The DoSA had to make final cuts today in preparation for their season opener on Wednesday night. The choices were among the following three players: (1) Jerome James, (2) Anthony Roberson, and (3) Patrick “Little Big Fella” Ewing Jr.
Choice #1 represents a 33 year old center that played a grand total of five, yes FIVE, minutes last season. Over the course of his three seasons in New York, he’s averaged six minutes a game but has only played in 88 out of a possible 246 games. If a player averages only six minutes a game but only plays in 36% of a team’s games over a three-year period, is it not safe to assume that there’s not a whole lot of value added in keeping this player around?
Choice #2 is viewed as the sixth guard on a team that intends to use a four-guard rotation. He is, in fairness, considered to be a good shooter so perhaps his value becomes more apparent over time.
Choice #3 is the son of the best player in franchise history and considered by those in the know as a somewhat limited, but nevertheless valuable prospect. This player would never be an All-Star and would never make anyone forget about his Hall of Fame dad. That being said, every team needs role players who can defend, block shots, rebound, and make hustle plays – especially ones on a team whose offense is as frenetically-paced as this year’s Knicks offense will be. Toss in the obvious PR value gained by having a familiar name/“team mascot” player around a team that has been saddled with bad characters and even worse story lines and it would seem to be a choice that makes itself.
So, which choice did they make? Predictably, they made the wrong one.
With Roberson having an obvious skill (shooting), the choice ultimately came down to Jerome James and Patrick Jr. DoSA decided that it made more sense to stick the $12M albatross on the bench instead of cutting him loose and giving a younger, cheaper player the chance to make an impact on the team. With Eddy Curry already out of the rotation because of his lack of conditioning and mismatched skill-set in Coach D’Antoni’s offensive system, the Knicks now get to add a further redundancy by carrying a backup to the backup center.
20 years of passionate fandom now amounts to this: the Knicks are not only dead to me, I motherfucking killed them. May Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni rot in hell.
Choice #1 represents a 33 year old center that played a grand total of five, yes FIVE, minutes last season. Over the course of his three seasons in New York, he’s averaged six minutes a game but has only played in 88 out of a possible 246 games. If a player averages only six minutes a game but only plays in 36% of a team’s games over a three-year period, is it not safe to assume that there’s not a whole lot of value added in keeping this player around?
Choice #2 is viewed as the sixth guard on a team that intends to use a four-guard rotation. He is, in fairness, considered to be a good shooter so perhaps his value becomes more apparent over time.
Choice #3 is the son of the best player in franchise history and considered by those in the know as a somewhat limited, but nevertheless valuable prospect. This player would never be an All-Star and would never make anyone forget about his Hall of Fame dad. That being said, every team needs role players who can defend, block shots, rebound, and make hustle plays – especially ones on a team whose offense is as frenetically-paced as this year’s Knicks offense will be. Toss in the obvious PR value gained by having a familiar name/“team mascot” player around a team that has been saddled with bad characters and even worse story lines and it would seem to be a choice that makes itself.
So, which choice did they make? Predictably, they made the wrong one.
With Roberson having an obvious skill (shooting), the choice ultimately came down to Jerome James and Patrick Jr. DoSA decided that it made more sense to stick the $12M albatross on the bench instead of cutting him loose and giving a younger, cheaper player the chance to make an impact on the team. With Eddy Curry already out of the rotation because of his lack of conditioning and mismatched skill-set in Coach D’Antoni’s offensive system, the Knicks now get to add a further redundancy by carrying a backup to the backup center.
20 years of passionate fandom now amounts to this: the Knicks are not only dead to me, I motherfucking killed them. May Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni rot in hell.
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