, but only one is going to get burn, and I think at this point they’re really trying to manufacture a star with Gallo, so Chandler is stuck getting minutes out of his natural position of small forward.
Despite his athletic talent and basketball skill, Chandler might be too slow to defend most twos in the NBA.
Landry Fields really stood out in Vegas this past week. He’s got that David Lee talent of knowing where the ball is going to end up and making plays. Depending on how well he can defend legit shooting guards in the NBA, I would say Fields and Toney Douglas have a shot at taking that starting two guard spot away from Wilson Chandler.
D’Antoni said during an interview in Vegas that he would look to play Douglas and Felton simultaneously, because both have the ability to defend NBA sized two guards.
Our back court is missing something. Could it be Ricky Rubio?
Our front court is looking solid. I still say we need to pry Joakim Noah away from the Bulls and bring him back home to New York. You know Noah is the anti-LeBron, and I think basically New York City, aside from the bandwagon jumpers who have gone out in recent weeks to buy Miami Heat jerseys, most of us here in NYC want to see LeBron and Pat Riley lose.
Noah and Rubio, that’s what I say. We have the high-flyers to catch the alleys now: Amare, Chandler, Anthony Randolph, Fields. We need the guy who is going to know how to throw that alley. Plus one guy that is going to knock LeBron on his ass and tell him to quit dancing. Right now that is Turiaf, but I think Donnie should try to pull another slick move and get Noah to play for the team he really wants to play for: the Knicks.
When I arrived in New York over two years ago, I set in motion a plan, that started with hiring Coach D’Antoni, to restore the on-court performance of our legendary franchise. Our goal has always been to build a team that will contend for a title, and I am confident that our recent moves are a great start in achieving that ultimate objective.
As our most loyal fans, I wanted to continue my approach of directly updating you on our progress and sharing some of my current thinking as we continue our return to the elite of the NBA.
For the first time in many years, we will be fielding a roster comprised of several young, talented and exciting players that are the key building blocks of our future success. At the same time, we have retained valuable cap flexibility, setting us up to be strategic and add additional key players over the next couple of seasons.
Our biggest off-season move was the signing of All-Star power forward Amar’e Stoudemire. There are few true, franchise-caliber players in the league and we are thrilled to have one of them in Amar’e. There was no better player in the NBA during the second half of last season and the playoffs. Amar’e has embraced the challenge of coming to New York and leading our team to long-term success.
A second key free agency acquisition was point guard Raymond Felton. One of the NBA’s quickest and toughest players, Ray is an ideal fit to run Coach D’Antoni’s fast-paced offense. We also traded for two solid two-way contributors in swingman Kelenna Azubuike and forward/center Ronny Turiaf, and added Anthony Randolph, an outstanding young forward who has the physical talent to be among the league’s best.
The newest Knicks join our strong, promising core of young players including Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and Toney Douglas. We have made great progress assembling a team with long-term success in mind, and will continue to explore the right opportunities to add complimentary players to our roster.
We look forward to seeing you at The Garden this fall when our exciting new team opens the 2010-11 season. With your support and a buzz returning to The World’s Most Famous Arena, the Knicks will once again have the ultimate home court advantage.
When things don’t make sense at Madison Square Garden, it starts to smell like Dolan.
Was Dolan smart enough to realize the Curry contract Isiah gave him prevented us from getting the big three to play in New York instead of a city where basketball is an afterthought such as Miami?
PPG 16.3 RPG 4.70 APG 0.7 EFF+ 15.67
Height: 6-7 / 2.01
Weight: 215 lbs. / 97.5 kg.
College: Stanford
Years Pro: R
Knicks Summer Vegas League Team MVP in three games thus far.
I would have bet money that distinction would have been Toney Douglas’ going into this, but Fields is shooting 55% from the field. You know D’Antoni likes that kind of accuracy.
Douglas’ stats in three:
PPG 15.3 RPG 4.30 APG 6.0 SPG 3.3 EFF+ 17.67
Born: Mar 16, 1986
Height: 6-2 / 1.88
Weight: 190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
College: Florida State
Years Pro: 1
PG Ray Felton (knicks fans are hoping the UNC alumn is better than Duke’s Chris Duhon at the 1 spot)
SG Kelenna Azubuike (only played 9 games last season due to a torn patella)
C Anthony Randolph (I think Mike D will start him at the 5, but maybe we need more force from this position?)
SF Danilo Gallinari (will this be a breakout or ceiling year?)
PF Amar’e Stoudemire (just hope he stays healthier than McDyess)
Bench
PG Toney Douglas (he should be dominating summer league right now)
SG Bill Walker / Andy Rautins
C Timofy Mozgov / Jerome Jordan (each over 7′, despite both being unproven) / Earl Barron
SF Landry Fields
PF Ronny Turiaf (glad to have him, he’s a playoff type player)
*note, I left off Chandler and Curry because I believe we are trying to move both of them out of Gotham. I’m pretty sure we can get back value for Chandler, Curry isn’t worth jack squat but his contract is large (like his gut) and expiring.
We have quite a few centers on this team now, I wonder if Walsh will try to deal them for another player.
You can look at the roster and tell there is a gaping hole at the two spot. Obviously Walsh thought he had a legit chance to get LeQueen. We need to continue to upgrade the back court. I think our front court is coming along well, but in SS0L, we need a great back court to push the ball up. Felton is an x-factor, Duhon couldn’t cut it, we’ll see if Felton can handle the pressure and thrive. If he averages 18 and 8 under Mike D, I’d be happy.
Who is this guy’s agent, anyway? Only if LeBron and Wade throw a couple mil under the table in the direction of Haslem is this a good deal for him. A few years ago, he took a similar pay cut, Pat Riley is taking advantage of this young man’s loyalty.
So we got our Russian 7’1″ center. Hope he’s better than our other Eastern European centers in the past:
Frederick Weiss
Slavko Vranes
Maciej Lampe
…I’m sure there are more, but you will understand why I don’t recall their names…
Hey, what’s Donnie going to do with Earl Barron? Will he take less to play for the Knicks like Haslem did for the Heat?
Who is the starting shooting guard for our Knicks right now? Dare I say, put Toney Douglas in the back court to play with our (Frank Williams)^2, Ray Felton?
Did we bring in Azibuke to replace Wilson Chandler so that Will can packaged in a deal along with Eddy Curry? Is Azibuke our guy over Will?
We won our second summer league game today, we played the Lakers and won, 71-63. Billy Walker had 14, Landry Fields 17. That second rounder we traded for, Jerome Jordan, he had 7 fouls, 5 turnovers and 2 blocks. Our Toney Douglas only had 6 points, 7 assists, 5 steals and 4 turnovers and 5 rebounds. Sounds like the stats Mr. Indiana used to get us, Jared Jeffries.
Speaking of former Knicks, I never got to say goodbye to David Lee. Mr. Lee, we will miss your hustle and energy. You were a good player in a very bad situation, I wish you success and luck in your future NBA endeavours. I have no doubt you’ll be around for a long time in this league. Hope you make the all-stars again out west in GS. You were the best interview the Knicks had for the past four years in my opinion.
