jho
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6 months ago
:: 744 views
1] Fire Isaiah Thomas. This has been the obvious step for years now to every Knick and non-Knick fan except for Jim Dolan. The only place where I would keep Isaiah is as a Draft Evaluator (very shrewd and good picks even when drafting low) – but other than that Isaiah has failed miserably and has refused to admit his mistakes. Maybe Isaiah CAN be a GM or a coach somewhere in the league, but not right now and not with this team. He needs more training and more honesty; he’s stringing his players along and not providing motivation for them to play hard. It’s one thing to be a team like the Wolves where they’re giving their very best and losing – it’s another to be the debacle like the Knicks in the pathetic east, getting 30 wins and not being able to do anything in the playoffs plus being pushed out of a top 5 draft pick. This has got to stop.
2] It’s OBVIOUS the Knicks are not going to do anything in the playoffs even if they somehow miraculously make it. Why stunt the young players’ growth? The Knicks should have gotten rid of Curry or Randolph by the deadline no matter what (and they could have too with the Western powers all willing to make big risks) but they stood pat, which is not necessarily a bad thing with Isaiah known to trade for boneheaded contracts, which makes him twice as bad as Layden (Layden might just sign boneheaded contracts like Shannon Anderson & Howard Eisley, but Isaiah does both).
3] The Sign & Trade option for other teams’ unwanted players is obviously NOT working. The Knicks’ payroll is horrendous right now for 07-08 & 08-09 (http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_york.htm)
But fortunately there is hope. In 2 seasons in 09-10 the guaranteed payroll is 58kk and in 10-11 the guaranteed payroll is 28kk as of this point. The Knicks need to stop making Jerome James / Jared Jeffries type signings and stop trading for me-first players like Marbury & Randolph who have the added headache of horrible contracts. Roll out the young guns and let the overpaid vets leave. ONLY trade the overpaid vets if you get equal years or less left on returning players’ salaries and/or able to add some nice assets (like young talent or draft picks) otherwise let contracts like Marbury EXPIRE PLEASE.
4] For the rest of the 07-08 season this would be my starting unit:
PG – Nate Robinson
SG – Jamal Crawford
SF – Renaldo Balkman
PF – David Lee
C – Randolph/Curry
My main bench rotation would be Chandler, Morris, Jeffries, & Collins (making sure to get Chandler & Morris 10-15 min a night so at least they can get experience in this lost season). I like Jeffries (Knicks just don’t need him). But Balkman is better so he should start and Jeffries can just stay with the second unit and get a little time just to stay sharp and maybe fill in if there are any injuries in the first unit. Mardy would be my backup PG and either Randolph or Curry would be playing – whoever plays the other one sits.
5] After the season ends hopefully the Knicks will be able to get a great draft pick and get a more pure PG or shot-blocking center (damn why did they ever get rid of Camby?! – lol even though I got mad frustrated he was always injured – he’s pretty damn healthy now)
In terms of transactions stick to what I stated in #3, but the main thing I would shop is either Curry or Randolph. Preferably I would want to keep Randolph as I feel he’s a harder worker and better player than Curry, but right now they both suck and having them both on the floor at the same time is counterproductive as they take away each other’s strengths and both of them have the same defensive weaknesses.
6] C’mon Knicks, these requests aren’t hard to do! Sign me as the GM; I can do a hell of a lot better job than Isaiah! Put someone humble at the GM & coach spot, stick lots of solid evaluators to help the GM, and get a coach who can actually coach.
jho for Knicks’ GM in ’08-’09, lol just playing – but seriously every Knicks fan can do a better job than Isaiah – how long do we have to suffer futility from our GM’s?
Consecutive Playoff Streaks
