^ He's trolling. The Knicks are now playing the Pistons tonight. Brandon Jennings gets to the Knicks so this will be fun. The last time we played the Pistons, we had this quote: QUOTABLE: "We're building, we're building something here. We're getting our confidence back, we're getting or aura back, our swagger back and that's something we've been missing this season."-- Carmelo Anthony via NBA.com The February really set the Knicks backwards. Yesterday the Knicks went into this hybrid switching man zone thing which slowed Chicago down offensively, but it was too little too late. First quarter the damage was done.
Pistons are deceiving. Their front court is huge. I figured we would not repeat last years season, but man, I never, ever, imagined this. The team has given up on themselves, but worse, on us. We are the ones paying all the ridiculous ticket prices to go watch them.
Also the rumor of the Knicks looking to trade Amare's contract this offseason really shows how NYK thinks. Amare is expiring next year if he opts in (why would he not?). If he opts in, he is expiring, and therefore will come off the books in one year. That is only valuable if you can use that to trade for a top player like Rondo or etc because it's a valuable incentive to a team looking to clear space. The rumor has the Knicks trading Amare's expiring for a large contract of a player they think hasn't hit their potential like Eric Gordon. That is wrong for the Knicks because it would be taking on salary past 2015, something they do not want to do if they want to hang onto that space in 2015. The knicks have the two worst contracts in the NBA right now, and the only way they can use them correctly is to a) let them expire b) trade them for a top player. Any other trade, unless we fleece a team (which we can't since we can't trade with ourselves), will probably hurt the cap space of this team and start to resemble the Isiah year. Side note, rumors also say Pistons were considering bringing in Isiah to help them out. I wouldn't wish that on Miami Heat or Pacers or my worst enemy.
No one will take Amare. I don't think anyone would take him even if we gave him for free with a side of cash. I do feel bad for him. His career took a turn for the worse really quickly. So since trading him isn't going to happen, the only other thing to do is PLAY HIM. I am tired of Woodson and the Knicks monitoring his minutes. Play the guy 30 minutes a game. Worst case scenario? Oh he gets hurt again. Well that's the worst case scenario if he plays even 30 seconds. What is the point in monitoring his minutes anyway, what the heck are we saving him for? Maybe if he gets hurt again, he blesses us and retires, freeing us early. And at this point, if i were Stat, i would demand to play.
People will take him if the Knicks are silly enough to trade his bad, expiring contract for a bad non expiring contract with years on it. Nobody will take Amare based on his skill, it will only be because of his large expiring contract. Amare will not be traded because a team wants his talent on the team. Well worst case scenario is that he continually makes the team worse. Yesterday was the first time in a long time Amare came into the game and the Knicks actually made up ground on a deficit or extended a lead. It took a hybrid zone/man/switching D to make it happen, but it happened. Continually playing Amare over the course of this season has had an overall huge negative effect on the Knciks. Playing Amare and THJ causes an even greater negative effect on the Knicks. I'd rather THJ play than Amare, so I'm more for limiting Amare's minutes. Stat has demanded to play more earlier in the season. And he got his minutes, and the Knicks routinely gave up leads in the beginning of the 4th Q because of it.
Amare has the worst +/- on the team. THJ has the second worst. If we do net rating, Amare has the 3rd worst with only Chris Smith and Shannon Brown having worse. Amare on the court Knicks O rating 98.1, Knicks D rating 110.8 Amare off the court Knicks O rating 106.0, Knicks D rating 105.4 Knicks overall 2013 Knicks O rating 103.6, Knicks D rating 107.0 Knicks overall 2012 Knicks O rating 108.6, Knicks D rating 103.5 It's sad because Amare is clearly limited in his style of play and the Knicks, specifically Woodson, is using him in ways that will showcase his weaknesses. A better coach could use Amare more effectively and cover up his glaring defensive and rebounding weaknesses.
he was a terrible signing. I said it at the time and a bunch of people (I think ecko, mostly), were defending it. to give big money uninsured 5 years to a guy with a checkered injury history...
We don't know what happens after the Amare signing. Would Melo still want to come here, would MDA still be here, etc etc. It definitely was a signing to not whiff on FA. Patience definitely could have worked a lot better and possibly brought CP3 and Melo to NY or the Knicks could have messed up as usual and been bad for 4-5 more years after that.
yeah the problem was that Amar'e was not a top level superstar even when healthy. Good player, could never be the centerpiece of an elite team. He turned 28 at the beginning of his first season with the Knicks, and he had missed a significant amount of games in three of his past seasons (the eye issue, a knee injury, etc.). But the Knicks had finally cleared cap room and went out and spent it like a drunken sailor. About $100 million for five years of an injury prone non-star, because none of the available stars wanted to sign with them. What you do is wait, not overpay. The reason Stoudemire even signed with the Knicks was that no other team would give him five years at that money, and the contract was not able to be insured due to his checkered injury history. This seriously crippled the team. No patience.
So Melo just scored 2 buckets on back to back possessions by never running back on defense. Knicks barely have a lead on the Pistons
There not even trying out there. I have no confidence in the powers that be to actually do a good job deciding where this team goes from here. Guys do you even want Melo to stay?
Of course we want Melo to stay. Any Knicks fan that wishes him to leave is absolutely crazy (unless they are only Team Melo of course). However, if he did leave, as others have said, at this point, I cannot truly hate him. TBH, I can't truly state how I will feel until something actually happens. I am positive my initial reaction will be "fucking melo", but, i know, as time goes on, I wouldn't hold it against him. Problem is, even if the Knicks suck, people will still go watch them at the Garden. When do we start the Love2NewYork or NewYorkLovesKevin lol. I think I am going to give my tickets to the next home game to the less fortunate, I am sure they will still enjoy watching this team.
that simply isn't true. it has nothing to do with whether Amare is worth the money, it has to do with the fact that if a team can dump a bunch of multi-year contracts they will save tons of cash by taking Amare's one year salary. this happens almost every year in the NBA.
