AMEN! This is exactly why I felt letting JR walk was the obvious move. More so when Tim Hardaway Jr fell in our laps. I understood the notion that we had little recourse to obtain the talent of JR with our cap situation, and I will even admit that Woody seemed to have maximized the Smith effect last year, at least to the point where bringing him back was persuasive. But, to me, his attitude and off-court antics coupled with his playoff performance would've been the deciding factor for me.
Knicks were in a groove, about to sweep BOS... then JR throws that elbow... After that, he went on a cold streak (much like the playoffs the year before). Based on 2 post seasons in NY... to me, it wasn't worth bringing him back to flop again next June.
Throw in the surgery, the fact he wanted his brother, and we have a mess: And now we have one of the worst shooters in the NBA, throw the first 12 games... And every minute he gets... only stunts the development of Shump or Smith.
Re-signing JR means we'll going to give up on Iman. It was obvious the moment we selected Hardaway that we couldn't move forward with both JR and Shump. We opted to put our eggs in JR's basket.
And, like you said, it's been 9 years and Melo-JR have zero chemistry.
The shot JR took with under a minute to play vs INDY... 4th quarter and we had lead... 20 seconds left on shot clock... and he chucks a 3 from the corner... Just shows you he is a lost cause. Woody is going to get himself fired believing he can turn JR into a basketball player. It'll never happen.