Post#1191 » by Falstaffxx » Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:19 pm
I'm still holding out hope that we are matching, but let me describe how I feel, for argument's sake, under the assumption that we're not bringing Lin back:
It's a damn shame. It's a terrible decision from a basketball standpoint. Lin is an excellent player. As a starter, he played like an all-star, period. Don't give nonsense about small sample size. It was a big enough sample size to see he's an excellent player, unless you're blind.
Second, Lin and Shumpert are our ONLY talented young guys. This talk about how it's "win now" so you unload your young up-and-coming players is short-sighted and misguided. You don't throw away your young talent unless you are bringing in an impact player in return. Not Raymund Felton. And furthermore, am I really seeing people claim that exchanging Lin for Felton is a "win-now" move? What a joke. Lin played like a an all-star last year. Felton was mediocre. Yet I'm supposed to believe bringing in Felton will initiate some kind of march of the finals?
This notion that once you bring in star veterans you have to dump everyone else for more veterans is sad. And it's stupid. It's doesn't make sense from an immediate basketball standpoint, and it doesn't make sense the a standpoint of the future. What do you think would have happened to the Celtics if they had unloaded Rondo when he was just getting started and brought in some mediocre veteran point guard.
I'm angry at various people for various reasons. I'm angry at the Knicks for contemplating this move. I'm angry at them for not offering 4 years, $24 million right away. I'm angry at Lin for signing an offer sheet that is intentionallly designed to make it hard for us to match, instead of the original one, which was a no-brainer. I'm angry at Carmelo and Amare for being overpayed losers last year - Amar'e, the guy who who made $20 million and played like crap all year, and Carmelo who made $20 million and underperformed for the most of the year before exiting in the first round, and then had the audacity to call his teammate's contract "ridiculous." I'm pissed at those Knicks fans who are dismissing this, and acting as if it's no big deal.
So we might go into the season with our point guards being a 39-year-old who just drove so wasted that he couldn't keep his car in the road, an overweight guy who was mediocre last year, and a 35-year-old rookie, instead of the 23-year-old guy who played like an all-star, next year. If this happens, will I stop following the Knicks? No, not completely - it's too big a part of my life. But my level of interest will plummet unless the team really surprises me.