Let's start with the upcoming draft.
You knew when it happened, when we sent Hill & a draft choice to HOU for T-Mac & ridding ourselves of JJ's contract, that it would come back to haunt us. Let's face facts: In our pursuit of Lebron James, in our desperate attempt to shed 1 yr & 4 mil, we're now going to miss out on the chance to draft a real quality prospect. Guys like Austin Rivers, Kendall Marshall, Quincy Miller, Marquis Teague, Fab Melo. At 16, Knicks were sitting pretty in this deep draft class. A player was there to be had, who would've had a Shumpert-like impact. With all the holes in this roster, we're now missing out on a player who would have been part of our future.
Oh freaking well. We have to move on.
The good news is this
IS a deep draft, so we should be able to find somebody in the 2nd round. This should be a player that makes the team, & will probably even be a part of the rotation as depth. I'm thiking the 9th/10th player on the bench.
My ideal choice would be Scott Machado. He led NCAA in assists. Knicks badly need PG play. He's the best 'pass-1st, QB, run-the-offense' PG we can target. The other PGs are just PG/SG combo guys, w/ greater athleticism.
The only issue here is... Well, there's a ton of different directions the Knicks can go in b/c there are plenty of PG options on the market this Summer. My ideal candidate, if I can dream aloud, is Mr. Goran Dragic. But that isn't happening. Some team will pay him more than we can offer. SIGH!
If we re-sign LIN, then we should target a PG in the draft. Bring in a vet, & those will be the 3 PGs. Simple as that. If we decide to sign a bigger name PG available on the market, then perhaps we target size (to replace Jeffries) or shooting (to replace JR SMith &/or Steve Novak). Other PGs we could target: Tyshawn Taylor, J'Covan Brown, Tu Holloway. Perhaps there's a player on the international market who we'll roll the dice on, who possess greater upside... or perhaps we shoot for a combo SG/SF in the 6"6' 200 pound range? Not expecting much from the 48th best player in the draft.
I'm not getting into pipe dreams. Sure, we should shake things up and trade either Stoudemire or Carmelo... but we know that isn't happening. DOLAN will not trade Anthony, & we're not going to get much for STAT, even if we could find a taker. Should we try? SURE. Should we shop? Absolutely. BUt I think Carmelo-Stoudemire is our near-future, like it or not, & I honestly believe it will work AS LONG AS WE FIND A PG.
Our #1 concern this Summer has to be PG. We have a billion dollar front court, but it doesn't work with guards we found at the dollar store.
TARGET #1: Steve Nash. He's made his money. He wants to win. He knows how to work the pick-&-roll with Stoudemire, he can drive & kick out to Carmelo, he can lob alley-oops to TC, & he can drain the 3-pointer. He's the perfect floor general. He'll dominant the ball, he commands enough respect that our Big-3 will differ to him. He's either signing in POR, MIA, DAL, LAK or NY. Let's pray he comes to NY. I believe if we put the full court press he'll come here. He's flirted with us in the past, I think he has an apartment here (or something). AS STAT said last night:
?Everyone knows that Steve loves New York and that New York loves Steve,? Stoudemire told The Daily News. ?I love Steve. It would be great to have him here next year.?
THIS HAS TO HAPPEN. Sign Nash, resign LIN & draft Machada. We have PG covered, for now & the future.
Still... as the Daily News stated:
"Nash, who spends part of his summer in Manhattan, has always been enamored with the idea of playing at Madison Square Garden. However, close friends say that if Nash were to sign for the veteran minimum, he will go only to a contending team, which is why Miami is suddenly emerging as a strong candidate."
This makes it more urgent folks. If Nash goes to MIA... game over anyway, no matter who we get. Kirk Hinrich wont put us over the top.
Getting NASH is a must. We need his floor leadership, we need a PG, signing Nash allows us to still move fwd w/ LINsanity, it prevents MIA from signing him.
Signing NASH is best for Jeremy as well. He can continue to develop, learn from the master himself, improve his dribbling, his left hand, while not putting all our eggs in that basket.
With Carmelo-STAT-Chandler, Knicks are in win-now mode. 3 year window to do something. LIN is a building block. He can help us win now, but we would be foolish to entrust the offense in him entirely.
We sign NASH, resign LIN, draft Machada. We have PG covered! LIN is backup, plays a lot of minutes so we keep nash fresh. Steve makes the offense run, helps Melo-STAT blend together. Smooth.
The Knicks cap situation isn't great. 4.5 dead money b/c Douglas, Balkman, Jordan offer nothing. Our big-3 make about 53 million next year. Yikes. MIA's is way worse tho. They're sitting at 78 million, way over the cap, & there's nothing they can do sans a trade. I'm assuming we get NASH to sign a vet min whatever, sort of like what Shane Battier signed. 3 mil a year for 3 years, or something.
This is another reason why NASH is so important, if the Knicks are to be legit title contenders. We do not have much cap flexibility. So what to do? If we go out & sign Goran Dragic, we wont have much wiggle room to do anything else. I mean, would you prefer Hinrich & J-Craw over Nash? Could we get both to take less money? Who knows.
