-So Amar’e Stoudemire is a Knick. The James-D’Antoni-Amar’e pick-and-roll would have been perhaps the single most unstoppable offensive set in the history of the NBA. (According to Synergy, LeBron was a more efficient scorer as the pick-and-roll ballhandler than Steve Nash was last year. Consider this, and also think about who James’ roll partners were.)
Too bad for New York, and Amar’e, that they never thought about how a complete team needed to be built around that pick-and-roll. Amar’e hasn’t shown he can play any defense. In 2010, it’s very hard to get by with a flat-out liability at the 4 or the 5. Maybe Amar’e could be convinced to play some defense by the right coach, but it’s not like Amar’e played good defense under D’Antoni in Phoenix. (Although I will say that Phoenix was an underrated defensive team when they had a Marion-Amar’e frontline.)
As for the Knicks, all they can offer LeBron is a good pick-and-roll partner. Danilo Gallinari plays LeBron’s position and can’t take any pressure off of LeBron defensively. The Knicks have nobody who can guard the rim. Toney Douglas is their point guard. They have no draft picks.
Part of me is sad that I’ll never get to see a LeBron-Amar’e pick-and-roll, but alas. Just another example of the human flaws in the foundation of something that could have been beautiful. (My apologies for counting out New York as a legitimate possibility — I know that anything can happen in free agency, and don’t have any access to the inner workings of LeBron’s mind, but New York has seemed like a fringe possibility for some time now.)
Just so we’re everybody clear here, Toney Douglas is 24 years old and had one eight-assist game last season. Steve Nash has averaged at least 8.8 assists since LeBron’s rookie year. This is going to work out great.
-THANK THE LORD THEY PUSHED BACK FILMING ON THAT STUPID LEBRON MOVIE. That may be the best news I’ve heard all month. The media would have rained BRIMSTONE upon that film. You have to win a championship before trying to pull stunts like starring in Ballers. It doesn’t matter whether or not filming would have actually kept LeBron from improving his game; what matters is that people think it would/will. Now LeBron just has to spend a few hours working out with Kevin McHale and making sure photographers are on hand.
-Good, somebody is going to take Shaq off of Cleveland’s hands. I’ll get to this in depth when I do Shaq’s report card, but I felt like he took stuff off the table more often than not last season. During that brief period before he injured himself when he had his one-on-one scoring touch going, he was something. And who knows what we’d be saying about Shaq if the Cavs had met Dwight Howard in the playoffs.
That said, I have had enough of watching the Cavs sacrifice possessions to a flat Shaq hook-shot in order to appease their center. I’ve had enough of Shaq getting tied up on the pick-and-roll. I’ve had enough of Shaq and Varejao crashing into each other around the rim like college kids trying to get a drink at a crowded party.
I don’t mind watching players try and fail, but I don’t like watching guys who aren’t with the proverbial program. Shaq tried to stay in shape and keep his ego in check, but he never really looked comfortable being a role player on offense. (All the good attitude in the world wouldn’t have helped Shaq on the pick-and-roll.) Finally, I am still holding Shaq’s refusal to come off the bench at ANY POINT against him. Especially when he was coming back from the injury.
-It makes me sad to see Delonte referred to as “Delonte’s contract.” Whether the Cavs will get 08-09 Delonte or 09-10 Delonte next season is impossible to know, and it has huge implications for the team’s offseason strategy.
-Derrick Rose would have preferred Joe Johnson over LeBron? Really? Because Rose and Johnson share and agent, and Johnson would theoretically be better as a second banana? (I will note that Joe has been running the “Iso-Joe offense for a good while now in Atlanta.) I’m happy about this development as a Cavalier fan, but it does kind of make me sad as a fan of people.
Alright, that’s all for tonight. Until tomorrow, campers.
And of course Rich is also right that he’s seriously unproven.
Not trying to shit on Douglas so much as say that Amar’e never really took the Suns to the promised land as an individual force, and there he had the perfect point guard feeding him. Now he’ll be counted on to be the man in New York, and he won’t be getting the same passes he was from Nash, or close to it. Douglas is a fine prospect, but Amar’e needs to be a superstar now, and he’s never shown he can be that without an elite point guard feeding him. Toney Douglas is not an elite point guard.
I think Chris Bosh is about to find that same thing out in Houston. He’s going to have to be the superstar..and he won’t be able to to cut it. Of course, a healthy Yao changes all of that.
Anyway, if all of Bucher’s tweets are correct, isn’t it just a matter of time before the teams make that deal or something similar?
One would assume. I have a HARD time believing the Raptors do that deal WITH Beasley. W/o him it makes no sense at all. Wtf are you gaining there? Trade exceptions are so incredibly overvalued…unles you have a terrible GM who thinks your team can immediately rebuild around Hedo, which would be the direction he would be taking that team if he made that trade.
Raptors fans should be rioting in the streets.
Robin captures it perfectly; Toney isn’t the next superstar, but he’s shown the capacity to be a quality on the ball defender and shooter. And Rich, as much as I disagree with you, I appreciate you avoiding the trademark unintelligent responses of “Rich please apologize to mike for dismissing tony douglass as inferior to Steve nash. He’s a superstar hall of fame point guard and possible candidatefor beat shooter of all time IN THE MAKING.” Reading comprehension is a valued skill, Tom.
Besides, I don’t think the Knicks ever pitched Lebron on winning now; they’ve played off of his desire to be a billionaire, love of the city, and other superlatives that extend beyond basketball. Successful or not, the Knicks aren’t pitching a completed roster. However, Amare would immediately become Lebron’s best teammate, Gallinari is developing into a quality young player with a nice three point stroke, and the cap flexibility afforded by Curry’s expiring contract would allow them to add another piece to the team.
Mike, just tell me you aren’t one of the Knicks fans who doesn’t understand salary cap rules and therefore realizes that if you add another max contract this year..you can’t add Melo next year. PLEASE tell me you get that?
Oh, and Mike I’m not saying Toney Douglas has no value in the league. What I am saying is that Knicks fans are about to find out the hard way that Amare is not a superstar. He has had the best set-up man in the league over the last 5 years feeding him the ball. Now…he doesn’t have that. Nash made Amare, not the other way around. If Amare wasn’t good enough w/ Nash, how can he be good enough w/ Douglas?
Oh no I get that. I’m pretty sure the number is around 11.3 million or so, which is clearly below any max offer. They might be able to use that money to find a serviceable center, or a more traditional point guard.
By the way, John, I really like the blog (as much as the opinion of an anonymous Knicks fan matters) and hope that if LBJ isn’t on his way to NYC, he stays in Cleveland.
I like you Mike. I’ve seen to many people (Broussard included) who are pretending this two max guys + Carmelo scenario is real. I see it everywhere on knicks blogs and posts..and it drives me insane.
One thing people out there need to udnerstand is this…flat out signing three max players is impossible. It will never happen. This is why Miami won’t happen. This is why Chicago won’t happen. You need to straight up trade for one, if not two. The other one just needs to be there from the start.
BTW, Knicks fans happy that chicago decided to pay Chris Duhon 15 million or what? Good lord Otis Smith is lucky Dwight Howard is on his team. the man has been throwing money down a rat hole at every chance he gets.
On a side note the Bulls apparently have a deal on hold to send Deng to Portland for Bayless and Pyzbilla. Apparenttly waiting for a wade/LBJ commitment to pull the trigger.
Two things: Why would that get Wade or LBJ to go there, and more important, why wouldn’t you be pulling the trigger on that regardless? That’s just a good trade all around for Chicago. Unload Dengs contract (Pryz is a FA next year) and get a really promising young gun? Wtf are you waiting for….
if the knicks get lebron they wouldn’t even need a passing point guard. also, gallinari could make a great stretch 4. sure, he’d get destroyed on defense, but this is the knicks, everyone’s getting destroyed on defense.
I think everyone is getting a little overexcited. Nobody sane expects Amare to lead the Knicks to a championship all on his own. However, he is the best big man they have had since Ewing (and note Ewing never won a championship either – I still cringe when I hear the name Charles Smith) and the last decade has not shown much. What Amare does provide is the ability to hit the playoffs again and add additional pieces to make the Knicks once again respectable. Without a second high octane player the Knicks are not championship material, but they can be playoff material again. Its all about that first step.
And by the way, the Knicks had planned a large news conference for Thursday night and are meeting with members of James’ entourage tomorrow. Now James is announcing a huge special to run on Thursday on ESPN. I would definitely not count the Knicks out of the James hunt just yet…
now where did you hear that?
Time to check THOMAS. Have a feeling some more fun laws will be passed through unsuspectingly while America is tuned into LeBron, dancing shows, talent competitions, and housewives of the apocalypse.
So… I’ve been tinkering a little more with Chris Paul trades. I noticed that Indiana has a lot of expiring contracts and a need at PG. There’s some trades with them that could work. But, I don’t care about Indiana, and I bet Chris Paul would be much more interested in playing with LeBron in Cleveland.
So I’ve been looking at possible 3-team deals with Indiana, NO and Cleveland, and I have to say there’s some interesting possibilities. I know the Cavs would do anything to get Chris Paul. So a deal would depend on the Hornets’ and Pacers’ strategies. The Hornets would need to be pressured into trading Paul (probably by him), and then would have to be seeking in return a large dose of salary relief with some young prospects. The Pacers would need to be interested in contending immediately, even if it meant giving up expiring contracts and rookies for more experienced talent on medium-term deals.
Having said that, check out this deal: http://www.realgm.com/src_checktrade.php?tradeid=5596876
There’s a few different ways to do this (which probably helps make it possible). But the basics are that NO trades Chris Paul and gets rid of contracts they don’t want. They take back expiring deals, Paul George, JJ Hickson, and whatever other young guys (late-pick rookies) they want. Indiana trades two or three of their expiring deals and Paul George for Mo Williams, Delonte West, and 1 or 2 of 3 talented PF’s (Jamison, David West, Okafor if they want, or they can keep Troy Murphy). Cleveland gets CP3 and probably Okafor and Posey, giving up Mo, Delonte, JJ, and Jamison or possibly other expiring deals like Moon AP and Telfair. Draft picks, especially Cleveland’s, could also be involved.
For New Orleans, they get up to something like $85M in long-term salary relief, plus young building blocks in Paul George and JJ Hickson (and whatever other random young guys they want to have-Rolle, Stephenson, Eyenga). Put another way, this trade basically takes 7 years off the deals of 4 of their 5 highest-earning players. They would be completely relieved of their current 8 highest-paid players after this season, with no comparable replacement. They get to rebuild through the draft around a developing core of Collison, Thornton, George, and Hickson.
Indiana puts a handful of talented “young veterans” around a peaking Danny Granger. Their starting lineup could look like: Mo Williams, Delonte West, Danny Granger, David West, Roy Hibbert, with Jamison, Dahntay Jones, Brandon Rush, and maybe Foster coming off the bench. That may not be a title roster, but that would be a very good and balanced team with a shot at winning the East. Most of all, the trade would be a massive windfall for them in terms of basketball value.
Don’t need to say much about the Cavs angle. I think Okafor has been a little overlooked, and could be a helpful piece for us. But I worry about where we would get scoring or shooting in the frontcourt. But the problems of building a roster around LeBron and Chris Paul would be delightful.
Also, Paul might have to refuse Indiana as a destination, so that they don’t just choose him and do the deal without us.
Here is another version, letting NO keep West and Indy keep Murphy: http://www.realgm.com/src_checktrade.php?tradeid=5596794
(Although we help pry Paul away by throwing JJ in the offer.)
(I really wish there was a way to edit past posts, so that I didn’t always end up commenting in clusters.)