evevale wrote:stitches wrote:The thing I've been thinking about is... there is a REALLY simple way for the Knicks to make Barrett truly untouchable. And this is also the way to act if you actually value him at the level of an untouchable asset - give him the max.. NOW! You give him the max now and he's off the table automatically. But that's not what the Knicks are doing. Why? What's going on in New York?

i think the real question is - what's going on in utah ...
donovan/clarkson
conley/pbev
bojan/beasley
vandy/gay
whiteside/kessler
is the aston martin of treadmills ... what's the plan for you guys? how realistic is it to move all those vets and restructure your roster into something that resembles the tanker trash other franchises will be fielding next season in their quest for wemby?
The plan is pretty clear IMO. It's to tank. It's not really a secret to anybody at this point. IMO everyone who has a positive value will likely be traded for future assets or young players by the trade deadline. I'm not sure just how hard we will tank... but after the latest reforms the odds for the premier picks have somewhat flattened and all teams in the top(or rather bottom) 3 have the same odds for the top picks and teams as low as 5-6 place still have very respectable chance at getting the top picks. At the end of the day it's a lottery... even if we lose 70 games, at most we will have 14% chance to win the Wemby sweepstakes(unless we get lucky through some other teams' picks, but that doesn't depend on how bad the Jazz will be). The fact that the West is likely to be pretty strong next year with multiple stars returning from serious injuries will help us be even worse IMO. But again... how bad exactly? Who knows? Maybe the worst of the worst? Maybe in that 3-6 range... I doubt we will be much better than the 5th-6th worst team though...
evevale wrote:and i don't think you were trying to flame - that is something lots of knicks fans ponder when the idea of "rj being untouchable" is brought up. he's not an asset we want to buy into fully (yet) however that doesn't mean we are willing to part w/ him especially if the terms aren't reasonable
You are right... I'm not trolling or something. I trully am trying to glean something into this fog of a negotiation that's happening. I really don't know for sure just how much NYK are valuing RJ Barrett(but if I had to guess IMO the "untouchable" thing is posturing) and I don't even know how much Ainge values him. He's pretty much the prototype Ainge prospect, but at the same time there are credible reports that the Jazz are not asking for him... so... what is? Are the Jazz posturing too? Or do they really not mind not getting Barrett in the deal? The final deal will truly be a sight to behold... and if it's not with the Knicks then it will create a ton of additional noise in the league too...