Carmelization: Reading My Bros (and Cousin)

Since we've already heard what the professionals had to say about the deal that will hopefully never be known as the "Return of the Balk," I figured it was only appropriate that we heard what my younger brothers had to say.

Brother Middle: I'm bummed to see us lose a few guys I like alot but i feel it had to be done. I'm a little shocked/flabbergasted by this isiah involvement. Even if Walsh would have been more conservative I'm glad we got the deal done. We're in good position. How long do we keep D'antoni? I'd like a team that plays a little defense.

Brother Youngest: If Melo is hanging out with Ronnie then he is cool in my book.


Bonus Cousin Baller: Excited about the shakeup and think Billups is a winner, but not good for the system and should have PG and a Big be the stars so the pick and roll has the best two players. Interested to see how Carmelo as a ball reliant wing will work. We also have no frontcourt depth without Mozgov and no potential center for the future right now. Hate losing Gallo because I thought he was key in the rebuilding plan and developed an affinity toward him, but we did upgrade SF position and we don't need another. I agree we gave up a lot, but was necessary.

A Rose By Any Other Name Is... Younger, Faster, And Named Chris Wilcox

WWOD? Rates the Rose/Wilcox Swap

Malik Rose arrived in New York via trade (for Nazr Mohammed) during the 2004-2005 season. He played in 26 games down the stretch that year (under Herb Williams who had taken over for a deposed Lenny Wilkens) and averaged a shade over 23 minutes per contest. The following season he started in 35 games, the majority of which were late in the season as injuries took their toll on the club. In each season since his minutes have dropped precipitously. In 2008-09, Rose played in 18 games for the Knicks and averaged 8.9 minutes in those games that he did play. That leaves 35 games when he never got off the bench while the game was on. In his prime, he was a dogged defender who could be counted on to go after bigger post players and do everything he could to move them off the block. He would also get two or three buckets a night without having a play called for him. He was the glue guy of a championship Spurs squad. He was the sort of limited player that fits a role on a top-flight club and the sort of player that was too limited to make a difference on a bad team. Like the Knicks. By all accounts, Rose is a great teammate and as dogged in his charity work as he was working in the paint.

Yesterday, Knicks President Donnie Walsh shipped Rose to the StolenSonics in exchange for Chris Wilcox. The Knicks also included "cash considerations" to make up the small difference between the two contracts (small difference = less than a million dollars).

Ultimately, we traded away an older guy who rarely plays for a younger guy with some of the same skills who might actually play. And we did it without affecting the salary cap. I'm for this, in theory. I think the Knicks roster has had too many dead spots this season and this eliminates one of them at approximately zero cost.

Chris Wilcox is playing in his sixth NBA season after a noticeable (but, perhaps not noteworthy) career at the University of Maryland. He was drafted with the No. 8 pick in the 2002 draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. The Knicks tapped Nene with the No. 7 pick (and quickly traded him to the Nuggets) but had actually worked out Wilcox. At the time, I think was pulling for Wilcox selection. But this was probably because I was a college student who had just watched him help the Terps to a title. In those days, he was athletic and powerful. Unpolished and unrelenting. I liked those things then. I still do.

Before enrolling at Maryland, Wilcox led his high school squad to a state title in North Carolina. So, the guy grew up as a winner. And, then he ended up playing for the Clippers. Where he won less. After four forgettable seasons in LaLa land he was traded to the Seattle Sonics. He "blossomed" in the Emerald City, averaging more than 13 points and 7 rebounds in each of the last three seasons. His numbers were down across the boxscore this season - including an almost ten minute drop in minutes per game. The StolenSonics originally package him in the deal for Tyson Chandler. That deal was rescinded and he was quickly turned around and shipped to New York.

At worst, Wilcox is a version of Rose that Coach D'Antoni can feel comfortable about putting into a game. Even if he doesn't crack the regular rotation, he's a younger, taller, faster and stronger version of Rose. For about the contract and without any long-term implications. At best, Wilcox is a guy who can join the frontcourt rotation and toughen up the Knicks interior defense. He's the guy that takes the hard foul last week when the Knicks were being run over in Oakland against the Warriors. He takes some of the minutes off of Lee's plate, which should serve to keep him rested and to slightly depress his numbers (which will only help the club as we look to sign him to a contract after the season).

The biggest (and perhaps only) thing the Knicks lose by parting ways with Rose is his off-the-court leadership and his influence on the younger players. I would contend, though, that these things were much more necessary and valuable when the team was mired in dysfunction than they are now. When the team was being torn asunder by the feud between Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury or the feud between Isiah Thomas and the City of New York it was important to have Rose calming the younger players and staying on an even keel as the world burned around them. I think that skillset is less necessary on a team listening to its coach and not under siege from its fans.

Although it's hard to say that this trade is a resounding success at first sight, I think it's a deal that reaffirms the team's commitment to making the playoffs this season.

Grade: B

Real Geniuses

Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni Edition

Although the product on the court isn't exactly transcendent, or even mediocre, there have already been signs that both the Knicks new President and Head Coach are as clever as their press releases would have you believe. In fact, I'm willing to concede genius. Real genius.

As the papers filled with stories of Eddy Curry's large spot on the bench and Stephon Marbury's ever-imminent removal from the roster during the preseason there was something amazing happening. Because genius was at work. Lazlo-level genius.

I didn't understand what was happening at first. Because I am no genius. In fact, I was so far off the scent just a few weeks ago that I thought the opposite of genius was at work at MSG. I thought both Walsh and D'Antoni were experiencing a bit gun-shyness due to the enormity of the problem that they inherited from Isiah Thomas. I was puzzled when the Knicks didn't pull the trigger when they could have traded the Zach Randolph to the Los Angeles Clippers in July. The Clips were dealing from a position of weakness after Elton Brand's shock defection to the 76ers and the Knicks would have been able to shed Randolph without having to take back substantial contracts in return. I was bewildered, bordering on bepissed when Walsh rebuffed the offer. A few weeks later the Knicks again didn't trade Randolph when the chance arose. This time the potential suitor was the Memphis Grizzlies and the haul included a bunch of spare parts featuring Dark Milic.

At this point, I was not bewildered or befuddled. I was beside myself. What were they waiting for? Why weren't they taking what they could get for the man who I spent most last season referring to as the Zach-hole? Why weren't they packing the bags of the player this side of Steve Francis who most exemplified Isiah Thomas's facile understanding of team building? Everyone knew that dumping his contract (he's due $14.7 million this season, $16 million next and $17.3 million in 2010/11) was the keystone to constructing a bid for Lebron James when he enters free agency after next season. Everyone knew that it would be near impossible for the Knicks to clear the necessary salary cap space without moving Z-Bo. In the New York Post, Marc Berman equivocally said the only way [signing Lebron] would be possible is if they can deal Zach Randolph for shorter-term contracts.

What were they waiting for? I thought, as Berman did, that the team needed to get rid of him in order to turn this thing around. And that was the problem. If I knew it then so did every General Manager in the NBA. And, therefore it was impossible that Walsh would get fair value for a guy who, in spite of his many foibles, is one of the few players in the Association capable of putting up 20/10 each and every night. A good GM doesn't just get cap space (which is what the Clippers deal offered) or spare parts (the Grizzlies deal) for a player with that statistical potential. A good GM finds a contending team needing a scorer to put them over the top and cherry picks the most promising youngsters of the roster. A good GM doesn't trade a player when his perceived value is at his lowest. And, Zach Randolph's perceived value could hardly have been any lower than it was during the second half of last season and the first half of the offseason.

What did Walsh do? He got together with his head coach and in a matter of weeks the two of them turned Randolph from headache to honor roll, albeit in a severely remedial class. D'Antoni has benched Marbury, railed against Curry and stood by as the seemingly unquashable confidence of Jamal Craword was thoroughly quashed. And now, we're a week away from the season opener and Randolph is no longer the Knicks main problem. Quite the opposite. It could even be argued that he is the team's most dependable player. He will score and he will rebound for a team with very few stats you can project in pen. Moreover, with Curry seemingly out of the rotation to start the season Randolph will have free reign in the post when the Knicks settle into a halfcourt set on offense. He won't be pushed out to the perimeter by a teammate, where he was at his ball-stopping worst last year. Rather, Randolph will be the focal point of the offense and likely be able to work against centers who are not quick enough (and, yes, it does feel so very wrong to talk about someone not being quick enough to handle the flightless Z-Bo) to stay with him.

Now, has Randolph fundamentally changed at all? No. Is moving him any less important to the team's goal of landing Lebron James? Nope. But does it seem like those things are true? Maybe. Does it seem like Marbury and Curry are more pressing problems right now? It sure does. Especially if you read the papers. That is the beauty of this "plan" that I have given Walsh and D'Antoni credit for. And quite possibly conjured from thin air. I think they think that Randolph still needs to go. I think that they just don't want everyone else to think that they think that. You follow? So rather than driving a FOR SALE sign into the front lawn for the neighbors to see they have gotten to work repainting the house's siding and fixing the broken shutters. They stopped saying that they were going to sell their home. They turned down a few lowball offers and told the neighbors how great the house was and how many points it was going to score. And in a few months when a neighbor's roof starts to leak he may stop by and ask if you ever thought of selling that great, point-scoring house of yours.

Before we know it Randolph will be averaging more than 18 points and 10 rebounds per game. After a few weeks of getting the ball in whatever semblance of D'Antoni's "seven seconds or less" offense the Knicks manage to scrap together, Randolph will again be considered the go-to offensive force that he was considered when Isiah Thomas traded for him. Or, at least, the numbers will be about the same. And then everyone won't think that Walsh needs to trade Randolph. After all, he'll be the team's leading scorer and second-leading rebounder. He'll have those magical 20/10 numbers that make GMs salivate. Back when Randolph was acquired by the Knicks the move made no sense as far as team-building strategery was concerned, but his numbers were so impressive that Knicks fans uncomfortably got behind the deal. Those numbers make lesser men (read: Isiah Thomas) do things that don't always make sense. Donnie Walsh understands this.

Walsh was named Knicks President the day after April Fool's Day and in less than seven months he is well on his way, with a great deal of help from Mike D'Antoni, to fooling just such a lesser man around the league. Because he is smarter than they are. While we've been debating Duhon vs. Marbury and pondering the potential of Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari these two have been slowly and surely rehabilitating Zach Randolph's image.

In about a month and a half Walsh will have everyone right were he wants them. And, then Randolph will be shipped to the Cavs to provide the scoring that Ben Wallace can't or he'll head to Detroit to provide some off-the-bench offense for a team that has everything but that. And, in return Walsh and D'Antoni will get back far more than the Clippers or Grizzlies were willing to offer when they thought they had the Knicks over a barrel. Just watch.

Well played, sirs.

And, the Son of (the) Man Shall Be Our Savior...Or, He Shall Come Off Our Bench

Knicks Acquire Patrick Ewing, Jr.

In a very welcome and very surprising move, the New York Knickerbockers have acquired the son of the greatest (or second or third greatest depending on who you ask) player ever to tread the boards for the home team in franchise history. The offspring of soon to be Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing was picked up from the Houston Rockets today in exchange for, and you won't believe it, the rights to the 1999 draft pick and forever draft-joke Frederic Weiss of France. Not only is this the greatest-possible karmic move ever considering the way last the Ewing we had left town (traded to Seattle rather than given a one-year deal and being allowed to retire as a lifelong Knick) and the unmitigated disaster that was the drafting of Weiss with the 15th pick in '99, but I think that it also makes sense both on and off the court.

Ewing Jr. was drafted by the Sacramento Kings with the 43rd pick in this year's draft after being named the Big East Sixth Man of the Year during his final year at Georgetown University. He was then part of the Ron Artest deal and found himself traded to Houston, where he was unlikely to find a spot in the rotation due to a glut of forwards. In a strange, and I guess meaningless side note, Jr. was also drafted with the top overall pick (in their own private draft) by the Harlem Globetrotters in July. The 6-foot, 8-inch Ewing Jr. is as athletic as they come (which is why the Globetrotters were so high on him) and nearly as a hard a worker. Growing up in his father's large shadow he seems to have learned from an early age to know his place and find his role. Unlike most uber-gifted athletes he doesn't have a history of getting ahead of himself or trying or do too much. He plays like a guy who is at the office rather than a guy who thinks he's too good to have to work. Having grown up around professional athletes and seeing his father encased in ice after every game in the final third of his career he knows what happens when the flashbulbs aren't popping and how much grit and determination it does take to play in the Association.

All of that being said, he received one of only two perfect scores at the 2008 College Slam Dunk Championship and is a guy who I really thought was as a nice late sleeper pick as the draft was approaching. He's a role player. And, he knows it. In fact, he embraces it. This a rare thing these days and I think that mentality puts him ahead of a lot of young players who waste their early careers trying to become a star instead of just trying to take the smaller opportunities being offered them. Aside from the fact that I think Jr. has a chance to be a legit contributor on an NBA roster as an on-the-ball defender, the guy who pushes the vets and the starters in practice (which can't really be taken for granted), and an energizer off the bench, this move shows that new GM Donnie Walsh and new coach Mike D'Antoni get it.

This move shows that they already better understand what it is to be a part of this organization than their predecessor ever did. Under Isiah Thomas there was no effort to make connections to franchise history beyond the league-mandated and financially-driven occasional wearing of throw-back jerseys every few weeks. Thomas wasn't making overtures to former players (or their kids) and there was a night when Charles Oakley was sitting courtside and never even appeared on the big screen above the court for fans to see him in the house. Obviously I don't think Thomas was running the in-house video display that night - after all, he was barely running the team on the court - but that sort of disregard for the fans and the Knicks past was indicative of the cult of personality that Thomas was hoping to build. He didn't want to be upstaged by guys with the last names like Ewing or Oakley or Starks or Frazier or Reed. He wanted this to be his show all the way. And, ultimately it was. Right up until the point when that show was cancelled for being utterly unwatchable.

Walsh and D'Antoni know that even if Jr. ends up not sticking on the roster past this season or if he really can't crack the rotation that the goodwill boost alone is worth it. They will get credit for trying this. And, the first time the Garden PA announcer hollers "Two points, Paaaa-trick EWWWWWing" the fans will go absolutely wild. I know I will.

"Rey Ain't Coming Home!"

Knicks Trade Renaldo Balkman

Renaldo Balkman is a Knickerbocker no more. He has been traded to the Denver Nuggets for two players and a future draft pick (but more about those things later). He ain't coming back to the Garden any more than once next season, unless the Knicks face the Nuggets in the Finals. Obviously. But before us stalwart few remaining Knicks fans start collecting stray dreadlocks for our hope chests and pre-heat the ovens for another batch of Mrs. Finkle's cookies - Look, they're little basketballs! - let's take a good look at Balkman's numbers in his two seasons treading the boards in the Mecca.


2006-2007
Games: 68
Games Started: 1
Minutes Per Game: 15.6
Points Per Game: 4.9
Shot %: 0.505
Free Throw %: 0.567
Rebounds Per Game: 4.3
Steals Per Game: 0.8
Assists Per Game: 0.6
Turmovers Per Game: 0.72
Fouls Per Game: 2.10

2007-2008
Games: 65
Games started: 0
Minutes Per Game: 14.6
Points Per Game: 3.4
Shot %: 0.489
Free Throw %: 0.432
Rebounds Per Game: 3.3
Steals Per Game: 0.7
Assists Per Game: 0.6
Turnovers Per Game: 0.57
Fouls Per Game: 2.0

In spite of the fact that the second-year small forward was a fan favorite at Madison Square Garden, Balkman's numbers in a Knicks uniform were poor and actually got worse during his sophomore season. The long-haired Balkman was a player for whom the numbers don't tell the story. Sort of. The small forward out of South Carolina, who was roundly and enthusiastically booed when Isiah Thomas selected him with the 20th pick in the 2006 NBA draft, become a fan favorite due in part to his frenetic hustle and his high-flying finishes. The energy that Balkman visibly played the game with was a much-needed counterpoint to the joylessness which seeped from the floor in so many first quarters before derision flowed from the crowd during so many second quarters.

So, perhaps some measure of Balkman's popularity sprung from the same place as the unfettered and unchecked devotion for every back-up quarterback in every NFL city that is home to a loser in November. Like those clipboard holders, Balkman never played enough to be tainted by the suckitude that enveloped every major member of the rotation. He was the breath of fresh air. He had long hair and he seemed distinct from the starting five and even from the core bench players, Robinson, Lee and Jeffries.

As a fan of the 2006-2008 Knicks it was, for several reasons, easy to like Balkman. He made you feel like he was trying. He made you feel like he was caring. He made you feel like something exciting might happen when he played. And, as fans we really needed to feel those things during the last two seasons. Although Balkman didn't often make you feel like the team would win, he did make any game in which he was playing something that you could bear watching. Or, at least, something you could bear watching more easily.

But remember what I said earlier about the numbers not telling the whole story with this guy? Well, neither do your eyes. Or your feelings. Just as he wasn't as bad as his numbers show, Renaldo Balkman wasn't as good as the way most of us felt about him. In the Bill James/sabermetrics/Moneyball sense, Balkman may have been somewhat of a mirage. He didn't really produce. He just looked like he wanted to more than some of his teammates looked like they wanted to. At the end of the day, it's rather damning to say that a young player couldn't get a firm grip on major minutes for the past two incarnations of New York City's home team! But Balkman never did grab hold of any major minutes. Old, undersized veteran power forward Malik Rose started more games than Balkman last season. And, so did rookie small forward Wilson Chandler, who seems to jump ahead of Balkman in the estimation of both Isiah Thomas as well as Mike D'Antoni.

Therefore, Balkman may have been more important to the fans than he was to the game plan. But no matter how you slice it. Balkman is gone. And I'll miss him. Even if it might not read like it, I liked this guy. A lot. The high point of the 2007-2008 season was the second home game of the season (yeah, that was when this team peaked) when Balkman's defense on Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony turned the tide in an enervating, come-from-behind win. He played hard in that game. He totally turned the tide against one of the game's premeir scorers and looked like he was going to be the lock-down defender that would guard the other team's best player on a nightly basis. But that never really panned out. Not surprisingly, I put most of the blame on Isiah Thomas's doorstep. The deposed Knicks despot never stayed with Balkman the way he did with Quentin Richardson and Jared Jeffries. He didn't nurture him or force-feed him minutes. He seemingly forgot about him for stretches both during games and between them. And, Balkman didn't always handle this well. I can remember attending a few games deep into the season, during a run when his minutes were way down, and Balkman was not really all-the-way there. He never ventured farther than the periphery of a huddle and mostly kept to himself at the end of the bench. He was shooting the breeze with Randolph Morris and Jerome James and paying more attention to the skits on the big screen the words in the huddle. Now, when given a choice between whatever cliches Isiah Thomas might have been offering in the huddle and the top-notch MSG in-game entertainment then I would likely have made the same choice.

(Ed note: We'll be back later to look at who came back in this trade and what happens next)

No News is Good News. Seriously.

The Knicks Don't Make A Deal At Trading Deadline.

The NBA trading deadline passed yesterday afternoon with little fanfare, at least in New York. The Cavs were part of a 3-team 11-player deal in which they replaced their risk/reward players with someone else's risk/reward players. Bonzi Wells is on the move and Bobby Jackson is back with Rick Adelman. And the Sonics now own every first-round draft pick for the next three years. Or, something like that.

Meanwhile, all was quite on the Seventh Avenue. Eddy Curry is still a Knick. Zach Randolph is still a Knick. Everyone responsible for this season is still on the roster. And, I'm glad.

I'm so very glad that Isiah didn't make a trade yesterday. And, no, I don't I think that this team, with this coach, is going to turn it around. I'm glad because the problems haven't been made any worse. We haven't added Vince Carter to the mix. We haven't taken on four-bad contract in exchange for Eddy Curry's single bad contract.

Seeing so many other teams acquire top flight players for virtually nothing but expiring contracts and spare parts one can forget how this team actually makes transactions. Isiah wasn't going to make a Gasol-like deal yesterday. And, if he did he wasn't going to playing the role of the Lakers. No way in hell. He doesn't have it in him and he doesn't have the tools on the roster. Well, he's got tools on the roster, but not the right kind. Anyway, anyone lamenting the Knicks inaction yesterday needs to remember that any trade would have been orchestrated by Zeke. It, necessarily, would have been a disaster. Every precedent is bad. There is no reason given to date to think that any move would have been anything other than another debacle.

So, I'm glad that there was no late-breaking Knicks news. That means that we still have our draft pick. We still have the same problems. But we don't have any new ones. We didn't get three-card monte'd into taking anyone else's problems. We don't have Vince Carter.