Nets paying the luxury tax on their starters alone after giving Humphries 24 million over 2 years. Glad it's not my team.
@HowardBeckNYT: Posting momentarily to nytimes.com: Lin will be a Rocket. Knicks deliberations over. This guy will do just fine, though....
Chandler-Camby-Amare-Melo-Felton... Chandler-Amare-Melo-Shumpert-Felton... Chandler-Amare-Melo-Novak-Kidd.... Chandler-Camby-Melo-Shumpert-Kidd.. I cant figure out wich lineup makes the most sense. I have to assume the offense will have more spacing and less clogging in regard to Amare/Chandler. One thing that can not be argued (But will) is that this is a deep, defensive minded basketball team. Pretty excited for next year.
One of my favorite goons in the NBA has been released. the Wiz amnestied Andre Blatche today... I would love it if he came to Miami. Not really for his play, just cause the guy is awesome.
Honestly...I don't think so. If they played a series right now for fun I think the 76'ers would take it. They are at least solid at most positions and can play defense when they want to. Obviously the off season isn't over. I just cant see Melo with a bunch of defensive players scoring more than 80 points in a game. JR Smith doesnt count because all he will do is clank shots Melo should be taking anyway, and neither will pass the ball to the other because they know they wont get it back Too bad Ming is gone. How often in the NBA do you hear Lin to Ming? Someone made a boo-boo though. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/bio/_/id/1722/yao-ming
Remember the Knicks were a totally different team with Woodson, they just ran into a mini dream team in Round 1. With that and the better players I see no reason to fear any team in the east save one,
I don't really see better players...I see probably better coaching and a roster that is decent with a superstar that pushes it to above average. The East isn't very strong so it's possible you end with the 2nd or 3rd seed I suppose, but it isn't close to guaranteed. Chicago is still a better team if Rose is healthy, but I could see 3 through 8 falling a lot of different ways.
I find it funny that people are hell bent on being on 1 end of the spectrum or the other on these guys. Its absurd that some people refuse to admit both guys were actually pretty dang good and were exciting as hell to watch. They werent great nor will either ever be. But they were everything thats good in sports. It was a fun ride to watch. I know Dolphans are bitter because they also got Tebow'd. Oh well.
I could care less about him beating us. The fact is Tebow should never be an NFL starting QB for any team. Lin should be a starting PG for SOMEONE.
Let me get this straight. Lin signed a contract with a poison pill (balloon 3rd yr payment of $14.9m) so that he wouldn't return to NY knowing it would hurt their luxury tax? Is he showing the finger to NY? Shades of Wes Welker?
There is no reason to really go back in time with the Tebow thing but I will say 1 thing. He took over a terrible team and led them into the playoffs where he got a win. Is he going to be a good QB moving forward, well prob not, but for 1 year the guy was pretty magical and it was a joy to watch him do it.
My last word on Tebow (no need to reply here, I understand and respect your opinion) his defense played LIGHTS OUT the last portion of the year. His TD/Turnover ratio wasn't very good even counting rushing, and almost any QB could have won with that team.
Can we trade him to Houston now that they have Lin? I remember reading that we can't. Or maybe it was they couldn't take on bad contracts like Hedo and Richardson if they did sign Lin.
That defense isn't nearly as good as people think and Peyton is about to find that out. Either way, Tebow gave that defense some hope and they did play better with him under center. Those defenders admitted they wanted to play for Tebow because they trusted in the end he would win it for them. Thats part of the magic I'm talking about.
Ya thats what I hear as well, they can take on a big contract not all of them. Make it happen O-Town, D12 to Sweat City!
Wouldn't the money they made from Lin on his contract for his first 2 years been enough to pay for his 3rd and the luxury tax? Kinda surprising they didn't match the offer.
And everyone on offense is reportedly glad he's gone from all the reports Ive read...the defense should come to play regardless of who is under center. The offense should be the ones worried about that, I agree their defense isnt as good as people think, but they did play that well for a stretch. Annnyway NBA. Anyone know why our rookie center hasnt played a summer league game yet?
They're the Knicks. They wanted Melo to feel better about his physique so they brought in another fatty
If the NYK really wanted to match the lin contract they could have. There is actually a poison pill clause in the new CBA. Its called the stretch provision and it makes it easier for teams to dump high salaried players. the team of course could still has to pay the player but the payments are stretched out over 3 years if the player is released. Obviously thats not ideal but it would have avoided that insane 40M or whatever tax hit in year 3. This comes down to ticking off Dolan who say what you will about him is loyal to a fault (see: Thomas, Isiah). This comes down to Lin not playing hurt in the playoffs when he was 85% and Baron Davis blew out his knee leaving Douglas and washed up Bibby to man the point vs Miami. That may not have mattered to the final outcome but it would have helped. Lin didnt play hurt. He prioritized a contract which he knew would put the the NYK in a bad place cap wise over staying put.
Lin is so overrated I don't get the hype behind him his usage rate was insane and every player on the Knicks had to set picks all game so he could even dribble. I was hoping the Knicks would pay that stupid contract and hurt there team in the long run. I hate the Knicks but maybe there finally learning from all the horrible contracts they have payed over the years. Also Lins marketing value is way overblown for a team like the Knicks the new cba rapes big market teams. They would lose 97% of the money they would make off him would be split between the league anyways and you can't risk paying someone Chris Paul money that could end up being a bench player.
So sick of people skewing the salary stuff and blaming it on Lin. Lin is basically making 8M for 3 years. He isn't making Chris Paul money, 8M per year is in line for a 15 and 6 guy, and he is only 23. Knicks are going to pay the luxury tax because they have the most expensive front court in the NBA, not because of Lin. Lin was good for NY and worth the short term risk. They messed up.