Comments on: Unsung Knick History – Duane Causwell, Iverson’s Big Steal and the Game No One Wanted to Win

By: Caleb

Caleb — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:56:59 +0000

Haha. Maybe Donnie can paint it as a big concession on his part. Ujiri and Kroenke will wake up the next morning and say, “what happened?”

Billups is on the downside but the money doesn’t bother me – it’s only 2 years more and we’d be capped out so it doesn’t really affect flexibility. Meanwhile he’s sporting a 64 TS% and hitting 44 percent of his 3s. As a big PG who can really shoot, I think he has plenty of years left, at least on the offensive end. D would be an issue…

By: John Kenney

John Kenney — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:19:04 +0000

I really like that trade. When I first thought about it, images of Billups picturing himself as “the man” and shooting last second shots instead of Melo or Amare had me recoiling.. but then I realized our current PG already does that!

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:08:54 +0000

@35 – I used to play some online (stopped due to losing more than winning) and after playing so much, I just couldn’t sit through live games anymore – too boring.

back to the NYK – now the dumb interwebs are talking about Felton and Billups being dragged into this charade also. Actually the previously discussed trade with Minnesota/Denver/NYK works if you send Billups to us and Felton and Azu to Denver.
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=6xk2444

Not sure why Denver does that except as a favor to Billups (I’m sure he wants no part of a rebuild) and to save even more $. That’s a lot of $$ though. Billups is something like $26M over next 2 years – Azu is basically free for Denver and Felton is only making $15M over next 2. That + luxury tax savings is some serious moolah.

By: Spree8nyk8

Spree8nyk8 — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:52:16 +0000

now that i can get on board with, that is much better.

But yeah, it’s actually a ton more than you think when it comes to internet guys with skill. I mean most internet players play more hands in a single year than doyle played in his first probably about 20 years of playing. So the experience factor is gigantic, they learn at an exponential rate and that was simply a tool that Doyle didn’t have back then.

I mean I’m not even a full pro, but when I grind I’ll play around 10k hands per day. And this is actually LOW for true grinders. One of my buddies is 22, has never worked, he plays around 15k hands a day. A DAY? Do you know how long it takes to play 15,000 hands live? Around 375 hours if you have a good moving game with a very good dealer. If you played 8 hours every single day it would take you 47 days to play what an online player plays in 1 single day. It’s kind of staggering.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:45:50 +0000

Spree8nyk8: Well, as a semi pro player I think that analogy scares me because most internet punks would fare pretty well against doyle these days.

Don't know about "most", but hopefully in this game of basketball poker, there's less chance involved than in real poker... To stretch this poker analogy way to far, Ujiri really is playing with one of his hole cards up -- we pretty much know his hand.

By: Spree8nyk8

Spree8nyk8 — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:41:44 +0000

Well, as a semi pro player I think that analogy scares me because most internet punks would fare pretty well against doyle these days.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:37:07 +0000

@30

When I think of this whole thing I just get a mental picture of a no limit poker table, heads up match between an old school guy like Doyle Brunson (Donnie in this analogy) and a young punk (Ujiri). Hopefully the young punk isn’t Phil Ivey in this case.

By: rohank

rohank — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:16:13 +0000

How about this trade? Billups has a team option for the 11/12 season:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=4ryleqb

Thoughts?

By: d-mar

d-mar — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:04:11 +0000

@29 I agree, and I love how other NBA executives are anonymously sniping that Denver management should be drawn and quartered if they allow the current deal with NY to happen. What exactly would they do? Melo holds all the cards, and by extension the Knicks also, and getting a high draft pick and Chandler and cap space would be a whole lot better than where the Cavs and Raptors ended up when they lost LeBron and Bosh.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:52:57 +0000

Besides being totally agonizing, the next 2 weeks in the MeloDrama should be very interesting. On one side you have Ujiri and Kroenke, who are about as green as they come when it comes to this stuff. On the other (our side thankfully) you have Walsh, who Warkentien called “the godfather” and “a giant in the game”. Ian O’Connor wrote that he thinks that Fields will eventually get put into the deal. My question is, why would Walsh give up anything he truly values? I and others here predicted it months ago – at the end of the day, if Melo really wants to play for the NYK, then the Nuggets will trade him to us for a lowball offer or get nothing when Melo walks. No amount of posturing and leaking of supposed trade talks will change that. Walsh probably laughed out loud at this Bynum stuff knowing that it was an amateurish attempt to pressure him into including Gallo and/or Fields.

I’m sure Ujiri doesn’t want to have history repeat itself with him being left empty-handed in Toronto after Bosh left and now in Denver with Melo. Saving your owner probably $20M in salary/luxury tax, clearing cap space, getting a good draft pick and a young piece in Chandler is really better than getting nothing at all.