takeaway: Mardy Collins is the worst player in the NBA!

30 percent that he wears Yankee hats all the time and 70 percent wishful thinking. sadly, that’s the best we’ve got these days.

Other than that they need to work with what they got and raise the value of the players on the current roster. Hopefully, somebody will be suckered in to taking taking some of the dead weight at the deadline.

Let’s face it, a Championship ain’t happening next year anyway.

Now, why does everyone think Lebron is coming to The Knicks when his contract is up? Is there some subliminal messages Lebron has been sending through his dunks? In my opinion, he would go to The Nets if he was to leave Cleveland.Esp, if The Nets are in Brooklyn by then.In 2010 The Nets will have a good core group of players in Devin Harris, Shawne Williams, and Nenad Kristic.Not to mention, Lebron and Jay-Z stick together like my bed sheets since my girlfriend took that job in Virginia.

I think The Knicks focus should on on rebuilding the teams through the draft and getting under The cap so they might have a chance sometime in the future for a good to great player in the free agent market.The future not being just 2010.I think The Knicks would be better serve to have another terrible season next year and hopefully get a top 3 pick,so they can had a young inexpensive future star on their team for 3-4 years.Combine that future star with a decent core of role players and a free agent signing in the future and I see The Knicks being a championship contender within 6 years.

The key here is patients, which Knicks fans should have a lot of after the last 7 years.

Meanwhile, the 2nd best player (Iggy) probably isn’t worth the giant contract he’s wanting… do you trade him while he still has a ton of value?
Especially considering that the future best player (Young) plays the same position (he’s definitely a 3, not a 4, unless you’re going to play a very small lineup)…

So, do they should trade Miller and go young (pun intended), or do they try to bring in a serious veteran scorer, along the lines of Randolph? (if you’re reading this, Ed — he’s great!)

They have a lot of money to spend, so unless they score a star like Elton Brand, it probably makes sense to stand pat, keep their options and open and see how the season goes — closer to the trade deadline, they can add a star or semi-star via trade (from a team that basically wants to dump the contract), or they can trade Miller to a contender in a deal that would give them multiple picks and/or give them enough cap room to be huge FA players next summer.

You said that because of Gasol the Lakers went from mediocre to the best. This is false. They were already the best team in the West (record wise) early in the season.

Would they be in the conference finals without Gasol? No idea, Gasol is an amazing player don’t get me wrong, but with a healthy Bynum? Maybe. Without Bynum, almost definitely not.

Gasol’s defense isn’t a weakness? Odom’s jumper remind you much of Reggie Miller? Funny because for years people have ripped Gasol’s defense and Odom shot worse on jumpers than Lee this past season (.400).
And how can you possibly say how good the Lakers would be without Kobe? That’s pure speculation. Gasol led Memphis to the playoffs and Odom and a rookie Wade got Miami into the eastern conference playoffs.

I would agree that the Knicks don’t have a Kobe or Gasol and maybe not even an Odom, but does that mean you trade away the more promising players you do have? For what?

Again, that’s my biggest problem with your line of reasoning: who are you trading Lee and Balkman for? If the Knicks want to completely rebuild from scratch that’s one thing, but then they shouldn’t have hired D’Antoni who has publically said that his job isn’t to develop young players (in Phoenix) and that the Knicks don’t plan on being in the lottery again next year.

Neither Walton nor Farmar is on the same level as David Lee. Walton does one thing well for his position, pass, and Farmar does nothing exceptionally well, good outside shot and solid all-around. Lee is about as good a rebounder and as efficient a medium-volume scorer as anyone in the NBA. They are, however, both good, smart basketball players, but not being as clueless on the court as the rest of the Knicks isn’t really enough to compare someone to David Lee. Then again, they’re both white.

“it is Kobe that makes the Lakers good, underscoring the value of a true all-time great.”
” You put Kobe on a team with Randolph, Curry and Steph and they are instantly in the playoffs, no matter whom the rest of the team is, whether its Jeffries or Lee, Crawford or Nate, Q or Balkman.”

Yeah, Kobe’s been taking the Lakers to the Finals single-handedly ever since Shaq left. Doesn’t matter at all who his supporting cast has been.

“he did lead the Yao-less Rockets to the playoffs with a sparse supporting cast.”

Do you watch basketball? Shane Battier, Luis Scola these guys are Olympians, Carl Landry is a beast, and that’s just a well-built team: they were the second best defense in the league.

You have to stop the other team from scoring as well as score yourself, ask Golden State.

“More likely you end up like the Bulls for 5 years post-Jordan, or worse, the Timberwolves for 10 years, or the Cavaliers, or any number of superstar + no one teams that keep barely making or barely missing the playoffs.
There are superstar-based teams (L.A., San Antonio, New Orleans) but a lot more contenders build themselves incrementally, then get a break — or make a brilliant move — to find their superstar. Even Boston — sure they traded Jefferson for Garnett, but they already had Pierce & Rondo, and held onto their #5 pick (until Allen) — they didn’t package the pick with Ratliff for cap space.”

Good point. Rebuilding from scratch is not a sure thing, even in a big market, but I also don’t see an indication that the Knicks are trying to rebuild from scratch.

“we need to have a team that Lebron wants to come play for. After years of frustration in Cleveland, he is not going to want to go to a team that has no quality players. He will be in his prime, and will probably understand that the exposure in New York will be worth very little if he is on a losing team.”

Very true.

“After looking at the Gallinari clips, I’ve decided we shouldn’t select him @ 6.”

Yeah, but Skita definitely had the athleticism to make it big in the NBA. You can’t base your draft analysis on youtube highlights.

“I’m more worried about becoming the Pitino Celtics. The Celts spent a decade waiting for young guys to develop, most of whom never did, or trading for overpaid, flawed, or old players like we have recently.”

This is false in multiple ways. Pitino was not in Boston for a decade (more like 3 1/2 seasons). He didn’t wait for Chauncey Billups to develop, he traded him in the middle of his rookie year. Once Pitino was long gone, they didn’t wait for Joe Johnson to develop, instead also trading him in his rookie year. Paul Pierce was neither flawed nor old during his playoff runs with Toine, who was maybe flawed but also not old.

They did trade for some flawed older players, but usually used talented young guys to do it (Billups for Kenny Anderson or Joe Johnson for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers).

“The Randolph trade to Philly for Miller is good thinking. I think that would be fair for both teams assuming Philly had interest in Randolph.”

That’s a huge assumption.