by Eugene on Fri Aug 06, 2004 12:57 pm
This trade is fool's gold for the Knicks. Isiah Thomas has stocked the team with career underachievers, team cancers, and possibly worst of all, bad contracts (I love Stephon Marbury, I really do, but at this point, I'm thinking he fits all three categories: at this point, don't you think he'd have "gotten" it by now? I mean, he's included in trade talks again, for Vince Carter, no less).
Let's look at the roster:
The Knicks have:
Stephon Marbury: I've said all I needed to say, but I really do like him and his intensity. I'm going to give him one more chance on this Olympics and this season, before writing him off completely.
Allan Houston: I still can't get over this one. 7 year 100 mil contract for a jump shooter who can't create his own shot? Really?
Tim Thomas: He's even more of an underachiever than Keith Van Horn. Really, look up his stats sometime. Well, I did. He's a career 12 and 5 guy. At least Van Horn had outside range.
Shandon Anderson: I don't ever remember him making a key play for the team. Ever.
Jamal Crawford: Combo guard. Yes, he's an adept scorer. But he plays no certifiable defense and really, didn't we expect more out of him?
Jerome Williams: Great energy guy, does all the little things, but doesn't really score well, and that contract...
Erick Dampier (possibly): Another career underachiever, who only played well in his contract year. Proceeded to end his own career by saying publicly that he can hold Shaq better than anyone. This is Angry Shaq we're talking about, too.
Vin Baker (possibly): He's had his chances. He's a drunk, and he gets no sympathy from me (alcoholism is a serious problem, but one that is utterly avoidable. If he has no self-control and can't refuse a drink, then why do we keep making excuses for him. That's Enabling behavior, to use an AA term).
Whether these guys end up on the roster or not, the fact remains, Thomas has effectively loaded this team with overpaid and underachieving guys who lack a team concept. Yes, Detroit built a team of career ne'er do wells and beat the Lakers, but the Pistons actually picked up team guys, hustle guys in the process (and the Lakers were old and fat and unmotivated). There's not a single character guy on the Knicks. Don't these GM's ever learn? You're supposed to build a team. If you need to take less talent to do it, then fine, but basketball is a team sport and you need team guys.
The Knicks are talented enough to get a 4-6 seed in the East. But where do they go from there? They're still not better than Indy-Detroit-Miami. And they are certainly not going to win the championship like this. So they're right back where they started, good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to win it all, doomed to first and second round exits throughout the rest of this decade (because no one's going to want to trade with them) until their contracts run out and they'll fall into rebuilding mode. The only hope the Knicks fans have is that by then, Dolan will be patient and will have hired a decent GM. Not much of a hope, but there it is.
Really. I mean really. They might as well trade for Vince Carter and Antoine Walker and just get the whole thing over with. In fact, just take all the cancers from all the teams: get GP, get Zach Randolph, Darius Miles, and let them fight it out.
Analysis for Bulls will be posted tomorrow, I imagine.
All the best,
Eugene
The task of the artist is to translate for us the essence of things we take for granted.
i don't want frank williams in the deal
. I think Pax is trying to find himself in one of these drafts 
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