Man if Eddy keeps up these kinds of dietary habits, he could have heart trouble in the future.

So the better he plays the more burgers he gets?

so if curry ever drops a triple double he's basically looking at a massive coronary.
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"This Knicks team is too talented and good to suck this badly"

unfortunately, they're not: for the most part the knicks are a collection of mediocre role players.

the players who actually are in possession of star-talent are either weird/antisocial (marbury), immature (randolph) or just bums (curry). if these guys actually had pride, consistency and an unmatched work ethic, they could will the scrubs around them to higher plateaus. but they can't.

the competitive knicks of the '90s all took their professional cues from ewing and the staff around them - from riley, van gundy and thibodeau down to mike saunders. shit, ewing, oakley, pitino and stu jackson even willed a playoff appearance out of gerald wilkins, kenny walker and eddie lee wilkins.

if starks, mason and oakley had been playing with curry and coached by isiah, they'd have been bagging groceries, in jail, or boucing around lottery teams, respectively.

Them ChiTown boys (Rickhouse and Cobra) sure do love breaking on Curry, don't they? :)

Greek: I think a double-double is enough to cause Curry significant physical discomfort, judging from how he shies away from rebounds.

Actually, the thing that is most perplexing about the Knicks is that they are the perfect mix of players, minus one. They have the glue guys/role players types (Lee, Balkman, Robinson, now Chandler). Unfortunately those guys are either overused or underused.

They have the second banana types that can carry the team for a quarter or more: Curry, Randolph, Crawford. Even Marbury. They can all carry the team in stints.

Unfortunately... they lack a true centerpiece, someone that can carry the team every night reliable. The Ewing. The Dirk. The Kobe. The Duncan. The LeBron.

Good lord, if the Knicks had one player like that - one of those guys... they would be a great team.

The other problem, as you mentioned, is that Isiah Thomas thinks that his players should be self-motivated, and alot of these guys aren't. Isiah himself was self-motivated, to get out the streets of Chicago and make a star of himself. But guys like Curry... it's too simple to call him a bum. He lacks motivation, because he doesn't care for this game. Would you call that guy at work who just punches in and punches out and doesn't care, just wants a check, a bum?

Regardless, Curry isn't motivated to be anything more than what he is, and hasn't shown any interest in hustling or busting his ass. Especially when his heart might explode if he did hustle too much. So he's out of shape, and works very little to improve his game.

Other guys have different self-motivation problems: Marbury no longer seems to care about the actual game of basketball, having played his way out of the projects already. He seems more worried about making a difference with his sneakers and stuff than hitting jumpers or getting back that step he's lost.

Crawford has always had Allan Houston disease (the unwillingness to take over when the team needs a pick me up), combines with a poor shot selection and percentage.

Randolph is a hard worker, but immature as you pointed out (his headband toss yesterday being a prime example).

Add a Kevin Garnett here, a Tim Duncan, a LeBron, a Kobe, even a Chris Paul or Nash, and things might be very different.

So with that being said, what do you do? Does firing the coach/GM really improve this team? Or do making some trades improve this team? Or bringing in shrinks, as the Knicks did before the holidays?

Trading David Lee is not the answer. Making more trades and taking on more bad contracts is not the answer. Basically, for the next two season based on our cap number and lack of tradeable assets there are no clear cut answers

This roster is inherently flawed from top to bottom. It's time for the Knicks to admit that there is no quick fix and let the contracts of Marbury, Malik Rose, Q and Jerome James expire in the next two years.

Now that we finally control our first round picks it's time to add legitimate talent through the draft. And, I have to agree with you on trading Curry because if Randolph is going to be here the next 4 years, Curry has no shot at developing or prospering alongside him.

Most importantly, I feel strongly that firing Isiah is the first step in moving forward. While his firing won't change things immediately, at least it will send a message that change is on the way and losing wont be tolerated. Similar to the Skiles canning in Chi-town.

We need to build this thing back up from the ground and lord knows Zeke isnt the man to do it...

I actually like Curry, but that joke was just too easy.

no "centerpiece" or superstar wants to come play for the knicks in their current state. (peep how many (current) opposing players have violated the taboo topic of not commenting on the next man's game and have publicly ridiculed the knicks for mailing in their performances nightly).

the sad truth is that the current state of the knicks trickles down from the top like a steady stream of excreta. if the knicks ever become championship competitors (and not just first-round cannon fodder, which is what they currently aspire to), it will be in spite of dolan rather than because of him.

step one -- and dolan should be familiar with progressive steps -- should be for dolan to either step way back from knick/ranger affairs or resign and go strum his guitar in his pops' money bin.

step two should be to bring in a strong colangelo/thorn-type gm, who in turn can get a decent coach in the house (i think with a good gm setting up the assist, someone like herb williams could flourish).

only then can trades be effectively discussed. assuming a true star is here, everyone is (and should be) expendable save for maybe balkman or randolph who could become solid role players when the whip is cracking.

trades and coaching changes are meaningless as long as the garden remains a circus that's being run from the animal cages.

Now it's getting to be a fun discussion!

First up, I agree with ya, Ben. I think taking on bad contracts is not the way to go, and that we should be rebuilding and letting the bad contracts expire. My belief in trading Lee has always been grounding in two things: One, he's not a quality starter in my opinion, and he's overvalued by the rest of the league in that regard. If Sacramento (and it's fans) are eager to trade an All-Star caliber player in Ron Artest for David Lee, that's a no-brainer to me (well, not quite... Artest's injury bothers me, and gives me a bit of pause). The second reason I advocate for trading Lee is that he's going to need a contract extension next season, and he's probably going to cost too much (again, because another team would overvalue him, and sign him to an expensive offer sheet), relative to his true value. As a PF, who would you rather have: Randolph, who grabs as many rebounds as Lee, but is better at offensive and no worse at defense, or Lee? We're already stuck with Randolph's contract for the next three years, let's not get stuck with two expensive contracts at the same position.

Now, onto the topic of Firing Isiah: Greek Prof gets at the real problem... James Dolan. Every time he's interfered or interjected into Knick decisions, it's been a total mess: hiring Larry Brown, trading for Francis (to appease Brown's desire for a point guard with "a head"), buying out Jalen Rose (instead of using his expiring contract as an asset to get something back, even a late 1st round pick), refusing to settle the sexual harassment suit, even back to the Scott Layden days... trading Sprewell and Camby (because they were "bad character" players), overpaying his boy Allan Houston, not offering Patrick Ewing or Charles Oakley a position with the organization... terrible decisions. Every single one.

First and foremost, he needs to step off, and let someone else be in charge. If Isiah was truly in charge, he would be able to command the player's respect, or trade/discipline them as necessary. He can't do that clearly. If he could, and isn't... then he's definitely part of the problem.

As for the long-term plan... back to Ben's idea. No big contracts, no big trades. Check. The Knicks haven't made any trades since Larry Brown was here, except to get rid of Francis for Randolph. Let's add the Bill Simmons plan for the Knicks: clear space for LeBron in 2010. The Knicks cap number after 2010 goes from $58 million to $28 million. Basically just Randolph (a good piece) and Crawford's contracts (presuming he doesn't opt out the previous year). They might have to pay Curry ($11.2 million) and probably Jeffries ($6.83) if they don't opt out, but that's still $45 million, or $19 million below the cap (enough to offer LeBron a contract).

To keep it that low, though, the Knicks can't afford to overpay anyone else, either. No overpaying Lee. Balkman and Robinson might also have to go, depending on what happens with Crawford and Curry's options. Wilson Chandler will still be on his rookie contract, so he'll still be around.

Even if they can't net LeBron, maybe Wade (I'm not a big fan) or Chris Bosh (actually outplayed right now by the cheaper David West) can be had, too.

In the meanwhile, the Knicks are actually going to most likely add a Top-5 pick this season, and I have to say, given his track record... Isiah seems a good person to have around to make that pick. Lottery pick aren't as easy as they look - over the past 15 years, most #1 picks have been All-Stars (I'll have a post on Monday); however, after that #7 picks have been the second-most successful picks. Why? Because GMs often screw up lottery picks. So, you might hate Isiah and the job he's doing here, but... he might also be the most likely GM to not mess up a top-5 lottery pick. He did a pretty solid job in Toronto (Camby, Damon Stoudemire), and so far here in NYC.

Anyway, my belief is that it doesn't matter who is the GM as long as Dolan insists in interfering... he messed up Scott Layden (a worse GM than Isiah), he's messed up Isiah quite a bit, and he would mess up a Rod Thorn or Kiki Vandewegh or Phil Jackson....

I still don't see any evidence that Isiah has done a good job with the draft since coming to the Knicks. Lee, Robinson, Balkman, Chandler, Frye, Collins. Not a starter in the bunch.

Lee is pretty much the only player on the roster who has any trade value at this point and I don't see any way the Knicks and Kings could make a deal work out unless Sacramento was willing to take back a horrible contract like Jeffries or Jerome James in the deal, which they wouldn't.

Eddy Curry's contract is by no means a bargain. His play, lack of conditioning and lazy attitude have most likely turned off every sane GM in the league. Even last night, when he had a "good" game, he managed 3 rebounds in 31 minutes. THREE!!!

This franchise is probably in the worst shape of any franchise in professional sports, and there is absolutely no quick fix.

Dolan may be a horrible, meddling owner, but at some point you have to point the finger at Isiah. When Larry Brown was here, he took the blame. When he left it was "Look at the mess Larry Brown left." Now it's all Dolan's fault. When does the buck stop at the guy who built the team and coaches them?

Lee, Balkman, Frye, Robinson, and now Chandler are all 8-man rotation guys on almost every team in the league. If you are looking for starters with the #14th, #20, #28, and #29 picks (plus the #7 pick in the worst draft in a decade, or the pick sandwiched between Charlie Villanueva and Ike Diogu), you are aiming a bit too high. Name another team that has produced that many starters with picks in that high? Or any other team that has drafted four guys like those four with their last four picks in the #14 and up grouping? Look at what teams like the Nets, the Nuggets, the Rockets, the Heat have taken with similar picks in that timespan. Only Detroit, with Maxiell, Stuckey and Amir Johnson, has had similar or better success. And even there that's debatable.

There is lots of scenarios in which the Knicks and Kings could work out a trade - the Kings could through in Bibby, and take Marbury back, for example. Or they could through in Shareef's contract. Both teams have enough bad contracts to make it work, if they want.

I agree that Curry is not a bargain, and like I said yesterday, there are only about 6-8 teams that would even think about taking him in a trade. But that contract is still tradeable. Bill Simmons proposed a Shaq for Curry trade (with Marbury also going to Miami). It's not really likely, but it does illustrate that there are teams out there for whom Curry makes sense.

I do agree that I don't appear to issue enough blame on Isiah. He certainly deserves a fair amount of blame for the situation. Of course, I've often "defended" Isiah because I think he does get an unfair amount of blame, in my opinion. He's being scapegoated by a fanbase, incited by the abusive local and national media, that is looking to blame someone for the mistakes of many people (Layden, Brown, Thomas, and Dolan).

But at the end of the day, what do those four people have in common? Dolan. It really won't matter who is in charge, if Dolan won't let them do the job. That's the problem I have right now with the Knicks.

Just to be honest, though: I certainly don't care if Isiah gets fired. If he does, I'm fine with it. But there is only two things that can be done when you have a team that has quit on it's coach: fire the coach, or make changes to the team. I think the latter makes more sense, because honestly... I don't think the situation is as bad as it appears. Just thinking about last season... this team is definitely better than this. So it's not a "start from scratch" situation, but a "major tweaks" issue.

And more importantly, the long term blueprint seems intact: save cap space for the only year that matters, 2010. Every other year means nothing, because the Knicks don't need more 2nd bananas (Bibby, Gilbert Arenas, even Elton Brand)... they need a top dog. That means LeBron, Kobe, or someone like that.

just heard it from a friend and thought that I would share it here: "Knicks are 5 years away from STARTING the rebuilding"

(before you kill me, no, I am NOT a Knicks hater, I like the Knicks)

First, Lee is a legit rotation guy, the rest are not. Nate Robinson wouldn't sniff the floor on a decent team, he's basically a shorter version of Willie Green who takes more shots and doesn't hit as many of them.

Off the top of my head, I can name at least one GM who did more with +14 picks than Isiah, Billy King. He got Korver, Lou Williams, Willie Green and now Jason Smith, all with picks below #14. He also didn't blow his only lottery picks (Iguoadala, and now Thad Young).

I'm not saying King was a great talent evaluator, just better than Isiah. And King probably took more heat than he deserved in that area.

Yes, Frye was sandwiched between Villaneuva and Diago, he was also taken 2 picks before Bynum, so you can't say there was no talent in that draft.

Honestly though, I hope Artest does get traded to the Knicks, he seems like the type of guy who would handle his teammates quitting on a nightly basis very well.

SML, good post and good commentary... and I'm with you about the late picks of Isiah being impressive... even if he rarely plays them right or at all...

"So here's the million dollar question: Why hustle now?"

Becuase he put the hustle guys on the floor! ...also the pressing and trapping created enough chaos that this is something that I'd like to see more often for at least a few minutes each game.

BTW, that 4th quarter reminded me of the Pitino Knicks a little bit