Knicks rebuilding on the fly?

jlove · February 19th, 2008, 06:46 AM

Rumors are out there that Randolph to Nuggets, Curry to anyone, etc. If you take the Nuggets trade of Randolph and another Knick (Balkman or Chandler) to Denver for Hunter, Smith, Kleiza, Najera then the Knicks have a roster of:

Guards: Marbury/Crawford/Collins/Robinson/Richardson
Forwards: Jones/Smith/Jeffries/Rose/Lee/(Balkman or Chandler)
Centers: Curry/James/Morris/Hunter

Since they are obviously in rebuild mode, why not try to get some pieces that would work here for our championship push. This deal would work for New York's overhaul and it would give us our 13th roster spot. We'd be shipping out 2 of our top 8 but we'd receive 3 1/2 guys that can play. Here's my deal:

Diaw
Bell
Tucker
Atl pick

for

Crawford
Lee
Jones
Robinson (filler)

Knicks have Lee as a F/C but he has the speed and quickenss to play the 3 for us as well as a back-up for Amare. Crawford would step in as one of our guys off the bench as he can play the 1-3. Jones is another hustle guy that can play both guard spots in spurts.

Suns line-up:
Nash
Hill (I'd start him here instead of the 3 with the departure of Bell)
Lee (for rebounding, plus he's got that mid range shot as well)
Amare
Shaq

Bench: Barbosa/Crawford/Jones/Skinner/DJ/Robinson/Marks/Pike

green machine · February 19th, 2008, 11:18 AM

Why would the Knicks trade their two most valuable players for an overpaid bust (so far, unless he's snapping out of it), a veteran who's salary isn't big enough to be a good expiring deal, an unproven rookie, and a draft pick that may not end up being in the lottery?

Bufalay · February 19th, 2008, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by green machine

Why would the Knicks trade their two most valuable players for an overpaid bust (so far, unless he's snapping out of it), a veteran who's salary isn't big enough to be a good expiring deal, an unproven rookie, and a draft pick that may not end up being in the lottery?

haha, exactly the point.

jlove · February 19th, 2008, 11:45 AM

Because they're run by Isiah Thomas

arwillan · February 19th, 2008, 09:11 PM

the whole point of rebuilding is not to rebuild and trade everyone, it's to pick your best/youngest player and make a team around them. for one thing, crawford is a horrible fit for our system. he is a one-man show who scores inconsistently off of isolations. However, he is the knicks' best player. They want to rebuild around him. A duo of Smith/crawford in the back court could be a very potent offensive threat. Either way, they don't want any of the players/picks you mentioned in the trade, and they do not want to lose their two best players.