This is the last chance for the Knicks to make a significant improvement to their team before the free agency period begins in 2010. Thanks to the Stephon Marbury trade, the Knicks will not have a first round pick in next year’s draft making tonight’s pick the last significant pick they will have to improve this team.
Tonight will be different at Madison Square Garden because for the first time in years, the Knicks will do something and not be booed. While all signs point to the Knicks sticking with the #6 pick, you can be sure that could change because the top of the draft is very fluid. For weeks it has all been about Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley going 1-2, but with Chicago reportedly picking Rose, the Heat are considering a trade or picking OJ Mayo. If they pick Mayo, you can bet the Knicks will try and get to #3 to get Beasley.
The best chance for the Knicks to make a quick return to respectability bounced away with the drop of a ping pong ball in the NBA Draft Lottery Tuesday night. In reality, they fared exactly as they should have, but for fans desperately hoping to see Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley in a Knicks’ uniform next year, it was a disappointing night. The Knicks wound up with the sixth pick and the Nets, who had a minimal chance of moving up, will pick tenth.
Filling the "It's so ridiculous," "It's true" and "You certainly didn't get what you paid for" categories is news that the combined salary for the New York Knickerbockers for the 2006-07 season was a whopping $139,381,526. While the astronomical payroll of the Knicks isn't new news, it's always fun to look at the payrolls of teams that didn't make the NBA Playoffs.
Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddy for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bids Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash.
- Cliff Floyd has come back to New York and is playing baseball. He's just playing in Brooklyn and not Queens. The Mets right fielder is making a rehab start for the Cyclones tonight in Coney Island. Maybe the presence of a Major Leaguer will help the Cyclones win their 2nd game of the season. The Mets' single-A affiliate finally broke through last night in a 4-0 win against the Hudson Valley Renegades. Tickets are still available for the 7 p.m. game.
Tomorrow night is the NBA Draft and Gothamist thought it would be a good time to check in with “Mr. Orange”, operator of selltheknicks.com, a site attempting to force Jim Dolan to sell the team to competent ownership. When Dolan isn’t being defended by his daddy, or finally setting a deadline for Isiah to stop destroying the Knicks (after the upcoming season) he has dispatched his legal team against Mr. Orange. Despite that, the site is alive and well and planning for a big night tomorrow.
Knicks’ fans, are you still basking in the afterglow of the worst season in franchise history? Are you looking forward to watching the Chicago Bulls use the #2 overall pick in the upcoming draft? Well, it’s time to stop blaming Isiah and Larry and focus on the big fish at MSG, Jim Dolan. Selltheknicks.com is a website designed to appeal to the “everyfan” while trying to force Dolan and Cablevision to sell their ownership interests in the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty.
Name the two best players eligible for the upcoming NBA Draft. Maybe you like Tyrus Thomas or Adam Morrison? Well, the Knicks would have been in position to pick one of them after Tuesday’s draft lottery, but they traded that pick away last year to get Eddy Curry. The Chicago Bulls now get the chance to use the #2 overall pick on the player they want and also will have the option of swapping first round picks with the Knicks in 2007. Nice work, Isiah!
Almost twenty years to the day that the Knicks selected Patrick Ewing they will attempt to find their next franchise center. With Kurt Thomas reportedly on his way out of town, the Knicks will have Michael Sweetney and not much else in the front court next year and will be keeping their fingers crossed that Channing Frye falls to them at the eighth pick. If Frye is gone, the Knicks may turn to Fran Vazquez, a 6’11” center from Spain or defy expectations and take prep star, Gerald Green. The Knicks also hold the 30th pick in the first round.
Stay tuned for the NBA Draft wrap-up and check out the week in full.
The NBA's Expansion Draft was held last night, so now Charlotte Bobcats have the beginnings of a roster. They chose a total of 19 players, but most of them will not be with the team on opening night next year. The Bobcats chose nine restricted free agents, which automatically turned them into unrestricted free agents, allowing those nine players to negotiate a new contract with any team in the league except for the team that left them unprotected in the draft. Got that? Click here for the rest of the expansion draft rules.
The NBA Draft is less than two weeks away and that means this week is the pre-draft combine in Chicago where college seniors and players from small schools look to impress the NBA scouts and improve their draft rankings. Generally, players thought to be lottery caliber selections skip the camp and choose to work out individually for any team interested in them. In the past, no name players such as Ronald "Flip" Murray, Steven Hunter and Jeryl Sasser have used this camp to shoot up the draft board and land in the first round.
Unlike last year's draft, which had high schooler LeBron James as the top prize, this year's draft seems to be short on impact players and long on potential. When the draft finally comes around at the end of June, expect to hear the word "upside" at least 70 times. Perhaps Gothamist will keep a count. UConn junior Emeka Okafor, fresh off a national title, figures to be the top selection this year.
Will Sebastian Telfair be a success or a failure in the NBA? Would he have benefited as a player by going to school or was it better for him to cut and run? Gothamist secretly thought he would be going pro when we wrote about him last time, but we aren't sure if he can succeed with his height. Only time will tell. At least he knows how to do business, putting the adidas announcement before his own announcement. For those of you hoping that he could join his cousin Stephon Marbury on the Knicks, keep dreaming. The Knicks don't have a first round draft pick this year.
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