if Miami can't sign 3 players for the max, with only Beasley on the books for about $5 million per year, how is New York going to do it with Gallinari, Giddens and Douglas still on the books combining for over $6 million a year and with Amare's and Lebron's raises in the second year of their contract? they'll only have about $13 million (or a $75 million 5-year contract) to use for a free agent. that's quite a bit, but not nearly enough for Melo. http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/contracts
agreed. martin effectively replaces tmac. hill is still raw, but has a higher ceiling than landry. the picks are great gambles, but even if we end up with 1 low pick it's still gravy.
Eddy Curry's contract is up and a bunch of team options. Also consider if owners get their wish, Max contracts will be lowered while the salary cap will increase slightly by this time next year.
So who do you see them knocking out of the play-offs. I guess it depends on where Lebron goes but if he is back in Cleveland than I don't see Knicks in the play-offs next season. There are only 8 spots, Cleveland Orlando Boston Atlanta Miami Chicago ... are all near locks providing those teams are not hit with the injury bug. That leaves just two spots left. Charlotte and Milwaukee were play-off teams last year and I expect both Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington to be much better this season and challenge for play-off spots. Add to the fact that NY has gained Amare but will loose Al Harrington, David Lee and TMac. I believe they will be just as bad as they were last year or only marginally better.
Probably a lower-seeded playoff team? Come on DD. Assuming the Knicks don't get LeBron (and they don't trade for Paul, Nash, or Parker), they aren't a playoff team. Here's this year's final standings: Barring injury, here's what I imagine the outcome of this upcoming season will be: Coaching changes are a major factor in my rankings, and the Knicks in that system with one great player can't reasonably be expected to make a tremendous leap to playoff team.
Except that so far, we haven't really seen ANYONE doing the sign and trade. Joe Johnson stays with ATL, Amare to NY straight up, Lebron to NY straight up, Bosh to the Heat. That's everyone we wanted, champ. Plans A, B, C, and D down the drain because Morey misread the situation, even though it was obvious no big name free agent would want Houston so we would have to force one to come here through trade. I posted this on the forums 5 months ago: http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showthread.php?t=181911&page=1&pp=20 Now because Morey the Moron didn't listen, we're getting bounced in the first round, if we even make the playoffs. This was not a playoff team last season and Yao may not have anything to give. The other offers on the table were way better. Igodoula is a better two way player than K-brick, we could have kept Landry, and Dalembert is better than Brad Miller at this stage in his career. Or we could have had Amare, a Top 3 pf, but Morey didn't have the balls to pull the trigger. "A first round pick is a first round pick" is perhaps one of the dumbest things I've seen posted in these forums. For one, half of what we have isn't a first round pick, it is a pick swap, which will be completely worthless when NY has a better record than us. Second, the actual pick we are getting was expected to be top 10 or so where you still have a shot at the really good players. Now it will probably be 20-25 which is arguably worse than a early second rounder since the contract is guaranteed and players 20-35 are usually pretty similar in talent. The "assets" we got have gone from being medium-high value to low value. Morey is penny-wise but pound foolish. All he has shown he can do is stack up middling assets for a low price. He doesn't have the balls to get championship quality players and he has badly botched the biggest decisions by holding onto Yao and Tmac until they were worthless. Those players were never going to win a chip. During his tenure we've gone from having elite but injury prone SG and C to having slightly above average but injury prone SG and crippled C while adding no players that are even top 5 at their positions.
JCDenton: I understand your criticism in Morey's short-term "mishaps" but don't you think long-term success trumps uncertain, costly, and limited improvement that hinders future plans? With the potential lockout, this current scenario is the "safe" route. I don't have a problem with it, considering there are still a ton of options and assets available to the Rockets. If CD was still GM, this team would be horrid (see: Houston Astros). You gotta give Morey credit for flexibility, and this will eventually lead to the acquisition of a proven, star player, either through trade or draft. I'm not surprised that none of these "top" free agents neglected to even remotely consider Houston; the Rockets are flying under the radar with questions around Yao. IF Yao is healthy, this is a contender. If he gets hurt again, well this is the final year of his contract, so no big deal. Even back in the 90s the Rockets never signed a top-level free agent; remember Barkley and Drexler were acquired via trade. Same for Steve Francis. The biggest free agent signing in CD's tenure was what, Mo Taylor?? Patience...
What? The Knicks are overpaying for Amare. Even if they end up retaining David Lee as long as Lebron or Wade doesn't sign there the teams are as follows: *Orlando (sure playoff team) *Chicago (sure playoff team) *Miami (sure playoff team) *Atlanta (sure playoff team) *Cleveland (sure playoff team if LBJ signs) So right there we have 5 spots taken. Next we have the teams that are guaranteed to have a better record than NY: *Bucks (Bogut+Jennings>Amare+???) *Boston (KG+PP+Rondon>Amare+???) *Charlotte (Sjax+Chandler+Crash>Amare+???) Finally we have the teams that have a more than 50% chance of being better than NY: *Philly *Indiana *Detroit (unless they trade everyone) As you can see, as long as Lebron or Wade or Bosh don't sign in NY that swap and pick will be in the lottery. Bosh not signing might actually be a blessing. The Yao era might be officially over, but if we get two more lottery picks along with the young teams we have now we actually have the youth+starpower to be competitive for the next 10 years.
Please just ignore JCDenton. I honestly don't know why his account is not banned, its obviously a troll account someone brings out when he wants to piss people off. FYI this is the guy who: *Created a chart that showed are record pre and post Tmac trade and called it a failure based on his "advanced" statistical analysis *Keeps calling K-mart K-brick despite the fact that he's shooting 0.586% True shooting percentage (meaning he gets around a point everytime we give him the ball since a basket is worth 2 pts). *Said he'll leave the board if Kmart averagesd more than 20 pts (he got 21) Don't feed the troll
If we were positioned for long term success, that would be one thing, but we aren't. Kevin Martin and Yao Ming make a lot of money and are both made of glass. Tons of teams around the league have better assets/young players. We're not an up and coming young team and we can't contend right now either. The teams who got players like Kevin Durant, Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings, etc are the ones who will contend in the future. A bunch of good value draft picks who are all projected to be roleplayers won't cut it. Morey's job was to bring in a superstar and he failed miserably.
Geez, kind of harsh. I mean no disrespect, but I honestly believe your viewpoint is skewed and foolish. Just because Morey "failed" at getting a "top" level free agent this offseason doesn't mean he has done a terrible job. Why would it make any sense to go into panic mode and trade some good, young role players for any combination of the overpriced, no-defense Sixers? There was very little wiggle room in recent years, and injuries killed the team. Morey was able to get a tremendous deal for T-Mac last year (who would've wanted him in years prior with his injury history?). I think you should take a step back and look at the organization from the view of: even with injuries, Houston has acquired a lot of nice, talented role players via clever trades, or excellent late draft picks. Those guys you mentioned (Jennings, Durant, Evans) were all acquired via draft after those teams were absolutely abysmal. If the Knicks are awful this season, that means the Rockets have a chance at one of these types of players. On top of that, the Rockets are stacked with very trade-able assets that will go to acquiring top talent. The Rockets were never in contention for Wade or James, and that's their loss. I was never too keen on Bosh, so I'm not disappointed. Lastly, I suggest you hold off your judgments until after the trading deadline. There's going to be a bunch of teams in sell mode. Secondly, give Martin a full season with the Rockets (and let's all see what Yao can give us). PS: Even if Houston got Bosh and Yao gets injured this year (hopefully not), the team isn't a serious contender. Point being: let the season take its course, where it will either be the end of the Yao era or a renaissance to glory (besides, Hakeem had his best years after the age of 30).
ok.................. Sorry but this just gets under my skin. First of all how do you propose to force a player to come here through trade...... do you even understand how sign and trade works? If bosh wanted to come here he would have. Not Morey's decision. Bosh's decision. Iguodala is NOT better than one of the most efficient guards in the league in Kevin Martin. Especially for the scheme the rockets have right now. (a perfect fit for Martin.) Even worse idea considering the large contract Iguodala is on.....Dalembert... really?? Would you really like to have that much more added to the cap? As much as we liked Landry he was a bench player and we turned him into a starter in Kevin Martin. Martin is not just a slightly above average shooting guard and will look much better next year. You should be very happy to have him. Amare a top three pf??.....LMAO are you serious dude? Did you even consider of the chances of retaining him after the season? Or did you just think he would sign again with us. He didn't seem to do that this off-season now did he? Glad we kept Scola and Battier and at least went for Bosh, clearly the better player. We did the smart thing and retained our assets. Are you seriously implying New York will have a better record than us next year? How so? Do you think Amare is going to turn the franchise around after trading places with Lee? Regardless of the draft positioning, the picks are STILL assets, which was a pretty good deal along with 8th overall pick Jordan Hill. How can you say right now that those picks are of low value? Holding on to Yao is a bad decision? Do you have any clue how much money he makes for the franchise? I doubt it has been solely Morey's decision to hold onto him. Don't you think Les Alexander would want to retain him? Tmac was worthless? A massive expiring contract?? Again. Jordan Hill and two first rounders from the KNICKS is something. Isn't it? Until you explain how those picks are now of low value, I don't see how Mcgrady turned into nothing. If Morey truly "misread" the situation, would you have wanted him instead to gut the roster for the chance at a free agent? They would have come here if they really wanted to, and we could have offered more money. What are you not getting and how did Morey screw this up? In the process we lost NO assets so far this off-season and did not strike out. The season does not start tomorrow. We have the depth already to be special this season without any other moves. Regardless, how can you say we struck out this off-season when it is just beginning. After that, there is always the trade deadline.
Please read my post and Rosalian's post and IGNORE this troll. Don't feed him as he gets off on pissing off Rockets fans.
