NFT: NYK The case of Kevin Love

I'm going to start off by saying that the western conference isn't the place for consistent playoff success anymore. And quite frankly, I don't see how the lakers are close to being playoff competitive for the next few years. Kobe is a huge question mark, and even though I can't doubt him, I don't see how the Lakers would be any better than the Suns or Grizzlies even if they landed Melo.

I'm going with the assumption that Love is motivated about winning as much he is about money. I think the Knicks could put some semblance of a playoff team in the dreadful east. Shumpert, JR, hardaway, and stat could handle the extra FG attempts. The nuggets were just as good without him, and we've seen with Rudy Gay and Granger that when a primary scorer goes down, the other decent players step up and play good team basketball.

A potential trade the Knicks can make (I admit I'm being slightly optimistic) is chandler, Aldrich and maybe even Jeremy Tyler for Omer Asik. The rockets could extend chandler and make him a long term backup for Howard. Tyler and Aldrich add to their big man depth. Asik is gone after next year so at least they would get more long term depth.

With Asik, the Knicks would be at least an average defensive team, and the offense could pickup it's slack, especially with a coaching scheme change. Jackson could possibly land Ramon Sessions with the mid level exception, whom he coaches in LA. Sessions played well under Jackson and could easily beat out Felton for the starting job.

The next season, Felton might be in jail and therefore may not be able to accept his player option. Smith can easily outplay his $6 million option as the primary scorer now, but even if he picks it up he could be a steal at that much money. If the Knicks land Asik they could extend him, but they could also get him in free agency for probably 10-11 mil a year.

Assuming Kevin loves contract would be about $20 mil a year, they could even afford Rondo if he becomes a free agent. Asik, Rondo, and Love would be about 45 mil against the cap , and even if Jr opts in they could afford another good piece such as Afflalo in the 7-10 million range.

A lineup of:
Rondo/Prig
Afflalo/Shump
JR/Shump
Love/Odom
Asik/random veteran

The Pacers are imploding and the nets have no future after next year and the heat are eventually going to decline. This could be a young roster with a core that's locked up for years.

Hey with Phil who knows? I'm just being optimistic