How the Knicks Could Get Good Soon… Enough

The Knicks have been the model of dysfunction as an organization. However they really need to only make one big move to change the direction of the franchise. They’ll need to make a whole bunch of smart moves and good draft choices, but one big move can change the franchises fortune and it’s not all that hard a move to make.

Trade Zach Randolph.

Now i'm not the first to suggest how the knicks can fix themselves so i may not be breaking new ground here. However as i said i think with some patience, some shrewdness and one big move the Knicks can get back on track.

Simply put if the Knicks trade Zach Randolph they will be back on the path to success. Getting rid of the 3 years left on his deal will put the Knicks in position to be under the cap by the summer of 2009. Marbury, and rose come off the cap in 2009, if they can find a trade to get Randolph’s contract off the books by then that’s approximately a total of 41 million coming off the books that summer. This would put the knicks at around 42 million dollars of committed payroll by then. The current salary cap is about 55 million and going up about $2 mil a year. If one assumes the salary cap for summer of 09 is $57 million at least the Knicks could have up to $15 million of free cap space.

Now I’ll start by detailing how they trade Randolph. Well Cleveland could be a taker for Joe Smith, Aaron Snow, and a draft pick. Both are expiring and Randolph fits a need for them. Or maybe GS for Al Harrington and a sign and trade for one to two year for Matt Barnes. How bout even a sign and trade with Miami for Jason Williams and ricky davis (one year contracts for both of them). I’m not saying it will be easy because the league knows he’s a loser, but there are teams he is a fit for.

They would still have David Lee a good rebounder and a great fit as a 6^th man bringing energy off the bench. (Probably not a good enough defender/scorer to be a fulltime starter but definitely worthy of good minutes). They have Jamal Crawford a good combo guard who can get you high teens in points a game. Eddy Curry is a good post presence who despite a complete lack of defensive intensity can score and rebound quite well.

Let’s say the Knicks get Jerryd Bayless in the draft, (a realistic projection based on the draft mock lottery) now you have Bayless at the point, Crawford, and Curry starting. You have balkman or Richardson to play sf, both who can be decent role players and you have Lee coming off the bench with Nate robinson backing up at PG. Your gapping hole is at c with the need for a defensive big man.

Now the Knicks could opt to try to draft one (maybe Thabeet or Robin Lopez falls to them early second round or they trade up for a late first round pick) or just be content with Randolph Morris, Curry and Lee upfront for a year. Or they can try to sign one. This summer they have no cap space. Realistically their options for 09 are limited with not too many talented guys being unrestricted free agents, the following guys are worth looking at who are restricted free agents although it’s unlikely they’ll able to pry any of them away as Indiana, LA, NO, and UT will clearly match offers for their guys:

Marvin Williams (restricted)
Raymond Felton (restricted)
Jason Maxiell (restricted)
Danny Granger (restricted)
Andrew Bynum (restricted)
Hakim Warrick (restricted)
Chris Paul (restricted)
Nate Robinson (restricted)
David Lee (restricted)
Channing Frye (restricted)
Francisco "Paco" Garcia (restricted)
Deron Williams (restricted)

So the smart move is to wait till 2010 where the following players can be unrestricted free agents (ignoring guys like Shaq and Ben Wallace who will both be about 80 at the time) :

Joe Johnson
Ray Allen
LeBron James
Dirk Nowitzki

Josh Howard
Marcus Camby
Rip Hamilton
Stephen Jackson
Tracy McGrady
Dwyane Wade
Michael Redd
Tyson Chandler
Eddy Curry
Amare Stoudemire
Brad Miller
Manu Ginobili
Chris Bosh

Lets say you can’t get Lebron because he goes to Brooklyn and D-Wade wants to stay in Miami well Imagine Chris Bosh or Josh Howard being inserted in that lineup. Or how bout Tyson Chandler in there? So now you have Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, Balkman/Q, Crawford and Bayless. I think you’ve got yourself a team now. If Lebron does sign in NY which is still a possibility given the lack of progress in Brooklyn then to borrow from Steven A… quite frankly you’ve got all you need.