Will we go with Jerome Jordan

[Scipio]

Hi folks from sunny olde England.

There is much speculation about wether or not we will attempt to acquire a centre during this off season. I am wondering if we are going to develop Jerome Jordan and try to groom him into being our starting centre?

He has been playing in Europe this year and I have no idea if he has been playing well or not. When the Melo trade went through I seem to remember no D-Toni talking about losing our starting centre then saying that we developed Mozgov so we will have to develop Jordan.

What do you guys think? Will we go for a centre or just develop Jordan. And if anyone has any idea how Jordan has been playing this season then maybe you could let us know.

[finestrg]

No much of a choice...My bet is we're gonna offer a big-time offer sheet to DeAndre Jordan or Marc Gasol, draft the best big we can get our hands on at 17 to play next to Amar'e (Maryland's Jordan Williams or Morehead State's Ken Faried perhaps---to me, if we go this route, the guy would have to be a superior rebounder which both of these guys are), look at a guy like Oakland's Keith Benson with a later pick we acquire somehow or Jerome Jordan's gonna be the guy (J. Jordan will probably be in the mix anyway, even if we did any of the above)..I really wanted Marcus Cousin from the D-League -- to me he was the best C in the DL by far with a good body and very solid all-around skills..Too bad Houston just picked him up on a 3-yr non-guaranteed deal, something we should've done weeks ago..Daryl Morey strikes again!!!

Remember DeAndre Jordan and Marc Gasol were both 2nd round draft picks themselves -- who's to say Jerome Jordan couldn't turn out to be as good as either of these guys (minus DeAndre's crazy athleticism)? He could definitely turn out to be as good as Marc Gasol..Why not? Marc's a good player but nothing to break the bank over imho...Nowhere near as good a player as his brother Pau if you ask me..If all else fails, a Jerome Jordan/Ronny Turiaf combo at C wouldn't be terrible....I like Jerome Jordan, certainly better than Jeffries & Shelden Williams and I think he's a better player than Timmy Mozgov to be honest.

Hard to evaluate his Euro stats this year. Looks like he played sparingly in a couple of different stops but did manage to shoot a high % wherever he was: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

I don't know if it was luck or by design or what, but Donnie deseves credit for keeping Jerome Jordan out of the Melo deal, instead offering up Mozgov...That alone tells me that he's definitely in the mix at C next year.

[Sprewell-Houston]

I'd like Jordan to become our backup center, he's 7'1 and can block shots - that's all we need from the center spot. If he fouls out every night so be it. He'll grab some boards, block shots and intimidate for sure.

Sign DeAndre Jordan as starting center and Jerome Jordan as backup center and rule the paint with the JOrdan connection

[finestrg]

Let me ask you guys this: what if signing DeAndre Jordan away from the Clippers hinders our chances at getting CP3 the following year? Would you still do it?

Then again, maybe signing Jordan helps us in 2012 -- we could turn around and flip him in the deal to get Paul maybe...Not sure how to feel about overspending on a DeAndre Jordan, I really don't..

How would something like this play out in terms of 2012 free agency where we're gonna need to come up with a starting PG? We sign DeAndre Jordan long-term now, the cap room won't be there for Paul..We would then have to look at getting him in a trade only.. That hurts our leverage when it comes time, no?

[AmareForPresident]

Let me ask you guys this: what if signing DeAndre Jordan away from the Clippers hinders our chances at getting CP3 the following year? Would you still do it?

Then again, maybe signing Jordan helps us in 2012 -- we could turn around and flip him in the deal to get Paul maybe...Not sure how to feel about overspending on a DeAndre Jordan, I really don't..

How would something like this play out in terms of 2012 free agency where we're gonna need to come up with a starting PG? We sign DeAndre Jordan long-term now, the cap room won't be there for Paul..We would then have to look at getting him in a trade only.. That hurts our leverage when it comes time, no?

We can trade Billups+Fields+Turiaf+Rautins for CP3 and then we can sign Deandre Jordan. Me personally i think a guy like Nazr Mohammed/Przybilla + Jeffries would be enough if we had CP3.

[Oldtimer]

If we do not buy-out Billups, we will not have cap room next year to sign Deandre Jordan or any other reasonably dominant big. If we keep Billups and his $14.2M salary, it will come off the books when CP3 may become available. But with Melo and Amare' then north of $40M in combined salaries, we are not likely to be able to extend to CP3 anything near a max contract.

I believe that the Knicks must exercise their buy-out option for Billups within 5 days of the end of the season. What they do will reveal something about future plans. I think we should buy him out. I do not trust a new CBA or our ability to sign CP3 when he is a free agent. And Amare's and Melo's combined salaries will keep going up. I believe that in a couple of years the salary combination will be beyond $47M.

[AmareForPresident]

If we do not buy-out Billups, we will not have cap room next year to sign Deandre Jordan or any other reasonably dominant big. If we keep Billups and his $14.2M salary, it will come off the books when CP3 may become available. But with Melo and Amare' then north of $40M in combined salaries, we are not likely to be able to extend to CP3 anything near a max contract.

I believe that the Knicks must exercise their buy-out option for Billups within 5 days of the end of the season. What they do will reveal something about future plans. I think we should buy him out. I do not trust a new CBA or our ability to sign CP3 when he is a free agent. And Amare's and Melo's combined salaries will keep going up. I believe that in a couple of years the salary combination will be beyond $47M.

So there's no way we can sign CP3? Damn i wish we kept Felton, but after watching his performance in game 2 vs OKC i kind of don't....