Comments on: 2011 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Bucks

By: ess-dog

ess-dog — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:59:07 +0000

Honestly, it’s not like we “lost” the trade on a talent level per se. It wasn’t that much to give up (although the Billups/Felton part is looking pretty harsh right now.)
It’s just that we lost a high volume of players and simply can’t replace them this year. We really should’ve held onto either AR or Moz but Jimmy got his guy.
I mean, Denver is on a tear, and it’s not necessarily because of our guys being so great, but they are much deeper than they were. Nene and Lawson are still the main reasons for w’s in Denver.
But as for us, we just need to wait, hope and pray. It might take 2 or 3 years to get to round 2 of the playoffs, including this year. We literally need to add about 4 above-average role players to this team in order to make noise. We have to nail our pick this year, and locate a cheap and clever free agent signing. And then do that again the following year.
It sounds really hard, but the Spurs do it pretty much every year. Why can’t we? Maybe an 8 man rot. of Sessions/Douglas/Fields/Melo/Kris Humphries/Stat/Jerome Jordan/draft pick isn’t sexy but it could be a solid 4-6 seed for three years depending on chemistry and drafting.
If we can draft really well, maybe we can pull off a CP3 deal, but I still think it’s pretty unlikely.
I have to say, even the thought of being a perennial Utah Jazz east for a while doesn’t kill me. Solid playoff games for 3, 4 years is what this town needs.
We definitely need a few hustlers on this team though. Asap.

By: hoolahoop

hoolahoop — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:50:52 +0000

At least, before the trade we had a good idea of what the knicks needed to get to the next level – a good solid big, and an upgrade/back-up PG. They moved the ball well, scored a bunch, but needed to shore up the defense.

Now, the team is confused. Throw all the stats you want at me, since the trade the offense has no cohesiveness. Amare has had trouble fitting into the flow (if you can say the offense has any flow), and Fields, too, is having trouble fitting in. Both, Billups and Melo, have brought a virus to this team. So far, Dantoni has not been a good doctor.

Until the team, Melo and Billups in particular, learn how to move the ball to find good shots, this is going to be the Melo-bury era. At best, a 45 win team.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:46:56 +0000

Ha! Yeah, Jake, but especially since Simmons conveniently left off the examples that didn’t support his theory (like the Marbury trade and the Bob McAdoo trade, just to name two Knick examples).

But as to your first question:

So how do we fix this? What’s a reasonable course of action? Someone please convince me that the next 5 years will not be lost to perennial mediocrity or worse.

I’m still on board with the “Knicks have a shot at Paul or D-Will” scenario. That would fix this. The Knicks would then basically be the Heat, which is fine by me.

By: Jake S.

Jake S. — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:33:58 +0000

So how do we fix this? What’s a reasonable course of action? Someone please convince me that the next 5 years will not be lost to perennial mediocrity or worse.

And as far as Simmons is concerned, I knew we were in trouble as soon as he published his spiel about these kind of “three-quarters-for-a-dollar” trades always working out. The Knicks always seem to be the exception that proves the rule.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:23:01 +0000

Simmons last night on Twitter:

Knicks-Celtics Round 1: the "No, WE Made A Worse Trade" series.

But after fairly shockingly admitting he was wrong in pushing the trade so much, he followed up with:

For the record: I still support the Melo trade longterm for NYK. But their 2011 coach is now ill-equipped to coach their 2011 roster.

Suuuuuuuure, because that was something that everyone thought before the trade. "I like the deal, but not if D'Antoni is the coach." Give me a break. One of the biggest pros for the trade was that playing in D'Antoni's system would make Melo a more efficient player!

By: Shad0wF0x

Shad0wF0x — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:25:48 +0000

@229

I have NBA 2k11 and in a simulated game, the Knicks would almost win for certain. If a decent player uses the Knicks, the margin would be close to around 20. The main difference is that most gamers would understand the limitations of each player (like don’t do a behind the back cross over with Amar’e). In fact, as the season progressed, 2k sports actively made STAT’s handle and hands ability worse.

By: d-mar

d-mar — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:49:48 +0000

I don’t actually play any of those NBA X-Box games (my son does) but just wondering: what would be the result of a game between one team with-

Stoudemire
Anthony
Billups
Fields
Turiaf

and the other team having

Boris Diaw
DJ Augustin
Dominic McGuire
Kwame Brown
Gerald Henderson

(which was the starting lineup vs. Boston last night.)

I would guess a 30 point blowout for the Knicks? Too bad we have to play this game in the real world!

By: Z

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:48:44 +0000

Maybe Billups is hoping to get bought out so he can return to Denver…

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:42:19 +0000

That really is one thing we can hopefully hang our hat on – that Billups is playing so poorly because of the injury and not because he got old. I mean, the injury wouldn’t necessarily explain some of the poor decisions he made last night (like when they were crawling back to get within 5 or something like that and he throws a blind behind the back pass – repeat, a blind behind the back pass!!! – that was picked off), but it would explain why he was sooooooo slow and perhaps would explain why some of his shots were so off (that his jumper was affected by the injury – which really is realistic, honestly).

By: Z

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:57:13 +0000

ess-dog: 2.Amare/Melo aren’t playing THAT badly.It’s more the rest of the gang...

Yeah-- this is the main reason why it is a bad idea to trade 5 rotation players for one guy. That one guy would have to play a whole lot better that "not that bad" for it to work out.