look at the roster and sitiuation pre-isiah.... he walked into a giant mess
the 02 roster is d-scusting!!!!
they guy has been doing a great job drafting... and i kinda belive he really really cares, which is good. cause layden didnt give a shit
The 02 team won 37 games though. Isiah's guys only managed 33. (Yes, injuries are apart of sports, but I also believe like you IF we were healthy we would of won a game or two in the playoffs)
He did an okay job drafting. Frye and Nate weren't my favorite picks. Jarett Jack is superior to Nate on terms of playing basketball. Granger, Green and Bynum all stand superiorly talent wise, potential wise and production wise when comparing them to Frye. Imagine Granger or Green at the 3? We wouldn't even be talking about Rashard Lewis, and we would have a better trading piece in those guys rather than Channing Frye. I like the Lee, Balkman(a little too high, but I see potential in him) and Collins pick.
Layden wasn't good. You can compare anyone to Layden to make them look good. Isiah isn't an aware GM. Isiah cares more about PR than anything else. Isiah keeps everything positive so Dolan won't look bad.
Isiah terrible with the free agency. He's just giving away money like it has no value.
2 years $8 mil to Vin Baker
5 years $30 mil to Jerome
5 years $30 mil to Jeffries
It just confuses me we spend that much money on subpar bench players. Jefferies is a good defender, and a balanced player with some flaws, but he's not worth that much money. He's a role PLAYER.
I can't believe we didn't sign Ariza to the MLE, he's doing big things now in Orlando. Instead we sign a career 16 minute per game 30 year old fouling machine to a 5 year deal. Its decisions like that confuses me on what direction we're heading with Isiah. Obviously NO where.
When I look into more and more, I just think Isiah became GM of the Knicks to improve other franchises.
With Chicago, he took their garbage in Crawford and Curry. Sign and trades, he traded away expiring contracts, multiple first round players. Sure, we understand Tyrus Thomas isn't 1/5th the talent Curry is, but we gave Chicago the opportunity to improve as a team and sign key free agents such as Ben Wallace. We took their problems and added more bad contracts to our roster. Now Chicago benefits by having a roster to compete now and in the future, with alot of young prospects, future all stars and flexibility in the cap.
Phoneix? Oh man, Isiah should be credited the MVP award, TWICE. If it wasn't for Thomas, there would be no Nash/D'Antoni. No two peat MVP awards for Steve Nash. You wouldn't see the Suns in the WCF every year. Instead you would see Marbury and Penny burying that franchise with young talents such as Johnson, Barbosa, Amare, Marion not benefiting from the D'Antoni system.
But no, Isiah had to trade every expiring contract he had and 3 draft picks for two of the worst contracts in the NBA, Marbury and Penny's contract. This open everything up for Phoneix. They get enough cap space to sign their franchise player in Steve Nash, and a key role player in Q-Rich. So we took two players who were on the decline with very little value cause of their contract? They get paid to play like all stars, when they produce below the all star level. Phoneix became an elite NBA team after the season they dumped Marbury. Isiah sure does love giving sucess to other franchises and setting the Knicks 5 years back with each move he makes.
Orlando? Well, we did them the biggest favor. We took Francis off their hands, we took another bad contract, and another player with little trade value who's on the decline. Steve Francis isn't the Franchise anymore, he's not all star, but yet Isiah has accepted to pay him like one. We gave Orlando a steal in Ariza. Now Ariza is excelling in Orlando, he's been the best foward in Orlando, out playing Hill, Turk, Battie and Darko. A big young suprise for Orlando. Also because of the Francis trade, Arroyo has gotten minutes and helped Orlando's 2nd unit. Now Orlando has a bench with chemistry, and they are a playoff team now.
Even with drafting, he obviously spots talent easily, he has one of the best eyes for talent in the NBA with his history in Toronto drafting Camby, T-Mac, Stoudamire. But as GM of the Knicks, the only great picks he's made were Lee and Ariza. now Ariza is gone. Robinson was drafted over Jarrett Jack. Fyre was drafted over Bynum. Sean May looks superior to Fyre in every possible way. Granger was one of the best wing players to be drafted in 05', we let him go also. I understand not everyone can't have the PERFECT draft, but nothing never goes our side where it benefits us the most. We drafted a 2nd round pick Balkman over a pass first PG in Marcus Williams, hell even Rudy Fernandez who's been great for Portland, and other talents in the draft such as Rajon Rondo. I love Balkman too, he's my top 3 favorite Knick, but we need a PG of the future, Williams, Rando, and Fernandez would of fit that role perfectly, especially since they are pass first PG's. Why can't we ever get the best our of the situation we're in? WE NEED NEW MANAGEMENT.
I was also displeased with Isiah's deal with the coaches. Brown was totally unprossesional with his job in New York. He did an awful job connecting with the players, and was very stubborn. I can't believe Isiah invited Brown to town anyway. We obviously lacked defensively players. If you looked at the roster we had, anyone with common sense could of seen Brown and that roster would never see eye to eye. From Chaney to Lenny to Herb to Brown to now Isiah...
how can we ever build chemsitry when we had 5 different coaches in the last 3 years? Plus you add that with all the trades Isiah make up, its very confusing trying to find out Isiah's logic and his plan. Now with all those shake ups, all we have is a 33 win team in a weak conference?
Isiah has no plan. He has no concept of what kind of team he wants to build or how to put the pieces together. Knicks were at a situation before Isiah came as GM with no hope of winning. He greatly worsened the Knicks salary cap. He tries to rebuild the team, after he REALIZES the team is bad.
A GM who just drafted the same players as Isiah and did none of his trades would be 2 years FURTHER ahead in bringing the Knicks back to RESPECTABILITY.
Listen guys, I really understand Isiah can't change past mistakes and stupid trades, but he should be trying to minimize those mistakes by trading them for either shorter contracts or the same length contracts with additional draft picks. Instead he's People complained about Layden's history in New York, but imagine Isiah hasn't made all that trades. If he hadn't done anything, we would alot of cap space this summer, plus all our youth. Hell, we would be in the draft this season and have a shot at Oden. Isiah is the ass of the most people's jokes these days, NYC media, ESPN, the guys on TNT. This results for the lack of respect for the Knicks franchise which I disapprove of.
I'm not even going to blame ALL OF this on Isiah, I realize Isiah isn't the only guy at the front office, I have beef with Cablevision/Dolan.
Isiah has had 3 years to get under the salary cap, he had the CHANCE to get under the cap, but he refused to go that direction, instead he went BACKWARDS. Now it is 2007, and we have a lot of steps to take to get back to our glory days.
“I know what it’s like to have a team here that’s successful and how the city rallies around it,” he said. “So I was very interested. And if they had more cap flexibility, it’d definitely be a place where I would end up. I might have picked the Knicks.” - Koye Bryant
Isiah made some bad trades.
Isiah has made alot of bad trades and signings, not some. Stop sucking him already.