i wanna somehow by next season get a rotation of...
PG- Raymond Felton
SG- Landry Fields
SF- Carmelo Anthony
PF- Wilson Chandler
C- Amar'e Stoudemire (even though hes a true 4, that lineup would be sick and wed need to have backup centers off the bench)
6- Danilo Gallinari
7- Ronny Turiaf
8- Sebastian Telfair (or any other backup PG not Toney Douglas though)
9- backup center(if Mozgov can develop he could hold this spot down, if not wed have to find someone else)
obviously the only way to do this would be to sign Melo outright in Free Agency and also resign Will this summer and i dont even know if thats possible but that rotation would be
i consider it a big priority to resign Will. I really think he has to be cnsidered when discussing our MVPs this season. He has steped up his game to a whole new level and has been a Swawne Marion type of presence this seasonat the 4. He looks more strong/athletic than ever and his mid range off the dribble has been great.
If we do get Melo i also want to keep Landry here badly. Out of him/Gallo/Will he really is the only one that can consistently play the 2 which is a big factor. Also i think he may fit best next to Melo than anyone. While he can score already and im sure that his scoring abilities will only improve over time (see guys like Chandler or David Lee when he was here) he doesnt NEED to score to be effective. With a 3 like Melo and to still have Amare it is clear they will do most of the scoring and controlling the ball as they both should, considering that at their resective positions they are arguably the best scorers in the NBA (maybe not all around best, but i terms of pure scoring it is hard to argue against Melo as the best scoring wing and Stat as the best scoring big man. imo only arguments against both would be Durant and Dirk. I think Melo is a better scorer than Bron or Wade and Stat is a better scorer than Dwight). So with those 2 doing the majority of the scoring/controlling the ball, its would be key to have a player like Landry on the wing next to Melo who would have no problem in having a role primarily to just set up those 2 to do work scoring, and also do the little hussle plays to compliment Melo's dominant scoring. Not to mention if the defense sleeps on him which they likely will considering that both Melo and Amare demand double teams, he is still very adept to take it to the hole and finish when the defense plays off him, or hit an open mid range shot or a 3. Also you need to have a quality wing defender next to Melo which he is right now and should only improve into one of the better defensive wings in the league. He will also help out rebounding probably more than Will/Gallo and also him and Melo are still a very big wing combination and are also athletic and it will cause alot of mismatches for teams who maybe play 2 guys who are built more like point guards.
Considering that imo its pretty essential to keep both will and landry long term with Melo (if we get him) the one i would most support trading is Gallo. However i dont want to say i dont want to keep Gallo because out of all 3 of those guys i think Gallo has the most potential considering his very rare skillset as a decently athletic 6'10 guy who can shoot the lights out and take it to the hoop. However if we get Melo and one of them needs to go i would take Gallo cause even if he reaches full potential he still wont necessarily be better than Melo is right now, so why take the chance? Also out of all 3 he fits the least well with Melo considering he is the least versatile and him and Melo would both be very out of place playing any other spot than the 3. Neither can play the 2 or 4 on a championship caliber team imo. Saying that, if we can sign Melo outright this summer i would still prefer to keep Gallo cause he will only get better and as 6th man imo he shoul make up one of the better 6 mans of recent memory and with all the double teams that Melo and Stat will comand, i could not even put it into words how helpful it would be to have a shooter/player off the bench like Gallinari. He would $%$*@%! kill it in that role.
imo if we can get that rotation (even if we start Stat at center and Will at pf although they are both undersized and out of their ordinary positions) i still think that is a contender in the east as long as you get some quality big men to come off the bench (Mozgov developing would be great, because he is 7'1 and despite how he has played this season he is still very raw and has a lot of potential. And f he could improve it would be amazing to have a 7'1 dude who is tough defensively, run the floor, and hit from mid range, ESPECIALLY considering our small starting 5 and we have Turiaf as well).
So yeah if that can happen and we have a PG to come in for Ray, that is the roation for next season i would most like to see and im pretty sure that Donnie is thinking the same thing which is wy i love what Donnie has done, considering he hasnt juped the gun on Melo although it seems like he could if he really wanted to, hes looking for center/point guard backups, and he has said hes looking to retain Chandler long term. So thats my thoughts but i guesss well see what happens.
as for tonight lets keep up the good play and stick it to Phoenix. Hopefully STATcity will go offf