Walaikum Salaam,
Good points and I agree, as of now the Knicks don't look like no playoff team. Sprewell was definitely a good pickup but still a questionable move at the time after his whole choking the coach nonsense. Houston was great and I respect what he has done for the Knicks over the past years, but he is a pure shooting guard and I don't believe pure shooting guards (and MJ was not a pure shooting guard) should be paid as franchise players like Houston was since those type shooting guards can only take a team so far come playoff time. I've always loved LJ (and off topic can anyone confirm if he accepted Islam or not - just something I had heard some time back). I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain Anthony Mason came before Scott Layden's time, cuz I know he played with Ewing, Oakley, and even the X-man.
I agree with your comments on Crawford and Curry - I was not too happy with either of those moves. I'm just hoping they can change under LB.

Salam

Yeah, I kinda remember the tales of Eisley, Anderson, etc. But they also had the likes of Spreewell and Houston, LJ, Anthony Mason... they had some decent ballers that knew their roles. Right now, Isiah has gotten a lot of talent on the roster and it remains to be seen whether or not things will mesh in the right way.

As far as Crawford and Curry. I'm a Bulls fan, and I've been through 2 or 3 seasons of coaches trying to get
Crawford to stop taking stupid shots and trying to get him to take it to the hole more often.... simply put he can't and won't. He's not a quick player, so its rather difficult for him to take it to the hole. He plays like a poor man's Jalen Rose. He has to set up his mid range jumper and have players respect that before making a hesitation move to the basket. He relies solely on his hesitation moves to get to the hole. And he's inconsistent one game 30 points, the next 4 games he won't crack double digits. In one game count on him to take 3 or 4 horrible shots a game, given. Clearly in my book not worth the kind of money he's getting.

Curry is something else. He shows flashes of brillance offensively and flashes of stupidity defensely. Conditioning has always been an issue, so much so that when Chicago found out that he had a heart problem....well lets just say it explained a lot. Even when I watched him play for the Bulls, I don't remember him playing the full 48 minutes. There would always be at the very least one or perhaps two quarters where he would sit out completely. The jury is still out on Curry, but with Frye playing his way into Brown's rotation Curry may not see that many minutes.

Marbury has always been one of the more "me first" players in the league and in still remains to be seen whether Brown will get through to him.

Its nice to see the Knicks ranked high defensively but that hasn't translated into a lot of wins. Plus, I understand that a lot of new players were added to the mix with a lot of talent as well as a new coach. Right now, the only 3 players that I see that fit into larry brown's system are Robinson, Frye and Lee. Other than that, others have struggled a lot.

I know its still early, but the Knicks, as of now. don't look like a playoff team.

Do you even know who was on the Knicks roster was before Isaiah Thomas took over? They had guys like Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson starting!! After Allan Houston was injured, our star player was KEITH VAN HORN - do you even remember that? The Knicks had the highest payroll filled with absolute scrubs. While the payroll is still the highest and I don't think the Knicks roster is good yet, there is much more individual talent than there has been for a while. I don't think the team is balanced, but that's what LB will try and figure out. A lot of these current Knicks players need to adjust their games to meet their strengths which I have confidence that Larry Brown can and will do.
1) Marbury is struggling, but is definitely trying to change his game to fit the LB system, hence his current drop in numbers.
2) I'm not a fan of Jamal Crawford, but if LB can get him to slash to the basket and draw fouls instead of shooting difficult to jumpers, he will improve drastically.
3) Curry still has tremendous upside and it remains to be seen whether he is worth the money or not.
4) I cannot defend Jerome James - Isaiah Thomas was an idiot for signing him to that much money.

Regardless, if these Knicks players and team do not work out IT knows its his a$$ that will be fired. He will do whatever it take to bring Brown the types of players he will need. If Thomas proved anything, it's that he can get trades done considering he overturned Layden's entire roster in about two years.

With that said, the Knicks defense is 5th in the league (as opposed to 28th last year) in terms of points allowed and top 10 in opponent FG %age. I think that you are jumping the gun by making your judgements too quickly considering the sheer number of players who have been added to the roster along with a brand new coach with a brand new system. Try to understand that Rome was not built in a day, so you best check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Knicks fans everywhere - REJOICE! Good times are a coming!