NBA Atlantic Division Off-Season Grades

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K

Kiyaman

Legend
NBA Atlantic Division Off-Season Grades

By Andy Roth, Contributing Editor

New York, NY (Sports Network) - The Atlantic Division had only one team finish with a winning record last season (Celtics), and although some members have improved since then, it looks like it will be pretty weak once again. Let's take a look at how each has fared in the attempt to upgrade their rosters.


CELTICS: Boston kept its "Big Four" intact by re-signing free agents Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Celtics did lose a valuable bench player to free agency with Tony Allen signing with the Grizzlies. Another key sub may not return, as the C's await Rasheed Wallace's decision on whether he'll remain retired. Boston signed free agent Jermaine O'Neal to bolster its front line, which will help with Kendrick Perkins being sidelined to at least December as he recovers from major knee surgery. O'Neal is more of an offensive threat than Perkins, but the Celts will miss his physical presence. In the draft, the Boston picked up guard Avery Bradley and power forward Luke Harangody. Even though Harangody was a second round pick, he may be more ready to step in and contribute this season following a very impressive showing in the summer league.
Grade: B

KNICKS: Team president Donnie Walsh stripped his roster down to almost nothing over the last two years to get under the salary cap, in hopes of striking free agent gold this summer. What he ended up with was some nice bronze and two straight horrible seasons. Free agent Amar'e Stoudemire was glad to come to New York for a guaranteed $100 million dollars. The only problem was none of his fellow big-ticket free agents wanted to do the same. Point guard Raymond Felton, also a free agent, did opt to join Stoudemire in the Big Apple, signing a three-year contract. Walsh did manage to get some useful pieces for free agent David Lee, as he sent him to the Warriors in a sign-and-trade for Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, and Ronny Turiaf. The Knicks had two second-round draft picks, and came away with small forward Landry Fields and guard Andy Rautins. Fields showed some promise in the summer league, while Rautins may be even a worse pick than Jordan Hill was last season. The end result for the Knicks was they got rid of eventual All-Star Zach Randolph and sixth-man-of- the-year winner Jamal Crawford for Stoudemire and Felton. Not much of a trade- off for two horrible seasons, if you ask me.
Grade: D

NETS: New Jersey had the third overall pick in the draft and selected power forward Derrick Favors. He has a wealth of potential and tremendous athleticism, but it's unlikely he'll have a big impact in his first season. The Nets selected Damion James with the second of their two first-round picks. James played very well in the summer league and may be more polished at this point than Favors. The Nets also picked up some serviceable pieces in the free agent market, signing point guard Jordan Farmar, small forward Travis Outlaw, and shooting guard Anthony Morrow. Farmar gives the Nets a solid backup for Devin Harris, while Outlaw and Morrow can both fill it up from the outside.
Grade: B


76ERS: The big addition was Evan Turner, the second overall pick in the draft. He struggled in the summer league by his own admission, and you wonder how effective he'll be having to play off the ball in the NBA. The Sixers made one trade of note, sending the highly outsized contract of center Samuel Dalembert to the Kings for center Spencer Hawes and small forward Andres Nocioni. Aside from dumping a bad contract, Philly gets a big man in Hawes that is seven years younger than Dalembert. However, the overall effect of the trade as far as improving the team is likely to be minimal at best.
Grade: C


RAPTORS: Even though Toronto lost its All-Star power forward Chris Bosh to the Heat via free agency, it actually wasn't a disastrous off-season for the Raptors. Toronto got another lefty power forward in the draft's first round, North Carolina's Ed Davis. He's still very raw and will take time to develop, but the Raptors potentially got themselves a good replacement for Bosh with the 13th overall pick. The Raptors made two free agent signings of their own, inking small forward Linas Kleiza to a very reasonable four-year, $18.4 million dollar deal, and a somewhat unreasonable five-year, $34 million dollar contract to power forward Amir Johnson Kleiza played overseas last year, but was very productive previously backing up Carmelo Anthony in Denver. Johnson earned his hefty payday by averaging 6.2 ppg in nearly 18 minutes per game last season for the Raptors. He does do some good work off the boards and provide a shot- blocking presence, but has always had trouble staying on the floor due to foul problems. Toronto also traded the disgruntled and disappointing Hedo Turkoglu to the Suns for Leandro Barbosa. The Raptors had to be thrilled getting a quality player like Barbosa in exchange for a player who didn't want to be there and is four years older. Grade: C+
 
K

Kiyaman

Legend
Im only interested in the Knicks grade.
Alot of us may not agree with Andy Roth grading the Knicks a "D" but Im sure it has alot to do with
how we went about lowering our salary cap to get a free agent, more than the players we received.

I may have been one of the TOP pessimistic "die-hard Knick fans" the past 5 years by consistently
complaining about management/headcoach and rarely of the Knick players.
Mainly b/c all the winning NBA teams (2001) kept upgrading and adding on to their coaching-staff while
we were doing the oposite to our small coaching staff.
 
B

Blumatic

Rotation player
How can he gove the knicks a D. we were suppose to gut our roster years ago. and he compares amare and felton to crawford and zach randoplh. wow.

This is the thing that gets me. do people actually think that we would have won anything with with donnie tweeking the line up. the guys bash our team every year b?c we were perennial losers with the largest payroll, now that we fix that isuues and improved our teams with a much lower payroll we get crap. that is why they are not nba execs.
 
T

tiger0330

Legend
The Knicks will prove him wrong this season, we're a better team than last year but I guess his point is that Zebo/Crawford with David Lee was a pretty good team and maybe we're not much better than the team 2 years ago.

I do agree about Rautins, he'll be a bust but he was a second rounder so I don't see how he compares to Hill.
 
TR1LL10N

TR1LL10N

Hannibal Lecter
Another example of how the media loves to hate the Knicks. I could care less what some d-bag with an opinion thinks.
 
Crazy⑧s

Crazy⑧s

Evacuee
It's ironic that we get a D as our grading, seeing that D is what we've upgraded the most this off-season.

Obviously, Andy Roth is a F.C that takes it in the A
 
DaTPRiNCE

DaTPRiNCE

The Knicks are Back
i seriously lol'd when i saw the "D" as our offseason grade, how does bringing in a superstar give us a D at worst his signing alone should give us a C, am i wrong? not to mention we got PG with tons of potential in Felton, and many "analysts" would agree we needed a PG and we went out and got the best one on the market and one who in this system could push for an all star spot. and we added Randolph ( a potential all-star, and could push for sixth man[ if hes comes off the bench] and most improved player) Azubieke( a good 2 guard who has a wet jumper and plays D and is capable of starting) and Turiaf( energy big man who give us a defensive body down low we havent had in ages) we filled some needs with these guys, not to mention we got them for Lee instead of losing lee for nothing( which could've been a possibility ). Correct me if im mistaken but all these addition and upgrades would result in at least a B but then again i could care less what this bum thinks. cause when Z Bo was on the knicks all they did was point out his flaws and talk about his weaknesses, now all of the sudden he's an amazing allstar( for the record i do think he's a good player ) and Crawford a bonafide chucker is suddenly flawless to the media. that right there shows they hate the Knicks so my answer to them; **** em :cool:
 
K

Kiyaman

Legend
DaTPRiNCE said:
i seriously lol'd when i saw the "D" as our offseason grade, how does bringing in a superstar give us a D at worst his signing alone should give us a C, am i wrong? not to mention we got PG with tons of potential in Felton, and many "analysts" would agree we needed a PG and we went out and got the best one on the market and one who in this system could push for an all star spot. and we added Randolph ( a potential all-star, and could push for sixth man[ if hes comes off the bench] and most improved player) Azubieke( a good 2 guard who has a wet jumper and plays D and is capable of starting) and Turiaf( energy big man who give us a defensive body down low we havent had in ages) we filled some needs with these guys, not to mention we got them for Lee instead of losing lee for nothing( which could've been a possibility ). Correct me if im mistaken but all these addition and upgrades would result in at least a B but then again i could care less what this bum thinks. cause when Z Bo was on the knicks all they did was point out his flaws and talk about his weaknesses, now all of the sudden he's an amazing allstar( for the record i do think he's a good player ) and Crawford a bonafide chucker is suddenly flawless to the media. that right there shows they hate the Knicks so my answer to them; **** em :cool:
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The writer is like alot of Knick & Phoenix fans that feel the $100M for 5 years is way above Amare/Bosh/Boozer/and Lee status.
Feltons $5.5M per is exactly what he is worth, the Bobcats feel that $5M per is way above Felton's pay raise, and they should know having 4 straight losing seasons with Felton running the point.
The writer mention the Knicks top scoring threat Zbo/Crawford only b/c we had David Lee at the time, a player that improved his performance each season, plus Lee agent was only asking for a $10M per extension when we had Zbo/Crawford.
With Isiah Thomas nonsense out of the picture in 2008-9, having 70% of his players contracts ending before the 2010 offseason, left with only 5 of (Isiah) players under contract for the 2010-11 season, and 2 years ....... com'on
 
P

Paul1355

All Star
Kiyaman said:
NBA Atlantic Division Off-Season Grades

By Andy Roth, Contributing Editor

New York, NY (Sports Network) - The Atlantic Division had only one team finish with a winning record last season (Celtics), and although some members have improved since then, it looks like it will be pretty weak once again. Let's take a look at how each has fared in the attempt to upgrade their rosters.


CELTICS: Boston kept its "Big Four" intact by re-signing free agents Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Celtics did lose a valuable bench player to free agency with Tony Allen signing with the Grizzlies. Another key sub may not return, as the C's await Rasheed Wallace's decision on whether he'll remain retired. Boston signed free agent Jermaine O'Neal to bolster its front line, which will help with Kendrick Perkins being sidelined to at least December as he recovers from major knee surgery. O'Neal is more of an offensive threat than Perkins, but the Celts will miss his physical presence. In the draft, the Boston picked up guard Avery Bradley and power forward Luke Harangody. Even though Harangody was a second round pick, he may be more ready to step in and contribute this season following a very impressive showing in the summer league.
Grade: B

KNICKS: Team president Donnie Walsh stripped his roster down to almost nothing over the last two years to get under the salary cap, in hopes of striking free agent gold this summer. What he ended up with was some nice bronze and two straight horrible seasons. Free agent Amar'e Stoudemire was glad to come to New York for a guaranteed $100 million dollars. The only problem was none of his fellow big-ticket free agents wanted to do the same. Point guard Raymond Felton, also a free agent, did opt to join Stoudemire in the Big Apple, signing a three-year contract. Walsh did manage to get some useful pieces for free agent David Lee, as he sent him to the Warriors in a sign-and-trade for Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, and Ronny Turiaf. The Knicks had two second-round draft picks, and came away with small forward Landry Fields and guard Andy Rautins. Fields showed some promise in the summer league, while Rautins may be even a worse pick than Jordan Hill was last season. The end result for the Knicks was they got rid of eventual All-Star Zach Randolph and sixth-man-of- the-year winner Jamal Crawford for Stoudemire and Felton. Not much of a trade- off for two horrible seasons, if you ask me.
Grade: D

NETS: New Jersey had the third overall pick in the draft and selected power forward Derrick Favors. He has a wealth of potential and tremendous athleticism, but it's unlikely he'll have a big impact in his first season. The Nets selected Damion James with the second of their two first-round picks. James played very well in the summer league and may be more polished at this point than Favors. The Nets also picked up some serviceable pieces in the free agent market, signing point guard Jordan Farmar, small forward Travis Outlaw, and shooting guard Anthony Morrow. Farmar gives the Nets a solid backup for Devin Harris, while Outlaw and Morrow can both fill it up from the outside.
Grade: B


76ERS: The big addition was Evan Turner, the second overall pick in the draft. He struggled in the summer league by his own admission, and you wonder how effective he'll be having to play off the ball in the NBA. The Sixers made one trade of note, sending the highly outsized contract of center Samuel Dalembert to the Kings for center Spencer Hawes and small forward Andres Nocioni. Aside from dumping a bad contract, Philly gets a big man in Hawes that is seven years younger than Dalembert. However, the overall effect of the trade as far as improving the team is likely to be minimal at best.
Grade: C


RAPTORS: Even though Toronto lost its All-Star power forward Chris Bosh to the Heat via free agency, it actually wasn't a disastrous off-season for the Raptors. Toronto got another lefty power forward in the draft's first round, North Carolina's Ed Davis. He's still very raw and will take time to develop, but the Raptors potentially got themselves a good replacement for Bosh with the 13th overall pick. The Raptors made two free agent signings of their own, inking small forward Linas Kleiza to a very reasonable four-year, $18.4 million dollar deal, and a somewhat unreasonable five-year, $34 million dollar contract to power forward Amir Johnson Kleiza played overseas last year, but was very productive previously backing up Carmelo Anthony in Denver. Johnson earned his hefty payday by averaging 6.2 ppg in nearly 18 minutes per game last season for the Raptors. He does do some good work off the boards and provide a shot- blocking presence, but has always had trouble staying on the floor due to foul problems. Toronto also traded the disgruntled and disappointing Hedo Turkoglu to the Suns for Leandro Barbosa. The Raptors had to be thrilled getting a quality player like Barbosa in exchange for a player who didn't want to be there and is four years older. Grade: C+
Click to expand...
The David Lee trade was great, Felton can be a very good pickup and even though Amare is over paid, he plays better defense than Lee by far and will score more and can possibly be a go-to player on offense which we haven't had since Houston.

Gallo, Chandler, Randolph...can all possibly break out and have great seasons but that is still wishful thinking.

The two wasted years does bring down our grade, but we have turned into a playoff team and we have more felxibility than any other team next year.

Most fo ou players are on team options and we can afford Melo next year....

We should get a B as a grade.
 
P

Paul1355

All Star
Kiyaman said:
The writer is like alot of Knick & Phoenix fans that feel the $100M for 5 years is way above Amare/Bosh/Boozer/and Lee status.
Feltons $5.5M per is exactly what he is worth, the Bobcats feel that $5M per is way above Felton's pay raise, and they should know having 4 straight losing seasons with Felton running the point.
The writer mention the Knicks top scoring threat Zbo/Crawford only b/c we had David Lee at the time, a player that improved his performance each season, plus Lee agent was only asking for a $10M per extension when we had Zbo/Crawford.
With Isiah Thomas nonsense out of the picture in 2008-9, having 70% of his players contracts ending before the 2010 offseason, left with only 5 of (Isiah) players under contract for the 2010-11 season, and 2 years ....... com'on
Click to expand...
Felton is getting paid over 7 million per year
 
S

stuntmanmike

Benchwarmer
this game isn't played on paper... this bs of what a player is "going" to do is bs. and as to a.s. guess what a.s is coming from a team that had one of the best pg's in the nba and they shot the shit out of the 3. here he is going to get 1) beat up in the east 2) he is going to get double and tripled teamed cause we have no shooters 3) he has a gimp knee. how is he going to carry the knicks? the dick heads running this team are the same dicks heads that have been running this team... they don't know their own ass from a hole in the wall. take that to the bank... cause results talk and bs walks.
 
P

Paul1355

All Star
stuntmanmike said:
this game isn't played on paper... this bs of what a player is "going" to do is bs. and as to a.s. guess what a.s is coming from a team that had one of the best pg's in the nba and they shot the shit out of the 3. here he is going to get 1) beat up in the east 2) he is going to get double and tripled teamed cause we have no shooters 3) he has a gimp knee. how is he going to carry the knicks? the dick heads running this team are the same dicks heads that have been running this team... they don't know their own ass from a hole in the wall. take that to the bank... cause results talk and bs walks.
Click to expand...
double Amare...Gallo, Azabuke, Walker, Felton, Douglas....all can make the open shot and the first three i mentioned can shoot over 40% from three with a guy in their face.

We have shooters at PG,SG, and SF....once teams have to start guarding the three that will leave Amare open down low for easy buckets.

I know you want results before you can say "Randolph is good" or "CHandler will be good" but look at their age...Chandler is 23, Randolph is 21, Gallo is 22...these guys are said by scouts to have huge upside and can bust out anytime averaging big numbers....all it takes is a good PG to feed good passes and some help on defense.

There is the optimistic Knick fan, and the skeptic knicks fan who thinks that we are as bad as last year just because we didnt get LBJ.

At the worst we are an 8th seed team....at best we can get the 5th seed if everyone takes advantage of the fast paced offense.
 
K

KBlack25

Starter
Not making any predictions...but to say a team whose big free agent signings were Travis Outlaw and Jordan Farmar (and the #3 overall pick) get a "B" (NJ), a team whose "big move" was getting rid of their huge free agent acquisition last year AND lost their best player to another team in-conference gets a C+ (The Raps) and a team who gets a top 3 PF, Raymond Felton, Anthony Randolph gets a "D" means that you have serious serious analytical problems.
 
mafra

mafra

Legend
I thought this was supposed to be OFF SEASON grades. Not evaluating the rebuilding philosophy of NBA teams over the last 3 season.

Being that Randolph and Crawford were dealt in 2008, that makes them irrelevant in terms of how NYK improved this off season, no?

I mean, Raptors lose their best player yet still get a higher grade than us, even though we bring in Stoudemire?

Crawford... really? Now we're comparing a 6th man to a starting PG?
Dude was pretty bad in the post season. Missed 10+ shots like 4 times; had a game where he scored 5 points, another he scored 11. Missed 8 shots twice; 9 once.

Randolph.... really? He's better than Stoudemire? The anti-NY bias is so thick, that it outweighs the anti-Randolph banter. Everbody trashes Zach, except here and now?

How about this.... Where would NY be in 2011? After both these players walked?

HEY... BODY... IF WE HELD ON TO CRAWFORD AND RANDOLPH, we wouldn't have Gallo, b/c we wouldn't have been a lottery team in 2008. So why not inlcude him in the scenario with Felton-Stat.

GALLO-FELTON-STAT > CRAWFORD-RANDOLPH
 
S

shaolin

Benchwarmer
mafra said:
I thought this was supposed to be OFF SEASON grades. Not evaluating the rebuilding philosophy of NBA teams over the last 3 season.

Being that Randolph and Crawford were dealt in 2008, that makes them irrelevant in terms of how NYK improved this off season, no?

I mean, Raptors lose their best player yet still get a higher grade than us, even though we bring in Stoudemire?

Crawford... really? Now we're comparing a 6th man to a starting PG?
Dude was pretty bad in the post season. Missed 10+ shots like 4 times; had a game where he scored 5 points, another he scored 11. Missed 8 shots twice; 9 once.

Randolph.... really? He's better than Stoudemire? The anti-NY bias is so thick, that it outweighs the anti-Randolph banter. Everbody trashes Zach, except here and now?

How about this.... Where would NY be in 2011? After both these players walked?

HEY... BODY... IF WE HELD ON TO CRAWFORD AND RANDOLPH, we wouldn't have Gallo, b/c we wouldn't have been a lottery team in 2008. So why not inlcude him in the scenario with Felton-Stat.

GALLO-FELTON-STAT > CRAWFORD-RANDOLPH
Click to expand...

I agree. I am not sure what Crawford and Z. Randolph have to do with this off-season. We might as well compare the 94 Knicks to this Knicks team as a reason to give this team an F grade. It’s a freakin joke. I like to thank this Andy Roth guy for a few chuckles. The funniest part is he never mentioned that Zach never been a member of a winning team and does not entertain the assertions that most “experts” consider him a cancer and a stat-whore. He has been dropping numbers since he entered the league, but he is not considered a valuable player, yet, when we trade him it’s a bad idea?
<O:p</O:p

What about how NYK added depth after the DLee trade? We got a steal! Without that trade, the Knicks would have been marginally better at best, and I would agree with a low grade and I think a D/D+ would be reasonable. But we got 3 solid players, but he brushes it aside as if it wasn’t nothing and puts more emphasis on the Rautins’ pick, as if that has more significance to our success. If anything, whatever Rautins provides is gravy. Then he compares that to a number 8 pick. Rautins was a 2<SUP>nd</SUP> rounder!!! How many 2<SUP>nd</SUP> rounders are ready to be productive, especially during their rookie season. Read what he says about Harangody (see Celtics). I think he is a closet Celtics fan. Freaking Douche! HAHA<O:p</O:p
 
J

jimkcchief88

All Star
Take off the rose-colored glasses guys!!! The writer was spot-on. We missed on Lebron because we had no core and two 30 win seasons to boot. We also gave away 3 all-stars and came away with almost nothing to show for it. We are right back in the same place we were this time last season praying for Melo this time instead of Lebron.

Its helps from to get out of this bizarro world known as KO.COM where Stephon Marbury and Ricky Rubio are commonly regarded as the two best pg's on the planet and get some real perspective on things. I'm as big a KNICKS fan as anyone, but I'm not hanging my hopes on Amare without Nash feeding him and a bunch of Golden State cast-offs to lead us to the playoffs. Its not happening guys. Sorry to burst the collective bubble. Just pray Melo has pity on the KNICKS next summer and doesn't use us to get a better contract somewhere else.
 
K

KBlack25

Starter
jimkcchief88 said:
Take off the rose-colored glasses guys!!! The writer was spot-on. We missed on Lebron because we had no core and two 30 win seasons to boot. We also gave away 3 all-stars and came away with almost nothing to show for it. We are right back in the same place we were this time last season praying for Melo this time instead of Lebron.

Its helps from to get out of this bizarro world known as KO.COM where Stephon Marbury and Ricky Rubio are commonly regarded as the two best pg's on the planet and get some real perspective on things. I'm as big a KNICKS fan as anyone, but I'm not hanging my hopes on Amare without Nash feeding him and a bunch of Golden State cast-offs to lead us to the playoffs. Its not happening guys. Sorry to burst the collective bubble. Just pray Melo has pity on the KNICKS next summer and doesn't use us to get a better contract somewhere else.
Click to expand...

The writer was not spot on b/c the grading made no sense...

As much as you hate STAT and every single move the Knicks have made...how can it possibly be worse than Toronto (losing two of their three best guys) and New Jersey (who got Farmar and Outlaw as their two main pieces...not near the talent of STAT, Randolph)...No less the Nets received a grade TWO letter grades above the Knicks...
 
DieHardPassion

DieHardPassion

Benchwarmer
There's a reason why he refers to himself as Contributing Editor. An analogy for his title would be sanitation engineer to garbage man! This dude is frontin he just another hater! Stop drinking that haterade!
 
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