Category Archives: 2008 preseason
Investopedia.com defines a sunk cost as “a cost that has been incurred and cannot be reversed.”
When making decisions for the future and deciding on whether to invest in a project, generally sunk costs are ignored as they cannot be recovered. Therefore, they should not affect management’s decision making.
Jerome James has two years and close to $13 million left on his current deal. In my opinion, James is also the 16th man on a roster that must be cut down to 15 by tomorrow. Barring any other moves by Donnie Walsh, James should be cut by tomorrow, nearly three years too late. His contract is the equivalent of a sunk cost.
Now before I get questioned by all of the financial wizards out there, I understand that the Knicks have not incurred the cost of James’ final two seasons as those two seasons have not been played yet. I also realize that James has the potential to provide value to this team (honestly, the only value I see him having is being an expiring contract at next season’s trade deadline). So don’t take my comparison of James’ contract to a sunk cost literally. But in any case, the Knicks owe that money to James, whether he will be sitting on the bench or home on his couch.
James has not been in shape since he was brought in here. His signing was a mistake in the first place. Last season, James played in two games and logged a total of five minutes, or in other words, less than the amount of minutes that Pat Ewing Jr. and Anthony Roberson each played in this pre-season alone. Speaking of this pre-season, James did not play a single minute. I can go on for hours about this, but simply put, Jerome James does not have a spot on this team. Contract issues aside, this debate over who will fill out the roster would never even be mentioned. In the future, Roberson, a shooter, and Ewing Jr., an athletic swing man who brings passion and good karma to a team that desperately needs both, will each add value to this team. I am not sure how much value, but I can assure everyone that they will each provide more than James. Now it is not my money, so it is easy to say this, but I hope that Walsh makes the best roster decision for this team in a basketball sense, not a financial sense. Walsh may make a trade in the next day which will alleviate this roster glut…. but all else remaining constant, I think it is time for James to go.
Kudos to Bob Raissman of the News for noting that Mike D’Antoni and Donnie Walsh have
seemed to break owner Jim Dolan’s policies that caused, among other things, the firing of Larry Brown. Raissman wonders if the practices are proof that Walsh and D’Antoni have the keys to the basketball kingdom at the Garden.
“…The arrival of Mike D’Antoni and Donnie Walsh may already be changing the “culture” around the Knicks. Either that, or James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan has yet to begin paying attention to his basketball property.
The regular season hasn’t even started and D’Antoni already has singled out players (Eddy Curry could fill two uniforms) while Walsh is talking publicly about David Lee‘s contractual situation.
Both men would seem to be in violation of Cablevison’s media policy. The company always declines to discuss employee contracts. And remember the “trouble” Larry Brown got into when he decided to bash some of his players to open notebooks and live microphones?
Could it be Dolan has given the keys of the car to D’Antoni and Walsh and is actually going to let them drive it? Or is this just a preseason joy ride?…”
Well, the answer to that question, for me, would come if Dolan allows Walsh to buy out Jerome James, who’s clearly not going to play at all for this team. That said, remember that David Stern was rumored to have suggested Walsh to Dolan for the job, and there’s no way Donnie would have taken it if he didn’t have autonomy.
We’re with Alan Hahn on this one, it just makes sense that Donnie may pull the trigger on a deal
that opens up a roster spot allowing for both Anthony Roberson and Ewing Jr. to make the team without having to buy out Jerome James. So Mardy Collins may be the guy, based on the fact that he’s been playing so much (and pretty decently) during preseason. We’d think Malik Rose‘s contract has some value, but the team needs him based on the painfully lame effort of Eddy Curry thus far.
“…I’m holding out for a trade here before Monday night. Donnie Walsh has to have one move up his sleeve to free up a roster spot…”
It may be as simple as Collins for a second round pick, or for a late first, although what team(s) would be in need of his services?
New Orleans- They’ve yet to replace Jannero Pargo, and may be happy with Mike James as CP3′s backup, but they are rather thin at guard. Not sure they part with an assured late first round pick for Collins, but Mardy would be a good fit in the Big Easy.
Utah- With Deron Williams out for a few weeks, and ankle sprains can take a while to fully recover from, does Utah look to add backcourt depth? They have Ronnie Price and Brevin Knight, but Collins could be seen as an insurance policy. No way they’d give up a first, but may be willing to part with a 2nd rounder.
Golden State- Rumors swirled that they would have interest in Stephon Marbury, maybe they find Collins a cheaper option. There isn’t a team in the league more desperate for guard help than the Warriors and the timing might work because Don Nelson has scrapped Marcus Wiliams opting for two guard DeMarcus Nelson to man the 1.
We’ll see what happens, but I’d be shocked if Walsh doesn’t try to make a move over the next 36 hours.
So it appears that the Cavs and Pistons are keeping close tabs on the development of Zach
Randolph and a future deal with the Pistons makes far too much sense.
We’ve talked about this one before, but let’s revisit it.
ZBo’s biggest issue is his contract, but there are two reasons why this deal could happen before the trading deadline.
First of all, the Pistons are in great cap position, but need to make a decision on how much longer they want to go with the core of Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, all of whom have trade value. Should Joe Dumars concede that this team still has a championship run in it, they’ll need an upgrade from Rasheed Wallace and ZBo’s post presence would be a nice fit. Plus he’s a Michigan State kid, and that doesn’t hurt either.
Secondly, Donnie Walsh and Wallace, whose had an awful preseason, share the Carolina connection, something I believe strongly in. Wallace was a knucklehead before Larry Brown toned him down enough and the Pistons went on to shock the Lakers. With Wallace’s contract expiring, making a deal of that nature would allow Walsh to sign Sheed to a one-year incentive heavy deal, or simply let his contract expire.
The combination of Sheed, Steph and Malik Rose would be some $42 million off the cap.
If the Cavs have interest in Z-Bo then getting the two teams to compete would have Walsh in a great leverage situation, I just don’t understand why the Cavs would take ZBo and help the Knicks in their salary cap rut, knowing it’s a possible destination for Lebron.
Just something to keep an eye on.
First of all a thumbs up goes to a guy called Ken, a loyal season ticket holder since the 1969 who I
met at the game last night, and his nice comments about what we do here at TKB. This thing will turn around soon enough my man, keep rooting and thanks for reading…
Two plays in particular last night validated what I’ve always thought about guards playing defense. Great defense turns into offense.
Jamal Crawford, who broke out last night for 30, made two plays that allowed him the ability to generate his offensive game.
I’ve always said, no coach will ever bitch at a player for taking a shot if he plays hard on the defensive end. And I’ve always preached that if you are having trouble getting your shot off, as Crawford seemed to in D’Antoni’s half court sets, rebound the ball. Then it’s yours to do whatever you want with it because you’ve earned the rite to have the ball in your hands.
In the first quarter of last night’s game, Crawford got a rebound and took the ball on a nice drive in transition and got to the basket, made the layup and got fouled. The ensuing free throw allowed for him a free opportunity to get feel for his jumper. The next possession he made a three. So in essence, that one rebound translated into 6 quick points.
In the second half, Crawford stripped CDR, and nailed a three from the corner. Next time down he was found in the corner again, and in rhythm since he just made one from there Craw hit another triple.
So two solid defensive plays led to 12 points on 4 possessions.
That, my friends, is the meaning of having defense translate into productive offense.
Let’s hope we see more.
With apologies to Anthony Roberson, your competition for the last roster spot has a leg up on
you, and did all along. It would be like putting the gloves on and stepping into the ring with Laila Ali.
The organization, headed by Donnie Walsh, loves this kid and I’m happy the fans get to see why. As I’ve said before, stats are way too often misleading and when you take a look at Ewing Jr.’s output on paper at Georgetown, he should be in law school somewhere right about now.
But what few people saw, and is becoming clearer day by day, is a kid who was sold on the concept of team ball, by a coach who’s father taught Jr’s dad to be great.
“Patrick, I need you to come off the bench and be the best 6th man in the Big East,” he coach must have said.
“Yes, coach,” clearly was the reply.
“Patrick, I know you can put up 15-20 shots a game, but this is a system where I can’t run that many plays for you. You’ll have to play defense and get what you can get,”
“Yes, coach.”
We may be embellishing, but you get the idea. So in order for fans to continue to see what we’ve been talking about for a year now, Walsh needs to keep the kid around, at the expense of Roberson, a nice shooting guard who’s had trouble getting his own shot at this level.
There’s no way Ewing Jr. doesn’t make this roster.
BTW, Ewing’s Dunk was number 1 on NBA.com Top 10.
So the good news is that Jamal Crawford got Mike D’Antoni’s message, the bad news is that he
was alone tonight.
Crawford was solid offensively to a tune of 30 points and showed some signs defensively, but his teammates couldn’t put the ball in the basket and watched as the Nets built a 20 point second half lead and held off the Knicks’ late rally.
Eddy Curry was again a non factor and felt the wrath of his coach. During the third quarter a lax Curry allowed a put back and a disgusted D’Antoni called time out and immediately benched him.
Let’s see what happens from here.
So that concludes the preseason, and frankly, this team needs serious help from Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari to help get through the grind of the season. With how this team has responded to adversity over the past few years, they can go on long losing streaks, which would turn fans off immediately.
That said there are a lot of positives to take from the last month, the one thing being that D’Antoni won’t coddle his players. That’s a great sign in terms of improving the overall attitude of the team.
The Knicks open up the 2008-09 season against Dwayne Wade, Michael Beasley and the Miami Heat this Wednesday at the Garden.
We’ll have ours soon enough, but in the meantime enjoy Mike from knickerblogger.net’s overview
for he coming season including a spot on take about Jamal Crawford.
“…Time will tell if Jamal will progress under D’Antoni, or if he’ll be the same frustrating off-balance shot taking player he’s been for the last 8 years. Considering the Knick coach doesn’t need his skill set on offense, and will expect more from Jamal on defense than the previous Knick coaches it’s possible that Crawford will see a reduction in minutes this year. Certainly Crawford isn’t likely to average the 39.9 minutes per game he played last year, and that will hurt his per game averages…”
Jamal needs to show that he has other facets to his game than just pulling up off the dribble. Is he playing possum or will he shine under D’Antoni?
Danilo Gallinari impressed both the coaching staff and himself yesterday after finally taking part in a full workout with the team. The 6-10 forward responded better than expected physically and did not rule out the possibility of playing in the team’s opener according to Newsday.
“..rookie Danilo Gallinari participated in his first full practice yesterday and performed well in the scrimmage. The 6-10 forward, who missed training camp while recovering from a bulging disc, said he felt better than expected. He will not play tonight against the Nets in the preseason finale but left the door open for a debut in Wednesday’s season opener. ‘I think I have some chance,’ he said. ‘We’ll see…”
Interesting that a player with a high IQ who’s well-suited for this system doesn’t take long to learn the plays and step in. It appears there will be no D-League for Danilo, nor should there be…
In case you forgot the summer league…
