Well its the Knicks and MDA’s uptempo small ball will be a very welcome change. They will soon realize that there is indeed a basketball God and that paying this man 6m per will put fans in the seats (although not wins yet with the current makeup).

If you go around trade boards, you’d find out that the Knicks are the most famous trade partners. Everyone, me included wants a shot at GM-ing the Knicks to supposedly make that franchise relevant again.

If its anywhere illegal, may I?…

The Knicks would be running from the get-go. This is MDA’s assurance and it will bring an exciting brand of basketball to the country’s financial capital. This, however will not happen with Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry.

So the Knicks might be better considering trading ZBo for KMart. Kenyon Martin runs the floor very well and has somehow recovered well from this microfracture surgery. Both have identical ugly contracts with some 46m left in 3 seasons after this one. Denver was rumored to be interested in ZBo and they could not wait to get their hands off KMart’s albatross contract. The Knicks save an almost insignificant amount but the benefit they get is the more mobile and uptempo PF they will have in KMart.

Eddy Curry is another question mark. Rather than make him rot on the bench (some claim he is best fitted for an uptempo team that does not require him to rebound), I think giving him to Riley works with a Blount + Daequan Cook deal. Blount’s contract has a year less and would fit very well to their 2010-get-LeBron cap space plan. In contrast, if Miami ends up with the #1 pick and does this deal, they’d have a lineup of: Rose, Wade, Marion, Haslem and Curry. Ain’t too shabby.

Finally, the Knicks need to be lucky in the draft. They are pegged to be picking 5th – with the odds stating they have a 7.6% chance at landing that #1. This is about a percent higher than what Portland had last year. While many will like Mike Beasley for their #1 pick, the Knicks sorely need a guy like Derrick Rose. How fitting would it be to have a new GM, new coach and a new franchise player all in one off-season.

so i think the system needs to change so that it’s actually worthwhile for athletes to attend college. get them some income. Teach them about proper methods of self-diagnosis and remedies for injuries or things that may become injuries. Teach them about contracts and the system so they’re not abused. Give them classes in coaching, so that some may return to junior/high schools to coach.

50. Here’s the thing I really want to know about Mayo: How different is his case from Derick Rose? Beasely? Love? Bayless? Eric Gordon? Not to unfairly tar any of those guys with the same brush, but I think what happened to Mayo is more common than not.

First: we haven’t seen the evidence; we are making assumptions based on our opinion that this is continually going on. Then we we make extrapolations based on our like/dislike of the school. Finally we blame the NBA because we don’t like their rule of not letting players just out of high school into the league. I am going to respond to the last point, because this is an NBA blog.

The NBA has a right to make rules regarding eligibility requirements to get into the draft process. These are employment regulations that any employer can make, as long as one group of people are not favored over another (don’t bring age into this because it doesn’t fly). This has nothing to do with the NCAA or the individual kids involved. While we can argue whether or not this is a good business decision, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of saying the kid has a ‘right’ to be drafted – that’s bunk.

As to how the NBA should be looking out for the NCAA or the individual people, that is also not the NBA’s responsibility – unless you want to view the NCAA as an official minor league.

Just because us fans want something, doesn’t make what we want either right, just, or legal.

Maybe you meant Lee and Curry (not Chandler)?

When I heard about OJ Mayo allegedly receiving “gifts” from some sports agency in return of becoming his representation in the NBA, I first thought that OJ was the bad guy. I began to think and realized that if I was in his shoes I probably would have done similiar things. Especially if I did not put any importance on going to college and get a degree, but just wanted to jump to the Pros.

He knows and others do, at least up to now, that he is a gifted basketball player. He was never going to go to college for 2-3 years to mature as a player. He wanted to go straight to the NBA. Everybody, including USC, knew that.

The blame should go to his parent(s) who, I am just assuming, allowed these “leeches” to hook onto him in middle school.

The NBA and David Stern is at fault for the one-year of college rule that prevents young players from becoming eligible for the draft. The “one year” rule only helped perpetuate the “one and done” scenario of some college players. Maybe if it was a “two or three year” rule like in the NFL, then it would have been better because then the players at least would have to go to class.

Also, the NCAA and this “student-athlete” system is at fault. The NCAA should not be the minor league for the NBA, even though it seems to be. If the NBA really wanted to make changes, then they should setup Basketball Academies like in other countries where the players learn how to play basketball with the help of professional coaches and players.

One solution is to have the colleges offer a Sports Degree program where your sport is your degree program. This would keep the spirit of the “Student-athlete” while at the same time the players would not be taking courses like Communication and Ethnic Studies which they don’t plan on ever using.

Does anyone think with OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush that USC is about to fall like UNLV did back in the 1990s?