Comments on: Perhaps You’ve Heard of This Chris Paul Fellow?

By: chrisk06811

chrisk06811 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:27:40 +0000

Here’s my take:
-To me the most important point in the other post is the Hornets are owned by the league and will not be able to go out of their way to trade CP to the Knicks to make him happy.
-If they trade Paul, they will get very strong offers whether he agrees in advance to sign or not. That hurts us a lot.
-I know he wants to come here, but expecting he will leave $15M on the table is HUGE.
It’s so different than Lebron. First, Lebron is one of the 5 best players in the world. In his mind, he was going to MIA to be the best player in the world and win 5 rings. He didn’t think Wade was as good as him, nobody did…and if they did, it wasn’t by much. For Paul, different story. He is not clearly better than Melo / Amare / Jeffires. He could be the 3rd best player on the knicks, not the best. He can’t expect to win titles every year. Last year, we saw the MIA model didn’t work. Even if he believes you can win w/ 3 superstars, there’s another team w/ 3 superstars…the best Paul can think is that we could compete with them.
SO, in Lebrons head….best player in the world going down in history winning year after year in south beach. For Paul, very good player going to compete. No way that’s worth leaving $15M on the table. If it is to him, I love him already, and I thank him in advance for coming here and NOT passing to Jeffries.

By: twoseam2007

twoseam2007 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:14:14 +0000

Hey everyone, as Knick fans, we support each other as we do our team. A newsite has just gone up called http://nickjohnsonsmustache.dinstudio.com/ . This site touches on all things sports, with a concentration with New York teams of course. In fact two new interesting columns have recently gone up concerning CP3 going to NY and D12 going to NJ (potentially). Please check out the site, I along with the staff would really appreciate it We are also on twitter, @njmustache

By: danvt

danvt — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:23:11 +0000

I’m looking forward to good campaigns from Fields, Shawne Williams, and Douglas. I hope Shumpert can be a solid contributor. Maybe Turiaf stays healthy. Maybe Jerome Jordan can get some rebounds and blocks off the bench. The Knicks have had some nice surprises recently. Walsh did a good job drafting. Was Shumpert his pick? Like, I mean, really his or Dolan/ Isiah’s? The Knicks could be a fun team to watch this year if we can develop some talent further, find some new talent from unexpected places and not overpay for talent.
I don’t think it’s CP3 or bust, but, let’s wait for the right deal.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:32:38 +0000

If I thought Carmelo Anthony was the 9th best player in the NBA or anything close to it I would have a different opinion. Same for Amare as the 10th best. I don’t think the Knicks would have been swept in the first round of that were true..

By: twoseam2007

twoseam2007 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:16:06 +0000

Spree8nyk8:
Honestly, I think that at least privately the brass should reach out to Orlando to see what interest they would have in an Amare/Howard swap.I mean Amare would be a good ticket draw for Orlando and then Paul and Howard could probably split the difference on what would be left.I know some of you think that Bynum is a better offer.But Amare did rank 13th in Espn’s player rankings and I don’t think Bynum is going to put people in the seats in Orlando.I think it’s at least worth the inquiry.If that happened you could go after Paul in the offseason and who knows maybe give Ill Will you mini exception next year.I know he can probably get more money elsewhere (especially putting up great numbers abroad), but I think his heart is in NY and I think THAT was a big part of why he went to China.I think he was worried about being stuck in Denver and figured go there and come back free.

If that idea is stupid I’m not above hearing that, it’s just been a notion stuck in my head for awhile.The only negative I see on it is that Amare has been such a great embassador for the team, it would be fairly disloyal.idk, just a thought.

Oh one more thing, I don’t think a paul/stat/melo big 3 is a poor mans Miami.Honestly I think it’s a better big 3 as Lebron and Wade are so similar.

And bosh is not an elite player.

The following formula is stupid, but imma throw it out there anyways if only to fuel my bias.

Paul – 5th best player in the league
Melo – 9th best in association
STAT – 10th

AVG # – 8

LBJ – 1st
Wade – 2nd
Bosh – 40th

AVG # – 14.333

By: cgreene

cgreene — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:52:07 +0000

Oh one more thing, I don’t think a paul/stat/melo big 3 is a poor mans Miami.Honestly I think it’s a better big 3 as Lebron and Wade are so similar.

Thank you for saying that. Basketball is a sport more than any other that relies on chemistry and complimentary pieces. On paper (advanced stats) Wade, LeBron, Bosh is better than Melo, Stat, Paul but LeBron and Wade have very similar games that are hard to get to complement one another in late game half court set situations. Paul manages that... even though it did get the Heat to the Finals last year. Ha. But I am comparing their Big 3 with our potential Big 3. Ours would be more fluid. On another note why would CP3 want to go to either LAL or BOS? To join aging rosters with (in Boston's case) a 1 year window? Btw if Rondo is apparently on the block, i'd be happy to have him. He's the best player on the Celtics.

By: art vandelay

art vandelay — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:17:25 +0000

To me, the difference in comparing Bosh to Cp3 as the 3rd star is that Cp3 is light year’s better, he would be the best of the Knicks’ triumvirate whereas Bosh is the worst of the Big 3 in Miami, and he would undoubtedly improve the games of our other 2 stars, whereas Bosh doesn’t make anyone around him better in Miami….so I still believe going after the best PG in the game of basketball is worth waiting one season, an abbreviated one at that, to see if it could be pulled off. If not, it is not like we are tanking 2-3 more seasons again….at best the Knicks will likely be second round playoff fodder anyway.

By: Spree8nyk8

Spree8nyk8 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:51:37 +0000

Honestly, I think that at least privately the brass should reach out to Orlando to see what interest they would have in an Amare/Howard swap. I mean Amare would be a good ticket draw for Orlando and then Paul and Howard could probably split the difference on what would be left. I know some of you think that Bynum is a better offer. But Amare did rank 13th in Espn’s player rankings and I don’t think Bynum is going to put people in the seats in Orlando. I think it’s at least worth the inquiry. If that happened you could go after Paul in the offseason and who knows maybe give Ill Will you mini exception next year. I know he can probably get more money elsewhere (especially putting up great numbers abroad), but I think his heart is in NY and I think THAT was a big part of why he went to China. I think he was worried about being stuck in Denver and figured go there and come back free.

If that idea is stupid I’m not above hearing that, it’s just been a notion stuck in my head for awhile. The only negative I see on it is that Amare has been such a great embassador for the team, it would be fairly disloyal. idk, just a thought.

Oh one more thing, I don’t think a paul/stat/melo big 3 is a poor mans Miami. Honestly I think it’s a better big 3 as Lebron and Wade are so similar.

By: Z

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:43:09 +0000

Boy, with my gurus Caleb and Ben R arguing against the thought of Chris Paul in NY, I guess I have to lessen my hopes, as depressing as it may be...

Caleb: I don’t know that it’s out of the question for Chris Paul to leave $15 million on the table – he might want to do it – but I can’t think of any player who has done that while still in the prime of his career. Closest would be Karl Malone when he signed for a mil with the Lakers.

Well, like you said, who knows what motivates Chris Paul, but there have been cases of athletes leaving serious money on the table (extenuating as some may be): Paul Pierce likely gave Boston a home town discount by taking a $6 million/year shave off of his previous contract. Though it's hard to quantify, Kerry Wood definitely left millions on the table to return to Chicago. Derek Fisher left $8 million behind to return to Los Angeles. Cliff Lee left $28 million on Cashman's table to return to Philadelphia. Bison Dele left $36 million behind to move to Beirut. These are just off the top of my head, but it DOES happen. It just doesn't happen very often. (And when it does happen, the athlete either already has more money than they know what to do with, or is a really decent human being, or is clinically insane... let's just hope Chris Paul is one of the three :)

By: Spree8nyk8

Spree8nyk8 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:33:30 +0000

I really wish Melo didn’t take the rap for the way Denver handled the trade situation last year. I mean he could have so easily taken the Lebron way out and said nothing about his intentions and walked away leaving Denver the same way that Lebron left Cleveland. But instead he was pretty forthright about his intentions giving Denver options and removing the false hope that they were going to be able to re-sign him. On top of that he went out every night and played. He could have dogged it and not put out much effort. Instead, he said This is what I want to do and intend to do, and until that becomes a reality I’ll do what I can every night to help my current team win. What more do you want from a player? I mean from my standpoint that would be the same as me finding a better job, telling my current job that I’m going to leave, but am willing to stay on until you find a replacement and I’ll help you train him so you aren’t hurting by my absence.

Instead people hate on him for “holding Denver hostage”. Denver held themselves hostage. They knew where things were heading before the season started and did nothing. The man played out his contract up till the trade and had the decency to inform them that he was going to move on after. I think it’s nothing but admirable. The only fault I can put on Melo would be that maybe he could have left a little money on the table to help out the team. I know people point to Lebron and company for doing this, but they also had the luxury of coming together and knowing exactly what the numbers would need to be to get that done. Melo didn’t know, and I’d probably go a step further to say that if Paul and he were coming at the same time he would have done so. But I doubt many players would shave money off their salaries simply because a potential free agent maybe coming down the road.