The expectations are they will buy out Marbury before the season, try to dump Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry on other teams before 2010 and then bet the franchise on who they can sign two summers from now. It's gonna be another rough season for Knicks fans. Perhaps they can take heart that things will eventually improve.
What kind of W/L record will be reasonable - feasible over the next two seasons while doing that? Zeke helped other teams out by taking on contracts that others were hesitant to touch. Walsh is now having to reverse some of that and with the Nets paring payroll, do you think that there will much of a market for players like Zach and Curry? With only 30 teams in the league and eliminating teams that would hangup the phone if Walsh called (Lakers, Celtics, Rockets, Spurs, Jazz etc), how many teams would be interested in Zach or Curry as players?
Some teams will trade inferior players to the Knicks in return for Z-Bo or Curry with the hope they can turn Z-Bo or Curry around and make them productive post players again. What the Knicks want is nothing more than shorter term contracts (that must have no more than two years left on them). IMO, the Knicks will have serious trouble trading Randolph because his contract is so huge and he's a borderline nutcase. Giving up Steve Francis to get him was one of the worst trades in recent memory. Curry's contract is much smaller and he shouldn't be that hard to move. If I were the Knicks, I'd dump Randolph at all costs and keep Curry.
Well, if a completely horrible player like Duhon is worth the MLE that should tell you something about our free agent prospects once the Landry standoff finally ends....
MLE is a little too much for Duhon, but if he's the starting PG for the Knicks it's tough to argue against that. Now the question is, what are they going to do with Marbury?
i can't say what kind of record they will have by next season because they won't be afraid to turn the team over... so who knows what they will look like by then? D'antoni will give them an identity, the players should be happier than in years past, and that stuff counts for a lot. i would bet they finish with a better record than last year even with less talent on paper. chicago, dallas, denver, detroit, miami, milwaukee, philadelphia, sacramento. all of them could use low post scoring.
Denver I mentioned them as a destination in an earlier thread about the Nuggets. If Melo vexes Denver, Zach might drive them over the edge. Dallas Not afraid to wheel and deal, but they would have to scrounge to get the needed contracts to match with Zach's salary. Detroit Dumars is in the mood for changes, but he usually (Darko exception) makes the right moves. It is veteran team, so they might be able to have some influence on him. When he was with the Blazers, they started a housecleaning and anything judged to be tainted was moved elsewhere. When he was with the Knicks....... everybody knows that story. Miami Have Wade and Beasley. More touches for Zach means less for Wade and Beasley. If making Wade happy is important to Miami management, then they need to be careful with this decision. Bucks I think the new Management team has a Pistons background, so they might have a POV similar to that of Dumars. There might have been Whatif scenarios discussed in years past when they were together at Detroit. Philly That might be a possible and I think there were rumors before the February 2008 Trade Deadline about a possible trade. I need to tinker with the numbers to see what is possible since Philly has very few large contracts. Sacramento Perhaps, but I think they need to resolve the Artest situation before exploring a trade for Zach.
Why would you look to Randolph for low post scoring? He shoots a low % (TS% lower than confirmed chucker TMAC), doesn't get to the line much (5 FT per 36 minutes). That's the kind of "low post scoring" you get? You get to pay him max dollars for horribly inefficient chucking, is horrible on defense on top of generally being an idiot and team cancer.
yeah i'm definitely afraid also - but the deal is only two years. duhon was probably searching for long-term security in a 4-5 year deal. the knicks probably overpaid him in order to arrive at a compromise with him - no long-term deal but stellar pay. if they had signed him to a longer deal i think they could have had him at even half the price, but the knicks are staking their hopes on lebron james, which requires no long-term contracts on their payroll.
