2015 NY Knicks offseason thread, Los Almighty appreciation thread

No offense bro, but I can't read your posts. You probably write some great stuff, but if I wanted to read a 10 page thesis, I'll take a lit class.
 
I somehow made it through four years of college as an English major without reading any of the material, but I do skim through some of dude's posts. Enough to get the gist.
 
i've written 3 papers this semester, none as long as one of GR8's posts :lol:

in all seriousness tho, i've read his last couple posts and they're good reads. he's obviously a diehard fan.
 
i dont understand why cole doesnt get more minutes. hes the only rebounder on our team, yet he gets no burn.
 
LiCeNseD To BaLL said:
Came in here to see how you guys are dealing with this season compared to us, and I actually discovered that there is someone on this forum that types more words in his posts than C CP1708 :wow: :wow:

I didn't think it was possible.
He writes ESSAYS.

But This dude GR8 makes CP look like a man of few words. :lol:
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GR8, you da real MVP man. Repped b. :pimp:
 
:lol: @ Madonna/Drake

Great post as usual, GR8. I agree with you. Westbrook's sick, but 43 shot attempts without overtime minute were too much for a PG. The type of his game isn't what we need now. He isn't coming to NY anyway. Either he goes to LA or stays in OKC.

I like Greg Monroe. I think we are going to overpay him if we want him that badly.
 
d3simet said:
:lol: @ Madonna/Drake

Great post as usual, GR8. I agree with you. Westbrook's sick, but 43 shot attempts without overtime minute were too much for a PG. The type of his game isn't what we need now. He isn't coming to NY anyway. Either he goes to LA or stays in OKC.

I like Greg Monroe. I think we are going to overpay him if we want him that badly.
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The unusual thing about that 43 shot night is that he had 8 assists & shot just below 50%. Judging from afar, that's a pretty good shooting night. But I think it more so exposes OKC's lack of plays. I'm looking at Brooks funny.

& I like Monroe. Young big man, young & young lol, also would give us a chance to get Russell in the draft :smokin
 
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i'll give westbrook on the shots since that team has 0 help right now and brooks is clueless. if he's taking that many with KD though, that's a serious red flag.
 
if Carmelo's so good why can't he win a championship? if LeBron's so good why didn't the Cavs win 60 games this year?

There's more factors at play than one player's performance in basketball.
 
Knicks fans talking about winners. Kinda of ironic. But basketball is def. a team game. LeBron will be the first to tell you that.
 
RitchDad said:
I mean this guy has no heart bro.....he's dampier 2.0 man
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dampier 2.0? have you ever watched him play? or are you just making stuff up at this point?

what a horrible comparison.

monroe's accomplished more already in his young carer than dampier ever did and is 10x as skilled.
 
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 Man yall dudes are funny. I appreciate the shout outs even if most of yall dont read the majority of my posts. As ive said multiple times, if I were in your places I would only read 25% of my ****... max. Anyway, I'm  feeling the love in here, reading through those comments just now made my day so thanks everyone for that.

I just wanted to come in here quickly and bring up one thing.

I will try my hardest to keep this one short(ish), so I get more replies that have to do with what I write as opposed to the length of the post. 
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& I like Monroe. Young big man, young & young lol, also would give us a chance to get Russell in the draft 
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Just wanted to comment on this quickly because it kind of leads into what I have to say. You all obviously know how I feel about the prospect of drafting Russell so no need to get more into that, but I actually disagree with this post. My biggest issue with signing Monroe in free agency is that IMO that signing ONLY works if we can pair him with Karl-Anthony Towns.

The obvious problem with Monroe is that he is a defensive liability. He consistently gets beat off the dribble by quicker players and he is woeful at protecting the rim, never before averaging more than a block per game. However, he is only 24, and he has a kind of rugged way about him. Ideal scenario if we sign him is that he can kind of transform himself into a Charles Oakley type power forward for us, only taller and better offensively. I think that Towns and Oak are similar in the sense that they are both kind of old score rugged power forwards. While Monroe isnt a good defender or a shot blocker, it is far from because he is soft (like Bargnani). Ideally Monroe can come here and develop into at least a good defensive power forward. He will never be a shot blocker, and im sure he will never be in any DPOY voting, but if we can get him to take on the Charles Oakley defensive mentality, that would help us out a lot. oakley was never the biggest or the most athletic, but he was rugged as **** and didnt let anybody score easily. Now the NBA has obviously changed a lot since Oak's days but if the Knicks can get Towns to defend the paint sort of like Oakley did back in the day even without ever being a shot blocker (Oakley couldnt block shots worth ****), the Knicks would be better for it and the fans would love him for it.

Monroe already is a great rebounder and he is a beautiful fit for the triangle offensively due to his developed post skills as well as his passing but if he could develop as a post defender he could get by even without being a rim protector. The issue with this scenario becomes that the Knicks would still need a rim protector to play next to him. The way the NBA is set up today you need some athleticism in your front court and you need somebody to scare opposing team's guards into driving in and getting easy layups. Basically if Monroe becomes our Oakley on D then we would need to find our Ewing.

Enter Karl-Anthony towns. Towns is literally the ONLY player I could see pairing well with Monroe on this team. I am not even going to get into how bad of a fit I think Monroe and Okafor would be both offensively and defensively. I highly doubt we would be able to afford both Greg Monroe and Marc Gasol, but that scenario (along with Monroe and a cheaper rim protecting option like Robin Lopez) do not really appeal to me because it would clog up the pain offensively and hurt our team's athleticism. I am not a fan of running the classic 2 big man set in today's NBA with Melo at the 3. IMO the best fit for our team would be a true center and then pair Melo with an interchangeable forward which would allow Melo the chance to play some 3 and some 4. A good option for this would be to sign Draymond Green but it is highly unlikely he comes to the Knicks this summer. Word on the street is that the Warriors will match any offer he gets and even if that is just a scare tactic to keep teams from offering him the max, rumors also say that Detroit is prepared to hand Green the max, and Green is a Detroit area Michigan native. However, even if we could sign Green he is not necessarilythe rim protector we need to pair alongside Monroe.
 

However, Towns is the only attainable option for the Knicks this summer that fits every priority we need in a player next to Monroe. 

First and foremost he is an elite rim protector. Towns averaged over 2 blocks per game during limited time at Kentucky and he will almost certainly be a dominant rim protecting force as soon as he steps foot on an NBA court. So check that off. In addition, Towns is athletic enough to avoid the issues I see plaguing the Knicks if we were to pair Monroe with someone like Robin Lopez. Towns is athletic enough to not hamper the Knicks team athleticism when we play Monroe they way you would normally expect when pairing an unathletic 4 like Monroe with a center. Check that off.

Another major key, which is almost as important as his rim protecting is that Towns is a fit for this team offensively. Some say (and I would agree) that Towns is a better overall fit in the triangle offense that Okafor is and most importantly he would be as good of a fit in the triangle next to Monroe that you could ask for. Ive said for awhile that i see a lot of young Ewing in KAT. Like college Ewing, Towns is a skinny athletic shot blocker who has the potential to be a top flight defensive player in the NBA. In addition, similarly to GTown Patrick, Towns is raw offensively but possesses a nice shooting touch that you could see really developing with time in the NBA.

The main issue with Monroe is that offensively he fits the mold perfectly in what the Knicks are looking for in a triangle center (liker Marc Gaso), the problem is that he is not at all what you want your center to be defensively in the NBA (unlike Marc Gasol). This puts the Knicks or any team that sign s him in the tricky position of finding a player that doesnt get in the way of his post dominance on offense while protecting the rim on defense. This is Towns in a nutshell. While Towns will be the rim protector you want/need to play next to Monroe he is a perfect offensive fit as well. Like Monroe, Towns is a gifted passer, which would allow the Knicks to move the ball with the fluidity of the 2013 team that was loaded with guards and shooters (basically, they will pass as well as you could expect any team to do in the pass oriented triangle offense), even though we would start 2 traditional bigs next to Melo. This is the best of both worlds because the triangle traditionally favors passing from the big men (more on this in a bit) and a key to the triangle is to keep the ball moving but ideally you do not want to go small. This is what a Towns/Monroe frontcourt would allow us. Another major key is that Monroe is a southpaw who loves to go to work on the left block (or the right block with your back facing the basket). Towns, however, is a righty, who has an excellent jump shot, which should only get better, and does his best work not operating in the low post but rather the elbow spot. From the elbow Towns is able to either hit the 15 foot jumper, pass the ball to Monroe down low and/or others and drive past his usually slower defenders to the hoop using his comfortable left hand. This would cause a lot of defensive mismatches for the opposition. They either would have to play their big man on Towns away from the basket giving Monroe a major advantage on the blocks or have their big cover Monroe down low making life easier for Towns. Very few NBA teams use 2 big men nowadays, and Towns/Monroe would successfully create favorable matchups for each other while not getting in each other's way because they operate from entirely different areas on opposite sides.This is what you look for in the triangle.

Basically I just want to compare for a second a potential Towns/Monroe frontcourt to the worst front court pairing I have ever seen put together, none other that Z-Bo/Curry just to further establish my point. First and foremost, Isiah didnt run a ******* system for **** while Fisher runs the proven successful triangle, so that is already an advantage for GM/KAT right there. Second, Z-Bo is a great player who we have seen be successful in Memphis since he left NY. But Z-Bo was and still is ******* atrocious at defense. Basically you need to pair Z-Bo with a rim protector in order to be successful like he is with Marc Gasol, and the ******* genius Knicks decided that it was a good idea to pair fat ****/no defense Z-Bo with fatter ****/less defense Eddy ******* Curry. In the Monroe/Towns case, defensively, Towns is the kind of player you need next to Monroe, who is actually similar to Z-Bo in a lot of ways (both lefties, great scorers/rebounders in the post, not great defenders). Towns also makes up for Monroe's lack of elite athleticism, another thing Curry and Z-Bo obviously couldnt do. Another thing that killed Z-Bo and Curry is that they were both ******* black holes on offense. You could never have too much passers on your team especially in the triangle. This is something that both Monroe and Towns do very well. Finally, both Monroe and Towns operate from opposite areas, which is sort of similar to Z-Bo and Curry, but neither passed the ball well enough to ever take advantage of this.

Basically my point it if we want to sign Monroe IMO Towns has to be #1 on the draft board. Any other potential pairing with Greg Monroe doesnt fully cover for his weaknesses the way Towns does and you need enough areas covered by the 2 players in your frontcourt where you are left without any total weaknesses. That is why it is important to find players who compliment each other, like the way Towns and Monroe do, and the 2 things they do similarly well are rebound and pass the ball great for a big man. On any team you could never have too many players attacking the glass or having the ability to find open teammates, so that is another major positive about the potential pairing.

HOWEVER (and there is a however), i have been open about my desire to draft D'Angelo Russell sightly ahead of Towns. I am outright petrified right now about the potential of drafting Okafor because of all his glaring weaknesses and the limited options we will have to pair him with a player who successfully compliments/offsets any of those weaknesses.

The 2 players I like for the Knicks are Russell and Towns. While I would prefer Towns to pair with Monroe more than Russell for the reasons I just went over, in a vaccum, I still like Russell on this team the most.

I see him being the perfect PG for this team, this city, and this system. I think that finding a PG for this team who we can play alongside Melo and others and make them all better players all while fitting in the triangle, and even becoming a secondary perimeter scoring option (not necessarily a top priority from our PG but I will gladly take it nonetheless) should take priority over everything else we do this summer. To me Russell is a God-sent as a player we could easily get who basically fits every single requirement and more that we could want a PG to possess. This is why even though I would normally be praying for the Knicks to wind up with a center prospect as good as Towns (especially as a local kid/Knicks fan) during most other drafts, this year, D'Angelo Russell is my guy true and through. I think the Knicks need him and like I have said many times, I see the chance to draft Russell this summer to be the make up call we have from barely missing out on steph Curry in 09.

This is why although I like a potential Monroe/Towns fit, my ideal of ideal scenarios to happen this summer however unlikely, is to draft Russell and sign Marc Gasol. Ive said many times that PG and center are the 2 top priorities for this team going into the summer. successfully fill those spots and that makes the rest of the summer all the more easier and allows the Knicks much more flexibility in determining who else we will go after to fill the roster. If we draft Russell to become our franchise PG and then sign Marc Gasol in free agency, I view it as the perfect start to the summer because they both fit the team perfectly.

While I like the way Towns/Monroe compliment each other, the Knicks would still be using their biggest free agent contract and their top draft pick in the front court. Sure I could see Melo/Monroe/Towns working out as a powerhouse frontcourt down the road, it is tough to put most of our utilities solely in the frontcourt. The Knicks tried this with Melo/Amare/Tson and the whole thing wounded up blowing up right in our faces because we didnt spend as much time addressing our backcourt needs (that and Amare's injuries). So while I would not mind Monroe/Towns at all, I think a Russell/Gasol alternative is better all around. Russell would provide the Knicks with everything we would need from a PG. He is an elite scoring/shooting prospect, has tremendous passing vision, at 6'5 he is excellent size and defensive potential. and he is a true leader and floor general. You could pair Russell with any kind of 2 guard and be fine. The same is true with Gasol. He is the perfect center option for us. He has an offensive skillset that is practically designed for the triangle, he can work in the post, hit from mid range, and pass the ball with the best of them. This is similar to Monroe but unlike Monroe, Gasol is a 7'1 true center, can shoot the ball from mid range, and play excellent defense, arguably as good or better than anybody else from his position.

If the Knicks got Marc Gasol, we wouldnt need to pair him with Towns or Okafor which would allow us to go after Russell in the draft. I LOVE the Russell, Melo, Gasol set up (if we draft Russ and make Gasol our first/biggest free agent splash) because the Knicks would be able to go ANYWHERE theyw anted from there. We would have all of our bases covered. We have our go-to scorer in Melo on the wing, we have our franchise PG/secondary perimeter scorer in Russell, and we have our franchise center/rim protector and post scoring option in Marc Gasol. If the Knicks start from there we would ahve so much flexibility with our cap room. We could go after the many 3 and D guys to play at the 2 for us and we could go after any kind of forward to play in between Melo anfd Gasol, no longer needing a rim protector with Gasol having us covered in that area.

This brings me to the reason that I came in here (before OBVIOUSLY getting carried away in my thoughts/hypotheticals 
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)... IF the Knicks set up this lineup and have Russell/Melo/Gasol, a move that the Knicks should really try to pursue would be to trade Calderon's contract and Hardaway Jr. to Memphis for Jeff Green.

I think that Jeff Green could be the perfect acquisition for this team. You need tall athletic wing forwards like Green in the triangle. Like many triangle greats before hi, Green is successful being a point forward possessing excellent passing and ball handling ability for a player of his size/length. In addition to his point forward abilities, Green is also a dangerous shooter if left alone on the wing. IMO Jeff Green could be a PERFECT Scottie Pippen/Lamar Odom/Trevor Ariza hybrid type player for the Knicks.

IF the Knicks are able to get Gasol from Memphis the Knicks could even start him at the 4 between Melo and Gasol. As long as we have Gasol in the mix we could live with Melo and Jeff Green not being the greatest defensive tandem. remember, Memphis currently starts Jeff Green along side Gasol and Z-Bo and they are currently sitting pretty at #2 in the West and they are one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. The Knicks would be FINE with a Melo/Green/Gasol frontcourt especially in the Eastern Conference. What I really love about this front court is that Melo and Green would give the Knicks much needed quickness/athleticism in the front court next to Gasol. This also allows the option of switching Melo/Green in between playing the 4 and the 3, an option that i prefer to the traditional power forward/center combination (like Monroe/Towns) because as we know, Melo can be very successful playing the 4. But if you want to play a traditional 3/4 next to Melo, a guy like Green is a great option because his shooting/passing ability would be a needed compliment to Melo's ball dominance and scoring.

I also love the fact that Green and Gasol are obviously comfortable with one another and they would immediately bring a much needed winning attitude to the Knicks. With Green's passing and Gasol's post defense, they would bring arguably the 2 greatest need areas to play in the front court with Melo's dominating scoring. If the Knicks are able to successfully acquire Marc Gasol, i is likely that Memphis starts to rebuild their roster. I doubt that Memphis is going to try and make a run for it in the loaded West with just Conley and an aging Z-Bo leading the way. Because of this, I think the Knicks (as a contender) would be able to successfully pry Green away from Memphis if we really went for it, the same way Memphis (as a contender) successfully pried Green away from rebuilding Boston. The Knicks need to get rid of Calderon anyway, and instead of simply finding a way to get rid of him in a salary dump, this could be a way to attain some real value in return for him. If the Knicks opt to part ways with a young talented SG like Hardaway, i am sure that Memphis would gladly take this deal. Maybe we even offer to eat some of Caldo's contract just to help them out a bit.

But while looking to build a roster, I think spending around $8 million over the next 2 seasons for a player in his prime who brings as many skills to the table as Green does, that would be needed for both this team and the system would be a great asset to have. his point forward abilities would also take some pressure off of a rookie PG like Russell, which would be great to have. Ideally if we drafted Russell, especially in his first couple of seasons, the Knicks would be able to play him off the ball some (like Boston does right now with Marcus Smart), which in addition to taking all of the pressure off Russell as a point guard, would also allow him to thrive as a spot up shooter.

As long as Gasol is manning the center spot, IMO it would be no problem having Green start at the 3/4 in between Melo/Gasol. But regardless of if the Knicks start him or have him come off the bench as a 6th man and sign a better defensive 4, I think that Jeff Green would be a GREAT asset to have in NY, and would be the perfect modern role player for the triangle offense. Also a positive that his contract comes off the books after next season and we would own his Bird Rights during the new salary cap free agency summer.

Anyway, that is what I mostly came in here to say. was wondering what yall felt about potentially bringing in Jeff Green especially if we got Marc Gasol and Russell.

Sorry for failing miserably at keeping this short. I know I ******* did it again even though i said I wouldnt. Hope yall read anyway.

As usual I got carried away with my thoughts and spent an hour doing this at work. I really can not help myself. 
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I think Philly wants Russell, no way they would trade MCW for nobody, keeping in mind they have Noel and Embiid as their bigs. Its common sense who they're going for.

One thing im looking at is that J. Okafor shot a FG% of 66 and FT% of 51%. Towns shot FG of 56% BUT FT was 81%. Okafor averaged 30 minutes per game and Towns averaged 21 minutes per game.
 
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