Orlando- Pick up Borchardt, another one that I thought fell a long way down. I thought this was good, to replace Ewing but it turns out they trade it to Utah. Another one of my "HUH?" moments. Trade him to Utah for PF Ryan Humphrey (#19) and C Jamal Sampson (#47). So I'm thinking, yea thats ok, they got 2 power spots, and still replace Ewing. But then, lightning strikes and hits someone square in the noggin because they trade Sampson to the Bucks for some guy, AKA C Rashard Griffith, who doesn't even play here!! He's still in Italy (Kinder Bologna). But then, they pick up Mario Kasun (#41) from LAC so I guess its ok in some weird way. They pick up 2 centers, 1 PF. Maybe they do know what they're doing. B Utah- DAMN I HATE THE JAZZ!!!!! Just wanted to let you know that. Pick up SF/PF Ryan Humphrey, PF Jamal Sampson, but do go on and trade both of them for C Curtis Borchardt. Bye bye Ostertag. B+ Toronto- Pick Kareem Rush, and I thought it was good. But then, trade him and Tracy Murray to LA for SF Chris Jeffries (#27), and Lindsey Hunter. Good, but Hunters no Rush. B- Portland- Another shocker, Woods dropping this far down and Portland snatching him up before LA got to him. Pick up C Jason Jennings and SF Federico Kammerichs for positions as benchwarmer and towel boy. Good grab on Woods though, even if he won't fit in with geezers who won't let him play. Maybe they'll trade him later on. Hopefully.....I feel bad for the kid. B- Detroit- Pick up Tayshaun Prince, keep him. Good deal. Surprised he fell this low. A Minnesota - Still feeling the Joe Smith sting. NJ - Get PF/C Nenad Krstic from Yugoslavia and SG Tamar Slay. Kristic won't be comin here for a few years so I don't see the point of that pick because unless they slept through the playoffs, they need someone NOW. Slay though is a decent backup SG for Kittles. B+ Denver- Get Frank Williams and Vincent Yarborough but trade Williams, McDyess to NY for PF Maybyner "Nene" Hilario (#7) Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson. Good trade, pick up some veterans, pick up a monster. Still need to address the SG position. B San Antonio- Pick PG/SF John Salmons, PF Luis Scola (Argentina), and SF Randy Holcolmb. Proceed to trade Salmons, Holcomb, and Mark Bryant to Philly for Speedy Claxton. Eh....it's ok I guess. Backup for Steve Smith. I was looking for some help in the paint for Timmy D. B- LA-Pick up Chris Jeffries and manage to screw everyone over by pulling a great trade by moving Jeffries and Hunter to Toronto for Tracy Murray and Kareem Rush. They got a great replacment/backup for Fisher and an alright backup SF for Fox. A- Sacramento-Pick up Dan Dickau and PF/C Corsley Edwards. Trade Dickau to the Hawks for a future first round pick. I'm not that surprised, they don't really need help at any position right now. Do add another power man in Corsley Edwards so thats a plus. A ---------------------------- Now here's my surprise moments fo the night: 1. Denver selects Nickoloz Tshvisfsiitsdsdfasfjkasfsd;fsjf;fafiiiii. I thought they wanted Butler? 2. Cleveland selects Dajuan Wagner. WOAH WHAT THE?!?!? I thought they were wanting Wilcox?!?? Definate sign to me that Dre Miller is packing his bags. 3. NY picks Nene Hilario. Another surprise because Butler and Wilcox still haven't been taken. Felt sad for Nene as NY fans booed him and started chants against him. 4. LAC pick Ely with pick 12. I was like what? Are they starting a PF factory? What's going on? I'm still anticipating a trade on that one. 5. Indiana picks Fredrick Jones. Probably my biggest shock of the night. I was at my friends house and he's a Indiana fan and he was pissed. He wanted Kareem Rush and I thought Rush as a lock for Indiana. Definately somewhere at the top 10 of my all-time shocks. 6. Washington selects Juan Dixon with pick 17. Again a mad shock. I thought that Dixon wasn't supposed to go til the second round?? I was also dissapointed that the Rox or the Bulls didn't get to pick him up. One of my friends that was at the house was a mad Dixon fan and he kept saying Dixon every pick, and I was like no way, he's going in the second round. Definate surprise. 7. Someone want to tell me who that guy is that NJ drafted???????????? Krstic??!?!??!? 8 Another one of my surprises was definately the Woods fiasco. I wanted Houston to pick him up but there must be some flaw in that man for him to drop that far down after everyone was talkin about him being the next T-Mac and LA talking about working hard to get him. Dayum. 9Rush, Prince, Williams, and Dickau also surprised me by falling low. 10Lastly, I expected Boozer to go higher, too bad.
Courtney Alexander is an overrated headcase who could become the second coming of J.R. Rider. He is a veritable ballhog who can provide nothing more than instant offense; he won't pass out of double-teams, shoots too much and isn't a great ballhandler. Like Rider, he provides no leadership and overall plays better off the bench. Cleaves has awful shooting mechanics and does not compare to Dixon.
Because the trade was worked out in advance, LA had their choice of having Toronto draft Woods or Rush. I think Woods was a smokescreen.
Denver did great. To get Nene (one of the top 4 pure talents in the draft) and Camby for McDyess was great. McDyess game is nothing at all like Duncan (who relies on touch, smarts, fundamentals, and size). McDyess's game is built on freakish athleticism, once this goes he will be nothing special--and he is or will be 28 this year and coming off a major injury. He looked extraordinarily ordinary when I saw him in the late season. Best case scenario is the Knicks get a guy close to as good as he was for 5-6 years, worst case scenario is they get a very overpayed, slightly above average, PF for 3-4 years. A saving part to me is the Knicks got F Williams cheap--he may be their PG for a decade or more. Knicks went for mediocrity, Denver is going for a complete makover--I like what Denver did much better. IMO, Phx paniced when both Nene and Wilcox we gone, Clips paniced when their trade fell through and Wagner was gone, Miami ends up smelling like a rose by pure luck. Both Phx and Clips could have got their desired big men plus more by trading their fall in the lap Butler pick for a couple of slots later. All Pnx would have had to done is open the bidding to Wash (#11) and Mia (#10) or LAC (#12) and could have had Stoudemire at 10-12 plus a future #1. Stoudemire was the right choice for Phx given what was left (Nene was their guy)--it is just they could have had him plus more trading down with Butler and Jeffries on the board and the team behind them needed SFs. Sterling is an idiot for not taking that Baron Davis trade. The Clips will have the worst backcourt in the league--outdoing the Grizzilies and Spurs. That is, of course, unless Brand or Wilcox can play the point Dixon is nothing like Cleaves. A better Eddie House maybe. Jones has great college player pro bench warmer all over him. With Rush, Welsh and Woods on the board, very strange pick (could say the same for Dixon too, but at least he wasn't a 14 pick).
Alexander has done nothing yet to warrant any comparion to JR Rider. He works very hard on his game, and I've never heard anything about him missing practice. That comparison is very misguided. The only reason he didn't show more last year was because Jordan severely stunted his development. He might have a small attitude problem, but its nothing more than just about any other NBA player...Steve Francis comes to mind. If you think Dixon is going to be a better <b>NBA player</b> than Alexander, you must be a Maryland fan. Courtney is going to thrive in New Orleans. Cleaves was also a true point guard, not a shooting guard being forced to play point guard. I was not comparing their games. A lot of people used the fact that Cleaves was a winner in college and has a lot of heart as a reason for selecting him in the draft. People are using the same reasoning for selecting Dixon, and it just doesn't work that way in the NBA.
I think the Rockets and Knicks were the biggest winners in this draft. I can't understand why people are criticizing Layden for this move. Stuck with Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston over the long haul, the Knicks couldn't wait for some raw lottery pick to develop. They trade the oft-injured Camby for a legit inside presence in McDyess who instantly becomes the best big man in the Eastern Conference. It's embarassing, but McDyess-Sprewell is the best 1-2 punch in the East and it transforms a Knicks team that was headed nowhere into a legit Finals contender.
I think the New York - Denver trade was a win-win situation. For New York, already having Spree and Houston and their other vets, they can compete with a reload. McDyess is that reload. Relying on their draft pick was essentially mean an overhaul, which they weren't in a position to do. But I think the trade was great for Denver. They come out of the draft with Tsika and Hilario, two very raw, young international players. They will suck next year. They might even end up with the worst record in the league. They'll have a pretty decent chance at winning the 2003 lottery and taking LaBron James. Then, Tsika, Hilario and James can all improve together. That would be a great core to a team. McDyess was going to leave. They needed to be compensated, one. Two, they needed to start all over and rebuild the team. This is how to do it.
As long as he's OK after the kidney surgery, he better start packing for the Big City. The Knicks would have picked Wilcox if the trade wasn't already sealed. At that point, I knew Dice was a Knickerbocker. "Knicks went for mediocrity" Dice-Spree-Houston is mediocrity? Remember, this team played 1/4 of the year without Camby. As long as Dice is his regular self before the knee injury he is representing the Knicks at all-star weekend.
New York - why did they do that deal? Because they had to, at least from Scott Layden's perspective. They traded one injured big man for another when they swapped Camby and McDyess. Camby was their only legit center and though he had a propensity for injuries, McDyess wasn't exactly himself last year, either. He begrudingly accepted to go to New York - he doesn't really want to be there, but it's an improvement over Denver. His agent said as much. Then they deal away Mark Jackson and Nene Hilario for the 25th pick in the draft, Frank Williams. Williams could've used Jackson to guide him into being a good point guard...instead, the Knicks now have to succeed with a rookie point guard in the starting 5 and the same lack of frontcourt depth as they had before! Not going to happen. Hilario is going to be a good player...too bad for the Knicks it'll be in Denver. It's another of those NY deals made out of necessity that will come back to haunt them in the future, even if they cleared a little cap room. Denver made out very, very well in this deal - both in terms of talent and team chemistry.
1. McDyess has had one injury his whole career. Camby has had a MYRIAD of injuries. Another hole in everyone's arguments. 2. How would they have Frank Williams if they did not deal Mark Jackson, Marcus Camby, and Chris Wilcox (I don't say Nene Hilario, Wilcox would have been picked if the trade wasn't happening)? 3. Every draft has busts. Who is to say Hilario will or will not be one? 4. McDyess has to pass a physical, so if there is anything wrong with him, the trade will not go through. So its OK, I'd rather make exciting playoff runs then wait for Nene to develop--I think NY fans are 50/50 on this one, while Cablevision is 100 to null.
If he doesn't get injured, then I guess New York came out all right.......... I figured they would have tried to trade Spree since he has most value.....maybe they will in the upcoming months?
McDyess' injury was also one he did not recover fully from last year and a major one in the grand scheme of things - he may never fully recover. Camby is injury-prone, but it doesn't mean McDyess is going to be the all-star PF he once was again. Another oversight in your argument. That's an oversight on my part. In any case, Williams could stand to learn from an established point guard or else he's going to be a bust - due to his nature as a SG in college and the New York spotlight. The Knicks needed a point guard, and they still need one. He's certainly got a lot more left in his tank than McDyess and has the potential to be even better than Antonio in a few seasons. If the Knicks were smart, they'd build for the future instead of trying to win now. Two years down the road, we'll be back in this same situation all over again. Grant Hill passed a physical before coming to Orlando. Other players have passed physicals after getting injured, only to get reinjured again in their new town. McDyess, I imagine, will be no different. I'm not saying he'll get injured again, but the propensity is there, just like with Camby. What exciting playoff runs? New York is not significantly improved and one injury away from being worse than last season. Gone is a veteran at the point. Still remaining is the logjam of lesser talents at the same position. Gone is the team's only true center. In is another PF and even less depth. The Knicks dealt away a chance at improving the depth of their squad. At best, they scratch the playoffs...hardly an exciting playoff run. Down the road, they could've had a lot more than that. That's why it's a bad deal.
Who is the Knicks center? Undersized Kurt Thomas? Travis Knight. The Knicks have a truly flawed roster, based on the terrible contracts they gave out. McDyess, Spree, Houston makes them good...probably good enough to wallow in mediocrity for awhile. Dallas' pick was interesting...some rumors had him going first round. But then again-he apparently is a shooter that plays 0 defense. I guess he'll fit right in with the Mavs. I think Milwaukee did OK-got a lot of size. Haislip, Gadzuric, Sampson. They really lacked athletic big men, and did well for what they had. Cat-I thought the Sixers move wasn't bad. Salmons is an excellent fit for them, as a point forward who can play very good defense, a perfect complementary part of Iverson.
NYKRule...the reason this trade seems so bad is b/c everyone knew NY was desparate for a big deal, ANY deal. I heard rumors they were interested in Vin Baker as well. VIN FREAKIN' BAKER...they might as well call us about MoT or Cato if all they want is underachieving, overpaid tall people. Looking only at the talent involved, I personally think the deal works for both, but given the knicks history of terrible moves, it's not unreasonable to assume the Knicks' management has made another short-sighted trade: 1) Trading for Larry Johnson's ridiculous contract 2) Giving Chris Childs $30 mil (not sure exact amt, but too much) 3) Drafting Weis (the only 15th pick in history worse than Collier) 4) Trading Ewing for Rice, which failed miserably, who in turn became Shandon Anderson. 5) Giving Houston $100 mil. 'Nuff said I'm sure I've left out a few more, but I'm not a Knicks fan. While I give them credit for getting Sprewell, and now for getting McDyess, those and a few smaller good moves don't come close to compensating for the mess that team has become again. Tell me again why no one has faith in any move the Knicks make?
did you see Mark Cuban's video snippet on SC today? He said the exact same thing, humorously yelling at Grunwald for helping the Lakers!
