Rocky Mountain High
-
- July
- 28
The deal is done.
Renaldo Balkman is going to Denver with a sack of money for Taurean Green and Bobby Jones, who are now buyout candidates. The Knicks are getting a second-round pick in 2010, as well.
You can see where this is going.
Balkman was the kind of player New York embraces. He’s a hustler with a unique personality, but there’s not a lot of room in this new system for players who can’t shoot. The defense is always useful, but it’s about pushing the ball up the floor and scoring now.
It doesn’t sound like Green or Jones will even make it to camp.
Cutting them loose gets the Knicks down to 15 players, and saves the organization about $2 million. Denver has two second-rounders in 2010, one is coming from the Clippers. The Knicks get the higher pick.
This entry was posted
on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 2:43 pm by Mike Dougherty.
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Wouldn’t it have made more sense to get Randolph? Even if he does have a good year, would teams want him?
I’d rather have a hustler in Balkmann than a slug and black hole on offense in Randolph
*I mean get rid of Randolph.
WTF
This deal does not make a ton of sense to me if we immediately buy out Green. Why not keep Green through training camp and see what we have? At the end of Camp you cut loose either Green or Collins, the other stays as our back up PG (assuming Starbury is gone). I still think we should look into getting Marcus or Sean Williams from the Nets or possibly even Krstic, would they have an interest in Jeffries, Q, or Zach? Just thinking dumb stuff out load.
There’s not a lot of room in any system for players who can’t shoot. Dennis Rodman, Ben Wallace, and Bruce Bowen are certainly the exceptions, but not the norms.
I’m ok with this trade. Yes, he’s a hustler with a unique personality and a sweet haircut, but his offensive development stalled out and his outbursts of athleticism were too often overshadowed by lapses in judgment.
He might not have been thrilled to hear the news, but now he gets to run with Melo and AI. His shoot-last mentality will surely be welcome there.
So this trade, until 2010, makes the Knicks worse? I guess maybe they figure Wilson Chandler will take his minutes at small forward anyway. Odd. Not the news I was expecting. Should be interesting to see what happens next.
Marcus Williams was already traded by the Nets.
by “higher” do you mean like 10 instead of 15 or 15 instead of 10? what direction?
rom
like 10 instead of 15, I should’ve written ‘the better of the two picks’
this trade disgusts me.. one of the few players who actually came to work to earn his money gets traded? he surely could thrive in the uptempo coach pringles system. How does this really help us? save us 2 million? in the famous words of derrick coleman “whooptie damn doo!”.
I’m telling you, this trade really pisses me off. I really really liked Balkman. Granted, he’s nothing to get huffy and puffy about but when you make a trade with no true purposes that brings back nothing, it ticks me off.
Someone get Zeke on the phone!
I’m going to miss Arby at some level, but the Knicks need both Wilson Chandler and Galinari to be better than he’s ever going to be.
The hustle was good, but he regressed last year and two years of hustle was only good for 56 wins total anyway.
And theoretically if healthy, Q-Rich needs minutes at the 3 in Coach D’s system.
okay thanks
that kind of draft talk is always confusing
I like Balkman too, but he is not a major player and if they feel they need to slice some money fine. They have much bigger fish to throw away.
baby steps.
I agree w/ JohnDoe. Right now, Walsh has a plan looking towards 2010. Any questions about how this affects the 2008-09 Knicks are irrelevant. This is not a playoff team year one no matter what, unless D’Antoni is truly a miracle worker.
The most important move still yet to be made is to remove Randolph from this roster. More important than cutting Marbury loose. He is a detriment on the court in this system and the worst mistake of the Isiah era (which is truly saying something).
I agree with JohnDoe that, “They have much bigger fish to throw away.” So they could’ve packaged Balkmann with Randolph in a trade or expiring contracts/picks.
I was under the impression that this guy had big talent. He did things on a per minute basis that put him in elite company. On the court he was exciting to watch.
I always thought that Isiah held back his young players and rode his vets way beyond where it was serving the franchises best interests. Still, the last couple of years have been a complete catastrophe. If Balkman could have gotten them win #25 I’m sure IT would not have been too proud.
Balkman never developed the all around game to keep himself on the court. He was an exceptional rebounder and defender but his presence on the team never made us better at those things on the whole.
I think if you look at the playoff teams in this league and tried to find one rotation player that Renaldo could competently replace you you would have a hard time. James Posey?, he has three point range. Bruce Bowen?