Brian Cronin: Also, terrible news for the Knicks’ chances of not switching picks with the Rockets, as I dunno if the Hornets can hold off the Rockets without West.  

good point, Hollinger addresses this today. NO still has a 3 game lead with 10 to play, plus they win the tiebreaker. he puts their chance somewhere in the 60-70 percent range.

dunno about NO trading Paul, maybe if he told them privately he definitely wasn’t coming back a la Melo.

Also, terrible news for the Knicks’ chances of not switching picks with the Rockets, as I dunno if the Hornets can hold off the Rockets without West.

I also think it is an over simplification to put this all on Melo. To whit:
- Billups missing so many key games sets the team back.
- Amare playing so many minutes and now so many games in such a short period is wearing him out.
- Landry Fields has not yet learned how to adjust to the new players, and the emergence of TD as a scorer has hurt his minutes and maybe his confidence.
- Team defense is still a problem, and likely will be a problem for some time as they figure out how to play together.
- Amare and Carmelo still need to figure out how to play their games together.
- The center situation, which was a problem before the trade, is a much bigger problem after the trade. As Doc Rivers noted, Amare can’t get to the basket with Jeffries there because Jeffries’ man will always be able to collapse on Amare without any consequences.
- Back up point is still a question, although TD seems to have improved there.
- Leadership also has become a problem. Before there was no doubt Amare was the leader. Now, it is unclear who is the leader. I still think Amare is the big dog, but he’s not asserting that right now.
- D’Antoni’s player decisions sometimes leave me scratching my head. I know he’s trying to understand what he has. But it gives me pause that AR can do as well as he did last night, and the Knicks found no way to improve him when he played for them. While AR isn’t putting up great numbers, he’s doing more than Walker and Mason and a few others who got playing time over him. That’s on the coach.
- Lastly, D’Antoni hasn’t taken control. It shows.

But the further down the road we get, I have this terrible feeling that the Knicks before the trade would have improved, would have made the playoffs and would have given us some excitement in the playoffs, if not perhaps a first series win.
There is something to be said for a basketball franchise being patient with young talent. And that Knicks team was very young and had the potential to improve with a good center and perhaps a good back up point. Then with a potential good draft, who knows?
I watched Gallo again, and I was reminded by my wife that he is 22, and already he’s getting freakin’ huge. He ain’t the lanky kid we all first saw get mowed over by fat ass traylor. He’s a powerful 6’10 dude who can get to the rim whenever he wants, gets nine FTs a game and is an excellent FT shooter.
WC is a dynamic athlete and has shown improvement each year.
And Ray had heart.
Mosgov was still a project, but I think he’s better than every center the Knicks send out there. And they are all young kids.

I have this sneaky suspicion that if the Knicks had sat tight and tinkered rather than overhauled, that Knicks team could have been very good. With some luck, and emergent player, a key draft pick, and overall improvement among the key players who are very young, and that team might have made it to the eastern conference championship.

Clearly, we’ll never know. Maybe the Amare-Carmelo thing works. Maybe Billups regains his step. Maybe they upset some folks.
But I get exhausted reading all the sturm und drang here because there’s nothing to be done about it. To endlessly lament is useless.

Mike Kurylo:
No. I get lambasted for just mentioning them in an analogy.  

Mentioning the players or their stats?

Caleb: Off-topic, let me say a word about Derrick Williams…
I haven’t followed college that closely this year, but the few times I saw Arizona he looks really good. Then he makes that spectacular block in the opening round. Then absolutely blows up against Duke last night…So I look at the stats — wonder how much a fluke his 5 3-pointers are – and this guy is shooting 60 percent (!) on threes for the season. More than a three per game. AND taking 8 free throws a game, in 30 minutes. And 8+ boards.
By the look of it he is a better athlete than Kyrie Irving or Harrison Barnes or any of the other big names in the draft… too bad the Knicks don’t suck enough to get the #1 pick.  

He’s really good. Maybe if NY votes for the fence to be built Arizona may sign some kind of agreement where Williams goes straight to NY.
No but he is really good. I think he can give LBJ a run for his money.

@183 there is a thing called defense in the NBA and instincts do not trump defense. Calculated and well thoughtout moves are what make it in the NBA.