<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">hange the nickname from Nate "The Great" to Nate "Trade Bait." Knicks President Isiah Thomas is desperate to shake things up by the Feb. 23 trading deadline ? preferably by adding a point guard, with Denver's Earl Watson his top target. Isiah Thomas' edict less than two months ago that he won't trade the young kids is history. A league source said two of the Knicks' three rookie first-rounders ? Nate Robinson and David Lee ? could be included in deals. Small forward Trevor Ariza could be included, too.</div> New York Post Why would Isiah do this? Really. Both are promising rookies with bright futures ahead of them and unless we're getting a star in this league with a manageable contract we should just keep them here.
This is all Larry Brown, not Isiah Thomas. Right now Isiah is in the hot seat and his moves will be dictated by LB. Developing young talent has never been LB's strong point in the NBA. He's here to win now, not 4 or 5 years down the road. LB likes teams with hungry, veteran players who have the experience and willingness to run his offense. These young, cheap rookies are the only trade bait the Knicks have to acquire "LB" type players. Isiah needs to package these rookies with one of their ugly contracts like Mo Taylor, Penny Hardaway, or Malik Rose. I'm surprised David Lee hasn't cracked LB's rotation. I thought he would be the prototypical LB player, but there most be some friction between the two. I think LB is selling Dolan and Isiah he can still make a playoff run with the Knicks if he gets the right players on board.
The Knicks dont have a choice. Isiah Thomas bet the house when he made the Curry trade. He took a big gamble when he traded for Curry, the type of gamble that could cost the Knicks for years, and it is not paying off. He thought that the Knicks would be so good this year with the addition of Curry that the pick would be near useless and the difference between our pick and Chicago's pick the year afterwards would be small if there was any difference at all. He made a grave miscalculation and heavily overrated Curry. Ironically the Knicks are better when Curry isnt playing. He gave up the draft picks to win right now and the Knicks arent winning. And with no draft picks he cant rebuild so he has no chice but to continue to improve the Knicks and win games right now anyway he can. And trading is the only way the Knicks will be able to improve for the next few years and we have few assets including Lee and Robinson. That's the reality of the situation. The Knicks have to try to make the playoffs this year because there really is nothing else. Anyway I think Isiah Thomas should be fired.
