Friday, March 21, 2008

Interview with the Enemy: Posting and Toasting


We continue to make our way through the rest of the lottery bound teams, this time familiarizing ourselves with the New York Knickerbockers. The fantastic Knicks blog Posting and Toasting was all too willing to answer our questions and ask some of their own.

1) With the rumors swirling that owner James Dolan is looking to replace Isiah Thomas as the GM of the team (took him long enough!), out of the legitimately available names who do you feel would make the best GM to remake this team?

From the sounds of things, Donnie Walsh is the leading candidate and appears to be a worthy one. He's a New York guy with a respected name in the league. He's got an eye for talent and a successful hand in the trade market. I'm not picky, though. At this point, I'd take Chef Boyardee over Isiah.

2) If David Stern were to do another favor to the Knicks (like the Allan Houston Rule was supposed to) and gave them the opportunity to drop any contracts they wanted to, which players are you keeping on this team? Well, other than the basketball demi-god that is David Lee, of course.

I can't help but love Crawford and Nate, so they can stick around. Other than them (and Lee), I'm not particularly attached to anyone except for the young guys: Balkman, Chandler, Morris, and even Collins.

3) For all Isiah's faults, the man can draft with the best of them. David Lee, Renaldo Balkman and Wilson Chandler have all proven that they can be solid contributors in the NBA. With a lottery pick guaranteed in the upcoming draft, what players are you looking at with hopes and dreams swirling through your mind?

The consensus at P&T is that the Knicks are looking for a solid lead guard. Derrick Rose might be a pipe dream, but all the experts tell me that he's the ideal guy. Other than that, I really like Jerryd Bayless (without knowing much about him). D.J. Augustin and Russell Westbrook are two other guys of interest who aren't currently projected that high, but might get a bump with impressive play in the tournament. Eric Gordon is cool too, but might not fit the need well enough.

4) Eddy Curry is out for the season, Stephon Marbury is still in the doghouse and reports are that even Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford are tuning out their coach. Coming from an expert in recognizing them - what a mess! Is there any way this team can move forward as long as Isiah is with the organization in any capacity?

Any capacity? Sure. Isiah could remain with the Knicks in the capacity of, say, waterboy without doing too much harm. Even then, he'd probably swap out the Gatorade for some purple Powerade or something.

5) Does Spike Lee still show up for every game or did he hire a stunt double? Just asking...

Spike's not at every single game, but his attendance hasn't faltered too much this season. Call the man what you want, but he's not a fair-weather fan by any means.

BallHype: hype it up!

1 comment:

Rick said...

Isaiah's a bum for benching Zach Randolph so he could get a look at Randolph Morris. That should raise the 'tank' flag in Sterns mind.