It's only a matter of time. I think in this year's draft, we'll be hearing "Fire Thomas , Fire Thomas". Kudo's to you Isiah! The Knicks are now officially the laughing stock of the NBA... Wait a minute...they already were. Photo: Nice catch Isiah! (fake photo)
We can only hope he stays around awhile. The Rockets have done two good deals with the Knicks the last two years. Both salary dumps. Maybe next year or the year after we can dump Howard on them.
My money's on a near-fatal attack in NYC by fans. Don't you think it's suspicious that an ex-Pistons great has been so able in suppressing two of his old rival teams? If he applies for a Chicago job next, someone needs to investigate. Evan
IT is doing exactly what they want him to do. I don't understand what the fuss is about. He picked up some 1st round draft picks for some scrubs and got some more scrubs back. It is not like the contracts they took hurt their cap situation.
He screwed it up his first year. When he first came into the situation, he had McDyess, Ward, and KThomas all coming off the books, and he could've traded Sprewell straight up for Terrell Brandon. That's roughly $34 million off the cap. Then take off Larry Johnson and Luc Longley's contracts, that's another $15 million. $49 million dollars of cap room cleared for this year. If he could have found a taker for Allan Houston(Portland was interested), getting an expiring contract back, make it $64 million. The Knicks would have been in position to rebuild. But instead he picks up KVH, Stephon Marbury, Penny Hardaway, and signs Jamal Crawford, and screws everything up. The Knicks are destined to be crap for the next 3-6 years, at least.
How can a Rockets fan wish Isiah to get fired when the Knicks are Houston's favorite trading partner?
And yet, the Knick fan base is so large, there would be millions ready to defend Isiah to the death. You should see the email writers get, or visit the message boards -- they're still out there, eagerly defending trading Nazr and $32-million in cap space for the 29th and 30th Draft picks.
The trades from a Knicks fan perspective (me): Here is a pretty fair and objective look at the NY deals: http://www.knickerblogger.net/2005/02/breaking-down-knicks-deadline-deals.htm With the Knicks current cap situation, its stupid to even look at salaries. Mohammed isn't very good, people haven't seen enough of him. Getting 2 picks for him (them being late in the first round shouldn't even be in the argument when Parker, Tinsley, Arenas, Redd, etc. have all been picked in that area or later in the draft) was a good move. The Houston move was weird, but when you trade two losers and get at least a somewhat productive offensive player, it's not really that bad. Moochie Norris isn't as good as PGs in the NCAAs, how he's still in the NBA is insane. The Knicks lack a C and backcourt depth because of the moves, but I like Malik Rose and the 2 draft picks (Isiah's drafted Ariza late in the 2nd round, McGrady, Damon Stoudamire who before his problems was a 20/8 PG) aren't that bad. As for some joker named DHArocks thinking had Isiah let things expire the Knicks could be under the cap is preposterous. If the Knicks ever wanted to get under the cap they shouldn't've traded Ewing for Rice, which led to Anderson and Eisley's two ridiculous deals. Letting McDyess, Ward, and KT expire and trading Spree would've moved their number from $90 million to around $50 million. That's still $5 million over the cap, and they would've had 8 active players. Portland was interested but didn't deal for Houston b/c they weren't that interested. Thomas did the only thing he could, which was rebuild on the fly. I hated the Tim Thomas deal, thought the Marbury deal was OK, loved the Ariza pick, etc. Thomas has made some good moves and some bad moves, like all GMs.
Actually, you're wrong. It would've lowered the cap number from 89.4 to about 42.8, with Houston, Shandon, Eisley, Spoon, Othella, Doleac, Williams, Sweetney, Lampe, Vranes, and, at the time, Travis Knight all on the roster at the start of the season. Let's say Isiah doesn't cut Knight and Vranes, and signs Dikembe to a two year deal at the MLE. By the end of next season, the Knicks would have some serious cap flexibility, as long as they only signed low level players. Sure they'd have to endure being the laughing stock of the league for the next couple of years... But isn't that what they are right now?
Knickerblogger's probably the best NBA blogger out there right now, I continually and consistently agree with what he writes, but I just can't buy his last post. Can't do it ...
Re : draft picks Brilliant logic. A couple teams that aren't us made good picks late in the draft so we shall therefore get two good players with those horrible picks. The fact that an organization that is markedly superior to us, and has made good picks that late in the draft, was willing to dump them off on us in a backup for backup deal means absolutely nothing. The fact that you add a worse player than Nazr in Rose and add millions in salary for two picks that have all the negatives of second rounders - but with guaranteed contracts - is a horrible move. The team is half power forwards - only one of whom should probably be starting. Total cluster****. Self-fulfilling prophecy. If you maintain that you'll always have bad contracts on the book - you always will - because it leads to a willingness to take on the contracts of Malik Rose and Maurice Taylor, which will simply prolong the process. At some point, you have to stop and try to get some semblance of sanity on the payroll.
The bad moves aren't just about the money. Thomas is building a team with 2 shoot first pg's, and 5 undersized power forwards. If there are so many millions of die hard knick fans, then what's the harm of blowing up the team when he had the chance? You'll sell less tickets, but you won't be paying so much money to guys like Mo, Tim Thomas, KVH, Shanderson, Mooch, etc. With all these contracts, the Knicks are doomed to mediocrity (a generous word considering they're struggling to make the playoffs in the east).
A couple of things in the midst of the Thomas bashing even though I am not arguing he is a good GM. Thomas walked into the worst salary cap situation in the NBA when he took that job. Its easy to say they should blow up the team but he has to win in NY and honestly playing in the weakest division in the NBA they do. Secondly, in the MoTaylor trade, he got a player who will play for two that don't and all three have bad contracts. And honestly if Juwan Howard ever goes down the Rockets will look like the loosers on that trade if they have to start Weatherspoon.
The Knicks are and have been a mess long before Zeke got there. Unfortunately, Zeke has not made the team much better (record wise) since he took over. They have cap problems beyond imagination. They have no center. No coach. And things don't seem to be getting any better.
And somehow - he made it worse! None of the players played for their respective teams. Taylor had a bigger and longer contract. The Knicks gave up a second rounder to get that contract. They would've started Weatherspoon anyways - not Taylor.
The fact remains that the only two players from Layden's tenure left over are Houston and Kurt Thomas; and Thomas would have been gone by now, but IT decided to extend his contract. It's all excuses with Isiah. The first words out of his mouth after the trades (to Sager) were "I inherited a bad cap situation." Yes, he inherited a bad cap situation, and turned into a horrific cap situation. He's still making excuses about his time in Indiana (three first-round exits), talking about how much the team was rebuilding, and how it was nothing like the 2000 Finalists. The only differences were losing Chris Mullin (who never played in 99-00), Mark Jackson (who was done by then), and trading Dale Davis for J O'Neal (both were pretty even, statistically). I have a great deal of respect for Isiah as a person, but the fact that he keeps trying to pin the issues he created on someone else is pathetic.
