Strange things are afoot in the world of the NBA. We start with an occurrence so rare and
unbelievable that I still am having trouble fathoming it. The Knicks actually won a trade. They picked up Jose Calderon, Samuel
Dalembert, Shane Larkin, and Wayne Ellington from the Dallas Mavericks in
exchange for Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton.
First off, we got Calderon who is the polar opposite of Felton in that
he is a functioning, if not good, point guard.
The man can shoot a free throw like no other and was a 45% shooter from
three point range last year. Raymond
Felton on the other hand narrowly avoided jail time in an illegal gun
possession case. He also was uniformly
awful last year. Advantage
Knickerbockers. Tyson Chandler was
supposed to be our defensive mainframe and stopper and he did fulfill the part
for most of his first two seasons and even won a defensive player of the year
award. Ironically, despite winning the
defensive player of the year award, Tyson Chandler was placed on the All NBA second
defensive team. How that happened I’ll
never know. I fell off the Tyson
Chandler bandwagon in the Knicks playoff series against the Indiana Pacers
where fucking Roy Hibbert demolished Chandler and the Knick’s spirit and gave
me a feeling of general terribleness that lasted for a long, long while. Going into this season I was hoping that his
playoff embarrassment would spur on a career year, but Tyson promptly got hurt
and then played very poorly for the rest of the season. Some would say he quit on the team towards
the end of a brutal and lost season. I
would say that the Knicks quit on the fans by trading picks for Andrea
Bargnani, a man whose talents have been perfectly shown in a
horrifying/hilarious dunk attempt. I
always appreciated Chandler’s defensive intensity and the fire he brought to
the court, but his lack of offensive prowess and presence frustrated me (and
Clyde) to no end. The 7 footer would be
two feet away from the basket and he would pass it out! Shoot my man, shoot the damn ball. Well at least those moments are long gone
now.
While finding a team to take Raymond Felton is astonishing
and a win in its own right, there was another part of the deal that struck me
and other long suffering fans as a surprise.
The Mavericks gave the Knicks two second round picks to top off the deal
(picks 34 and 51). When was the last
time a trade involving the Knicks actually saw the Knickerbockers gain draft
picks? That delightful cherry on top has
put my love affair with the Zen Master into an even fuller swing. Phil Jackson has the Knicks offseason up and
running and I can’t wait to hear what the 11 time champ has next in store
(maybe those outlandish Lebron rumors come true). Phil Jackson is finding players that fill his
and Fisher’s system and he has already started to overhaul the problem areas on
the team. A move like this, assuming
they can resign Melo, puts them in the mid to lower part of the playoff picture. For the first time in a bit I am excited about
the future of my beloved New York Knicks.
Now let’s resign Carmelo before this feeling of general good will descends
into a pool of insufferable sadness coupled with other overwrought descriptions. You can prevent this oh mighty Zen
Master. I believe in you.
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