So what direction are we going in now?

The only thing I understand is that Walsh wants a superstar (Lebron) on this team.

What I do not understand is what pieces does he plan to surround him with.

I mean right now we are lacking a true center, and I am confused how Donnie will find one. Maybe this year or next years draft? Maybe we will do a sign and trade of Lee, Nate, or Chandler for a young talent (Hawes, Biendres) or an all-star vet? Maybe they will force Eddy Curry to eat fish and veges for the rest of his career? Or maybe we will never have that center and keep playing small ball.

If there is this idea that we are going to have Lebron on our team and possibly another all-star/great player that makes our most impressive young core trade bait or we do not re-sign them come contract time. Nate or Duhon will have to go and Chandler or Lee will have to go. I do not think anyone is safe since Donnie is very focused on this plan. So who will still be knicks come 2010?

And where does Gallo fall in? Why draft him? He is a 6th pick, they must have some kind of plan for him.

The answer is the Knicks are heading in the right direction. There are four players on this team that should and most likely will be here in 2010.

Chandler - still under contract
Gallo - Still under contract
Nate - He's played well but won't break the bank money wise and has played himself into a mid level contract for the next few years
Lee- I could see him traded to get rid of Curry but we still have the money to sign him to a average salary.
Jefferies- Unless D'Antoni gets him playing to the point he has value he will be here.

It may very well only be possible to resign Nate or Lee but if they both are willing to take average contracts they can easily be resigned without breaking the bank or hurting our chances at Lebron and company. Also if Walsh and D'Antoni can find a way to trade Curry or Jefferies this year we easily can resign both Lee and Nate. (Both Lee and Nate have been through so many tough years that i think they would resign at a discount at the prospect of being on a successful NY team)

As far as free agency goes i truely believe we will sign Lebron and another big name. Not sure wheather it will be Bosh or Amare but we will land one of them. Lebron will obviously get his max contract but hsi star power, the draw of NY, and the system will help land us a co star for a big contract but not a max deal.

I used to think Nash would be another option in 2010 but with his age and the fact Duhon has become a great facilatator that will only get better as he plays in this sytem longer. I think Duhon would be a cost effective resigning option come 2010

If i had to predict today this would be the 2010 roster

Duhon
Nate
Chandler
Lee
Gallinari
Jefferies
Lebron
Amare/Bosh
2009 First round pick hopefully a big man

Sadly for our sakes the key to the 2010 plan may very well be Eddy Curry and Jared Jefferies. We need both of them to get back playing and playing well enough that we would be able to trade them like we did Z-Bo and Crawford.

Curry obviously ain't good but i think if we got him into shape and playing half decent somebody would take a shot on a 280 lb big man who did average almost 20 ppg one season.

GetRealistic said:

Sadly for our sakes the key to the 2010 plan may very well be Eddy Curry and Jared Jefferies. We need both of them to get back playing and playing well enough that we would be able to trade them like we did Z-Bo and Crawford.

Curry obviously ain't good but i think if we got him into shape and playing half decent somebody would take a shot on a 280 lb big man who did average almost 20 ppg one season.

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I've heard that teams are thinking about taking a chance on him NOW. If we can get him in shape, get him to average maybe 10-13 points and 5-7 rebounds we should have no problem getting rid of him. There are a real shortage of good centers in the league nowadays. :crossfingers:

Teams are dying for centers around the league. That's why you see all these random centers get drafted and don't amount to nothing. It's very very rare to find a strong player at the center position. It's sad because 15 years ago there was Ewing, Robinson, Olajuwon, O'Neal coming up on the scene, Mourning and I'm sure I missed a few others. Now the state of the center position in the NBA is pathetic. If they can get Curry on the floor doing something, some team somewhere will take a chance on him.

KBlack25 said:

Teams are dying for centers around the league. That's why you see all these random centers get drafted and don't amount to nothing. It's very very rare to find a strong player at the center position. It's sad because 15 years ago there was Ewing, Robinson, Olajuwon, O'Neal coming up on the scene, Mourning and I'm sure I missed a few others. Now the state of the center position in the NBA is pathetic. If they can get Curry on the floor doing something, some team somewhere will take a chance on him.

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That's exactly why Thomas signed Jerome James. James had that great series against Phx and thought he could be something. Unfortunately, it was all just a hoax. I agree that it is very hard these days to find a gem at the center position. If Curry comes back and shows that he is still a dominant low post scorer, teams will be calling for him.

I actually wanted the team to bring in patrick ewing as an assistant coach and teach Curry how to play defense and kick his ass when he doesn't.

first of all get the Marbury situation handled

then we bring back Ewing Jr., and re-sign Nate and Lee, both could be brought back since they arent bank breakers, Nate is a mid-level exemption guy (and he earned it), and Lee is a 8 mil a year guy and we could afford to resign them both, only way i dont think Lee doesnt come back is if he gets traded for a equally good or better player refferably a big man, then in the draft we draft a big man, or a game changer (Harden-or-Thabeet)...then when 2010 comes we sign a hign level guy....like Lebron or Bosh.....Duhon has showen so far that he could start(i still wanna see more before i name him starter for our future...)

If we do end up signing Lebron and another star, I think every GM in the league will stop dealing with Walsh =). They will realize it was their fault that they allowed Walsh to get rid of Randolph and Crawford without having to give up a draft pick or young talent.

As for Nate and Lee taking less money, I think Walsh has to convince them that the "plan" will work and it will rebuild the Knicks into a great Dynasty again.

This team is headed in the right direction, and yet they are not doing a good job with it. I say that because we are winning games. We maybe are trying to get the 22+ spot so we have a 2010 pick , and that draft IMO is deeper than this one, but it does not make sense because this team will not get 22+ so we are giving our selves a terrible pick.

I'd love to get a superstar but I don't see it as likely, unless their teams suck. Bosh/Amare seems very likely because they are not in very good situations. But LeBron is in a very good situation right now and I don't see that changing.