In wake of the Knicks trade talks with Toronto coming to a halt, I strongly believe the Knicks need to get back to operating totally in house. What I mean is keep the pipeline to Europe, D-league and summer league open and fix our situation internally. Signing guys like Earl Baron, Bill Walker and Shawne Willians. The Jeremy Lin signing. The Copeland and Prigioni signing. Even guys like James White. We need to keep finding these guys and keep our team alive and relevant. No team is going to save us the way Minnesota did the Celtics with the Garnett trade. No team is going to trade us Pau Gasol for our scraps the way Memphis did the Lakers. We need to take control of our own situation. The only way to do it is to do what we have been silently doing the past couple of years and throughout knicks history. Sift through the dirt to find Diamonds in the rough.
That 94 Knicks team was built behind players that literally were bagging groceries before they became Knicks. That famous story was told by John Starks. He went on to become the city's beloved son and all he needed was a chance. Anthony Mason played all over the world and could be seen every summer hanging out at West 4th. He was just a regular young basketball player, rough and skilled looking for his break. My point is this is not something new to this franchise. Back then teams didn't give up draft picks and the future just to get marginal talent. They didn't beg teams to help them. They didn't forfeit years to get under the salary cap and beg stars to save them. Why are the knicks so soft? Management is to blame, but all they have to do is take a breath and trust the basketball minds they have out there scouting talent.
What is the knicks biggest need right now? The knicks had their diamond in the rough in their hands and his name was Bobby Brown. Somebody called him in to workout with the Knicks THREE TIMES!!! Instead another birdy put it into someone's head to wait on Beno Urich to decide if he would come to the Knicks for a paycut. Anybody could see that Felton and Beno were basically the same player. Neither can defend and both had talent comparable to most back ups in the nba. The knicks needed an explosive point guard with the ability to get to the rim and score. They needed one that could stick that open 3 pointer. Bobby Brown was that dude. For several years he's been eating up nba talent during the summer. Just last summer he teamed up with Kevin Durant in the famous Drew League scoring almost point for point with his teammate. Bobby Brown is a California legend and he is better than a lot of guys in the Nba at his position. Another guy we had that actually played for us in pre season was Ike Diogu. Once he got started he was rather dominant inside. He got all the boards in his area and he got deep in the post anytime he wanted. If these guys were so good how come no other team is interested? Same could be said for Starks and Mason before the knicks gave them a shot. It's not like the knicks picked up better players instead. We signed Chris Smith and Cole Alrich who both played terribly in pre season. At the present moment, Bobby and Ike are playing overseas when they both would be starting for us right now with injuries to Kmart and Felton/Prigioni.
Jeremy Tyler by the way is still in the D-league balling out of his mind. He's coming off two games where he had a combined rebounding total of over 30. He's scoring the ball well too. Toure Murry actually made the big team only to be buried on the bench. You can't tell me this kid is not destroying Felton, Prigioni and Beno in practice. Yet through our struggles we call up Chris Smith from the dleague. Lord, please help the Knicks! If you believe in the basketball gods then you know they have been trying their best to smite all our bad eggs and provide us with diamonds but we just won't acknowledge them.
I'm just a fed up fan right now. I hear my fellow fans talking about Rondo and LeBron still. It's like our fanbase has been castrated. The tired line being used if a trade rumor doesn't include a star, "the knicks still not going to win nothing if they get that guy". People forget lateral moves like Bill Cartwright for Charles Oakley and then Oakey for Camby years later can change the course of your destiny. Remember Larry Johnson for Anthony Mason? That 4 point play doesn't happen if they didn't give Anthony Mason a shot way back when. Wake up Knick fans and find your balls. Don't hand them over to this current group of.... sigh....I bid you farewell, because as you all know, when you start getting angry, it can get ugly really fast.
Go Knicks
Isn't Jimmie Dolan still the owner? If so, what are the odds that the Knicks can tell a diamond from a lump of coal?
ReplyDeletegreat read and so, so true. the management of this team has be horrid. We need a scaling down of the decision makers regarding the functioning of this team, and get a solid basketball mind at the helm of the decision making. But most of all get Dolan the hell out of the way!
ReplyDeleteyou are accurate in your assessment of Murry. He should be getting more playing time.Unfortunately "Mr. I got to figure it out" doesn't trust rookies except draft picks he's forced to feature. The question with woody is not if he is going to be let go but when. His coaching has been weighted and found deficient (ex. poor substitution patterns, time outs, player partiality (ex.JR SMITH) ,too many iso plays, failure to insist on ball movement.
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