Guest Commentary: This Better Be Worth it…

They’ll get something out of 2010, wether it’s a max guy or not. I agree with Alan Hahn, in that having cap flexibility is actually more important that having the ability to sign Lebron James (a long-shot).

But on the other hand I agree with the poster. I live in LA, and have to pay a ton of money for league pass to watch my beloved knicks be terrible every night. It’s tough. I wish they would have been slightly more bold, knowing they probably will find a way to move Jeffries. Wether that was signing Sessions, or trading up in the draft, who knows, I don’t have answer. I just know that if Donnie was inheriting the GM job from anyone else, he wouldn’t be able to ask the fans to watch this team.

Also, it seems as though Walsh looked over one the keys to attracting free agents: having other players they would want to play with. Maybe Gallo, maybe Chandler, maybe Hill could be those guys. But those guys seem farther away. They need someone, for Lebron or whoever to say, “besides your city, and your coach, I would really like to play with that guy…” otherwise it will be “I like you city, and your coach, but this isn’t a step up for me”

what a great post justin,that whole keeping zach and jamaal thing til 2011 is exactly what i was thinking,if you are gonna wait until 2011,why make any moves at all.and yer right SESSIONS woulda been a very good point guard to grow the team with

I wonder what Mr Charles would have said should Donnie have followed the Zeke way.

No one knows if the lights of Broadway and the Dantoni attraction will be enough to entice Lebron or D-Wade to come and play for the Knicks next summer.

All I know is that DW made this possible. And it was not the easy road for him, as we start to see the frustration grow. Anyhow if the plan fails I still prefer cap space to a bunch of overpaid losers.

Meanwhile, I am excited about next season and looking forward to see Gallo, Chandler, Hill & Douglas play their hearts out and develop their games. The rest of the team is just a one-year supporting cast as far as I am concerned.

So you were so happy winning 33 games in 2006 with Marbury, Crawford, Richardson and Randolph, that you would have maintained the status quo out to 2012? I didn’t think 2006 was such a great year. Just my opinion.

Great post Justin. You basically echoed exactly how I (and likely most NYK fans) feel. The fact that this team has already thrown out 2 years and will very likely be throwing out a 3rd makes me feel so embarrassed. At least if we were trying to win and sucking it would be ok but these really are throw away years. I think as Knicks fans a boycott has been a longtime coming, I for one am not seeing any games at the Garden this year. I also have urged my uncle John to not renew his season tix and due to the economy he likely won’t. A team that is just thrown out there so that 5 bodies can be on the floor is not a team I can actively support. In the past I have spent my money on this team(jerseys’ new and very expensive throwbacks, caps, shoes and most importantly tickets to dozens of games over the years) and I am through with that. Until this team shows that they are serious about winning, they do not deserve an audience IMO.

I guess I’m less concerned about the fact that they’re tanking it, and more concerned with the way they’re trying to do it. It seems wishy washy to me. They’ve balked at the Jeffries/Robinson Sacramento deal. They’re reluctant to trade Lee, even though he should be capable of either bringing in cheaper young player or helping get rid of curry or jeffries.

I respect donnie and am glad he’s doing what he’s doing, and his old man patience might just save this franchise, but after that, I hope the second biggest free agent the Knicks bring in next year is Darryl Morrey.

My mistake. The year was 2007 when we trade Channing Frye for Randolph and proceed to win 23 games for the year. I didn’t think 2007 was such a great year either.

NO. NO. NO.

Please use the internet, it’s a convenient time machine to cure selected fan amnesia.

This post is only a prescription to send this team back to Hell. Words cannot begin to describe my exasperation when “fans” CANNOT accept that the Knicks were in HELL and have, after great pain and sacrifice, have just reached purgatory.

Guys, suck it up. When struck with a near fatal disease or a debilitating injury, one must take their medicine and take the long, tough road back to recovery. It’s painful, but necessary.

I want the trophy not a long string of years getting no where close to it. Donny has a plan for a championship, anything else is may as well be last place. No other plan can get us there.

You know there’s a middle ground between doing nothing signing Jerryd Jeffries, right?

I’m with you you, Justin. Donnie Walsh is just too old and set in his ways for the complicated, gutsy job of rebuilding this once great franchise. I’m predicting it won’t be long before we’ll be hearing the “Fire Donnie” chants at the Garden. BTW, I hear David Kahn is ready to make another trade for the Wolves this week. Love him, or hate him, he’s really shaking things up in Minnesota.

“What I’m trying to say is, I need something, anything, to make me not feel like I am wasting my time with this team.” = Isiahism

Moreover, your near-complete dismissal of what the Knicks can get in 2010 is a bit premature, don’t ya think?

Kahn = Isiahism

sorrysorrysorry I cant get your point. RU talking about Sessions ?

if so wait a few months before blaming DW !

You want Crawford and Randolph back? Really?

Yeah, they were above .500 (6-5), but look at who they played in the first 11 games…

Miami Heat W
Philadelphia 76ers L
Milwaukee Bucks L
Washington Wizards W
Utah Jazz W
San Antonio Spurs L
Memphis Grizzlies W
Oklahoma City Thunder W
Dallas L
Boston L

That’s ONE win against a playoff team (Utah – playing WITHOUT Deron Williams), ONE good win (v. Miami) and wins against the dregs of the league (OKC, Memphis, Milw. and Wash.)

Even w/ Z-Bo n’ Jamal (and I have an irrational love for Craw), no WAY they were staying above .500. We’d probably be looking at the same record we had (32-50).

Dumping Randolph AND Crawford this year was a MAJOR achievement.

This is an awful, revisionist post worthy of the Repubs fighting “death panels.”

Are you kidding me Justin? What can you possibly be thinking? It was that much fun to watch Zach and Jamal, two players that have been the centerpiece for losing teams for their entire careers, that you would throw away any future chances to do so? Give me Nate and David and $25M in cap flexibility any day!

It is possible that your team would have squeezed in to the eighth spot for 4 playoff games and out — as much chance as just missing out. Zach and Jamal would have left us with zero cap room. Discussing the possibilities of LeBron coming to NY is more fun than watching those two play.

2010: No new influx of talent, and no Hill. As the 8th or 9th best team in the east we would have missed out on him too. Even if we don’t get a max player, 23M, 25M, maybe 30M will bring you a hell of a lot more interesting players to build around than could be provided by those two. What about the minutes that Zach and Jamal would have taken away from Lee, Nate and most importantly, Will.

Guidance is just that. 50M cap space is not rumor — it’s a worst case scenario so that gms aren’t caught off guard like they were this year. It’s not anything approaching fact either. Nate and David are not necessarily out of the picture, but at the very least, last year’s minutes allowed them to build up their value and gave Donnie a lot more equity come trade deadline.

By the way, Hill and Douglas and Darko already improve this team. A year more for Gallo and Will does too. You have 7 players who are playing for their next contract, and that should make things interesting too.

No Hill, less value for Lee and Robinson, no money to spend on free agents next year with no 1st draft choice either. All this in trade for the wonderful opportunity to watch JC and ZR lead us to an almost playoff spot for two more years with little hope for the future to boot.

Isiah, is that you?

Great point, Gym Rat. I concur.

My thing is I’m reserving judgement on this team, and the longer nothing happens the more apathetic I become…

…and while I know intuitively that a long term patient approach is probably the best course of action, at this point, I find it curious the NY media groupthink that blindly rides Walshs jockstrap when he really has done nothing but sell a bunch of promises about the future which look bleaker by the day.

The fact of the matter is this team is being crafted to lose next season! despite the rose colored glasses of many fans and media only in NY… Winning is not the priority right now, that’s plain fact, furthermore this desire, by said group, to see an energetic talent like Nate jettisoned when the plan is to tank until 2010, anyway, when it costs us little to keep him kinda baffles me, but I digress…

While I don’t wish to bash him, I don’t see any reason to celebrate the “genius of Donnie Walsh” until he actually does something… I like to see some action or I’m getting bored, in short– wake me in 2010…

As always, your last two posts are right on target. I was right there with you, just a few minutes too late.

“Please use the internet, it’s a convenient time machine to cure selected fan amnesia.” — precious. Should be a daily reminder.

I would much rather watch this young team play as opposed to the lineage of perpetual headaches that clogged the roster for far too long. A roster that was brought to you by years of over spending and poor judgment. A roster that was directly related to typical NY fan hysteria regarding anything that is seen as rebuilding.
look across the river, look at the way the Giants do it, sound management, an attention to drafting and development, and a tendency to not throw money at big names just for the sake of making moves.
So now the Knicks are looking in this same direction and I applaud them for that. From day 1 Walsh has said that this is our plan and were sticking to it. If those out there look at this as a strategy that is “not serious about winning” Then you haven’t been paying attention to where the alternative approach will get you, you must have been busy watching Crawford and Randolph chucking up ill advised 3′s

Stick to I. Not likely most NYK fans.

Making the same horrendous mistakes for the third straight administration would make me embarrassed. Watching young players, and the hope of a future, makes me hopeful.

We weren’t trying to win before, we were treading water at best. Nothing more.

Just 5 bodies, and no plan, sounds like the Isiah years, not these. You would spend all that money on the likes of Marbury, Randolph, Curry, James and Crawford, but not invest in the future. Strange.

Perhaps your just too young to remember what it’s like, the excitement of watching your own young players develop into solid pros and, sometimes even, stars. Not your fault, it’s been a long time since this organization has given us that pleasure.

Good luck to you and Uncle John and I sincerely hope to see you back again when the plan begins to bare fruit.

Comments meant for NYK Orange and Blue

Relax,

Donnie is doing it right.
Keeping Randolph and Crawford till their contracts expired would have not been a good plan because we wouldn’t have had a better opportunity to put together a potential supporting cast for whichever max player that we were going to bring in after those player’s contracts expired.
Chill, have faith, and remember: Isiah could still be navigating these murky waters!

Were we in Hell with Isaiah? YES

BUT.. Hell had an expiration date.

I AM NOT SUBSCRIBING TO THE BELOW

But IF Dolan said to IT.. you are not permitted to take on one extra dollar of payroll and let everyone expire in 2011

That would be exactly where the “2011 plan” would have us.

I am not complaining about the 2010 plan at all. Ive signed up full force. In fact, I was a proponent of DOnnie sticking to it at the trade deadline in 2008/2009 instead of abandoming it.

BUT the post has a point that waiting until 2011 when EC and JJ expire really isnt brain surgery. Granted having a “stable front office and coach” is not something to sneeze at .. BUT .. Donnie and MD HAVE TO get something done for 2010 in terms of making the playoffs in order for 2010 to work. I have not muligan in my bag saying if not 2010 then 2011 because frrankly, why pay or congratulate Donnie for a plan that we could have executed with out him.

If your bored, take a nap until December.

Our 7 expiring contracts and young players will provide us with far greater opportunities than Ramon Sessions. Mobley’s 7.5M insurance policy will be particularly valuable in this economy. This summer didn’t have a lot to offer for our young, building team. Mid market teams, staring at the luxury tax payments, will be desperate soon. They will have to dump major assets, at discount prices, to survive. We are in good position to be major players then. Greater leverage brings greater value.

Think beyond the moment.

Thanks to my job I’ve lived in countries in Europe and South America where football (soccer) is the dominating sport, and I have to say, those are real fans. I try to adopt their attitude. They don’t care if their team was once great or near the top or a constant contender and later they became losers. They don’t mind having second tier players for many years, for they all know: they were once great, constant champions (something the Knicks haven’t been), and the circumstances, along with economy issues plus soccer policies (details) have them where they are, at the bottom. Yet they don’t care, they know their time will come. And they don’t even have a plan to look forward to. They don’t have an organization that has come together to form a plan to bring first grade player (or players) in the near future to give the team their much deserved and needed legacy.
I consider myself lucky, for I love a team that has a future to look forward to, and not just one: 2010, 2011, even 2012. Yet I keep seeing everywhere impatient fans, that complain about every little decision, every small choice. Everyone should be so happy to have a team that is building torward a future, that has a city that for its mere name presents a great market that is a factor alone to attract franchise players. There are teams who can’t even have that. In a worst case scenario 2010 doesn’t go through and other great players arrive at less money, but there are endless options. And later will come 2011 and 2012, years that will present even more options.
Take a pill or somthing, go to bed and wake up in 2010. If you don’t like what there is and what is trying to be done, at least know that the present guys will give it all and the few people that arrive at the garden will root their asses off.
It’s time to accept the facts and try to be hopeful for what’s to come.

It is really really really hard to sit back and watch this team lose for another season… And it must be equally hard for Donnie to do the same. But we should commend him for his patience. He is sticking to his plan and that is going to be something that we are all thankful for in the end. It would be easier for Donnie to appease the fans by signing someone like Sessions. But he has his eyes on the prize which is 2010 and will do nothing to jeopardize that. the 50M cap # for 2010 is a worst case scenario. if the economy improves a bit, we could be looking at 55M. Assuming that we aren’t able to trade Jeffies AND Curry, Walsh will figure that out as well. If they are both still on the roster after this season, he will orchestrate a buyout for a lower salary # and the negotiated difference will come off of the cap. He will figure out a way to get us under the cap by enough of a margin to get 2 max contracts… He has the experience, the knowledge and the ability. It will get done…

Would you sign on for major improvements in 2010, with a big piece or two left for 2011. We will have cap money then and a #1 draft choice.

A 12 to 14 million dollar drop in expected cap room for 2010 is a major hit to any rebuilding team. One that couldn’t be anticipated. The $50M cap figure could be way off, but you can’t plan now for anything more.

You underestimate the effort that any gm would need to get out from under Isiah’s burdon. most gms would have reached for a quick fix by now. Most fans would have been satisfied if he did…for the moment. His restraint is admirable. That is exactly how start up companies evolve into established ones. Good teams too.

Isiah showing restraint even under Dolan’s edict? never happen because Dolan shows none either. Mismanagement at the top is a major impediment to this team”s health.

I guess getting Lebron in 2010 is not worth giving up Zeebo and Crawfish,this has to be the worst thoughout comment on earth.Zeebo and Crawfish can’t pass a lick in this system we need passing to the open man Zeebo is the valley of forgotton basketballs,LOL We have Lebron locked up because of Donnie’s plan and we have some nice young talent to work with,are we watching the same team,everyone wants to play in this system if we can offer equal money.Zeebo and Crawfish LOL you miss Miss Q too LOL.When we get Lebron their will be alot of crow for dinner here.Let’s not forget we have Gallo heathy and Chandler healthy,which helps a little and we have nice picks in Hill and Douglas and Darko as a sleeper.This team will be exciting to watch.

So, having an average to mediocre team who can’t play together for 3 years is better than waiting 1 year to make a complete overhaul of the roster?

Having “fun” in December and let downs on Feb. is better??

Really?

Defending a “hardly .500″ team is really NOT the way to go. So we won 6 of the first 11 games of the season… that meant nothing.

And stop it already with the “tanking two seasons”. Are you guys for real?

This team is not a Championship contender, we all agree… but is disrespectful to say the team last year just called it quits. I was proud (for the first time in a few years) to be a Knicks fan again. We stopped being a joke. The guys played their butts off. Duhon played 41 minutes a game for most part, giving it all… and that’s how you thank him? Calling him and his teammates quitters?

Sure we won’t be elite, but DW has maneged to bring respect back to the Garden. As soon as DW can make a move that doesn’t affect his plan he will do, so to say he won’t add any pieces to the team is lame as well. It didn’t work out the way he wanted to he went on and got Wilcox and Hughes when we needed more size and a SG, without affecting the cap. He didn’t pulled the trigger with the Nate/Sac trade because WE WERE ON THE PLAYOFF RUN. It’s SO FUNNY to read guys bashing DW for not pulling the trigger on that trade and on the same sentence say he is tanking it until 2010. At that point of the season, trading Nate was calling it quits right there, and he didn’t. That shows he wants to win… but he understands that with our current roster we can’t win now. We need help. We need new players. We need… flexibility to get the help we need (wether it is LeBron or Not).

Please, what impact did Zach had in the Clippers? Or Crawford in the Warriors? Why would that have changed in the Knicks?

Be greatful that we are starting from scratch to bring respect back to the Garden. That’s what needed to be done and that’s what’s being done. This whole f’n decade we have been a laughing stock of the NBA… if all it takes to end it it’s two @#$ years (one now) to do it… I’M ALL IN. As long as come 2010 DW makes his move… if he doesn’t then say what you want about him. Until then, get ready to watch the Baby Knicks and the growing pain.

Well I’m a soccer fan as well SilentJay but the envirronment and the conditions are different in the soccer buisness – it’s easier to rebuild if money’s on the table because you have the right to break a contract if the other team’s willing to let a star leave and get a huge amount of money for it. Money’s the key factor. Strategy, luck and intuition are more important in the NBA buisness (San Antonio Spurs for example).

And a single trade/aquisition/buisness decision has a lighter impact in soccer because there are 11 players – each move is crucial in NBA basketball because teams need to have a brilliant starting line-up to win a championship. Soccer teams don’t. Sylvinho and Busquets are “average” players yet they were in Barcelona’s starting line-up in the 2009 Champion’s League final.

The NBA’s mostly about decisions, soccer is more about money. The fans reactions are totally different for that reason.

The Knicks haven’t watched their own player develop since the 60′s. Signing Lebron and another max player isn’t exactly seeing your own players turn into solid pros or stars.

Those are good points, except, I don’t see how trying like hell to get rid of Nate now is so much easier for you to swallow then trying to get rid of him when his value was at its highest and we could have gotten rid of Jeffries at the same time. I agree that in general you dont want to send your team the wrong message and you want to teach the young guys about winning. But, it looks like the plan is only to keep two, maybe three of the guys from last season.

I get it, but honestly, wouldn’t you have rather they traded Nate and Jeffries, done a little worse, gotten a little higher in the draft and gotten either Curry or Rubio and not have been so crippled by the cap restrictions because you already had Jeffries off the books? Or was missing out on all that worth teaching two players a lesson?

Why does every pro Walshie argument need to mention Isaiah? Using that logic you could be pro Isaiah by mentioning Layden. The Knicks were STILL over the cap, but they had a bunch of unathletic, old retreads and misfits. At least with Isaiah there was a nice mix of talent (bad chemistry though) and all of those players, that Donnie gets so much credit for moving that were supposedly so impossible to move, have moved again. MULTIPLE times!

“…We have LeBron locked up…”

I’m done.

Yes, I would have jumped in a second to that trade. And prob DW was on the verge too… But this is what I’m saying.

Some people are getting on his $$$ for not doing it then they jump on him for “tanking” next season. You are either with God or with the Devil, not both. DW decided to make a gamble that didn’t payed off because he is well aware that all of us Knicks fans are hungry for playoff actions. Had he followed his “plan” and not the “fantasy” of an early playoff exit (trying to give us fans something “quick” to cheer about like a playoff birt), history would have been different. And that’s why I don’t agree with whoever says that DW is not making and effort or that DW is simply “giving up” on this next season. They would have jumped on him for making the move and go on saying they had a chance to make the playoff, blah, blah… it would have been a lose-lose situation for him unless we would have made the 2nd Round of last year playoff. Which we didn’t have a good chance of anyways.

So what I’m saying is, stop dissing him for not trying to make a quick fix. Let the man do his work. Let him get rid of whoever is not needed… let’s keep those 3-4 players who will give the Knicks jersey some prestige once again. Let me just dream for a while that Gallo is the real deal, Chandler will keep improving, whatever they saw on Jordan Hill is true and that Toney Douglas can actually score like in school and play the point like in the summer league at the same time.

After all the lawsuits, not showing efforts in the court, Marburys, Isaiah, Laydens, Horrible Trades, Frederic Weis, etc. etc… I think we all deserve some fresh air, new hopes and dream… stop with the negativity for a while… at least until 2010 arrives and all we can get is an broken down Ray Allen… then we let all hell brake lose again… but until them, I’m tired of being laugh at when I say I’m a Knicks fan (I’m living in the Dominican Republic) and people feeling pity for me, I simply believe we are due for something good… and this young core I just mentioned, plus some help we can get them with the flexibility next year… who knows what could happen.

Don’t wake me up for now.

In a managment terms, you’re absolutely right Mucha. In basketball the decision making ability is critical, whereas in soccer, if you have plenty of money, you have plenty of space to make mistakes while getting two or three right (take a look a Real Madrid, their present and their past).
My example, and since you chose the spanish league, was a lot like Real Sociedad. A once great team, that during their time in first division posed a threat to everyone, and at home they were an unbeatable. They were respected in their house. Then the change in personnel came, the spanish economy tanked, affecting especially those teams that weren’t the constant championship winning types (that of course didn’t get the big endorsement deals), and the losses, bad decisions with the little money left the team with a horrible roster that eventually left the team in second division. They are probably the most popular team that stands in second division and still they can’t ascend. Yet their stadium fills up every sunday. It’s the tradition and passion that follows those colors, you know? That’s where I’m going. Those poor guys don’t have a future to look forward to. Their organization sits blindly while the team stays in the bottom.
That’s not the Knicks’ situation. Many may see this roster as a complete disaster that has nothing to do this season. But the youth alone, the promise of injury free players, and the promising and underrated rookies that have something to prove are definitely an upside in comparison to last year’s team, IMO.
So I tried to make a comparison between fan realities. Those fans don’t pay attention to the tiny decisions (or lack thereof), just face to their future -that is actually black when you see a team like NY that actually has a plan all carefully drawn out and patiently waiting for the right time to come-, and wait for their moment to come.

Jay, as a Knicks fan who has lived in Europe most of his adult life I can’t take on board the soccer fan analogy.
The majority of fans do cling onto times when their team was once great yet live in the knowledge that because of the way the sport is now ruled/administered the best teams are the richest ones (largely due to the huge influx of television revenue), not (in almost all case) the best run or fiscally responsible ones.
One of the things that makes the NBA a better league in my opinion is that because of the salary cap and draft process the best teams are (generally) the most responsibly and cleverly managed and with the strongest levels of talent evaluation, not just those who are willing to spend, spend, spend (see your New York Knicks of the last decade or more).

Anyway, I’ve gone off on a tangent slightly… my major point is that from a Knicks point I almost completely agree with you. There seem to be a lot of fans now starting to make worst case assumptions…
- assuming that the cap will drop to the worst case scenario level
- assuming donnie won’t find takers for Jeffries and Curry this season
- assuming the Knicks will be a worse team than last year
- assuming lebron/wade (or another franchise player, perhaps via trade) wouldn’t be willing to play for the Knicks in 2010

As I see it, with the additions of Darko, Hill and Douglas in addition to the expected improvements of Gallo and Will (plus Nate and Lee and possibly even a rejuvanted Curry – although like most of us I’ll believe that when I see it) we have a better and deeper team now than we did at the end of last season and when you factor in all of the expiring contracts there will be plenty of opportunities over the next few months for Walsh to make trades and provide us with further youthful talent.

Sorry I havent had a chance to respond, Its nice to read the discussion that has formed.

Let me just address a few things:

I am not Isaiah. I am not advocating that the team use our mid level long term every year and trade for veterens with huge contracts.

I am a huge fan of the 2010 plan. It sounded like a great plan. Acheive maximum cap space for 2010 for a great class of free agents. Very logical, right? This sounds like a good plan, so why dont teams do this all the time? Because its hard to tell any market, let alone NY, that there team will DEFINITELY suck for two years. It just doesnt happen. Some teams do it privately, but they dont really make it public.

So, if the two year plan (we were told during the 2008 off season that we would be planning on making our first moves in 2010) was seen as a radical move by many pundits, what would they have thought of a three year plan? That is kind of what Donnie is springing on us already.

Public statements, not rumors, PUBLIC STATEMENTS a YEAR before 2010 that 2010 may not be all its cracked up to be. And that 2011 may be our real chance.

But in 2011 Randolph, Crawford, Curry, Jeffries and Jerome James all expire. We didnt even need a GM to have all the cap space in the world in 2011. We dont need to be paying Donnie to sit in an office and wait for contracts to expire.

Donnies plan. I can’t judge him on 2010 yet, its not there yet. With the whole Beasley situation, it looks like Wade may be a darkhorse to declare – I still cant see Lebron leaving. But, I can say that so far, he hasnt done anything to show me that he is working towards that plan. I thought Donnie would constantly be making moves to make us look like a team that is just one or two pieces away, not to make us the worst team in the league in a year we dont have a draft pick.

I dont know all the things that go on in the front office, but for starters, we could have been rid of Jeffries already for Nate who is now unsigned, and we could have moved up to 5 and be talking about Rubio right now instead of how much we suck. Instead, we got younger at the two positions we already have young talent.

Sorry, but it seems like every Donnie argument is essentially – hey, he’s not Isaiah. Which is true, hes not digging us into a hole, but he hasnt made any shrewd moves, he hasnt shown any skill. He gave away two players that were able to be traded again, he didnt resign our young guys, he didnt get rid of our two “untradeables” (curry + james), he didnt get us any of the guys we were aiming for in the draft (although I am high on Hill who fell into our laps), and now he says we may need to wait till 2011? We should praise him because he’s not fucking up, sorry, no. Do something.

Again, Im not saying the 2010 plan is a bad idea, Im not saying we should have kept the Crawford-Randolph nucleus. Im just saying that if we are going to wait until 2011, we could have atleast had a decent team to watch until then. If we kept the two, and then waited to see how the cap is looking and who is declaring for FA, we could have easily flipped Randolph and Crawford for nothing during this year trade deadline. It doesnt take skill to trade your two best players for expiring contracts. It especially doesnt take skill to trade your two best players for contracts that expire in TWO YEARS.

Donnie Walsh 4 President – He wont fuck shit up.

Curry and rubio did not address the more immediate need as did Hill, Douglas and even Milicic. Knicks needed to get bigger and more defensive oriented. They did that. Also the players they got are more diverse than Rubio and Curry more so Rubio than Curry who can play two positions. Remember folks you are not drafting or signing names, this is not NBA 2K, you want players that fit the system and team concept.

You are totally right and this is a great discussion IMO.

Many european soccer clubs are more than 100 years old and each town/neighboorhood has a team – tradition is more important. I think european soccer fans cannot really choose the team they want to be a fan of for that reason, “fanship” is less flexible.

I do respect your opinion, and it’s extremely logical.

But there is something to it. You are assuming we will wait until 2011 to make a move. Which I really believe we wont.

The key here is having flexibility. Not only can we sign a given free agent, but we can make trades. Look at all the chips DW has. Heck, let’s forget about DW. Let’s take a look at all the chips the General Manager has, no matter who it is. Let’s get something straight, the roster we had with Crawford, ZBo, etc… was filled with talent. But being realistics, there was never any chemistry for something great. The pieces just didn’t fit. The styles of those talented players didn’t complemented each other. Let’s face it… we had a bunch of guys who could score but never make their teammates better. That nucleus was just never going to work. Maybe get an 8th or 7th seed some year, but that was it. What we needed was to rebuild the roster. And the best way to do it is creating cap space, flexibity to work things out. Give us a chance that when that player who DOES fits our system is out there in the market we can get it and build around it.

We have some young players, don’t act like we don’t. We have proyects, they could end up being great… or not. That’s a chance every team takes. Yeah we didn’t end up with our main targets of the draft, but just wanting a player doesn’t mean you are going to get it specially with the 8th pick. Was the Wizards really considering a trade with us? Who did they liked better? We don’t know that for sure. But we got an athletic big and a guy who “showed” he could surprise us. Not this year, but in the future.

Then add that after this season we can look into trades, free agent signings, DRAFT PICKS, etc… isn’t that a step in the right direction? Isn’t that what we needed?

I for one, believe so. Doesn’t matter who does the job. DW or any other, the path remainded the same. Fresh star, looking for a more balanced roster that can really play together. That’s what it’s all about.