Trading Melo will depend on how NY does in FA. They have options, which is great because of Phil. If they swing and miss in FA, trade Melo for a haul. If you hit on it, you have the help you need. Everyone says Melo needs a lot of help, but go through his career and find the best #2 he's had each year... It's a miserable list. He's no Kobe or MJ, but he's never had the coaching Dirk had or the teammates Pierce had or Wade had. Yeah he needs help, but so will every other player you draft or sign through FA. You aren't grabbing a Kobe or MJ off the street
Wait wait wait... i can't let you say these things... He never had the coaching? George Karl is a damn good coach IMO, and he even said over the summer that melo would NOT prosper under Phil ... think he was on to something. He led Melo as far as he'll ever go. Melo and the nuggets ALWAYS played well... It was melo's playoff struggles that held them back outside of the WCF year, Kobe was too determined to lose to anyone (as he went on to win it all). Melo had Iverson which still had juice in the tank and played solid there. Chauncy Billups was still a solid player in his time there. They always had solid bigs in Kenyon Martin, Nene, Camby and such. Young JR was a playmaker for sure off the bench. Andre Miller was always a brilliant PG. He didn't have a partner in crime really besides A.I but he's had solid teams and thats what wins chips, but he DIDN'T.
He never had the coaching Dirk had. I think Carlisle is better than Karl when they both coached. Karl could never get his team to play the right defense come playoff time, with or without Melo. They hit a wall. Carlisle seems to always having the Mavs play a step better. Solid teams don't win championships. Great teams win championships with usually at least two stars. Look at how you described that list, solid for everything. The Nuggets were a solid team. I think they played two series where they had the better regular season record than their opponent. They won those two series. They were a good team in the West, they rarely were a great team in the West. Again that's part Melo, part Nuggets around him. You cannot win a championship with one star especially if Melo is that star. You need a more collective effort. But it usually starts with two stars, something Nuggets struggled to do. I mean look at Lebron. Lebron is worlds better than Melo, played with Larry Hughes in 2007 and got swept in the finals after needing one of his greatest playoff performances ever to beat the Pistons. SVG and the Magic almost put together a superhuman effort to work around Dwight. If Courtney Lee makes that layup, who knows. But it was Courtney Lee trying to make that layup while Kobe had Pau and company. So like I said, most likely, any player the Knicks grab next year will need help to make the Knicks a viable playoff team let alone contender. Your logic ended with since he's not Kobe or MJ get him out of here. If that's the Knicsk plan, well why even try to build a team? You build a team with what you have, they don't have a Kobe or MJ. They need to make it work with what they get next year. Draft pick plus free agency. That will then dictate what you do with Melo. Also Melo has a no trade clause, I believe. That already limits what the Knicks could get for Melo especially since the one person the Knicks probably could fleece the best owns the Knicks. The thing with Melo is that you have some backup. If you swing and miss on the top FAs like M. Gasol for example, and only get that next level players like a couple Wes Matthews type for example, well you need Melo. If you don't have Melo, you have Amare and the Knicks again. With Melo and the top pick you have at least different ways to go instead of best FA or bust. On top of that, the Knicks don't have their 2016 pick. So they trade Melo, their draft pick struggles, and they miss on top FAs. Now what? Tank for the pick you don't have? Hope that you get a non protected pick from the team that traded for Melo and hope they suck enough to get in the lottery? The Knicks need to try and be good next year. Trading Melo without getting a steal back creates a thinner margin of error. Flexibility is key for the Knicks, because they aren't clear of all of Dolan's missteps yet.
Nice post bro. I think if you guys get Marc Gasol that would change the complexity of things. IF your going to build around Melo, i would say give him good defenders around him and a scoring big man (sorry, not you Amare). Look at the success you guys had with Chandler in the paint and Shump up top playing defense, even though i think you guys went on a crazy shooting spree which helped things alot, you guys had some balance on both sides of the court. Right now, it's like they didn't learn from last year. A bunch of zero's trying to play hero.
It's not necessarily building around Melo, but building around Melo, top FA, top pick. The last two direct what you do with Melo. I would be surprised if Melo is traded this year unless he wants out.
I can't imagine a bigger disaster than the current Knicks. How could they let the team get this bad. First they have a new coach who was no experience who is making Mike Woodson look good. And are trying to put in a system that their current roster can't run. I thought the object is to win games. And that includes now. So this is totally unsatisfactory. And there is really no light in the tunnel. Almost no talent left. And now they're talking about shutting down Melo a guy who is making 25 mil per season for the whole year.
^disgraceful isnt it? I remember growing up how respected a franchise we were and now 21st century we have been the biggest joke
How is this a surprise? The best and easiest way to improve is either having a ton of cap room or suck badly for a great draft pick, we are getting both. All I have to remember is San Antonio with Tim Duncan, Boston which got them a ring with Garnett and Allen. At least we have Melo and a top draft pick to lure in a top free agent.
It is a surprise. To go in such a short period of time from mediocrity to being the worst team in the NBA. And not competitive. His first mistake was re-signing Melo for huge money. But the idea I thought was they could win now while rebuilding. So to me you have to scrap the triangle for now and try to win some games. But they just got rid of two guys who were legit NBA players.
Because Phil Jackson is smarter than Jim Dolan. In the NBA the worst thing you can do is be somewhat good/average/mediocre. You need to either have a shot at being elite or tank all the way to the bottom. This is EXACTLY what the Knicks need to be doing to get that draft pick. The team is full of one dimensional losers and needs to be gutted. There's no reason whatsoever to win another game all season long. They should charter planes to Aruba for Melo
I agree about JR. Not Shumpert, though. But to get rid of JR they probably had to give them Iman. Phil could have gotten rid of Melo and I was surprised he kept him. Esp when you are trying to implement a team concept and no isolation. Then I could accept a total rebuild. But not with Melo.
The only time I've enjoyed watching the Kmicks since Melo arrived was when he was injured two years ago and for a short period of time they played team ball, go to the open man. When Jeremy Lin was the point guard. It was old style Knicks basketball. When Melo returned it was back to isolation as per Woodson.
http://deadspin.com/espn-wants-nothing-to-do-with-the-knicks-1678297897 Like their NFL brethren, NBA rights partners are allowed to flex out of matchups. I have never been able to get clear answers from the NBA about how frequently they're allowed to flex, what the restrictions are, and whether the league or broadcaster has the final say, but however it works, ESPN has flexed out of the following Knicks games: New York at San Antonio - Dec. 10 Dallas at New York - Dec. 16 Oklahoma City at New York - Jan. 28 New York at Brooklyn - Feb. 6 Los Angeles (Clippers) at New York - March 25 So far this season, ESPN has flexed out of nine matchups in total, meaning over half of their flexes have involved the Knicks. ESPN has also flexed out of two Bulls games, but they've flexed into two other Bulls games as well. No team has net lost more than one ESPN matchup...except for the Knicks, who have lost five. In fact, the only other time you will see the Knicks on ESPN this season is Sunday, Feb. 1, against the Lakers in a game that ESPN cannot flex out of because it is the only game on the schedule at that time. That's right: after showing their first two Knicks games of the season, ESPN has now flexed out of every single Knicks game they possibly can. Unfortunately for ABC and TNT, they don't have the same luxury. TNT's prized block of exclusive Thursday night games, where it broadcasts two games on a sparse schedule, means it can almost never flex out of games, and ABC's early Sunday schedule means the same. So you better get your fill of the Knicks on those channels, because you'll barely see them on the Worldwide Leader.
What a bust, do you know how many Sunday ABC games they have? I hope its not to many. I really enjoy those Sunday games.
http://www.nba.com/schedules/national_tv_schedule/index.html Sun, Feb 22 Cleveland @ New York 1:00 pm I only see that one for Knicks ABC games.
Awesome! Just classic! I ain't complaining...And honestly really funny to see these guys pull it off. They are sitting all game right by the Rockets bench and TNT kept showing and it was very hard to avoid seeing them everytime someone brought the ball up. I bet Dolan is boiling like a red hot lobster face and probably texted Phil Jackson, who probably told Dolan to calm the fuck down and let the people enjoy the game however they want to. We tanking straight to the abyss and nothing stops this train!
Knicks have no pride. At home, national TV. 24 point loss. Knicks trying to set some kind of record for blowout losses in a season.
Phil talked with the media before this game. Still so surprising to hear from the Knicks during the season instead of everyone being silenced. Basically confirmed we're on plan B which is tanking. Didn't think it would be this bad + injuries. Whatever ,we actually have a pick so we can tank. Backup plans are new that's how bad Dolan ran the team. As an example, Toronto was seriously thinking of tanking last year and now look where they are now. You have to be able to adjust, let's hope Phil can pick the right player and sign players to make this team competitive next year. Sigh. Atlanta finally broke out of mediocrity which is nice to see
