NBA Draft

I assume that mine will be one of several posts on this subject today but since I'm the only Knicks fan on Back Seat Drivers, I'll just put my spin on last night and then let everyone else talk about their teams.

For starters, I think people were too quick to judge Isiah as a failure. I was one of the critics who didn't like the trades he made last season for Malik Rose, Jerome Williams and Jamal Crawford. I thought he gave up on some good players like Frank Williams and Nazr Mohammed and he was repeating past Knicks mistakes of adding salary when he should've been dumping it.

I guess the problem with the Knicks is that they've never had a plan or, rather, they've had plans but changed them so many times that the team was left with one big pile of mismatched parts. Now it seems like Zeke has admitted to himself that the Knicks simply need to be rebuilt from the ground up. He'd like to make them a Western Conference-style team with athletic big men and up-and-down guards that can run the floor and shoot from the outside. As a former Bad Boy, he believes that adequate defense can be taught as long as players believe in the system they're in. I agree with his philosophy.

The Knicks drafted Channing Frye and David Lee and traded Kurt Thomas for Quentin Richardson and Nate Robinson. Provided that Zeke follows through with this plan of action and signs a center with the mid-level exception (Kwame Brown) and cuts Allan Houston, the Knicks will be drastically remade. Their active roster will be:

PG: S. Marbury, N. Robinson
SG: Q. Richardson, J. Crawford, A. Hardaway
SF: T. Thomas, T. Ariza, M. Taylor
PF: M. Sweetney, M. Rose
C: C. Frye, TBD
IR: J. Williams, D. Lee, J. Butler

That's a pretty athletic roster with 4 legitimate scorers (Steph, Q, Crawford, Timmy T). The Knicks were supposed to contend for the Atlantic Division crown last year but failed badly, in part because they were counting on Allan Houston coming back. I think Q will fill in nicely for Houston. Nate Robinson is, in my opinion, the steal of the draft. He's a high-energy player who loves to press the ball and play D and can hit a jumper. He'll be a great backup for Steph. The thing I'm most excited about is that the Knicks haven't been this young since 1988 when they had Pat Ewing, Gerald Wilkins, Mark Jackson, Kenny Walker and Rod Strickland. Now they've got Ariza, Sweetney, Frye, Robinson, Lee and Butler who are 3rd year pros or younger and Q, Steph, Crawford and Thomas who are all under 30. The Knicks are one of the youngest teams in the game. Thank god. There's hope, finally.