Guest Contribution by an aspiring agent, and loyal reader of SportsAgentBlog.com, Zak Romanoff:
Sitting in the fan section at Madison Square Garden during the draft on Thursday was a great experience. My friend Frank and I got to see Oden, Durant, and all the other stars walk by us and give high fives to all of the fans after they were drafted. Some fans were falling to the floor trying to take pictures of them, others were yelling obscenities about their mothers. You saw a lot of both, especially with Joakim Noah who danced through the arena.
After Mike Tirico announced the trade that the Knicks made with the Blazers, the camera showed Spike Lee standing up and clapping his hands, and the hundreds of other Knicks fans in attendance obediently followed, praising Isaiah for finally getting it right. I on the other hand, thought to myself, here we go again. Another trade where we give up a young prospect and get an overpaid player with character issues. Not to mention that the knicks already have an identical player to Zach Randolph in Eddy Curry. They are both overpaid, out of shape, and need the ball offensively to contribute. Both are totally miserable on defense. The only difference between them is that Curry is more dominant on the block, and Randolph has a nice outside shot. Zeke just spend the last season making the offense go through Curry, and he almost made the All Star team. What does another slow, low post scorer do to a team that gets dunked on at will? And oh yeah, 4 years and $60 million left on Randolphs contract.
Just when it looked like the Knicks might have some cap space available, Zeke says nevermind. I like the other guys we got in the trade: Fred Jones and Dan Dickau. I hope they find some PT.
Stephen A Smith said on TV that Isiah got rid of a cancer on the team, Steve Francis. He did a tremendous job. The Blazers are no fools, and they plan on buying out his contract and making him a free agent. The Blazers understand how to build a team; they now have Oden as their interior banger, and Frye as his compliment along with LaMarcus Aldridge, (Rookie of the Year) Brandon Roy, Jarrett Jack and 4 other rookies as their nucleus. To be
a better team, the Knicks needed to get an interior defender and a shooter. Isiah failed to address both of those needs.
He further astounded me when he drafted Wilson Chandler from DePaul. I could not help but feel bad for the only New York Knick player in attendance for the draft, David Lee. Here is Lee, who genuinely cares about the future of this team. He has done nothing but hustle his ass off whenever he gets on the court, and there goes Isiah trading for one player, and drafting another that is going to directly compete with him for playing time. Absolutely ridiculous. Lee was a stud last season and would be starting on virtually any other team in the league due to his hustle and basketball IQ.
The Knicks should have drafted the best shooter in the draft, Almond. When Crawford got injured, the Knicks were at a loss for points. After watching the Spurs, Suns, Pistons, Bulls, and Blazers build teams that have players that complement each other, it astounds me how Thomas can go 5 seasons now, 5 different head coaches, and 0 winning seasons with the league’s highest payroll. Remember Larry Brown and the $30 million dollar mistake? Astounding. Somebody needs to tell James Dolan to fire Isaiah, because he is clearly not capable of handling the responsibility of putting together a competitive team. If he wanted to help the Knicks, he would have traded away the Allen Iverson wannabe, Stephon Marbury, who is more worried about kicking off his TV show and clothing line than he is about winning basketball games.
I wish the best for Lee. I’ve realized he is too good for the Knicks. His selfless attitude is going to help him become an integral part of another teams success, but not the dysfunctional Knicks. He deserves to be traded to a team that cares about winning, and use his skills the right way. He should not be in the middle of a logjam with Jared Jeffries, Quentin Richardson, Malik Rose, Renaldo Balkman, Zach Randolph, Randolph Morris, and now Wilson Chandler. The Knicks did not take any steps towards making the playoffs, they are the same team of overpaid egos led by a man with the biggest ego of them all who has
yet to produce any worthwhile results. None of their talent will grow, because Zeke keeps adding and sending players.
It’s also frustrating to see Chicago draft Tyrus Thomas last year ar #2 and Joakim Noah this year at #9, knowing the Knicks could of had both of them if not for the lopsided Eddy Curry deal. Curry has still not made an all star team in the JV conference, aka the Eastern conference. Will he ever reach his potential? Another sad and frustrating day for a Knicks fan who remembers the good ol days of ewing, mason, starks, and oakly…guys who cared and had pride.
Editors Note: I guess not all Knick fans are happy with their most recent moves/picks!
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