Kevin? or Francisco?

#91
I also believe that Petrie will not enter the regular season without a proven vet for the 2 guard slot. With the commitments from the top four 2's that are now free, the window is almost closed, though, for being able to really upgrade from Mobley with a move. Joe Johnson is about all that's left for us to be able to say we truly upgraded, although several others out there are more than serviceable.

Could it be that Cat stays?

As I recall, Petrie didn't even mention Cat in his post-season state of the team address and future plans, so it appears that he wants fresh blood there.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#92
1kingzfan said:
I also believe that Petrie will not enter the regular season without a proven vet for the 2 guard slot. With the commitments from the top four 2's that are now free, the window is almost closed, though, for being able to really upgrade from Mobley with a move. Joe Johnson is about all that's left for us to be able to say we truly upgraded, although several others out there are more than serviceable.

Could it be that Cat stays?

As I recall, Petrie didn't even mention Cat in his post-season state of the team address and future plans, so it appears that he wants fresh blood there.
Jaric is the only name that really seems likely as a FA.

Thing is, at a certain point, and I've mentioned this before, Geoff SHOULD let some young guys have a crack. I'm obviously not 100% sold on either kid, but they are the only kids we've got. Our period of near-greatness is over. Now we can keep on cycling through middling vets until the remainder of the "core" creaks and groans into retirement, probably keep ourselves in or around the edges of the playoffs, and be not only utterly inconsequential, but vaguely pathetic in the Knicks tradition of patheticness. Basically too chicken**** to ever take the chances you need to to get good again, and so cowering behind mediocrity while trying to convince the ticket holders that the team is more competitive than it is.

If we ever want to get back to the top again, there are really only two realistic routes: 1) the traditional one that has resulted in the core for half of the top teams out there -- sink all the way into the lottery, get a little lucky, and draft well. I'd rather not unless we had to, because you screw up then you're STUCK in the lottery for a long long time; or 2) trade around and try to get a steal from somebody, whether it be a pick or a player. But the only realistic way you are going to get a steal of a player is if he is young and maybe you can catch him developing. Its not likely at all you are going to net a major championship level difference maker in the FA market where you have to bid against teams with much more cap room, and if you're dead set against trading the core, we have precious few attractive trading pieces to dangle to net an established stud player on another team.

So the clearest way back up is to correctly evaluate a young kid or kids with big time potential, and then give him the time to develop. Constantly smothering kids with midlevel vets was ok during the championship runs because literally every game counted, and the margin between winning a title and not can be so small. But really, who the hell cares whether we win 48 next year or 51 next year? I'd rather win 51 of course, and it would be nice to keep the 50 win streak going. But I do NOT want to win 51 if the result of doing so is that we are just about guaranteed of never being able to win MORE than 51 in future years.
 
#93
Bricklayer said:
Having competition for starting spot is generally not a good sign -- it means you don;t have anyone good enough or established enough to just seize the position. Its certainly an indication of how far we have fallen. But if you are going young, its my preferred modus operandi -- I don't trust either kid to necessarily make it as an NBA starter. But now you double them up, and your odds get much better than one or the other will emerge and be somebody. You can't do it in a year when you're trying to win a title, but if that pressure is off, and it most certainly is for us as we're currently constructed, you cna at least take the time to explore and see what you have.


My thing is that if you are already doing that at one position, already letting two late first round picks fight it our for minutes, then you are tacitly admitting that you aren't really serious about a title run this year. Fine -- sometimes you need to take a step back to take two steps forward (althoguh sometimes it just turns out to be a step back). But if you're making that commitment, then now is the time to make it at other positions as well. PF obviously, but maybe even some of those occupied by our putative "core". In 5 years our "core" will be 34, 33, 32 (Brad/Peja/Mike) and pretty much beyond the age where they would have chance to contend. If we are going to add an infusion of youth in an attempt to find a special player to get us back to the top, it has to start NOW if that kid or kids is going to be ready in time to do anything but wheel the "core" into the NBA retirement home.
I have no problem with trading away pieces of our "core" to find peices for the future that may last a little longer. Unless we can hit a home-run at the shooting guard position, I don't see the reason to bring some average veteran SG to take minutes from our developing players. If we aren't expecting to make a title run this year then lets be honest about it and give the young guys a chance. While I'm saying all this I don't know if I believe that its going to happen. Petrie seems to have said that the new "core" of Bibby/Peja/Miller is what we are building around and if thats truly the case we may not have time to wait for the Youngins develop. In that case we may just want to pray for a miracle.