Twitter is a pretty great place, I’ve met some great people and had numerous engaging discussions on it. However lately there have been a couple of things said on Twitter that I’d like to address in length on this forum.
First, there is a prevalent notion that fans like myself and others who do not view this roster as being a real contender should “Go To Brooklyn”. I think the Knicks will attain a seed between 3-6 and are likely to be stuck in NBA purgatory like the recent Atlanta Hawks. Furthermore a subsection of those fans think that me and other like-minded fans would prefer mediocrity so that our predictions turn out to be correct. It is so idiotic to think that we as Knicks fans would rather pass up deep playoff runs just to be “right”. This idea that watching a season end before the ultimate goal would somehow be satisfying because something we said on a social network to relative unknowns would prove correct is simply asinine. I wouldn’t love anything more than to be wrong about this team’s ceiling.
Secondly it’s easy to just say that we are just “Jeremy Lin lovers”, and shouldn’t be taken seriously because the Lin fiasco clouds our analysis. This is BS. In fact like I’ve tried to stress on Twitter that the Knicks probably would have been mediocre with Lin, even when Lin’s return was deemed a certainty. I’d stated that I was most looking forward to Iman Shumpert and Lin growing together until the 2015 rebuild.
Lastly, and this will surely get me sent to Brooklyn, it’s easy to say that fans should be happy to have this team, because its the best team in ten years. I disagree on both counts. When an organization conducts themselves the way the Knicks do they don’t deserve a pass. To the more controversial point, and I hope I’m wrong on this, the ’10-’11 D’Antoni/Walsh young and promising team was in a better position as an organization, with valuable cap space, to win a championship than the current purgatory roster comprised of aging veterans. This is true even though I believe that the current team will have a better record than the ’10-’11 squad could have attained. But a teams’ record isn’t necessarily indicative of a franchise’s overall long term health.
I know, I know I’m just a Jeremy Lin lover that should go to Brooklyn.
I agree with everything you said. I don’t consider myself a “hater”. I consider myself a passionate fan since the early 70s that is frustrated by the way this team is managed.
I don’t think nearly enough attention is paid to upside, having useful
assets, having cap space and trading flexibility etc..
Kidd, Camby, and Thomas are all clearly on the downside and may not offer much this year, let alone next, despite being very good players in recent years.
Amare’s health is a question mark.
Shumpert is out and may not be 100% until next year or ever.
There are question marks about how well Amare (a #1 scorer) fits with Melo (another #1 scorer) and Chandler taking up space in the middle where he does his best work.
IMO this team is not good enough to be a serious contender this year and it’s hard to imagine a trade or player that develops enough to get them there. They are a very good team that is likely to start declining next year as a few of these rotation players get worse and worse.
About the only scenario I could imagine making them contenders is Amare coming back healthy and looking good enough to trade him for a better fit and better all around player at the dead line. But we’d also probably need Shumpert to come back a much better player/shooter than he was last year too because JR Smith and Ronnie Brewer are not the answer. Brewer is a solid role player and Smith is a knucklehead.
it has to give my opinion some validity that someone whose watched the Knicks from the 70′s agrees. IMO any path of this team becoming a contender would have to start with Melo playing PF.
Appreciate the feedback.
Any “Distillation of tWitter conflagrations” must address your endless political commentary. if you do write up such a distillation please mention that most people couldn’t care less about your political thoughts. You might also note that I just hit the “unfollow” button. See ya.
First this isn’t written by Dan, it’s by me (@azaznyk). Secondly I don’t think Dan really cares that u unfollowed.
Cool story bro.