JR SMITH Officially a KNICK!Balkman cut

nice,great to have official news, now all we need is a healthy BD and Jortz and we will be set,sad to see balkman cut he looks like a great teammate but to bad he sux
 

LeFlume

All Star
No that is a newspaper report. It becomes official first when The Knicks confirm they have signed him. :barf:
 

portega1968

El Cacique
Wait, what? Why Walker? That seems to make a lot less sense than cutting Balkman. If not Balkman, I would have thought that they would cut Bibby or possibly even TD.

Walker totally makes sense because Balkman and TD have deals beyond this season, and Bibby cant be cut until Baron Davis is playing. He wasnt gonna see many minutes once Melo is back. And now I understand why he was starting with Melo out (they were trying to showcase him to see if they can trade him for a pick)
 

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
I'm just going to wait until it's really official, we've got 2 "official" threads already and dude hasn't even signed yet...
 

Sage

Rotation player
Balkman, really? I would have thought they'd cut Walker first.

-EDIT-

No announcement by the Knicks yet that I can see, although I did just tweet JR Smith to say welcome to NY... So it might as well be official. :)
 

Ewing

Benchwarmer
It will be a big mistake if they cut Walker, he's a proven shooter and adds depth to our roster.
It's up to Balkman or Bibby, probably the latter because once Baron or if Baron gets healthy, he'll be useless in my opinion.
 

finestrg

Rotation player
Good move I guess. Smith's attitude may be questionable at times but the man's a terrific talent...I don't think he was brought here to supplant Fields; Fields is playing well and will continue to start --- Smith was brought in to strengthen the bench as an upgrade over Bill Walker. If he comes in with the right attitude he'll play and flourish here off the bench; if he doesn't, Mike won't play him and they'll continue using Walker or maybe even D'Antoni fav Toney Douglas could re-surface at backup 2...Simple as that...That's how I'm looking at this right now...

I don't particulaly care to cut Balkman though. OK, I can understand keeping Bibby around for PG depth (if true, this move says a lot about TD, huh?) -- suppose Lin ever went down God forbid, Davis never makes it back, Shump cramps up again, etc.. but to me, the guy to cut was Walker. I guess they feel that they have enough depth at the 3 to let Balkman go...He was a unique player that I felt brought some things to the table...Played well the few times he was ever called upon and for what it's worth, I think he looked improved somewhat from his first go-around with us...Balk was actually guaranteed $1.675M next year too which further makes it a little bit of a head-scratcher. Now we're $1.675M behind the 8-ball next yr cap-wise...Who knows though, maybe that helps us -- maybe it'll guarantee that we'll be over the cap (even if the cap goes up a tad) and therefore will be able to use the full MLE on a player(s)...Mike was never gonna play Balkman anyway.

-------------------------------------

On a side note --- anyone catch Cedric Maxwell's amusing comment on Lin at the end of Berman's JR Smith article? He's a radio broadcaster for the Boston Celtics. Maxwell: “Now let’s not get crazy, OK,’’ he said on Boston radio. “It’s been [seven] games. That does not make the season. I know that this is a wonderful story ... Call me back in about two months. Because some of the team he’s played against so far have not had dominant point guards."

Yeah, OK moron -- "only" 7 games -- all victories though, right? And to insinuate that none of Lin's performances came against solid PGs....Huh??? WTF, wake up buddy -- Deron Williams, Devin Harris is still a decent player/Earl Watson, John Wall on his home floor, Derek Fisher/Steve Blake/Kobe Bryant (the Lakers probably played him the most physical and yet he responds with his biggest game so far -- on national TV btw), Rubio/Ridnour/Barea on their home floor, Jose Calderon on his home floor, Tyreke Evans/little Isaiah Thomas...Clueless hatin' Boston douche-bag...Have a clue before making an idiotic statement like that, ****ing jerkoff...Yeah, WE WILL get back to you in 2 months when the Knicks leapfrog the Celtics in the standings by then. Asshole..
 

fender0577

Rotation player
It will be a big mistake if they cut Walker, he's a proven shooter and adds depth to our roster.
It's up to Balkman or Bibby, probably the latter because once Baron or if Baron gets healthy, he'll be useless in my opinion.
I have to respectfully disagree, walker is a very streaky shooter(mostly cold streak)and can't guard anyone, if he's not pulling horrific 3's, in traffic, he's bulldozing to the rim, for offensive charges.Now Bibby, i can agree, he's all the way, washed up.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Balkman contract ends after the 2012-13 season....
plus Balkman & Jefferies are great team-defensive SF
Shump & Fields are doing a great winning job at the SG spot on offense/defense

Is No-Defense SG-J.R. Smith a need on the Knicks roster???
 

fender0577

Rotation player
Balkman contract ends after the 2012-13 season....
plus Balkman & Jefferies are great team-defensive SF
Shump & Fields are doing a great winning job at the SG spot on offense/defense

Is No-Defense SG-J.R. Smith a need on the Knicks roster???
I don't know about need, but he would add great depth, don't you think.dude can drop 20 in his sleep, as long as we keep him under control, i look at it this way, antoni is the perfect coach for him,antoni "just keep shooting JR",JR"ok coach".Match made in heaven.
 

BachaCho

Benchwarmer
Alright maybe JR changed, him playing in China maybe changed his attitude and shit idk? But Melo changed, he got rid of his corn rows etc and started acting more professional, plus Melo will tell him the deal so I dont think JR will be a nut here
 

portega1968

El Cacique
Is No-Defense SG-J.R. Smith a need on the Knicks roster???

Yes!!!

We are one of the worst 3point shooting teams in the league, and that is essential to our offensive system. He definitely makes us a better team from downtown.

I can imagine our offense with Lin driving around a screen, having Novak and Smith ready to pop in the 3ball, and Tyson and Amare rolling to the hoop... that is just a nightmare to defend for ANY team in this league!!!

You can hate D'Antoni, you may be worried about Smith and his impact on team chemistry (like me)... but you have to be real and accept that this lineup will be thumping the MSG.
 

nyk_nyk

All Star
With the signing of JR for only the mini mid level, this should finally shut people up about the Melo trade. We can now look at it as trading Felton, Gallo, Moz and WC for Melo, TC (by way of Billups), Balkman and JR Smith.

Note: Billups career is probably over and Gallo will be out indefinitely with an injury.

Not such a bad trade now huh?
 

NYCLakerfan

Rotation player
With the signing of JR for only the mini mid level, this should finally shut people up about the Melo trade. We can now look at it as trading Felton, Gallo, Moz and WC for Melo, TC (by way of Billups), Balkman and JR Smith.

Note: Billups career is probably over and Gallo will be out indefinitely with an injury.

Not such a bad trade now huh?

Not to mention Lin wouldn't be on the Knicks without the trade because Felton would have been a competent PG to start the season with.
 
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