Just caught this rumor on Rotoworld.com. As a Knicks fan, it's too good to be true. I'm not gonna get my hopes up, really.
If you don't feel like clicking on the link, it says that the Knicks would trade Zach Randolph and an unnamed player to the Nuggets for Linas Kleiza, J.R. Smith, Eduardo Najera and Steven Hunter. It just can't be real, life can't be that good.
Randolph is a cancer. No team could win with him as a first or second option. Granted if he went to Denver he'd be their No. 3 option, but it still wouldn't work out. Randolph wants to shoot every time he touches the basketball. On a night-to-night basis, he is absolutely painful to watch. I've never seen a guy who catches the ball in the post, gets tripled teamed and never once looks at his wide open shooters in the corner and top of the key. Doesn't even look! He just turns around and shoots or tries to force his way through and get fouled.
Get him outta New York! I'm not gonna lie, when the Knicks picked Randolph up for Steve Francis and Channing Frye, I thought Isiah was the man. Francis is finished, Frye is soft as hell and Randolph dominated on my fantasy team last year. It appeared to be a very promising deal. But then I saw Randolph play; yea, he gets his stats, but he has to have the lowest basketball IQ in the NBA and he's probably the worst defender in the history of organized sports.
There is no way that Denver could seriously be interested in him. The Nuggets are already one of the league's worst defensive teams and they get plenty of offense out of Carmelo, Iverson, K-Mart, Kleiza and Smith. Randolph would be a horrible, horrible fit for them. He's a terrible fit anywhere, really.
On the flip side, I would love to have Kleiza, Smith, Najera and Hunter on the Knicks. It's actually a perfect mix when you consider New York's needs. Heading into next season, the only returning Knicks should be Jamal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, David Lee, Nate Robinson, Malik Rose and maybe Renaldo Balkman. Of course for contract reasons those won't be the exact leftovers, but we're talking about my ideal world here. So we'd be left with a starting lineup of Marbury, Crawford, Kleiza, Lee and Eddy Curry, with a legitimate sixth man in J.R. Smith, two big men who can defend (Hunter, Rose), two small forwards who can defend (Najera, Balkman) and a good No. 3 guard in the East (Robinson).
That's still not a real contender, but it's better than what we have. I'm so sick of Quentin Richardson, Fred Jones and Jared Jeffries, and Smith, Kleiza and Najera are better respective versions of them. I would love to deal Curry and Jeffries together and get very little in return, just to save money. I'm not particularly fond of the centers in the upcoming free agent class so I say we sit on most of the money and bring Kurt Thomas back for one or two years and have him split with Hunter. Then when a legit center becomes available we have the money and some better pieces to deal, depending on the mode (free agency or a trade).
Who knows what to think at this point. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope that Randolph gets to pack his bags.
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