It's time to look abroad

Broken record fellas--I know, I know, but like I've been saying for months, there's A TON of solid domestic talent currently playing overseas right now that I think we should be giving SERIOUS consideration to. There's all different types positional talent available but for now, let's just look at PGs and swingmen:

BACKUP PG
Ben Hansbrough
Curtis Jerrells
Curtis Stinson
Matt Janning

BACKUP WING
Ryan Wittman
Jamelle Horne
DeShawn Sims
Joe Alexander
Sylven Landesberg
AD Vassallo

Adding a couple of these guys could go a LONG WAY in shoring up our bench which looks razor thin all of a sudden. Honestly, I like these guys a lot better than any of the guys they're talking about in the papers, now that we lost out on Jamal Crawford, Reggie Williams and Shawne Williams. Very leary of Michael Redd at this point (good if healthy but he never is -- How's the knee? Has he lost a step? Feels like Crawford all over again--doesn't Indy have the cap room to outbid us? They're said to be the frontrunners for his services at the moment) and Mo Evans...And I don't love Bibby at this stage of his career at backup point...We can do better. I know it'll be a little bit of a pain in the ass to target & secure some of these guys currently playing in Europe (reaching out and making contact with the agents, buy-outs may need to be orchestrated, new NBA contracts would then have to be drafted up and signed, the players might have to re-establish work visas, etc..) but I see no reason why they couldn't do it. They just went through it with Jerome Jordan so they're familiar with the process. These guys are so far off everyone's radar there shouldn't be any competition for their services (I don't wanna keep running into the same problem of getting outbid like we just did with Craw and S. Williams)... And I think they're better than anything that's currently available off the scrap heap anyway...Pick any 3 of these guys ---> mine would be Hansbrough, Horne (or Wittman) and Sims. Tell me we wouldn't instantly have a vastly improved bench with those 3..Honestly, I'd take any combination of these guys. Remember, all we're talking about is enhancing the great foundation that's already here...Shoring up holes and weaknesses: reliable 3-pt shooting, SG/SF depth, PG depth...These types of guys are our best option right now in my opinion.

Another interesting read, old boy.

You're definitely atop the game in this regard.

If I may make a suggestion as a reader, you've gotta break it into paragraphs.

Love your posts - very intriguing!

Keep it up, finestrg! What does your name 'finestrg' mean by the way?

:cheers:

Thanks man. I just watch a lot of college ball. Nothing more to it than that. A lot of players that I think are pretty good but don't get drafted, I try to follow their progress a little more closely and root for them to make it eventually.

I just like the idea of taking low risk/high reward fliers on young players. When they work, whatever GM took the chance comes off looking like a genius (like Donnie last year with Shawne Williams). And if it doesn't work out -- the cap space they took up is negligible and you just cut 'em if you have to. Some GMs around the league have executed this plan to perfection -- why can't we?? More than half the time, these types of guys are willing to sign low-money/unguaranteed deals anyway. These type of guys are where it's at in the NBA, esp. once a team lays out its foundation but then finds itself up against the damn salary cap but is still looking for ways of adding solid young talent for cheap money. I prefer this route over adding over-the-hill/scrap heap vet talent any day. To me it's just so much more fun to root for these young guys instead.

Look at Daryl Morey in Houston. Dude knows what he's doing in my opinion. From last year, this guy's paid close attention to these types of players -- last yr, he signed C Marcus Cousin and SF Marqus Blakely to low risk deals (looks like those two may stick btw -- they're at least on their training camp roster for the moment). And just the other day, he signed PF Jeff Adrien to a 2-yr deal after Adrien "terminated" his current deal with Benetton Treviso (Italy). Doesn't sound like there was a buy-out or anything involved. Sounds like Adrien just up and left that Italian team cold and signed with the Rockets, although I don't know the specifics.

http://www.sportando.net/eng/italy/...etton_treviso_and_will_sign_with_rockets.html

See, to me that's a brillant move. This guy was good at U-Conn and I think he's gotten even better since then (he was great in the DL last year and was playing almost 14/9 ball in Italy up until the other day)...These are the type of moves I'm talking about..How long have I been screaming for us to bring Jeff Adrien in here? Well he's gone now -- cross his name off the board..There's a good chance that with this shrewd move for Adrien, Houston just found their replacement for Chuck Hayes for a fraction of what Hayes got from Sacramento (Hayes received a four-year deal from the Kings worth $21.3 million). The only thing Jeff is gonna need is ample PT to prove it. There are dozens of these types of players out there just waiting for a phone call to come back to America (or to get called up from the D-League). I wouldn't doubt that many of them would be willing to leave their current Euro. teams flat in the same fashion that Adrien just left his. We'll have to see what Houston gave Adrien (and what money, if any, he abandoned with his Italian contract) but I'd be willing to bet that he left money on the table. Why can't we go after this type of talent? It's out there, that's for sure. Who exactly is in charge of monitoring and keeping tabs on this pool of talent for the Knicks? That's what I want to know. Gimme the guy's friggin' e-mail. I wanna talk to him!

And sorry about the long-winded passages -- I'll try to consolidate more from now on. finestrg just stands for finest = NYPD cop (retired), rg = my initials, Rich G.

I think Jerrells would be excellent in this system along with Sims

CA7 said:

I think Jerrells would be excellent in this system along with Sims

Click to expand...

Me too man. I remember Jerrells well when he was at Baylor. Saw him on TV quite a few times. In fact, I wanted the Knicks to pick up an extra pick a few years ago and take him in the 2nd round. I thought he would've been a steal there. He really reminds me of Brandon Jennings A LOT. A little Kenny Anderson too..He'd be great for us. I would've went after a guy like this over Mike Bibby every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Hansbrough too. I love that kid. He was AWESOME last year for Notre Dame.

Sims is a good player. Remember him well at Michigan playing next to Manny Harris who I thought was a pretty good 2G and Darius Morris, a decent PG prospect...Sims is a 6'8" 230 3/4 combo forward that can play in the post and also step out and knock down 3s. He can also rebound a little too..Very talented offensive player with a ton of upside imho.. He'd be a good player in this system.