Dont blame melo

http://crankuptheheat.net/hard-to-blame-melo/

Yes, I am sticking up for Melo in this article. I think he is hte most overrated player in the league. I would not touch him with a 10 foot pole if I was a GM. I am not a melo fan, but I dont think you can blame him for this loss.

The problem in my opinion is the Knicks didn't build a team. They threw a bunch of players that were good in another system together. They didn't look at how the players would mesh or if what made them successful with their former team was there with the Knicks.


I think I'm gonna create a sticky in the rest of the league forum just for you to post links to your articals. I really enjoy reading them.

Romoholic wrote:

The problem in my opinion is the Knicks didn't build a team. They threw a bunch of players that were good in another system together. They didn't look at how the players would mesh or if what made them successful with their former team was there with the Knicks.


I think I'm gonna create a sticky in the rest of the league forum just for you to post links to your articals. I really enjoy reading them.

I totally agree, but i dont want to make the articles too long. I could have gone into more detail about amare, and how his skill set is basically the exact same as melo, but felt like it was getting too long if i did that.

Knicks brass' just a bunch of nonsense dudes. First they signed zillions of dollars for a group of idiotc nonsense no-brain players; then they've decided to hire D'Anthony. They're just nuts.

Well, it's actually worse than that, outerspace. There isn't really any "Knicks brass" anymore. They had Donnie Walsh for a while, but what happened there is illustrative of what the Knicks are about, and why they don't have any 'brass'. Or a chance of winning a championship for many years.

See, the owner, James Dolan, has, as his primary skill, "inheriting things". He didn't wrest control of the Knicks from other wealthy competitors in vicious boardroom battles. He didn't earn the fortune necessary to purchase the team. He wasn't asked to put together a group of investors because of his standing in the community. No, he just inherited the Knicks, along with MSG and Cablevision as a nearly unscrewuppable* cash cow.

Now, I'm sure Dolan can do a lot of things better than he can evaluate basketball talent, or "basketball talent evaluators". Inheriting things, as mentioned...tying his shoes, fronting a cover band, firing people, rewarding sycophants and yes-men...hell, he can do anything better than he can evaluate basketball talent, or "basketball talent evaluators". And that's how he ended up with Isaiah Thomas running his team.

Isaiah had all the perquisites, it must have seemed to Dolan: he was black, dressed nice, spoke well and had been a Hall of Fame NBA player. So it must have come as a shock to Dolan to find, several years down the line, that "Zeke" had put together a team that not only didn't have a chance to win (anything, ever) but somehow, despite have a high-luxury-tax payroll, did not have any assets!

No draft choices, and no players with trade value, in some cases because of the ridiculous contracts Thomas had doles out to them, in others because Thomas had been completely wrong about a player's abilities. AND no draft choices. At one point Stern had Dolan in for a nice chat, that I imagine had a lot in common with the chat between Arthur Jensen and Howard Beale in Network.

I'm sure Stern reminded him of the importance of the New York market to the league, the proud history of the franchise, yadayada. And eventually Isaiah was gone and Donny Walsh brought in to right the ship.

And it was working! It took two painful, hopeless years, but Walsh had the team positioned with draft choices, a coach with a popular system and credibility, a core of hard-working young players and finally, finally, cap room. They signed Stoudemire and had Carmelo champing at the bit to join them FOR NOTHING in the off-season.

Then all that work, all that sacrifice, all that careful positioning and salary cap management was thrown out the window (along with Walsh himself) because Dolan needed "to make a splash". He wanted to raise ticket prices in the renovated Garden and wanted some "buzz" before he did so. So he dumped most of their good young players and draft choices, to obtain Carmelo for a third of a season before he could have been obtained in the off-season (for NOTHING!).

Knicks management isn't just "nuts", outerspace. A crazy person might accidentally make a good decision now and then. So expect to see Isaiah brought back, Carmelo trying to drive Jeremy Lin out, more drama than wins.

And all because of Dolan. A clueless man with few personal accomplishments (besides his great "inheriting things" abilities) competing with Buford, and Pop, and Cuban and Sam Presti and Kevin O'Connor and Daryl Morey, etc., etc... He may still be a better owner than Donald Stirling or the Maloofs, but that's small consolation to Knicks fans.

*-wait...spell check doesn't catch "unscrewuppable" as misspelled?? Hell, it's not even a word!

It's a shame what has happened to the Knicks. Those teams of the early to mid 90s were the real deal. If it weren't for MJ that team would have multiple championships.

Even though I was a Jazz fan I was much more interested in eastern conference ball outside of Jazz games. You had teams like the Bulls, Knicks, Pacers, Pisons and Cavs and it was like a brawl every night. The eastern conference playoffs in the 90s were gave us some of the most exciting basketball that has ever been played.

That's when I became a huge fan of the game. Not those teams, but I loved watching them play. It was amazing watching the story of Jordan. Trying to get over the hump that was the Pistons and then watching all the east team struggle o try to take down the Jordan led Bulls.

Basketball was just a better game back then. It's too bad owners in the NBA can't force out another owner like they can in baseball.