PG: Nobody likes Black Santa Claus

[BBALLER4FR]

It's crazy how some of you actually compare Phil to the past decade of suck. If Phil leaves tomorrow, the franchise will be in 100x better shape than it ever was under Layden, IT, Walsh and Grunwald.

We have things we never had before. We have a great cap situation. We have a great rookie. We have a superstar. We have some other good valuable assets. We have no albatrosses or big deficiencies.

Yes, our head coaching situation leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, our depth is one of the worst in the league. Everything can't be fixed right away. The hard part was already done. Phil has reset this team in terms of assets and put us in a healthy situation going forward.

But we have not be placed into great cap situation by Phil Jackson. And we do have both albatrosses and big deficiencies.

The skyrocketing cap isn't due to Phil Jackson's moves, it's due to the NBA increasing the salary cap. Would have applied and been available to any GM. The majority of teams in the NBA will have significant cap space...and that doesn't mean that we should applaud every one of those teams GM's.

If anything Jackson's moves have put a mini choke hold on the Knicks cap, both for this past off season and potentially for the upcoming off season. Calderon's $7.5 million contract is locked in through next season. Afflalo and Williams combined $12.5 million also could become locked in (their option, not team option). Kyle O'Quinn (currently 1 of 7 PF' son the team) is another $4 million of of cap space locked into someone that is not used and don't project to have much use. Even Robin Lopez, a fine role player that would ideally be someone you add AFTER you have established your foundation/core and looking to make an impact in the playoffs, potentially can be viewed as excessive use of the cap (and he counts $13.2 million against the cap this off season).

You're looking at it all wrong. You're not coping because you refuse to use your

[will34]

There's never been an interim coach that's been the worst coach in NBA history.

Jim Todd 4-33 with the Clippers in 2000 and wasn't fired.
Kevin Pritchard 5-22 with the Blazers in 2005 and wasn't fired.
Kenny Natt 11-47 with the Kings in 2009 and wasn't fired.
And Earl Watson is currently 1-11 with the Suns and won't be fired.

Rambis at 2-6 won't be fired either, no matter how much he sucks. This season is already over for us. If anything, we should all be rooting for Rambis to fail, to ensure that he won't be a candidate this summer.

He also won't be fired because it would be stupid to fire a coach whose very title implies he's a placeholder, and then have to find another coach for 20 games

Will be worth it just to not waste Carmelo on a lost season. Him playing almost 40MPG is so dumb--it sums up Rambis as a coach well.

[Carl_Karlson]

Every year it gets worse and worse

[JohnStarksTheDunk]

There's never been an interim coach that's been the worst coach in NBA history.

Jim Todd 4-33 with the Clippers in 2000 and wasn't fired.
Kevin Pritchard 5-22 with the Blazers in 2005 and wasn't fired.
Kenny Natt 11-47 with the Kings in 2009 and wasn't fired.
And Earl Watson is currently 1-11 with the Suns and won't be fired.

Rambis at 2-6 won't be fired either, no matter how much he sucks. This season is already over for us. If anything, we should all be rooting for Rambis to fail, to ensure that he won't be a candidate this summer.

He also won't be fired because it would be stupid to fire a coach whose very title implies he's a placeholder, and then have to find another coach for 20 games

Exactly. He's just a body to keep the seat warm.

[F N 11]

Im starting to think we have to trade Melo just to finally get a real starting PG. I would do Melo for Kyrie.

[HEZI]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/FisolaNYDN/status/705078134538944512[/tweet]

[GONYK]

Jim Todd 4-33 with the Clippers in 2000 and wasn't fired.
Kevin Pritchard 5-22 with the Blazers in 2005 and wasn't fired.
Kenny Natt 11-47 with the Kings in 2009 and wasn't fired.
And Earl Watson is currently 1-11 with the Suns and won't be fired.

Rambis at 2-6 won't be fired either, no matter how much he sucks. This season is already over for us. If anything, we should all be rooting for Rambis to fail, to ensure that he won't be a candidate this summer.

He also won't be fired because it would be stupid to fire a coach whose very title implies he's a placeholder, and then have to find another coach for 20 games

Will be worth it just to not waste Carmelo on a lost season. Him playing almost 40MPG is so dumb--it sums up Rambis as a coach well.

No, it won't. The season is lost anyway.

Why do you think Cleamons will do anything different than Rambis when Rambis hasn't done anything different from Fisher?

Haven't you guys learned that "literally anyone would be better than __________" is almost never true?

[will34]

He also won't be fired because it would be stupid to fire a coach whose very title implies he's a placeholder, and then have to find another coach for 20 games

Will be worth it just to not waste Carmelo on a lost season. Him playing almost 40MPG is so dumb--it sums up Rambis as a coach well.

No, it won't. The season is lost anyway.

Why do you think Cleamons will do anything different than Rambis when Rambis hasn't done anything different from Fisher?

Haven't you guys learned that "literally anyone would be better than __________" is almost never true?

I didn't want Fisher fired mid season cause I knew how bad Rambis was. I watched Rambis in Minny. This guy coaches for his personal career over the teams interest. Enough is enough.

[moocow007]

I want all of you to go to your job and produce the results Phil has, while being solely responsible for the hire of every member of your staff and see if you too can deflect all the blame to the owner, your predecessor and your underling (Mills). See how that works out for you.

#firephil

If I went into a business, cut out their malcontent, stabilized their assets, brought in a great product for multiple years (Porzingis), managed to keep another great product in the company (Melo) and made their future look much better, I'd be looking for a raise.

You are seriously stretching things here.

Cutting the malcontent(s) -- the malcontent(s) would have left if you just let him (them) alone. Also, the malcontent was apparently valued by your competition a lot more than you and you basically gave him away for what you valued him at. This last bit is most definitely NOT a sound business move. If you believe it is, then my guess is you haven't been running a real successful business.

Stabilized assets -- what assets did he stabilize? He traded away every single 2nd round pick until 2020 for essentially nothing. He failed to acquire any back court assets of any worth or productivity. He has 7 players who's ideal position may be the same position on the roster (that he built) which by nature devalues at least half of those "assets" going forward. Is it because he didn't trade the 2018 1st? If so, that's 'stabilizing assets'? Come on. That's basically the "hey at least he's not Isiah Thomas" argument to try to justify how good he is.

Managed to keep another great product in the company -- let's be honest...Anthony likely would have come back regardless of who was the GM. He loves being in NY and he loves money. Resigning with the Knicks was the only option that would provide him both. Especially since it appeared that some of the other teams he may have considered wasn't willing to give him the max (even for 4 years).

Future much better -- based on what? Just having Porzingis here? What move, other than drafting Porzingis, has made the Knicks future look much better? Robin Lopez? Lopez is a role player. That's what he is. And I've always been a fan of Robin Lopez. What other move that he's made makes the future look much better? Not trading the 2018 1st round pick (again back to the "better than Isiah" isn't necessarily something to pat yourself on the back on point).

[moocow007]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/FisolaNYDN/status/705078134538944512[/tweet]

They're waiting to see if the the Warriors will cut Steph Curry?

[GONYK]

Will be worth it just to not waste Carmelo on a lost season. Him playing almost 40MPG is so dumb--it sums up Rambis as a coach well.

No, it won't. The season is lost anyway.

Why do you think Cleamons will do anything different than Rambis when Rambis hasn't done anything different from Fisher?

Haven't you guys learned that "literally anyone would be better than __________" is almost never true?

I didn't want Fisher fired mid season cause I knew how bad Rambis was. I watched Rambis in Minny. This guy coaches for his personal career over the teams interest. Enough is enough.

Enough will be enough in 20 games, when we find a new coach for the new season.

[Sark]

Will be worth it just to not waste Carmelo on a lost season. Him playing almost 40MPG is so dumb--it sums up Rambis as a coach well.

No, it won't. The season is lost anyway.

Why do you think Cleamons will do anything different than Rambis when Rambis hasn't done anything different from Fisher?

Haven't you guys learned that "literally anyone would be better than __________" is almost never true?

I didn't want Fisher fired mid season cause I knew how bad Rambis was. I watched Rambis in Minny. This guy coaches for his personal career over the teams interest. Enough is enough.

Fisher had to go because of the bad look he created for the organization. Sleeping with a player's wife, verbal sparring with another, and not caring about the playoffs was more than the team could take. Even 1 of those can be a fireable offense. He managed to do all 3.

[moocow007]

It's crazy how some of you actually compare Phil to the past decade of suck. If Phil leaves tomorrow, the franchise will be in 100x better shape than it ever was under Layden, IT, Walsh and Grunwald.

We have things we never had before. We have a great cap situation. We have a great rookie. We have a superstar. We have some other good valuable assets. We have no albatrosses or big deficiencies.

Yes, our head coaching situation leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, our depth is one of the worst in the league. Everything can't be fixed right away. The hard part was already done. Phil has reset this team in terms of assets and put us in a healthy situation going forward.

But we have not be placed into great cap situation by Phil Jackson. And we do have both albatrosses and big deficiencies.

The skyrocketing cap isn't due to Phil Jackson's moves, it's due to the NBA increasing the salary cap. Would have applied and been available to any GM. The majority of teams in the NBA will have significant cap space...and that doesn't mean that we should applaud every one of those teams GM's.

If anything Jackson's moves have put a mini choke hold on the Knicks cap, both for this past off season and potentially for the upcoming off season. Calderon's $7.5 million contract is locked in through next season. Afflalo and Williams combined $12.5 million also could become locked in (their option, not team option). Kyle O'Quinn (currently 1 of 7 PF' son the team) is another $4 million of of cap space locked into someone that is not used and don't project to have much use. Even Robin Lopez, a fine role player that would ideally be someone you add AFTER you have established your foundation/core and looking to make an impact in the playoffs, potentially can be viewed as excessive use of the cap (and he counts $13.2 million against the cap this off season).

You're looking at it all wrong. You're not coping because you refuse to use your

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFA90hSbAUA[/youtube]

[Blue Ninja]

It's crazy how some of you actually compare Phil to the past decade of suck. If Phil leaves tomorrow, the franchise will be in 100x better shape than it ever was under Layden, IT, Walsh and Grunwald.

We have things we never had before. We have a great cap situation. We have a great rookie. We have a superstar. We have some other good valuable assets. We have no albatrosses or big deficiencies.

Yes, our head coaching situation leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, our depth is one of the worst in the league. Everything can't be fixed right away. The hard part was already done. Phil has reset this team in terms of assets and put us in a healthy situation going forward.

But we have not be placed into great cap situation by Phil Jackson. And we do have both albatrosses and big deficiencies.

The skyrocketing cap isn't due to Phil Jackson's moves, it's due to the NBA increasing the salary cap. Would have applied and been available to any GM. The majority of teams in the NBA will have significant cap space...and that doesn't mean that we should applaud every one of those teams GM's.

If anything Jackson's moves have put a mini choke hold on the Knicks cap, both for this past off season and potentially for the upcoming off season. Calderon's $7.5 million contract is locked in through next season. Afflalo and Williams combined $12.5 million also could become locked in (their option, not team option). Kyle O'Quinn (currently 1 of 7 PF' son the team) is another $4 million of of cap space locked into someone that is not used and don't project to have much use. Even Robin Lopez, a fine role player that would ideally be someone you add AFTER you have established your foundation/core and looking to make an impact in the playoffs, potentially can be viewed as excessive use of the cap (and he counts $13.2 million against the cap this off season).

What are the big deficiencies and albatrosses that Phil put us in for the future?

No, we aren't getting an extreme amount of cap space because of what Phil has done, but he has managed the cap very well, with the league wide expectation of the cap increases. The Lopez contract looks like a bargain next year. It was market price this year.

He has us with many more future assets than what we had when he took the job. That's undeniable and something I've posted here before.

The one bad player acquisition move has been Calderon. Any rational mind will admit to that.

Afflalo and Williams would be GREAT 1 year contracts and worth at the very least a dump type trade, in a league where everyone has cap space. I hope they opt in so we can have two more assets.

Our bench is one of our biggest holes in this team (other than guard defense and PG), so O'Quinn is a nice cheap depth. I don't mind him at all, as long as there is a coach to get him to stop shooting terrible shots.

I disagree on Rolo. When the cap is going to bounce up like it was, you get Rolo on his contract so you can have a great cheap asset. He also helps Porzingis and Melo take less wear and tear. Just a very good all around asset for our team.

[mpharris36]

Some of y'all are so delusional. I'll leave MP to deal with this chit

[BKlutch]

"he's better then isiah" shouldn't be the only accomplishment a gm needs here. it should be something more.

You seem to forget that he also drafted KP...only the most promising player we've had on this team since Ewing.

Actually, the most promising player was Amare. He promised he'd make us good. But he didn't deliver.

[HerSports85]

The same guys that want to rebuild wanted Phil to apparently build a team that was really good this year. Can't have it both ways fellas.

lol I just want a clear direction. Phil is the one trying to have it both ways. most fans will be ok if we were actually rebuilding

[mpharris36]

The same guys that want to rebuild wanted Phil to apparently build a team that was really good this year. Can't have it both ways fellas.

lol I just want a clear direction. Phil is the one trying to hae it both ways.

you can't tank with no draft pick. That isn't Phil fault. Maybe the full on rebuild happens next year when we have our full compliment of picks...

[Blue Ninja]

You are seriously stretching things here.

Cutting the malcontent(s) -- the malcontent(s) would have left if you just let him (them) alone. Also, the malcontent was apparently valued by your competition a lot more than you and you basically gave him away for what you valued him at. This last bit is most definitely NOT a sound business move. If you believe it is, then my guess is you haven't been running a real successful business.

Stabilized assets -- what assets did he stabilize? He traded away every single 2nd round pick until 2020 for essentially nothing. He failed to acquire any back court assets of any worth or productivity. He has 7 players who's ideal position may be the same position on the roster (that he built) which by nature devalues at least half of those "assets" going forward. Is it because he didn't trade the 2018 1st? If so, that's 'stabilizing assets'? Come on. That's basically the "hey at least he's not Isiah Thomas" argument to try to justify how good he is.

Managed to keep another great product in the company -- let's be honest...Anthony likely would have come back regardless of who was the GM. He loves being in NY and he loves money. Resigning with the Knicks was the only option that would provide him both. Especially since it appeared that some of the other teams he may have considered wasn't willing to give him the max (even for 4 years).

Future much better -- based on what? Just having Porzingis here? What move, other than drafting Porzingis, has made the Knicks future look much better? Robin Lopez? Lopez is a role player. That's what he is. And I've always been a fan of Robin Lopez. What other move that he's made makes the future look much better? Not trading the 2018 1st round pick (again back to the "better than Isiah" isn't necessarily something to pat yourself on the back on point).

First of all, I was just making a point of how stupid it is to compare real world to sports world, but I'll bite.

Letting the malcontents contracts expire, doesn't remove them now. A cancer spreads if you don't remove it.


On assets - He traded 2 2nd rounders for Hernangomez's rights, who many view as a first round pick quality this year. Still, not including Hernangomez and looking just at the future, he got 3 2nd round picks and traded 4. That's not including multiple 2nd rounders he's added these past two years or drafting Porzingis.

Yes, the PG deficiency is real, but it's not something that was easily attainable in the market. The 7 players for one position thing, is your own evaluation.

It's about not going for the quick fix, which many would've.


Managing to keep Anthony - I deal with facts. He kept Anthony who was a free agent looking around.


Future much better - Resigning Anthony (a big asset, especially with the cap jump), drafting the right guy at #4, keeping all of our draft picks, not having big longterm money on scrub players. Basically everything that every other GM here had done wrong.

[dakomish23]

1. You can't use this current roster and say if the cap wasn't going up, we'd be in trouble. The 2016 and 2017 cap numbers were out before FA. PJax moves are based on the existing knowledge at the time. Plus, some of our guys probably get smaller deals since players were getting contracts based on the future cap estimates.

2. You get what you pay for. PJax didn't trade a 1st rd pick for Teague. I thought everyone wanted to keep the pick? If so, enjoy having the a guy who would be 3rd string on more than half the teams in this league, while also being the worst defender at PG, at the most critical position in today's NBA.

I don't get it. Did folks expect a 50 win team with home court advantage? Our ceiling was always the 7th/8th seed.

Anyway, stop the farce and ROLL IT OVER TO 2017