goldenchild,
First of all, cut that Chris Paul crap. There's no way they can get him. They have no expiring contracts, no valuable trade assets, no developing young players, nothing except 3-year deals for old washed-up veterans. The Clippers would have to be retarded to consider trading with NY, not to mention that there's no reason for CP3 to leave since he's already in a big market with some real emerging stars.
Second of all, "solid" means average. Felton is not average. He is slightly below average. Serviceable, yes, but nothing more than that. You are allowing your judgment to be clouded based on Felton's shooting numbers with Denver. Things like 3-point percentage are fluky that's why you have to look at a larger sample size than a short period of games. Put Felton in an iso-heavy offense, and...
But what isn't fluky is the fact that Jeremy Lin is a much better scorer and can finish much better at the basket than Felton can, and he is a much better isolation player than Felton is.
The Knicks during that run were not a team on the rise. They looked like one, but at best they were a 5 seed. We're looking at Felton with rose-tinted glasses but he was playing with Amar'e and had a full training camp to work with Amar'e and that inflates any PG's stats when you got Amar'e running the pick and roll. Felton's defense certainly wasn't key to the Knicks winning during the first half of 2010-2011 - it was Amar'e playing ridiculously well and Gallinari's ability to draw fouls that led us to win those games. I shudder at the thought of Felton in a half-court offense.
Jeremy Lin, on the other hand, couldn't get the P&R chemistry down because of the shortened season and got his assists simply by virtue of being able to find open shooters when he needed to. Consider the fact that Jeremy Lin basically is the only reason Steve Novak has a contract.
While you do have a point when you say that the Bobcats' struggles against the Magic were a team issue cause, well, they were the Bobcats, that's not really what I need to focus on. I couldn't care less if they got swept, the Magic were beast that year. I know it's a small sample size, but Nelson shot the 3-ball as if there was nobody guarding him that entire series. And you're underestimating the Bobcats in that scenario too - they had some good defensive players such as Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, and yes, Tyson Chandler, although he didn't really play much.
The point is, Raymond Felton is not all he's cracked up to be. This is not about how Lin is better, or so on. I think Knicks management is expecting Felton to be an adequate answer at PG, and, considering how important PG play is to this team since we have a bunch of ballhogs at the other positions, I'm just not sold on Felton's prior successes over a short period of time in a radically different coaching scheme.
With regards to his physical fitness, he always comes into camp a bit overweight and loses the weight by the end of camp. Doesn't really scream "competitor hungry to win and prove himself." Lin, on the other hand, no matter what happens off the court, will NEVER be questioned for his dedication to winning. Jeremy Lin would never show up to camp out of shape. Raymond Felton, on the other hand, I have serious questions about.