<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">You know, for you to get rid of a player, you have to find another team to take on him and his contract. Rose and Taylor's humongous contracts would mean that 25 out of 30 GMs wouldn't want them, and the five that would would seriously lowball the Knicks.
Pretty good defenders, but do they, with the exception of Thomas, have the size?</div>
I wouldn?t really mind having any of them on my team for now. Taylor?s humongous contract just happens to expire when Houston?s humongous contract expires. This means the Knicks can make a run at some top free agents in 2 summers.
Size is good, but overall effectiveness is what matters. Malik Rose is very effective especially considering him being 6?7. Rose is a good defender, and rebounder. An interesting statistic I found not too long ago was this: When Rose started about 30 times with the Spurs over the last 2 years, he averaged 15.5ppg and 8.5rpg. I think if he can manage western power house front courts, he can definitely help us. Also, Rose has the most experience out of anyone on the Knicks and manyh people in the league! He?s played with hall of fame caliber coaches, players, and has tons of playoff experience. He is very qualified to play with the big men in the east.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Here's a look at Shaquille O'Neal's stats against the Knicks:
Mar 19: 33/17
Mar 15: 23/7
Feb 09: 16/13
Jan 05: 33/18
Averages of 26/14, above his season averages, are no joke.</div>
Shaq is he most dominant force known to basketball. He is arguably the best center who ever played the game! Of course he can do that.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Now let's look at Zydrunas Ilgauskas:
Jan 28: 24/9
Jan 08: 7/6
Nov 21: 21/6
Close to his season averages. You might say that the Knicks have done a good job on him but then take a look at his frontcourt partner Drew Gooden, who is averaging 17/13 against the Knicks this season. Also, Ilgauskas' games against the Knicks were all played when you had Nazr. Think Kurt Thomas, at 6-9 generously, can guard 7-3? After all, all Thomas managed to do with Gooden was let him score 2 more above his season average, and get 4 more rebounds.</div>
No, realistically, Kurt will likely struggle against Ilgauskas, but a main reason why some of these big men do well against them is because of the frequent meltdowns on the perimeter for the Knicks. Many times the Knicks bigs have to play both their man as well as a Marbury or Crawford?s man. Also Gooden getting 2 more points is so big. 4 more rebounds is inexcusable though.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The list just goes on and on. Jermaine O'Neal averaged 29/11 against New York, Tim Duncan 17/10 in a sole game, Garnett 27/17, Yao 23/12, Webber 22/11 etc etc. It's a safe bet to say that any upper echelon big man in the league outdoes his average against the Knicks. It's definitely not because of the New York food. What makes you think that that type of post defense would suffice for the Knicks? Stats have proven otherwise.</div>
Those are very good big men. Of course they can do well. You?re throwing out elite level big men who dominated the Knicks. They do that to almost every other team so it?s not such a big deal. If you had someone on a level like Travis Knight putting up those numbers against us, than I would be concerned, however these players do that all the time to other teams as well.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">So now you're saying Damon Stoudamire won't play a lot of minutes? Why would you even use a MLE on someone who won't even play much? Sean May doesn't have the body to be a center in the NBA, he has the weight but not the height. 6-8 won't cut it for him, but Madsen has more quickness than May and better defense. And yes, I meant new York.</div>
I did not say that. I said Damon already knows what he?s headed into. He would have already thought about his minutes if he was going to sign with us. He could provide the Knicks backcourt with some valuable rest. May can use his body to his advantage. Yes, he may be a bit ?chunky? if you want to call him that, but he does have time to improve his condition. Madsen has good defense, but do you expect the Knicks condition to improve by a lot? You said it yourself, how do you think a 6?9 Thomas would fair going against the Ilgauskas?, the Shaq?s, and the Jermaine O?Neal?s? What can Madsen do with the identical size as Thomas? I don?t see Madsen doing anymore but salvaging us maybe 0.4 points a game less for our opponents.