dawhizz

So we have two pretty nice building blocks in Gordon & Deng. What now? Pax
still hasn't added the veteran presence he wants. Crawford has to be on the way
out and Chandler has been shopped as well. I have to believe we will look hard
at trading Crawford and others for a veteran PF. Candidates I see are Antoine
Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Kurt Thomas. Here's what I would try to do:

-Trade G Jamal Crawford (sign & trade), F Eddie Robinson, & F Paul Shirley to
Knicks for F Kurt Thomas & F DerMarr Johnson - Thomas likes Crawford & they
drafted Sweetney to be the PF of the future, so he's expendible.
-Sign G Jon Barry - The kind of player Skiles would love, tough, energetic,
defensive-minded & can hit the open shot.
-Sign F/C Etan Thomas - I've always liked him. Good on the boards.

Roster:
PG: Kirk Hinrich, Janerro Pargo, Chris Duhon (IR)
SG: Ben Gordon, Jon Barry, Ronald Dupree (IR)
SF: Luol Deng, DerMarr Johnson, Linton Johnson (IR)
PF: Kurt Thomas, Tyson Chandler, Jerome Williams
C: Eddy Curry, Antonio Davis, Etan Thomas

That's a pretty deep team, especially at PF/C.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
No one is innocent, but some are more guilty than others.

Greg Flatt
University of Iowa

dawhizz

So we have two pretty nice building blocks in Gordon & Deng. What now? Pax
still hasn't added the veteran presence he wants. Crawford has to be on the way
out and Chandler has been shopped as well. I have to believe we will look hard
at trading Crawford and others for a veteran PF. Candidates I see are Antoine
Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Kurt Thomas. Here's what I would try to do:

-Trade G Jamal Crawford (sign & trade), F Eddie Robinson, & F Paul Shirley to
Knicks for F Kurt Thomas & F DerMarr Johnson - Thomas likes Crawford & they
drafted Sweetney to be the PF of the future, so he's expendible.
-Sign G Jon Barry - The kind of player Skiles would love, tough, energetic,
defensive-minded & can hit the open shot.
-Sign F/C Etan Thomas - I've always liked him. Good on the boards.

Roster:
PG: Kirk Hinrich, Janerro Pargo, Chris Duhon (IR)
SG: Ben Gordon, Jon Barry, Ronald Dupree (IR)
SF: Luol Deng, DerMarr Johnson, Linton Johnson (IR)
PF: Kurt Thomas, Tyson Chandler, Jerome Williams
C: Eddy Curry, Antonio Davis, Etan Thomas

That's a pretty deep team, especially at PF/C.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
No one is innocent, but some are more guilty than others.

Greg Flatt
University of Iowa

x

I don't see us getting a veteran just to say "Hey, that's
a veteran over there." That's what we have Antonio Davis
for!

The above guys aren't really a solution. In fact Antoine
Walker would make the situation a hell of a lot worse.

For Crawford, I want more than Kurt Thomas. Robinson's
Mordor-like presence isn't horrible enough to justify
that.

DerMarr is coming off an injury that scared every other
team away from him from the summer league until the end
of the season. With Chandler's problems, we could have
2/3rds of our frontcourt gone by opening day.


As a third guard, that's interesting.

Hinrich and Gordon can both play the point. I'd prefer
to drop Pargo and keep Duhon on the roster as the 4th
guard (in the scenario that Barry is signed).

Deng is going to have to platoon with someone. His
body strength is weak at this point and by all accounts
he's not ready to take over on a 30 minute/night basis.

Frankly, there's no one on New York's roster that
I'd want. Nor do I think Isiah has a chance in hell
of making the big splash he says he is, with their
cap situation. He has an exemption, that's it. And
with Houston, Marbury, Hardaway and Williams, why
would they want a 5th guard? Williams aside, there's
no way either of the other three will be included
in any deal with us. Houston makes more money than
a Saudi prince, Marbury is their marquee attraction
and Hardaway is a hobbled shadow of himself (at
superstar money).

x

I don't see us getting a veteran just to say "Hey, that's
a veteran over there." That's what we have Antonio Davis
for!

The above guys aren't really a solution. In fact Antoine
Walker would make the situation a hell of a lot worse.

For Crawford, I want more than Kurt Thomas. Robinson's
Mordor-like presence isn't horrible enough to justify
that.

DerMarr is coming off an injury that scared every other
team away from him from the summer league until the end
of the season. With Chandler's problems, we could have
2/3rds of our frontcourt gone by opening day.


As a third guard, that's interesting.

Hinrich and Gordon can both play the point. I'd prefer
to drop Pargo and keep Duhon on the roster as the 4th
guard (in the scenario that Barry is signed).

Deng is going to have to platoon with someone. His
body strength is weak at this point and by all accounts
he's not ready to take over on a 30 minute/night basis.

Frankly, there's no one on New York's roster that
I'd want. Nor do I think Isiah has a chance in hell
of making the big splash he says he is, with their
cap situation. He has an exemption, that's it. And
with Houston, Marbury, Hardaway and Williams, why
would they want a 5th guard? Williams aside, there's
no way either of the other three will be included
in any deal with us. Houston makes more money than
a Saudi prince, Marbury is their marquee attraction
and Hardaway is a hobbled shadow of himself (at
superstar money).