Many of you have expressed an interest ways the Knicks can hold on to Jamal Crawford and still make a good trade for a player such as Rashard Lewis. The natural instinct is to think the Sonics would love to have Mally 'mal because he's from Seattle.
I like Jamal as a person and a player; he gives you all he's got in both areas. But let's be honest, Seattle ain't selling out tickets because Jamal Crawford is in the building.
With a new GM (Sam Presti) and a new coach (eventually...as of now we know that PJ Carlisemo, Scott Brooks and Dwayne Casey each have had interviews with Presti) and the No. 2 pick in the draft (most likely Kevin Durant), the Sonics will be shopping for need. What they need is a point guard and backcourt help. Luke Ridnour and Earl Watson are hardly starting PG material.
Naturally, Crawford certainly fits as backcourt help, though not as a PG. But with Ray Allen entrenched in the shooting-guard spot, why would you want Crawford? If I'm Seattle, I ask for David Lee and Channing Frye for starters. The Sonics are letting Danny Fortson go and with Lewis gone as well, rebounding will be an area of need. Durant can score from the low blocks, but having Frye, an inside-outside guy, would fill a necessity, as well. As for the money-match, I'll leave it to the armchair GMs to dream up how the teams can work something out.
Bottom line, if the Knicks are getting Lewis, they only get him in a sign-and-trade that has Lewis coming with a max contract in his pocket as part of the deal. In other words, big bucks on the payroll.
The other scenario involves the wildly speculative Kobe Bryant move to New York. Would you still not want to trade Jamal if you could get Kobe?
Dream sequence over. Back to reality.
I don't see the Knicks wanting to move Crawford for no reason other than to upgrade. Otherwise, Crawford, who, to me, is still a developing player with a tremendous upside (needs to get better defensively, but who doesn't on this team?) will remain a Knick. I wouldn't put a lot of emphasis on trade scenarios that are tossed around in the general media. Remember, a lot of the speculated names come out based on money-matching.
I also feel moving Jamal without getting a starting-caliber SG back is somewhat detrimental. Some of you may feel Quentin Richardson can slide up into the SG spot, but Isiah Thomas might have him in the right place at this point in his career. Richardson isn't guard-quick, so his defensive ability wouldn't be as effective than when he plays the small forward spot. Another thought is you could start Mardy Collins, who is 6-6 and can defend and pass, in the backcourt with Stephon Marbury. Collins could be the PG on offense and let Marbury be a scorer and on the defensive end Collins could guard the taller SGs. But that's putting a lot of faith in Collins, who played well down the stretch but hasn't shown enough to be relied upon as an everyday starter. At least not yet.
Of course, there's always the re-visit of the "dynamic duo" backcourt of Marbury and Steve Francis.
Uh, no.
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- With NBA/Knicks coverage revving up this week with Thursday's draft, I'll be putting fewer "nuggets" into the blogs to save them for my daily stories for the print edition. I encourage you all to read both and keep up with the great comments, criticisms and insights. I love the enthusiasm some of you have expressed about what we're doing here and I plan to do my best to live up to the recent positive feedback.
- Just made my plans for the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Don't be jealous, considering the time of year (and the anticipated triple-digit temps) I've heard people just burst into flames there.
- You read a few David Lee stories over the weekend (we, once again, were somehow shunned from access...I'm investigating). What got buried is that David admits he's still not 100 percent recovered from the mysterious dead-leg injury that hampered him at the end of the season.
- What will be more interesting come Thursday night, when the Knicks pick at No. 23: The surprise pick that Thomas makes or Greg Anthony's reaction to it on ESPN?
Comments (11)
You are a smart man, Alan. JC is my favorite player and most forget that when he started and Zeke abandoned that horrific Franbury backcourt(he led the team in scoring (20.8 ppg) and shot 42% from the field. He and Curry have undeniable chemistry and I do not think Isiah would compromise that (unless its for Kobe). AND JUST BECAUASE JAMAL is from Seattle does NOT mean the Sonics want him. Plus we won ZERO games with Mardy and Staphon in the backcourt...at least JC and Marbs were 21-20.
Why doesn't Isiah try and focus on moving Frye and Nate with #23 to move up in the draft? And while he's at it, BUY out Francis!
Crawford seems like a good guy, and I've enjoyed watching him play in the past. But the Knicks only hope of becoming a championship caliber team is to wait til Marbury and Francis come off the books, get under the cap, and sign a top-tier free agent (don't worry they'll be there). Unfortunately, this will only work if Crawford and/or Curry come off the books, as they are the only players making serious money in 09-10 that have any trade value (hello, Jerome James,Jared Jeffries, and Q-Rich). In the meantime, we have to do like Chicago and try to build a nucleus of young, inexpensive talent to surround that player with and/or use in a trade. This means getting more draft picks instead of trading them, and not taking on any significant salary beyond the 08-09 season! That is the common-sensical approach, and maybe the only one that can work.
We simply don't have the pieces to make a trade for any of these guys, whether it be Lewis or Kobe. Our best bet is to stay on course, tinker with the roster and wait for steph and francis to come off the books. Maybe they can make a trade where they swap a a bad contract for another bad one that comes off the books in 2 years. They need Jerome James and Nate Robinson off this team. Trade Nate for team late in the first or early in the second whose looking to dump a pick, and get another young player.
Is it possible to get the Knicks to poll every dang person in New York State to confirm that NONE of us want them to trade David Lee? Tell you what, kiddo, I wouldn't trade Lee even up for Rashard Lewis, much less in a package. As long as his leg heals, the boy's going to be an all star in this league.
Stay with Lee. Stay with the whole damn team till 2009. The only chance of improving and getting competitive will come thereafter. I think the current roster should get 42 wins for the next 2 years either which way you look at it.
So Isiah, don't be hasty.
This Rashard rumor is killing me. First off, you would have to give Seattle prime talent in return. A package would probably start with Lee and Crawford. Second, you would have to give him a 5 year max-money deal which would kill any chance of being under the cap for the Kobe/LeBron/Wade FA class. Does Curry, Frye, Lewis, Marbury, Collins win you a championship? If not, then just hold the course Isiah. Give Marbuey two years to try and lead Curry, Craw, Lee, Frye, Balkman, etc into the playoffs. Let the young guys develop while creating cap room in 2009. Best case scenario is that Lee, Curry, Frye, Balkman, Morris etc develop into a core that will be one star away from serisouly contending. Worst case is that they suck, get a few more lotto picks and make a run at Lebron while completly retooling the team. If this happens, Zeke is probably fired and the new guy will inherit cap-space with some young talent.
Jon, I could not agree more. Lewis does not put the team over the top, and in fact, you could make a case that it would set the Knicks back. They would lose the opportunity for cap room, would likely still only be a first round and out playoff team, and they would be mired in mediocrity.
The right course is to draft well, build on the current young talent, let the Francis/Marbury/Rose deals burn away and then in two years either bid for the Kobe/Lebron/wade types or at worst, have cap room to faciliate important trades.
No to Rashard Lewis.
David, I`m with you now 100%. If Shard were so awesome, how did his team get the #2 pick iwth a supporing star of Ray Allen?
The other reason I want to stay the course is that this team is, dare I say, likeable. Not likebable where it'll win a championship, but the players themselves. It is really easy to root for the hustle of Lee/Balkman, the development of Curry/Crawford. Heck, Marbury has turned his image completly around with his shoes and large NYC based donations. I really hope Frye takes a step up this year because he seems like a good guy. There is also a genuine "us against the world" mentality since everyone and their mother has crapped on Isiah and all the players he's brought in.
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