I vote No simply because that pick could be the difference between acquiring a superstar in our next deal. Even a chance for a borderline superstar makes it worth more than a AR trade. I'll trade two second round picks in a heartbeat tho.
Anthony Randolph is a tweener. He is not a Power Forward. Power should never be used to describe Randolph. He is a human highlight film. He is tall athletic. He has a decent reach and can occassionally give you weak side block but please do not confuse him with a Power Forward. Anthony Randolph is to Power Forward as A Hummer is to a Pink Cadillac. AR is a tweener, he is Kevin Garnett without the handles and shooting skills. He doesn't have the quickness to guard most 3's nor the strength to guard 4's. He looks good on film. Hell he looks great on film. But he is a tweener that disappoints. Do not be fooled. His frame will not support the weight and his legs and handles will not allow him to become a 3. He can run and dunk almost Tayshaun Prince like. He shoots decent for a center or strong Power Forward. He can block shots especially from the weakside. He is a human highlight film. But most power forwards will have no problem backing him down. On a team that has Amare Stoudemire he is a worst pf defender. Those are his physical characteristics or defects if you will. That would be bad enough if that was all of his problems. Skinnier ballplayers have overcome such physical weaknesses. But there appears to be more wrong with the kid. He sometimes gets into a shooting rhythm and he appears unstoppable. But in preseason with the Knicks, when he had every opportunity to shine he couldn't shoot 40%. He is 6'11" and has a career 44% shooting average. And that is misleading considering how many fastbreak slam dunk opportunities he got with Golden State. He has only made 1 three in his whole career and his shooting appears to be getting worse. Still he is a human highlight film. The fans love him. Watch his highlights you will love him too but watch them closer. He looks unhappy all the time. He never smiles. Even when he makes a great play it doesn't appear to give him satisfaction. Yet he makes so many highlight films and he seems to want that. For someone who plays so little he already has monster games. He looks as if he can score at will and when you guard him tight he drives past you and slams it home. But where is the consistency. On a team who desperately wanted him to contribute he is worthless. He hasn't even been put in half the games. When he plays more then 10 minutes the Knicks lose. The knicks have relegated to playing him in only the worse foul situations. You can blame it on D'Antoni. You can use Hilll as an example but last year Hill wasn'nt playing as good as Jeffries and Lee. If Hill got more minutes he would have contributed more. But they gave lots of minutes to Randolph in the preseason and he produced zilch. he is 6'11" and shot 36% from the field. They traded Lee for this kid. They thought he was the future. Randolph and Amare for years to come. 2 months later they are ready to dump him. Yeah the want Anthony but this kid with all the promise got dumped for a decent white guy. IMO he is fools gold. Yes I am the guy who was wrong with Hill. But in all fairness I couldnot find enough film on him and in the little film I saw in New York, Hill looked like he didn't want to be there. But much like the T-Will kid we just drafted Hill was having problems being forced to ride the pine. That is not a terrible to want to play. To think you deserve to play over others. (Kudos to Adelman by the way for managing players in a way that even when they are benched he explains to them why. So they get it). Unlike Hill there is plenty of film on AR. And in that film there are lots of highlights. But the underlying problem is he always looks unhappy. He always looks unsatisfied and he only seems to put out the most effort when it benefits him to shine. He loved dunking Yao. That gave him attention. He loves that kind of challenge. But what about the team effort. He doesn't seem to be that guy that loves the team to win. He just seems angry all the time. AR is definitely one of the most unique, talented and gifted players in the league. Especially when you consider he is only 20. SO you have to say this guy has too much talent to not succeed. But some people just don't have what it takes to win and improve. TMac was an example of one of the most talented players in the league to ever walk the court yet never managed to win anything. He looked great but he didn't make his team win. AR is no where near as talented as TMac but seems to be worse in his desire to win for the team and not for himself. I could be wrong. The kid is young and talented. It seems to be a high risk high reward kind of deal. But for all the upside this kid offers 2 teams have dumped him and there is not one taker in the entire league for a simple first round draft pick. On a team that could use some help off the bench he hasn't played once this month. That's got to tell you something.
