Has any team ever gone from having the worst record in basketball one year to being favored in their conference the following year? I think you’re overestimating the Knicks’ chances of contention; to make the kind of leap you’re talking about would be (in my admittedly limited and unreliable memory) unprecedented. They are, astounding as it seems, worse than the 76ers right now, and have fewer draft picks with which to retool.
First of all, Marc Gasol is not signing with the Knicks. Why would he do that? The Grizzlies can offer him more money than anyone else to play alongside much better players that he’s played with for his entire career. He’s going to take a pay cut to play for a lottery team whose best player is a volume scorer in decline? If Gasol leaves the Grizzlies - and I’d bet my lunch he won’t - he’ll go somewhere with real NBA players.
But even if Gasol came to the Knicks, they’d not be real contenders. A 7 or 8 seed, maybe, but Gasol and Carmelo and a pile of garbage is not getting to 50 wins and they’re not going to beat any of the best teams in the East. Sure, if they add three guys like Ray Allen, they’ll be better… but who are the three guys like Ray Allen (who is going to be a Hall of Famer) who are all going to sign with the Knicks?
And giving the max to a bunch of mid-tier guys is what got the Knicks to this point in the first place. They need to rebuild in a real way, stockpiling assets and accepting a bit of losing.
I don’t know of any offhand, but I’m sure there have been scenarios where really bad teams in one year go into the next as title contenders. Usually it happens due to injury in one year and getting a high draft pick, like the Spurs with Tim Duncan. Other than that, wasn’t Boston pretty bad a few years ago before they signed the big 3? I’m not saying realistically the Knicks are going to be contenders next year, but its not out of the realm of possibility. I’d give it a more than 40% chance.
I just don’t think that in a game like basketball, where there’s only 5 players on the court at any one time and one person can dominate the ball, that you really need to wait 5 years. A good prospect and a little luck and you can be back sooner than you think
In 2006-07 Paul Pierce was hurt for almost 2 months and the Celtics finished last in the Eastern Conference and 2nd worst overall (the Grizzlies had a worse record by a couple of games).
That offseason they signed Allen and Garnett and they won The Finals that season.
Ah, ok thanks. So something like that. Melo’s hurt so the Knicks’ wins are down. Next year he could make a full recovery and in the East, he’s still an All-Star (not sure if he’d get in if he was still in the West). If they sign some decent free agents, not necessarily Hall of Famer caliber ones like KG and Allen, but good ones, they could certainly be in contention. I’m not saying they’ll win because I think Lebron and co. will get their act together and make a serious run next year, but its possible.
San Antonio had like a 50 some win improvement the year they drafted Duncan also because David Robinson had been out the whole previous year. Even so, i expect the Knicks to be mediocre or bad until all the bad decisions about mortaging their future pass by, and then they will have to start a real rebuild. To be quite honest five years seems generous, that’s about what a true rebuild would take if they started NOW. They are not even attempting that, they are basically just trying to wing it and hope something happens.
They just traded away a bunch of people, that looks like a rebuild. They lack flexibility now, but next year the door’s wide open for them to finally make moves. I give credit to Phil Jackson for at least making bold moves, if not the best ones. In his position working with what he has, standing pat with Shumpert and JR Smith would have been trying to play it safe, but he swung for the fences. Only time will tell if it becomes a homerun or not
Watching the Blazers and Wizards I can’t believe how many long jump shots Aldridge takes. He’s got about as many FGAs as Lillard and Matthews combined with most of them 15+ feet out. Hard to understand their offense.
Here’s some good stuff on the upcoming trade deadline.
Also interesting from that piece is the possibility of the salary cap nearly doubling in the 16-17 season. The article hints at this, but essentially freeing up that much space for every single team will only embolden free agents to team up at the destination of their choice. The non-destination teams won’t have any advantage by having a ton of cap space because, hey, so does everyone else now.
Amare Stoudamire’s supposedly got a buyout from NY and is joining Dallas. I haven’t watched much of him lately, how good is he still at this age, after all those injuries?
He’s not the same guy, but he can give you decent production as a backup. Wouldn’t expect him to go more than 18-20 minutes a night. It’s a good pickup for Dallas, who traded away their backup PF to Boston for Rondo. (Brandon Wright I think was his name?)
I was previously unconvinced the 76ers actually have a plan, and this move does nothing to dissuade me from that opinion. At this point they’re moving pieces around just to move them around. I know they’d been shopping Carter-Williams around for a while, and while he was not a top-5 PG right now, he was still a good player, and I don’t think he’d reached his ceiling yet. Now they’ll have to replace him with someone else they’ll need to develop.
The KJ McDaniels trade was baffling as well. Sure, they were going to have to work out a new contract, at a much higher salary, but again, at some point you need to hold on to good players, and he’s a good player that you traded for a very low 2nd round pick and a 2nd-string PG that you’re going to start just to lose more. Blowing it all up and starting over is one thing, but you’ve got to actually start rebuilding at some point.
Crazy night! Lots of moves were done, some baffling. Reports are that Kevin Garnett’s back in Minnesota not for basketball reasons, so I guess he wants to be a part owner when he retires. Personally, he was my favorite player for a while and I miss the intense but always underachieving Wolves. He became a bit of a bully later when he won though, and as a Lakers fan I can never have a former Celtis as my favorite, especially one that beat us.
Bosh seems to be having some medical issues, blood clots, that might force him out the rest of the season. Too bad for Miami they just got Dragic for the playoff push. I actually like their chances against Atlanta if they make the #8 seed but without Bosh, they’ll probably be out in 5 games.
People are saying this new kid Enes Kanter that OKC got from the Jazz is going to put them over the top, but I’ve never heard of him. But seems like OKC is in a good position to go higher than the #8 seed now that they’ve pushed out the Suns, who lost both Dragics (Dragices?) and will probably miss the playoffs now. If the Spurs aren’t careful, they just might drop out of the playoffs! Davis is carrying that Pelicans team and who knows what will happen in 2 months if Tony Parker can’t get completely healthy?
I like Portland to continue its great play now that they’ve got a backup to replay the disappearing Batum. I think though, when playoffs come, its still a toss up between much of these West powers. I have no idea who would win in a 7 game series if we put the current #2-#7 seeds right now, if they were healthy. I hope we get a playoffs like last year, that was the best first round in like forever.
I think McDaniels would be an unrestricted free agent, which means you have to fight for him against all other teams. At that point you only have a 1/30 chance of keeping him, might as well get something for him while you can.
It wouldn’t be every team in the league, it would be more like 8-10 teams, and it’s not like they’re right up against the luxury tax. In fact, they’re not even at the league minimum player payroll ($56.759 million), even with JaVale McGee’s bloated salary, and they don’t get to keep what they don’t spend. What are they saving for? Kevin Durant is not coming to Philly when he hits the market, if he even hits the market, and they don’t have anything to dangle that will lure anything even remotely resembling a top-10 player (or top 25, or even top 50). I’m just not seeing the end game of this strategy.
A lot of people here are very surprised Toronto made no trade to help them out down the stretch and into the playoffs, especially inasmuch as most people were betting Terrence Ross was on his way out. As talented as he is, Ross has played terribly this year and it’s universally understood he will be of no value at all in a playoff series, so it was kind of assumed they’d cash him in for a veteran who would be a consistent seventh man.
So instead we’ll see what they can do with precisely the same guys.
McDaniels would have been a restricted FA after this season for a qualifying offer of just $1.2 million. He could potentially have cost them a lot more if they chose to match another teams’ offer, but again, what are they saving for? The 11 players they have signed through next season are barely over 40% of the minimum payroll for this year, let alone what it’s going to be next year. Why not hold on to guys you’ve drafted and developed into good players, isn’t that the whole point? Yes, they did “at least get something for him,” as the argument goes, but they got nothing of any real value for him; all they got back was a 2nd round pick (from Houston, a good team, formerly of Dallas, also a good team) and a player that’s not going to help them win, now or ever.