My complaint is not with the kid but with Phil Jackson. He constantly contradicts himself, and it's not just KOL that are scratching their heads about what is he doing, SAS, Melo, Begley are all examples of the WTF crowd.
I'm hoping Zingis makes us eat our words about not being ready for 3-5 years but even Dirk took a season to become a starter and finishing with a crap record like this year does us no good because we don't have a first rounder next year. I'm not sure you want to force feed him either but maybe trial by fire is the best way to bring him along. Just prep him as well as you can, bring in a big man coach, get him a personal trainer, dietitian whatever the Knicks need to do to give him a head start for next season. There is a positive about Zingis, I don't question his desire and work ethic.
I get what you're saying, but we are bad next year with Mudiay, Winslow, WCS, or Kaminsky also, because best case scenario is we get a guy like Monroe (who is not a good fit at all with Melo) in free agency. The prior front office killed us with that Bargnani for a 1st round pick trade. I do believe it is fully PJ's plan to get us back into the 1st round next year for what it's worth. He managed to get us a 2nd top 20 pick this year, which I'm guessing most people would have thought was unlikely given our assets.
As far as Melo and Stephen A. Smith, the fact that they are upset actually makes me more convinced that we did the right thing. I respect their opinions about how to build a basketball team exactly zero.
It's funny, I'm listening to NBA Today right now on satellite radio and one of the co-hosts is killing Philly for taking Okafor instead of Porzingis. In fact, Okafor going to Philly seems to be getting trashed today by national media more than our pick of Porzingis. If you forget who Okafor is, the idea of taking a college center who doesn't play defense and is actually only 6'9" without shoes seems way more suspect than rolling the dice on a legit 7-footer with a perimeter game and the ability to defend the pick and roll. CBSSports gave our pick of Porzingis an A and the Okafor pick an A-. Wojnarowski loved our pick and said multiple elite GMs with whom he spoke loved the pick too.
Not saying I wouldn't have wanted Okafor, just saying it's all a matter of perspective right now.