*Felton traded to the Knicks. Knicks not matching Lin?

[qam]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the Knicks finished off the year 12-5 without Lin. My gut tells me that 33rd street won't implode if the Knicks don't bring Lin back.

[Brownsville's Finest]

From an outsider looking in, it's pretty obvious he is gone.

1) Style of play. Lin and Carmelo do not work together. Both need the ball in their hands to make something happen. It's as simple as that. It is clear with the moves they have made (Kidd, Felton, bringing back J.R., adding Camby) that they are complimentary peices to Melo. Lin and Fields are NOT.

2) The third year will cost the Knicks 40 mil. I understand Dolan is loaded but is he really going to pay that much money for this guy who actually hurts Melo's game? It doesn't make sense. What are they going to do, let him sit on the bench just to reep the marketing benefits? Highly unlikely...

People ask, so why not match and then just trade him later? Valid point but they would have to trade him in January. Are they willing to sacrafice half a season with chemistry problems and then have trouble trading him with that contract after his poor play? Doubt it

they wont listen

[darthkiller]

From an outsider looking in, it's pretty obvious he is gone.

1) Style of play. Lin and Carmelo do not work together. Both need the ball in their hands to make something happen. It's as simple as that. It is clear with the moves they have made (Kidd, Felton, bringing back J.R., adding Camby) that they are complimentary peices to Melo. Lin and Fields are NOT.

2) The third year will cost the Knicks 40 mil. I understand Dolan is loaded but is he really going to pay that much money for this guy who actually hurts Melo's game? It doesn't make sense. What are they going to do, let him sit on the bench just to reep the marketing benefits? Highly unlikely...

People ask, so why not match and then just trade him later? Valid point but they would have to trade him in January. Are they willing to sacrafice half a season with chemistry problems and then have trouble trading him with that contract after his poor play? Doubt it

how is fattie felton complimentary piece to melo? other than the fact he makes melo look in shape

[knicks742]

From an outsider looking in, it's pretty obvious he is gone.

1) Style of play. Lin and Carmelo do not work together. Both need the ball in their hands to make something happen. It's as simple as that. It is clear with the moves they have made (Kidd, Felton, bringing back J.R., adding Camby) that they are complimentary peices to Melo. Lin and Fields are NOT.

2) The third year will cost the Knicks 40 mil. I understand Dolan is loaded but is he really going to pay that much money for this guy who actually hurts Melo's game? It doesn't make sense. What are they going to do, let him sit on the bench just to reep the marketing benefits? Highly unlikely...

People ask, so why not match and then just trade him later? Valid point but they would have to trade him in January. Are they willing to sacrafice half a season with chemistry problems and then have trouble trading him with that contract after his poor play? Doubt it

Your first point is not valid. Did you watch any Knicks games where Melo and Lin played together and had a full team? I believe we were 6-1 and were extremely succesful at running a pick and roll together. The idea that they can't play together is simply not supported by any evidence.

[ihaveawizardowl]

I think I'm going to take a break until Wednesday. I doubt I'll be able to stay away, but I have a feeling this story is going to change a good 25 times before the dust finally settles. Right now, it's looking like Lin won't be back. I really can't believe it, but I'll try to spend my time doing something positive for a few days and slowly wrap my mind around the fact Lin is gone.

If I come back, and we have matched, great. If not, I'll be mentally prepared. Peace.

[lloydj]

Mr. Felton and Mr Thomas welcome back to the Knicks, much respect.

[Bill Bradley]

Your posts are so well thought out and convincing.

Let me go one by one for you:

Novak is a 1-dimensional shooter and will be 32 in that season.

Kidd will be 42 and is already almost out of steam.

Camby will be 42 -- lucky to get 12 *decent* MPG out of him at that point.

Felton is garbage and overweight now. Two years from now he'll be bigger garbage and more overweight.

Well said. I don't think one can make a good financial argument for NOT signing Lin.

To take it a step further, in three years Amare will be making more than $23k and he is a much larger injury risk than Lin. Wouldn't we be better off matching Lin and trying to unload Amare? Or worst case scenario, Lin can be used to unload Amare's contract down the road to make a push for CP3.

[god shammgod]

one thing is clear. no matter what happens, this organization is not totally sold on him as a basketball player.

[K_ick_God]

i'm no felton fan but cj choked in the playoffs something awful.

Yes but that doesn't make him worse than Felton who was awful in the playoffs two seasons ago with Denver.

[Brownsville's Finest]

one thing is clear. no matter what happens, this organization is not totally sold on him as a basketball player.

exactly and if they are not totally sold then they are making basketball decisions not pr decisions which should be celebrated

[ptsuperfly]

Wow guys. As a Nuggets and Melo fan, Felton is kind of dumb. Good back-up, though, but he whines about it like a mofo.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Bill Bradley]

one thing is clear. no matter what happens, this organization is not totally sold on him as a basketball player.

Yep and I think that Lin has known that ever since Woodson took over. I have to think that has had some impact on Lin's dealings with Houston.

[K_ick_God]

one thing is clear. no matter what happens, this organization is not totally sold on him as a basketball player.

Which is a pretty scary thing in and of itself.

Lin was still playing at an All-Star level before he got hurt.

[kingOfqueens]

Camby
Novak
Kidd
Felton

All add up to very close to $15M in the year that Lin will make $15M. But that combination together doesn't equal Lin's impact to the Knicks.

Just no way to justify letting him go.

No disrespect to these 4 guys, but I would trade them all for Lin in a heartbeat.

camby is going to make a huge difference for us, at least for next year, not sure how well he's going to age into years 2 and 3 of his contract.

But regardless letting lin go makes no sense financially or from a basketball standpoint. Lux tax will be easily offset by the revenue he generates. Basketball wise even if he only puts up 13/6 he''s going to be a trade asset... there will be teams that trade for him even with a 15million expiring on year 3.

Letting him go might be as dumb as trading gerald wallace on the last yr of his contract for a 6th pick.

[Red Vines]

I always thought Lin was a gritty, throwback type of player who could fit in with the tough old-school Knicks. He'd fit in fine with this new roster.

[sol537]

my main problem with losing Lin for nothing basically is that he's a huge money maker for the Knicks and he's a big trade chip. Why let assets like that go. Dolan has *never* been cheap in this regard... why start now?

[carayip]

From an outsider looking in, it's pretty obvious he is gone.

1) Style of play. Lin and Carmelo do not work together. Both need the ball in their hands to make something happen. It's as simple as that. It is clear with the moves they have made (Kidd, Felton, bringing back J.R., adding Camby) that they are complimentary peices to Melo. Lin and Fields are NOT.

From a pure bball standpoint, I honestly don't think those guys complement Melo's game more than Lin. I see a buddy buddy phenomenal more than anything. All the guys they bought in are good friends of the current "stars". These cannot be all bball decisions. We will see JR's brother making the team next, guaranteed.

[god shammgod]

i'm no felton fan but cj choked in the playoffs something awful.

Yes but that doesn't make him worse than Felton who was awful in the playoffs two seasons ago with Denver.

well, i really don't think either one is good enough to argue for.

[BeagleBoss]

Call me naive but I still think we'll match. I still say Felton was brought in to replace Fields (notice how the trade happened immediately after we declined to match) and add guard depth. It was well known Grunwald was looking for another guard. Foye and Jones were mentioned. Felton can defend some 2's with his big butt and score the ball. To say Felton was brought in to replace Lin makes no sense to me. We'd still need another guard if we don't match. Lin is too valuable on and off the court not to match. Dolan isn't going to get cheap now after spending for so many years.

Not matching just makes no sense.

[K_ick_God]

Only thing that makes sense is Dolan getting personally offended.

What a nightmare if that's what is going on lol.