Portland’s Steve Blake, Detroit’s Chucky Atkins, Washington’s Mike James, Indiana’s Travis Diener, Golden State’s C.J. Watson, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Ollie and Memphis’ Marcus Williams.

When you see names like this, you can almost understand why the Knicks are just biting the bullet with Chris Duhon.

Although I guess I would be interested in seeing what Blake could do in D’Antoni’s system.

If so, his new salary would count against our cap in 2011, which would diminish our chances to get another Max FA then. So if we are unable to unload JJ or Curry (and the plan is to seek another max FA in 2011), maybe Walsh should try to get draft picks or rights for unsigned players (Rubio) for Chandler now.

I do not agree with every aspect of how D’antoni runs the team. For example I would probably like to see people like Hill, Douglas and Robinson get more playing time over the likes of Harrington, Duhon, Bender. In addition, I think he sometimes could expand the rotation, especially on back to back nights. Overall, though he has brought a sense of accountability and discipline to this team, that is has sorely lacked for many years now.

What will be really exciting is when we clear the ship this offseason and start bringing in some new blood, then I think you will see even more from Mike D. Right now in my opinion he is doing the best anyone could imagine with this group. I mean really, before the season, would anyone imagine that this team was a 40 win team. Not in my mind, but he has them playing much better than anybody every could have imagined and their team defense is so much better than last year. I for one am glad Mike D is the coach and believe he and Walsh now have this organization pointed in the right direction.

1) Re: Making the team look attractive for LeBron – The Knicks have players and personnel in place that are good enough to lure LeBron or another top FA. i.e. If LBJ shies away from NY, it won’t be due to the current roster not being good enough;
If he wants to be in NY, he would learn to live with DLee, Gallo, and Chandler (ok, maybe not Chandler) for at least 1 season, esp. if the Knicks are in the hunt for another star player (a PG for the love of God) as soon as 2011.

2) If we miss out on getting LBJ AND Wade or LBJ AND Bosh because we can’t unload Curry, and the Knicks are unable to get another FA of that caliber in the following years, I’ll be pissed.

On the other hand, a team not getting LeBron James AND Dwayne Wade in the same summer sounds like a nice problem to have after having been beaten by 50 pts. at home a few days ago!

Dantoni is the wrong coach for this team…

I think most of us here when talking about the need to get rid of Jeffries and Curry always forget that if they cant that money will come off the books next season so its nice to see that Walsh is also aware of this and will not fool-heartedly just kill the team’s future cap space this off-season. Of course if they do sign Lebron then I would think they would try to sign other good FA’s with the mid-level and through trades not worrying about 2011 but again even if they cant land Lebron or Wade it is nice to see that Walsh clearly has a backup plan and is patient enough to see it out.

I would love the Knicks to enter the playoffs but lets be honest, talent-wise we’re not at the level “supposedly” of say Toronto or Chicago although both seem to be inconsistent also at times. If ever they do lose, they lose fighting and not get blown by the opposing team without giving any fight.