Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Knicks point guard situation

So if the King does decide to play in NY, where does that leave the Knicks in respects to the point guard. Chris Duhon is now out of the picture having signed with the Orlando Magic. That leaves Toney Douglas as the only current option for starting as the 1.

A lot of people sleep on Toney but he was impressive in the second half of the season. With Chris Duhon struggling to find his shot, Douglas started a chunk of games for the Knicks in the second half. He led the Knicks in scoring on several occasions and from mid-March until the end of the season averaged well over double digits in scoring. His assists though - meh. Around 3.5 - could definitely be better. However, he does show some promise.

He can compete physically, and has a solid mid-range jumper mixed in with some good speed. Based on 2009-10, I don't think Toney is a starting PG but I do think he can be solid back-up.

Now the Knicks have a decision make. Assuming they land Lebron, there are already talks of trying to sign Luke Ridnour. Now I like Luke Ridnour. I think he's hardnosed, smart ball player. But he doesn't give you anything that Toney doesn't. On top of that, he'll cost the Knicks anywhere from $5-$7 million. Now this doesn't seem like such a gamble, but with talks of a possible Carmelo signing in July 2011, the Knicks are going to need as much cap space as possible in order to give Melo a deserving contract. They most likely will not be able to do that if they acquire Ridnour.

However, let's say they do keep Toney as the starting PG for the 2010-11 season, July 2011 should open some doors for the Knicks with a possible acquisition of Tony Parker or trades for Chris Paul, or Deront Williams should they become disgruntled.

Regardless, who says you need a dominant PG to win a championship? Who was the point guard during the Bulls dynasty? How about the Lakers dynasty of the 2000s? A solid guard who can get you in your sets, hit 15-20 foot jumpers and play good defense should be good enough for a team with LBJ, and Amar'e. And Toney Douglas is good enough to fill that role.

No comments:

Post a Comment