twballgame9 {l Wrote}:HJS {l Wrote}:cvilleagle {l Wrote}:Have to agree with 9 on this. They decimated their roster for this trade, and that would even be fine if they had 2 superstars, but they have 1, given that Amare is toast. So Carmelo is going to try to carry the team, and he's a very, very, good player, but he's not good enough to carry them night in and night out. Ronnie Turiaf is this team's starting center. Ronnie Turiaf.
That being said, while they're not better, it may still have been a good trade. At least they'll sell some tickets, and they weren't a legit contender anyways.
And the Cs did worse damage to their roster to acquire Garnett. They filled it with late 1st rounders, 2nd rounders and exception contracts... and then they went out and won the gd NBA championship. Every team would gut their roster for one of the true bonafide stars in the Association. The Knicks are better today than they were yesterday. And they are better tomorrow too. The issues with Amare's knees are real. But, they already had the risk. They didn't just acquire him in the deal.
The question I raised was whether they are good enough. They aren't. Amare was a well-deserved All-Star and, so long as he can deal with the bone-on-bone grinding, he will continue to be an elite player. When combined with Carmelo, this means that the Knicks will win twice as many games as they lose. They don't play D and that will be their death in the second round of the playoffs. But, they will make the second round (which they couldn't say before the trade).
Yeah, this really isn't anything like the Garnett/Allen acquisitions, which happened in the same preseason to add a 2nd and 3rd star. The Cs already had a young center that they didn't trade and had just made the steal of the draft with Glen Davis. They also had a PG that was about to blossom, Rondo, and a defensive stopper in Tony Allen, and a bull on the glass in leon Powe. Add to that fact that FA was still going on, so they made the roster deep with guys that were contributers, like Posey and House.
And the people we gave up were bonuses. Big Al was hard but he plateaued a little. Delonte is back and the presence of Rondo padded that loss, but the loss of Sczerbiack, Gomes, Telfair, and the first round pick (jeff green) didnt hurt us.