D'Antoni's got the luxury of 11 guys who could get minutes, but he does not have the luxury of being patient with combinations which are not clicking right away. How quickly he finds those right combinations, and correspondingly the Knicks' record over the last ~30 games, will determine whether or not this team has a realistic chance to get out of the first round.

The Knicks need to start winning right now, and to do that Baron Davis and JR Smith have to start and play the bulk of their minutes with Melo, Amare, and Tyson. Reuniting Jeremy with his Linsanity supporting cast of Jeffries, Landry, Shumpert, and Steve Novak* will better balance the first and second units and gives D'Antoni a proven group for his bench to prop up his work-in-progress veteran starters with the higher ceiling (for this season).

What say you, p&t, am I a dolt? A genius? Somewhere in between? What's YOUR great idea for how to arrange the ten D'Antoni plays, and why?

* While we are on the topic of nicknames, there are a number for Steve Novak floating around, but allow me here and now to humbly submit a unified theory for nicknaming Steve Novak, and perhaps you've already guessed it: never separate his first and last names. Not only does "Steve Novak" have a pleasant three-syllable construction, he just looks like a Steve Novak. He is not merely "Steve" or "Novak"; it is in their combination that his essential plainness is so magnificently captured. If a thousand people who'd never seen one were asked to draw a Steve Novak they would 1,000 times come up with this:

via cdn.sportsoverdose.com

These comparisons are based on factors including height, weight, minutes per game, and percentage stats for shooting, rebounding, and defense.  Couple of the big names include Kyrie Irving to Derrick Rose, Jimmer to JJ Redick (yawn), and Bismack Biyombo to Sean Williams (which somehow seems fair).  Most staggering are some of the comps for the Euros coming over (check out Valanciunas' unbelievable pro equivalent and the rest at the article here).

For guys who might hop into some blue and orange whenever we have games: Nikola Vucevic comped to Troy Murphy, Iman Shumpert to Ronnie Brewer, Kenneth Faried to Paul Millsap, and Darius Morris to Deron Williams (wha wha whaaaat?) Anybody who clicked the link buy into these comps?  Anyone have a change of heart about "their guy"?  It's an interesting article with some conversation starting comparisons.  Some of them are plausible, others are absurd, but I think the message to take away from all of this, is the draft cannot come soon enough.

Tony Parker sez the Spurs can no longer compete for a championship.  There's no reason to think that means the Spurs will turn around and trade him to the Knicks, but I'll blame years of abuse from the NY media for putting that very thought into my head.  And so without further ado, what about a trade with the Spurs which more or less goes like

Chauncey Billups

Landry Fields

for

Tony Parker

Tiago Splitter

The Spurs get out from under Parker's contract which extends beyond the competitiveness of their current core and swap it for Chauncey's shorter contract.  Splitter didn't play a ton for the Spurs in the playoffs, or the regular season.  He's paid a reasonable salary for a short number of years.  The Spurs need youth everywhere on the floor and Fields seems like a player who would be attractive to San Antonio.  Both he and Chauncey would probably be better fits in San Antonio.  Am I crazy, is this something that could happen?

Danilo Gallinari's not walking through that door, fans.  Wilson Chandler isn't walking through that door, Ray Felton isn't walking through that door.  It's true that Timofey Mozgov and Anthony Randolph might try to come in through the window, but it's such a remote possbility that I don't even know why I'm mentioning it. 

Oh shit, I'm almost to 15 seconds already ... time for my big finish!  

If you expect them to walk through that door, they'd be wearing uniforms that look like they were probably designed by a child.  I wish we had $90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can't. The only thing we can do is work hard. And all this negativity that's in this room sucks.

Thanks, Rick.

So what?  So, this team was built like a horribly packed car trunk.  Some of the biggest boxes are just thrown in there on top of shit like loose books and jackets.  With a full offseason and the opportunity to put the biggest pieces into place first and then pack around it, we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg with this core.

But more likely, an Earl Barron, or perhaps a Carl Landry.

We've still got a few moves left before Thursday.  We need more tall players on our team. We've got a few expiring deals in Buike, RMJ, and it looks like Corey Brewer, or there are free agents like Earl Barron, if he can be pulled away from county business.  Who do you all expect the Knicks to target?  Who do you want to see them target?

Team USA beat Russia 4-3.  The Miracle on Ice.  Today, the BRAND NEW miracle is getting NCAA Champion and recent Dream Team participant Carmelo "MELO" Anthony and Chauncey "MR. BIG SHOT" Billups for a bunch of guys who never played in the NBA All-Star game.  "MELO" will bring his trademark "MELLOW VIBES" to the Garden (Madison Squires Garden) and the Knicks are gonna be CHAMPIONS!!

Big win for the Knicks.  Denver better get 2 miles high after this because they are big time losers in EVERYTHING!

LETS GO KNICKS! (repeat x2)

Regardless of reactions to the latest round of trade rumors, I think we can all agree that what we want for the Knicks is to win with likable players that enhance our rooting experience.  We've all seen the latest deal.  If that's what it takes, we're going to lose favorites, guys who we have watched improve for a couple years now, and whose futures were, in our minds, intertwined with that of the Knicks.  Those players are part of the identity of this team that's finally rewarded us with a glimpse of hope after a decade of despair, and it stings to lose them.  For right now though, I have nothing else to say about the trade proposal, except for the new reports of James Dolan's direct involvement in the talks.

It's absurd and is absolutely the recipe that made us the laughingstock of the league throughout the decade.  Why would a guy who probably doesn't know what a gallon of milk costs be able to negotiate the values of basketball players?  Is he insecure enough (no matter what, the answer is yes) that this can this really be a pissing contest with the Russian in NJ?  Is his butthole still sore from that billboard Prokhorov put up in front of MSG?  And is he now he's compensating by spending basketball players as carelessly as he spends his inherited fortune?  That inherited fortune, by the way, has fueled the arrogance required to overrule a couple of basketball lifers who doesn't like the deal.  His dad invented HBO so I guess he isn't really some sadsack 50-something manchild who oozes weakness and ineptitude and who personifies so loathsomely the "born on third base, and thinks he hit a triple" quote someone used to describe him in another thread here.  Right?

The aspect that most worries me about Dolan's doing this is the potential for collateral losses in the trade including Donnie and D'Antoni's futures as NYK employees scares me too much to really consider.  It also raises the specter of meddling by I.T. (I don't like seeing his name) which, true or not, will just fuel the obnoxious, terrifying, and entirely plausible speculation that he's pulling at least some strings from his position at the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference standings.

OK, with all of that said, here is my list of talking points (an emerging MeloDrama staple) as I coax myself off the ledge and accept what I must to continue getting return on my league pass broadband investment.

1.  If the new CBA included a franchise tag option (it reasonably could after all these star player power moves), we'd be unable to sign Melo outright and keep all our chips.  Like his trade to the Nets, the free agency option was probably never on the table.  If we were ever going to get Melo, we probably (80-90%) needed to do it like this.  And if we were going to trade for him and use Eddy's contract to do it, we needed to do it this weekend.

2.  Because of the individual salary cap, healthy superstars will routinely outperform their contracts.  Relatedly, guys a step or two down are overpaid relative to superstar salaries.  This offseason, Wil Chandler can go from cute and cuddly at 2 mil a year to an albatross if he's paid like Rudy Gay.  Same goes for Gallo in 2 years (as long as Al Harrington doesn't freeze him out on the court or accuse ownership of over-hyping him, which he will.  More than anyone in this, poor Gallo.)

3.  Donnie Walsh.  Love the guy and every move he's made since Day 1.  But is he too cautious?  Count the rings.

4.  Speaking of results-oriented analysis, the three guys fronting our team in the latest proposed roster (Amare, Melo, Billups) have lead two teams to the finals of the vaunted Western Conference each the last two years in unexpected fashion.  This team hasn't been this good or this close to a title (yeah, the team doesn't even exist on paper yet) since 1999, or maybe even since Ewing was in his prime.  STAT is 28, Melo is 26.  We probably just opened a 4 year championship window with this move.

5.  David Lee vs. Amare Stoudemire.  Summer 2010, I couldn't believe that we were really losing Lee for Stoudemire, they're both 20 and 10 guys and Lee can pass the ball and is so much cheaper, right?  I wouldn't even put the two in the same paragraph now, unless it was this one.  Still have nothing but love for David Lee and his time given to the team, but I don't think anyone is looking back sadly on that move.

6.  Shit's about to get Landrier.  He's our clear cut number 4 now, and likely will be number 3 in a year or two.  I think he's going to answer the bell when D'Antoni tells him they need more from him.

7.  In the NY tradition of a couple parting shots on the way out of town, and a few things that might help you like the move long term: the long term prognosis on Gallo's surgically repaired back.  Wil's season ending knee injuries the last two years.  Anthony Randolph may have already been ruined by the time we got to him (think Darko after a couple years of Larry Brown).  Felton's recent return to earth after a (dare I say?) Duhon-esque fast start.

8.  What if Ewing had Bernard King?

I'm sure many of us have seen this, and many of us don't give a shit about Carmelo and all of that.  But I figured Mike the Intern was gonna post about it at some point anyway if someone else didn't.  Plus maybe I can drum up some of those lame ass troll attempts by our resident Net fans who can't get enough coverage of the varsity squad. 

At any rate the rumored deal is Melo to the Nets; Kirilenko, Favors, and a 1st (and maybe more picks) to Denver; Boris Diaw to Utah; Devin Harris to Charlotte.

Talk amongst yourselves.  I'll give you a few topics about this proposed deal, which is contingent on Melo signing an extension.  For some Knick-related conversation how would Denver's haul compare to ours for David Lee?  Are the Bobcats getting the best end of this?  Would this version of the JV team, with Melo in tow but missing their All-Star and their 3rd overall pick be better on paper than our team?  Can anyone think of a really good baseball analogy for this situation?

The big question for me in all of this: what, exactly, would Carmelo be accomplishing by okaying this deal?  Didn't he want to join a championship team?  Or was getting out of Denver with his $65 million extension first priority?  Does George Karl have asshole breath and Carmelo wasn't comfortable bringing it up directly?  Was he aware that Rod Thorn is out and Billy King is now running the Nets?  Let's hear some opinions.

Quick edit, I saw the headline on the Yahoo feed on the right, but Knicks Blog has a few links to the tweets of beat reporters, if that means anything to you fine people.

The fanbase is abuzz with the dawning of the Mo Ager Era and I thought there was no better way to celebrate than by examining some anagrams of the man's name.  I've never left "the jump" in before today, but beneath it are some revealing rearrangements of "Maurice Ager".  You can already see them anyway, so let's get to it.

Continue reading this post »

If you liked the Knicks 2nd round decisions before, prepare to like them even more.  The Daily News says Lance Stephenson sent his girlfriend down a flight of stairs yesterday.  Ironic that Indiana were the ones who took him since they've been so image-conscious since the brawl, but it looks like the decision to go for talent first is already coming back to hurt them before a single game has been played.  Marbury, Telfair, and now Stephenson.  Yet another gem from Lincoln HS.  Way to show appreciation for the school where you made your name by being the latest guy to embarrass theirs.  I guess he has his fans around here, but it also looks like the guy's an asshole, hitting a woman and then tossing her down the steps.

Ok, so Osborn mentioned in a post earlier about the Knicks and Rockets kicking around a swap of Eddy Curry's contract for Jared Jeffries's weird little teeth and charge taking abilities.  So the big problem with this is the Knicks have a full roster, the Rockets are over the cap, and the difference in the players salaries is about 5 million dollars.  There are no mix of appropriate expirings on the Rockets roster, so a 3rd team will need to be involved.  Here is my proposal off the ESPN Trade Machine.  Third team is the Celtics and here's how it breaks down:

Knicks get: Jared Jeffries, Rasheed Wallace's expiring and waivable contract since he's retiring anyway

Celtics get: Trevor Ariza

Rockets get: Eddy Curry's expiring

So the Celtics get another player who could fit in, the Rockets dump salary which is good because with Yao likely done they'll need to change gears a bit, and the Knicks get to add Jeffries without disrupting the rest of their roster.  Maybe draft picks change hands, too.  This is pretty tame but I know there are trade machine junkies all over this blog.  This is a transaction that could get pretty weird/complicated so do your worst.

ALRIGHT.  This article is a pretty good look at one of our newest players.  It's got some good info and an overall positive bent about the drafting of this young man from Stanford.  It's from about a month ago, but I haven't seen this information written or linked anywhere else and I thought some people here might get something from reading it.

So then, peruse this article at your leisure and feel free to include your favorite part.  Mine is quoted here

Fields started his studies at a school In Los Alamitos, California; named Los Alamitos High School. Landry was a fantastic basketball player in his school life also and he leaded his school basketball team

Don't be ashamed to admit there was information in here you never knew before!

I guess he's been closing a lot of tweets with "shalom" so, is he?

Continue reading this post »

A story from ESPN indicates there's now a question of whether or not Amare's new contract will be insured for FIBA contests.  It may be music to the ears of some Knick fans that he won't be putting it on the line in an exhibition, but I was personally looking forward to watching Amare knowing he was now a Knick.  The best part about this is David Lee's path to a roster spot is just a bit easier.  Lee has served as practice fodder for the team before and is supposed to be working out with the Men's National Team this week in Vegas.  Again, none of this is certain regarding Amare, but he had expressed excitement about playing and this can't be good news for him.

According to the USA Basketball website, this is the list of players currently participating in the training camp:

Chauncey Billups

Tyson Chandler

Kevin Durant

Tyreke Evans

Rudy Gay

Eric Gordon

Danny Granger

Jeff Green

Andre Iguodala

David Lee

Brook Lopez

Robin Lopez

Kevin Love

O.J. Mayo

Lamar Odom

Rajon Rondo

Derrick Rose

Amare Stoudemire

Gerald Wallace

Russell Westbrook

What's everybody's dream roster/rotation/date from these players?  Can the USA B-team still bring back the gold?  Anybody care about this tournament?

PS- For anyone frothing at the mouth for Cock, Italy didn't qualify, so no go on Gallo.

It just got me scratching my head after they matched the offer sheet that Cleveland extended to Kyle Lowry at 3 years and 24 million plus an option year.  Kinda curious considering Lowry is their backup and plays about 25 minutes a game for them.  Yet, he was given a more lucrative contract than the one signed by Ray Felton.  It could mark the beginning of the end of Aaron Brooks who is signed cheaply through this upcoming season, but Brooks has been very good in Houston and is already in the starting role there. You gotta figure that Brooks is going to want at least that much.  They're both on the small side, too at 6'0'' so I can't imagine he envisions them sharing the back court.

The Rocket's boss followed that up with Brad Miller at 3 years and 15 million.  Brad Miller is going to be 34 years old next season.  In his prime, he was a decently skilled 7 footer who could shoot it, pass the ball and play some defense.  He was an All-Star.  His prime was 5+ years ago.  He did have his best years under current Rockets' coach Rick Adelman, but Miller obviously will not be getting any younger and he averaged only 13 and 7 per 36 last year.  Seems like a hefty price in years (if not dollars) for a guy who ideally backs up Yao, and probably would not be ready for major minutes if asked to fill that role.  Which he could be given Yao's medical history.

Morey's obviously marching to his own drummer with the advanced stats themed roster construction but these two contracts just seemed strange.

And recall if you will, he traded away Vassilis Spanoulis in 2007.  Who cares if Morey got Luis Scola in the deal, Spanoulis is coming back to the NBA THIS YEAR!!!!

What is this Morey guy thinking???

Anybody else been thinking about the 2003-04 Suns?  That was the same year Phoenix traded us Anfernee Hardaway and Cezary Trybanski, plus some other guy...Yeah, you know, they're the same club coached by Frank Johnson who got fired 21 games into the year with a 8-13 record.  Then Mike D'Antoni took over and led them to a 21-40 finish.  If you don't have a calculator handy, that's a 29-53 final record.  The same as our beloved Knicks' result for last year.

Despite their losing record, those Suns had a few things going for them.  They had cap space going into the offseason, for one.  That turned out to be huge for them.  They also had a stud power forward by the name of Stoudemire, a guard named Barbosa coming off his rookie year, who could score and change the game with the energy he brought off the bench.  They had another guard, Joe Johnson, a kid who the perennially playoff-bound Celtics had shipped off without giving much of a chance, and Shawn Marion, a freakishly athletic forward with skill who was just scratching the surface.  Is this starting to sound familiar to anyone?

The biggest difference between those teams is the off-season point guard acquisitions each team made.  Steve Nash could shoot the ball, play unselfishly, and was really the best player in the NBA suited to orchestrate the 7 Seconds or Less offense.  The Suns were unbelievably lucky he was available and I'm not going to compare him to the guard we signed a couple days ago, Ray Felton.  He's not the same kind of shooter, he doesn't have the playoff experience Nash had.  He's also missing Nash's the track record, by reputation or numbers-wise.  But don't sleep on Ray.  He can play D like Nash only could in his dreams.  He's 4 years younger than Nash was and may only be scratching the surface of what he's capable of doing.  And I'll say this about their statistical differences, while Nash had the advantage of playing for Nellie and with Dirk, Felton was dragging the ball up the floor for L. Brown Stain and dropping it off for Steven Jackson to make love to long jump shot attempts.

Anyway, I'm not on this soap box predicting the 2010-11 Knicks are gonna go 62-20, or that Ray Felton is about to be the back-to-back MVP.  I'm just sayin, D'Antoni has been here before, and here he is again.  I have a strange feeling about this team, that we're about to discover that the whole of this team will exceed the the sum of it's parts.  If nothing else, we're most definitely on the cusp of the best Knick season since Allan Houston's knees felt fine.  October cannot come soon enough.  You don't need me to tell you this, but get fuggin psyched Knick fans.  This may be more than just our first playoff season since we made that trade for Penny.

I know its not a new idea or complaint, but people seem to have softened their stance on Lebron.  Personally though, this organization bowing and scraping for LBJ embarrasses me as a Knick fan.  And NYC with all that C'mon Lebron business.  I feel humiliated for everyone being put through this process.  More than that, I just want to see him lose. Those are my biases.

Thinking rationally, too, we're probably better off longterm without Lebron coming to the Knicks this summer.  Or at least be in position to acquire more All-Star caliber players than we could with him on the roster.  According to this news Howard Beck did yesterday twat, the Knicks are willing to pair Lee and Amare.  That's awesome.  Assuming Lee doesn't get max dollars from the Knicks, and is on the books for, say, 11 million for next year, that'll leave enough cap space for another max player in 2011, i.e. Carmelo Anthony.  

Everyone's talked about this alternate scenario, or some variation of it.  But it hasn't been discussed as a primary plan.  I understand if you can sign Lebron, you do it.  A bird in the hand and so on.  But when you talk about contracts in a capped sport, who gives you what for how many dollars is key.  Who will we sign down the line who will do as much for us as David Lee can for the money we may be able to pay him?  You might say Carmelo might not even be available, right?  So why hasn't he signed that 3 year extension for 65 million?  You think he doesn't look at NY, eyebrows raised?  And it's easy to dream on that roster with Amare, Lee, Carmelo, Gallo, etc.  And does Lebron want to compare rosters to any of his other destinations?  You like the way JJ Hickson is developing?  Pretty fun getting blazed with Beasley, huh?  Anybody still give a shit about Joakim Noah's career averages of 8 pionts and 8 rebounds per game?  No?

At this point, I think the Knicks would be better served signing Lee to a semi-team friendly contract and waiting next year for Carmelo, who by the way has won a title above the high school level.  It also gives Gallo another year to get used to asserting himself and develop with this group.  And assuming the reports Lee's feeling vengeful are nonsense, David would be a god in New York if he signed that kind of deal.  Leaving a couple million on the table to facilitate a championship caliber roster with the team that drafted him?  Pure sports hero stuff.  So stay in Cleveland Lebron, sign with Chicago, get a cabana in Miami with Bosh and Wade...who cares.  Though, maybe we can exorcise some of those Jordan demons if we beat him while he's wearing a Bulls uniform.

More than anything, I want the Knicks to win, same as everyone else here.  Even the Nets fans reading this, you masochistic little chimps.  But if Lebron puts that Knicks jersey on, I'll want to see him do well and lead the team to titles.  And if he goes elsewhere, I think that ends up being more fun anyway.

Now every team with loads of cap space apart from the Knicks and Miami is in flux in the front office, on the sidelines, or both.

Are the Knicks now not the most attractive team for potential free agents?  As far as a proven braintrust goes, I don't think any other franchise can approach Walsh/D'Antoni.  Granted, they are responsible for a combined 0 titles, but as far as competent leadership goes the Knicks may now be in a class by themselves.