A healthy Tracy - Yao would have been devastating for the league. Best center in the league and arguably the best swingman in the league at the time. In reality we got a hobbled clumsy turnover-prone and injury-prone center, and a apathetic crippled half-a-star. We should have had at least one championship by now.
No. Tmac and Yao meshed. Amare and Nash meshed. I don't see Melo and Amare meshing. Who knows, we'll all find out soon enough.
Wow, NY really sold the farm to get Melo. Billups, Melo, and Amare make a pretty good trio, but they've got nobody around them now.
Not so fast my friend. The Nuggets would likely have this, if the complete the Nets trade after this and send Gall and Mozgov to NJ. Felton/Ty Lawson Arron Afflalo/J.R. Smith Wilson Chandler/Gary Forbes Kenyon Martin/Al Harrington Nene Hilario/Chris Andersen/Melvin Ely Nene becomes your go to player, and you basically run PnR with Felton and Hilario. Plus George Karl (despite the fact many on this board despise him for his illegal tactic with the Sonics) is a good coach. I don't see him sticking around after the season, but I could easily see him getting this group to play slower working the PnR sets with heart & hustle and still sneak into the playoffs. He himself has hinted that the build up to the trade has really eaten away at Denver's concentration and energy making them inconsistent. Don't forget that both Nene, Kenyon Martin, JR Smith & Chandler are in contract years (if Nene wants). If Nene wants to show he can be a player that can lead a team to increase his raise, this is his chance. Plus here is there remaining schedule is not horrible. They basically play all the the teams they are competing for a playoff spot. Win a few of the right games, and they are easily still in the playoff hunt.
Solid post. They have too many holes. This year, the Celts, Bulls and Heat will beat this Knicks team easily, especially since this is a late season staple-job of a roster. Going forward, the Heat and Bulls will continue to be better. Also consider D'Antoni isn't that great of a coach. The Knicks have serious hurdles to overcome. They gave up a bunch!
The Nuggets aren't interested in the playoffs this year. They will continue the roster dump and fall like a stone after it's over.
...still don't see Knicks being an important team long term. Good enough to make the playoffs in the East? Yes, but they gave up too much and now they are paper thin and have to rely on 3 stars - one of whom is an injury prone PF and another who is a overrated PG way past his prime. In the old CBA this would have been workable because they could still have room to sign people in coming seasons but I don't think we are going to come out on the other side of the new CBA with all these exceptions that teams like Miami and now NY are banking on.
You can actually start seeing the shift in power now. Dont get me wrong the west still has 4 strong teams in SA, Dal, LA, OKC but the rest are all mediocre now. If Morey makes the right moves we might be headed to the playoffs with some steam ahead.
no, we had poor role players surrounding them in 04-05 and 06-07 when tmac and yao went into the playoffs relatively healthy. yes, you need stars to win, but you also need role players who can perform. nuggets should have AT LEAST kept one of their starters, preferable chandler or gallo.
hey at least they will continue to sell out the garden, get on ESPN/TNT... the thing people overlook with the superfriends is that lebron/wade are superior defenders. amare/melo are mediocre to below average defenders, poor playmakers: two of the things the knicks lack BEFORE the trade.
if i were melo i would have wanted to play with dwight howard, i think his best chance for success would have been orlando.. the fan in me wanted him to come here, i still dont think he would have taken this team anywhere tbh. as of right now the knicks are just miami lite.. at least one of these teams will fail this year if not both..
Glad Landry Fields wasn't part of the deal...i think? PG:Billups SG:Landry Fields SF:Carmelo PF:Amare C:Shelden Williams/Ronny Turiaf Terrible bench:Balkman, A.Carter, Toney Douglas, Roger Mason, Shawne Williams, Bill Walker, Anthony Randolph, and Andy Rautins.
