Why the Melo Trade Was Good

Despite being swept by the Celtics, having few draft picks, and possibly minimal cap room, depending on where it get set, the Knicks are in a vastly better position than they were before the Melo trade. Yes, we need depth, a center, a point guard who isn't a member of AARP and some three-point shooting, but the presence of two super stars (yes, super stars) at the forward spots puts us in a position to be among the NBA's elite. According to John Hollinger's PER ranking, the following are the pairs of teammates to rank in the top 20 in the NBA:

Melo/Amare - Knicks
Wade/James - Heat
Durant/Westbrook - Thunder
Bryant/Gasol - Lakers
Duncan/Ginobli - Spurs

Expand it to the top 30, and the only other team with more than one is the Celtics, with Pierce and Garnett.

What do those teams have in common?

The one, two and three seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs. The only exception is Chicago, with the league's MVP at #9 and Carlos Boozer at #40.

They are all also still alive in the playoffs, except for the Spurs.

Our super stars have many issues (Amare doesn't rebound and neither play any defense), but their pairing is a start towards greatness. Maybe Gallo turns into Dirk 2.0 or Chandler into Melo 2.0, but we have the original now, and the Knicks future is only looking better for it.

Knicks Looking (Small) Forward?

Remember Allan Houston? Latrell Sprewell? The Knicks once had two All-Star shooting guards, who they played at the same time (Sprewell usually played small forward, although he played point for a little bit as well) because they were so good, they needed them both on the court at the same time. So it is odd to look at Mike D'Antoni's system and not see the Knicks with ANY shooting guards on the roster, especially given how well shooting guards have done in his systems. (Anyone else think Allan Houston would have thrived in this system?)

Joe Johnson, Casey Jacobsen, Raja Bell, Quentin Richardson, Leandro Barbosa (really a combo guard), Eric Piatkowski. All shooting guards who played much better than their previous or post-D'Antoni careers (yes, Joe Johnson got a max contract, but, come on). In the Carmelo Anthony three-way trade, the Knicks got Corey Brewer, a talented, if erratic, shooting guard, from Minnesota. He was the only true shooting guard on the Knicks roster, with a good outside shot, and some effort on defense. What did Walsh/D'Antoni do? Buy him out.

Huh???

So now we are left with Bill Walker, Shawne Williams, Carmelo Anthony, Landry Fields, Renaldo Balkman, Derrick Brown, Jared Jeffries. That is 7 out of the 15 players on the Knick roster who are small forwards. Andy Rautins is basically PNG, so fully HALF of the Knicks players are small forwards.

Now, in D'Antoni's system, positions are a bit amorphous, but Shawne Williams at Center? Landry Fields as the starting shooting guard? The Knicks recent moves expose some serious roster construction flaws, not the least of which is the lack of a shoot guard OR center.

This system is built on making opponents pay for leaving shooters open, and Donnie and D'Antoni have managed to construct a roster with as little shooting as possible. How are Derrick Brown and Jared Jeffries a better fit for this roster than Corey Brewer, who, by the way, can also play small forward if needed?

The Peter Principle in Action

The Peter Principle is a relatively simple principle that states:

"In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence."

Well, it is apparent that nowhere is this more evident than in the world of sports. You can point to announcers, AAAA players who are too good to keep in the minors, but maybe not good enough to make it in the majors, and, most importantly, executives.

Isiah Thomas is a hall-of-fame basketball player, but as an executive, he was horrific. Now, to be fair, Isiah did have his strengths. He was a great talent evaluator. His drafts with both the Raptors and Knicks were well-above average. Ariza, McGrady, Chandler, all far outperformed their draft spots and expectations. He was also apparently great at whispering in old rich guys' ears and getting them to turn over basketball operations to them.

What he wasn't good at, was running a team. Now, if Isiah were simply a draft guru, or even a GM, with a strong President of Basketball Operations above him, things would have been very simple, and we would all be raving about his ability to find gems in the draft. A veritable Jerry West, pre-Grizzlies. But we're not. We're talking about his miserable failure and eternal skullfucking of the Knicks. And the Raptors. And the CBA. Fuck.

The other recent example of this is now Omar Minaya. Like Thomas, Minaya is apparently blessed with the ability to find some diamonds in the rough, and evaluate some young talent. Maybe not so much with pitching, but definately with hitters and fielders. He has a great track record of landing the big fish: Bartolo Colon and Cliff Floyd in Montreal, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez in New York. He has a decent track record with reclamation projects and finding cheap talent.

However, He has recently proven that once those diamonds are found, and the big fish are caught, he simply can not properly evaluate the baseball marketplace and find good trades to make his team better for the long term. This all culminates with Ryan Church for Jeff Francouer. Francouer might be the worst everyday player in the National League. There is general debate about just how good of a defensive outfielder he is, but the consensus is that he is above-average. Hey, guess what? Ryan Church is an above average defensive outfielder...who actually can hit a little. He's no world beater, but, come on, Jeff Francouer has sucked horribly for two years! And it's not like he has the track record of Gary Sheffield, a worthwhile reclamation project, who had no cost to acquire. Many news organizations were speculating that the Braves had soured on Frenchy so much that they were going to release him.

Let me say that again. Omar just traded our most consistent outfielder, and our only regular playing above-average defense...for someone who was going to be released...Well, I guess you could say that we needed a right-handed bat in a division with such tough lefties like...Scott Olsen? Sure, the Phillies have lefties, but those lefties rely on changeups, which actually makes righties WORSE matchups! But the final nail in the coffin for this trade...is that Jim Bowden thinks it's a good trade for the Mets!

The Knicks: Fucked?

As a sports loving male in his 20's, one of my favorite things to do used to be (is?) rebuilding my favorite sports teams via video game. The Mets with Brandon Webb and Francisco Liriano in their rotation? Sure. The Rams with Mario Williams at DE? Perfect. Of course, when you do this, you tend to keep those players that you love, that you WANT to see succeed. David Wright didn't go anywhere. Neither did Jose Reyes, or Ryan Church. Steven Jackson, Richie Incognito and OJ Agotwe? Not playing home games outside of Missouri.

Whats my point? Well, I'm a Knick fan. Always have been. Nothing was ever funnier to me than when Chris Rock said that Jermaine Jackson (R.I.P. Michael) was so greasy, he was glistening, "like Patrick Ewing in the fourth quarter. Somebody throw some sand on that nigga!!!!"

Lets run through an exercise here. Who from the Knicks would I keep, if I were playing a video game, i.e. Who do I want Donnie Walsh to keep in rebuilding the team (other than whoever LeBron tells him to)? And, I'm thinking long term (i.e. 2010), since we all know we're not going anywhere next year, and everyone knows that 2010 is when the real rebuilding (James, Wade, Bosh, Nowitzki, Stoudamire, etc...) begins.

Current Knick Players:

Wilson Chandler, Joe Crawford, Eddy Curry, Chris Duhon, Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington, Larry Hughes, Chris Hunter, Jared Jeffries, David Lee, Cutino Mobley, Quentin Richardson, Nate Robinson, Mouhamed Sene, Chris Wilcox, Jordan Hill

Get rid of Isiah's ongoing mistakes:
Now, we all know that Donnie is going to have to force that fat fuck Eddy Curry to retire (punch him in the heart a few times?), because there's no way he's retiring and Isiah apparently gave him a contract through 2015 that is only payable in cheez doodles. Jared Jeffries could be usable for Washington, or maybe Toronto, both of whom need someone, anyone, who can play D. Additionally, both of their contracts run through 2011, so they need to go.

Allow some contracts to expire.
One of Isiah's mistakes (to be fair, this started with not letting Ewing's contract expire) was always trading expiring contracts for longer ones. That is fine if you're Cleveland and you NEED to win this year and you're close, but the Knicks? Really? Big expiring contracts next year are Harrington, Hughes, Duhon and Q-Rich.

Flotsam and Jetsam.
Joe Crawford? Chris Hunter? Mouhamed Sene and Chris Wilcox? I thought Cuttino Mobley was retired?

Restricted Free Agents.
Everyone knows that David Lee and Nate Robinson are restricted free agents this season. Now, the best course of action is to either trade them for picks or let them sign a one-year tender and then resign or leave after another year of evaluation, but that's neither here nor there. Do I want them on the team? As much as I love Nate Dogg, I don't think he's a starter. And he will demand starter's minutes and money. So he's gone. And David Lee is a great rebounder...and that's about it. Again, not a starter on a championship team unless he's playing next to Duncan or Shaq in his prime. So they're probably gone for the overall good of the team.

What we're left with.

Danillo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Jordan Hill

Yeah, that's it. Sad? And I would love to see any of those traded for Ricky Rubio. Or Steve Nash. Or whoever can bring us LeBron.

Sad.