Who is the Knicks biggest target?

Well, if you believe Frank Isola and the NY Daily News, Isiah has his eyes set on acquiring Jermaine O'Neal.  Wow, did we call that or what?  

You don't get to ask the questions, I do.  But yes, SML called it.

Thanks.  Indeed, there are several obstacles.  Like Jacob pointed out, Larry Bird and Isiah don't get along.  However, that's more of Isiah's problem than Bird's.  Presuming Isiah really does want Jermaine, then he'll have to make his peace with Bird's firing of him.  We can see Isiah letting that go in the pursuit of good talent that is way overpriced.  

Of course, we are all basing this on Assola's article.  As we have noted on many occasions, he is the most out of the loop beat writer I've ever seen, and the Newsday crew (Ken Berger, Alan Hohl) are far superior local basketball beat writers.  The next time Frank actually has some inside information to share will be his first time.  Never the less, Jermaine O'Neal does seem to make sense.

Can the Knicks actually obtain O'Neal?

Yes, but it's not likely.  According to ESPN's NBA Coast to Coast last night, Jermaine O'Neal will be sitting down with the Pacers at the end of the week to talk about his future, and where he wants to go.  C2C suggest that he will push for a trade to the Lakers, where he will play alongside his friend Kobe Bryant.  

If so, well, the Lakers have more to offer than the Knicks.  Since this will be an offseason trade, Kwame Brown is $9 million of free cap space after next season.  Lamar Odom would also be available, given that he is expendable to the Lakers if they get Jermaine O'Neal.  Odom would be a talented player to take back in a deal, along with Kwame (to play the center and clear cap space), and to finish the deal the Lakers would have to throw in a talented young player (Luke Walton, Jordan Farmer, Sasha Vujavic or perhaps even Andrew Bynum), and/or take back dead weight (Jamal Tinsley would be a good fit in this way, in that getting rid of his contract would make Indy happy, and the Lakers need a point, with Smush done in LA).

So no, we don't see the Knicks pulling it off.  

What could the Knicks offer to the Pacers anyway?

It doesn't matter!  We aren't going to get his Jermajesty, give it up.   But seriously, David Lee, Channing Frye, and a willingness to take all the bad contracts off the Pacers hands (like Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, and Jamal Tinsley).

Could that really work?

You are one dense mo-fo.  No, it can't really work, unless...

Unless?

... unless the Lakers decide against trading for Jermaine, or the market for O'Neal in general is very weak.  Which it might be, if everyone is focused on going after someone else instead, someone like... Kevin Garnett.

Yeah, word... what's the dilly with Garnett?

KG is not a realistic option for the Knicks.  They really have nothing to offer the T-Wolves, and unlike Jermaine, the whole world wants KG.  In fact, if the Lakers make an offer to the Pacers like the kind we mentioned above, you bet it will only be if they get turned down by the Wolves first in the KG lottery.  As for the Knicks, no chance they can pull it off.

Is KG really going anywhere? 

In our opinion, no.  Not at all.  Understand that the situation in Minnesota isn't as hopeless as it looks.  All that KG needs to turn his team into a 50-win team is a decent 2nd banana.  The past few years have been an abysmal failure to build a  halfway decent team around him.  Perhaps if they stopped drafting Randy Foye-types, and took Brandon Roy-types instead....

See, that's the problem right there.  They continue to roll the dice on high-potential players when they don't need potential stars.  Kevin Garnett is one of only 10-14 true "franchise" players; you don't need another franchise player, you need solid role players.  Brandon Roy was the solid pick in the draft, everyone knew it.  The Wolves passed on him because they wanted the guy with more upside; that's the reason Kevin McHale is a moron.   

Seattle is the same way, too.  They had Luke Ridnour, Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis for the past three years.  And instead of signing or drafting a solid type center or PF, they have wasted their last three lottery picks on project centers from foreign countries.  Except for Chris Wilcox, that is.   

What's Chris Childs up to nowadays?

I don't know, but this article in the Toronto Star seems to indicate that he's still despised in Toronto.  The Raptors finally made it back to the playoffs this season, 5 years removed from the "Childs debacle".  Hey Toronto... two words: Charles Smith.  Bite me.

Would the Knicks really trade David Lee?

It would piss off a lot of the fan base.  In order to justify it, Isiah would have to bring back a top quality player (O'Neal or Garnett), or the press and fans would eat him up. 

That being said... Lee is expendable.  He's at max value, and right now we still don't know jack about his injury.  Chances are the Knicks might be hiding something.  Furthermore, we've said it before, and we'll say it again: Renaldo Balkman is a black David Lee, but with more defense.  Therefore he makes Lee expendable.

What is the deal with Balkman?

Ah, the origin of Balkman.  20 years ago, a happy 2-year old Renaldo was playing with a basketball in his home.  Soon afterwards, his house was burning in flames, his entire family dead.  Renaldo was able to escape, and was raised by some nice Rastas that found him on the side of the road.

Since that day, though, Renaldo as vowed revenge.

So whenever Renaldo sees a basketball, his anger overcomes him, and he must put a hurting on the ball.   He can't just dribble the ball; he has to slap it as hard as possible against the floor.  He can't just shoot the ball; he has to shoot it as if he is trying to get the ball to hit the iron as hard as possible.

He can't just lay the ball up, either; he must furiously dunk the ball.  He must also slap the ball out of his opponents hands when they are dribbling, and slap the ball into the three row when they shoot.

Uh-huh.  Okay.  Moving along, how about Curry?  Got anything nice to say about him?

Yeah, he gets too much criticism, only some of which is deserved.  Take these numbers for example:

Curry: 24 years old. 35 mpg total: 19.4 ppg. 7.0 rpg.  0.9 apg. 57.6 FG% 3.61 TO/g.  Eff: 16.15
Player B:  22 years old.  35 mpg projected total: 16.1 ppg.  5.46 rpg. 1.12 apg. 42.7 FG%.  2.32 To/g.  Eff: +12.98

Any idea who Player B is?  We'll tell you in a bit.

What else do you have to add to the Joey Crawford controversy?

Good last question.  Once again, this is why we like Newsday.  Check out Ken Berger's post on the Crawford story.  Here's the money line:

"...according to Sheridan, the patron saint of NBA controversies, Crawford was chewed out by Stern after he made himself the story with the flurry of technicals in the Western Conference Finals game mentioned earlier. Crawford apparently was told that if he made himself the story again, the punishment would be severe." 

Further good stuff, from Terry Pluto (found via Boney, of all people):

“When veteran official Joe Crawford was suspended by the NBA for the playoffs after ejecting Tim Duncan off the bench from Sunday’s game, it brought back memories of a game in the early 1990s at the old Richfield Coliseum, when Crawford threw out Larry Nance for laughing. Then he tossed Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Craig Ehlo and coach Lenny Wilkens. He was fined for that incident.”   

We actually agreed with Boney on something today.  He called out Tim Duncan as whiny, and we tried to back him up by linking to the Ken Berger article and the line in which he pointed out that Tim Duncan is one of the whiniest players in the league.  Unfortunately we seem to be unable to comment on that website at this time.

Okay, Player B.  That's "B" as in "Bargnani", the number one draft pick this year.  Again, doesn't mean anything, but the is the best player in the draft in which the Knicks pick from the Curry trade was used.  In other words, the next "Dirk" might not be that different from the next "Shaq".  Notice his lack of assists, too.  No one in Canada seems to care, though....

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