Knicks Roster 2006-07 Roster Renaldo Balkman F 6-8 208 07/14/1984 45 Jackie Butler (FA) C 6-10 260 03/10/1985 2 Mardy Collins G 6-6 220 08/04/1984 R 11 Jamal Crawford G 6-5 190 03/20/1980 6 34 Eddy Curry C-F 6-11 285 12/05/1982 5 1 Steve Francis G 6-3 200 02/21/1977 7 7 Channing Frye C 6-11 248 05/17/1983 1 31 Jerome James C 7-1 280 11/17/1975 6 42 David Lee F 6-9 249 04/29/1983 1 3 Stephon Marbury G 6-2 205 02/20/1977 10 23 Quentin Richardson F-G 6-6 230 04/13/1980 6 4 Nate Robinson G 5-9 180 05/31/1984 1 5 Jalen Rose G-F 6-8 215 01/30/1973 12 13 Malik Rose F 6-7 255 11/23/1974 10 2 Maurice Taylor F 6-9 265 10/30/1976 8 8 Ime Udoka G-F 6-5 220 08/09/1977 2 6 Qyntel Woods (FA) CAN ISIAH SUCCEED? What is his Starting Line up: Marbury, Francis, Rose, Fry, Curry? Technically not bad Reality . . they are a Starbury away Until they can get Starbury off they line up . .they will suck they guy does not play well with others . . . .. I personally would prefer Crawford, Francis, Rose, Fry and Curry Gritty could muscle out 40~43 wins The east sux Rocket River BTW . . when did Alan Houston fall off the books?
I didn't know that he had. According to hoopshype, he's still getting paid $20 mill for the 06-07 season ???
I believe Allan Houston retired right before the season started last year which is why he came off the books. The only real assets they seem to have are Jamal Crawford, Channing Frye, and Jalen Rose's expiring contract so they probably won't be making any more moves. I agree with you that they will probably need to get rid of Marbury before they can succeed. The only way I see them finding a team to take on his salary though is if they include Channing Frye. I think the best they can do this year is 35 wins. We have to remember that this is a team that is full of underacheivers. Francis, Marbury, Curry, Jerome James, and Mo Taylor don't exactly have backgrounds that scream WINNER!!! Also Isiah Thomas was not a good coah in Indiana. When people try and defend Isiah Thomas as a coach in Indiana they always bring up that the team was a .500 team, yet they never bring up the fact that when he was fired and Rick Carlisle took pretty much the same team they went to the Eastern Conference Finals.
I forgot to add that Allen Houston had an insured contract so when he retired the Knicks only had to pay like 25% of the contract and someone else(I think the league but I'm not sure) payed the rest.
the team isn't full of underacheivers, marbury, and francis earned their max contracts, richardson came from a winning situation, crawford has worked hard to get to where he is as a player. james, taylor, curry, no argument. but they have talent, and they have players who play hard, the problem is can they play together.
Eddy Curry - Jackie Butler - Jerome James Channing Frye - David Lee - Maurice Taylor Quentin Richardson - Jalen Rose - Malik Rose Jamal Crawford - Steve Francis - Renaldo Balkman Stephon Marbury - Nate Robinson - Mardy Collins i'd do with this lineup if i were coaching the knicks. they have post options, shooters, and slashers. everyone is an offensive option. with an up tempo game plan this should be tough to stop. their problem is that the players aren't very smart. you can't run a kings type offense or even a jazz type offense. you have to let them lose like the suns. let them win off talent alone. they're not a good defensive team but they're a good rebounding team. if they were able to trade marbury and richardson for a pass first PG and a defensive SF they could easily be a playoff team.
but the problem is it still counts against the cap. the knicks cap drops down to $65MM in 07, they can probably get by with just signing some low budget players to fill out their roster.
To paraphrase Bart Simpson... I didn't know it was physically possible, but that team both sucks AND blows...
I disagree with you on the first part of your comment except for the Crawford part. As I said I think he is one of their only real assets and has turned himself into a reliable player. Now onto the disagreement... 1. Take an honest look at the years Steve Francis was with the Rockets. What did he do that really warranted that contract? When he got the extension he had never been to the playoffs. Every year the Rockets would fall just short and he would give the same old excuse of were still a young team and Blah, Blah, Blah... It was the same thing with Marbury every where he went. Every season ended with him giving excuses. 2. With Richardson he had one winning season as a pro. That was it. It wasn't like he spent his entire professional career playing in a winning environment.
*uuuhhhggg* I find it interesting you use the suns as a prototype since Nash is the smartest player on the planet. . let folx around here tell it blah blah blah Rocket River
Yes it is but the point I was trying to make was that Steve Francis didn't deserve the contract he received. Steve Francis was a shoot first, turnover prone point guard with shotty defense. He also never really improved as a player. If you were to look at game footage from a game that he played in last year and a game from his rookie season would you really be able to see that much of a difference. He also had the bad habit of playing down to his compettition. Which is why there would be games where the Rockets would take top level teams like the Lakers, Kings, 76ers, Nets, and Spurs down to the wire one night and then the next night lose to the Clippers by 10.
Not if Francis or Marbury is running the show! Seriously though, they can't use that excuse anymore. Take a look at the team they're on right now. It's loaded with talent. It's loaded with veterans. They still can't buy a win. You just can't say "Well, it's a team sport and they've never been on a good team. They've never been surrounded by talent." They're surrounded by talent right now. Neither Marbury or Francis have ever really demonstrated that they can fully buy into a team first mentality. Nor have either of them demonstrated any sort of leadership abilities or the ability to make players around them better. There is no reason the Knicks shouldn't be able to win in the Eastern Conference. None. Yet, even with Dolans seemingly endless supply of cash, Larry Brown as a coach and all of that talent, they still couldn't win. In fact, even with all of that they still had the second worst record in the league - and mind you, the only team with a worse record (the Trailblazers) was in the Western Conference. No, Francis and Marbury can't put it on their teams anymore. They've been in the league for 7 and 10 years respectively, and neither of them have ever done anything but lose. It's time to accept the fact they're both losers. Can't wait for pgabriel's response to this. I'm sure it'll be pleasant.
I like your assessment. The lineup looks about right, though I don't see Rose outside of the 4, and Crawford may play some 3 to allow Francis to play with Marbury. This certainly isn't the sharpest bunch around. Francis and Marbury are pure blackcourt, and Eddy Curry only reads menus. I wouldn't say that this is a good rebounding crew at all, though. Last year, they didn't have a single person able to pull down more than 6 boards a game. That's absolutely abysmal. Curry could care less about boardwork and Frye has a tough time with his thin frame. Francis can only do so much in the backcourt, and if your bigs can't start the break, they'll be hard to come by routinely. As long as those aforementioned bigs can't protect the middle and Marbury cares less about that half of the floor, the Knicks are going to be killed by layups and won't be able to run. Since small ball backcourts (a PG and a short combo guard) are becoming so popular with the rule changes (Suns, Mavs, Bulls, Heat), the Francis-Starbury idea isn't as much of a joke as it seems. If they manage to reconcile the fact that both of them have considered themselves the best option on every single team they've been on, they stand a chance. Evan
who was he supposed to pass to, cato, shandon anderson or mo taylor. you can say what you want about the turnovers, or the the passing but he was putting up some of the best stats in the nba. regardless. two years he was only one of two players averaging 20-6-6, one year it was mcgrady, the other it was garnett. name five good defensive point guards.
Yes Francis put up good stats which is exactly why you should never look soley at stats when judging a player. Francis has always been a great individual talent but never a great teammate. You can say all you want about his stats but those stats never amounted to anything but trips to the lottery. Here's a link to Francis' Stats As impressive as they are one thing you should notice is that they have pretty much stayed the same throughout his career(including his turnovers). The reason why they havn't really changed is because he's been the same player his entire career. There has been no growth as a player at all from Francis. Look I have nothing against Francis but the fact is he always has been and probably always will be an underachiever. He has all the talent in the world he just doesn't have the B-Ball IQ or ability to ignore his ego to be a great player which is why he got traded for Penny Hardaway's contract and Trevor Ariza. And finally the lack of defensive point guards in the league is not an excuse for Francis to be a liability on the defensive end.
