"I'm hearing the brother from DePaul"

(A.F.O.M.G. talks Mets in a post below.)

Four reasons Knicks fans should be thrilled about the outcome of 2007 NBA Draft night

1) Zack Randolph for peanuts

For those baseball-only Y2K readers out there, and we know there's more than a few of you, Zeke pulled off a gem of a trade last night. Yes, you are awake. No, you're not high. Actually, what am I saying? You probably are. But that's not the point.

The point is that the Knicks picked up powerful power forward Zack Randolph and a pair of crap guards (Fabulous Fred Jones and floppy haired cracker Dan Dickau) for absolutely nothing -- the smoldering ashes of Stevie Franchise's corpse and Channing "Small" Frye. What an absolute steal.

Now, while acknowledging that there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about Randolph's ability to succeed in New York (doubts about his sanity foremost among them), there's simply no escaping how ludicrous the price was. For one thing, getting rid of Francis should improve the Knicks in and of itself -- Portland, for its part, immediately announced it would buy the guy out of his contract. As playing commodities go, Stevie just isn't a desirable. Too hurt, too slow, too awful at defense, too everything. Good riddance.

Plus, with Frye simply stealing minutes better spent on David Lee, you've basically conceded nothing while picking up a guy who averaged 24 and 10 last year. Maybe he tanks, and the contract certainly has the potential to be an albatross in that event, but at this price, it's a risk anyone would take.

2) The Randolph-Curry frontline

Remember all those season-killing double teams Big Eddy saw last year? The ones that Big Eddy, so brutally effective in the post during the first half of the season, never really came close to figuring out? Remember how frustrating that was? (Young Sip surely does). Well, forget about them. They're a thing of the past. Done and done.

Because in Randolph, not only have you added a guy with an even more legitimate claim on that same double team, you've also got a big man who can knock down the 16-foot kickout jumper every time. Curry, so inept at finding the open guard (or whoever) with the skip or cutting pass, doesn't have to worry about that any more -- Randolph can just sit out in the lane and rotate for the easy two.

The list of teams in the East with a chance at guarding this tandem straight up is extremely short. Very short. In fact, this lineup:

PG Starbury
SG Jamal Crawford
SF Jared Jeffries/Q
PF Randolph
C Curry

... with David Lee the first guy off the bench, the non-starter among Q or Jeffries and Nate Robinson coming off for scoring and Rose/James/Morris spelling the bigs, the Knicks are going to score a lot of points and be pretty damn tough to stop. They could really stand to get a player who can play defense, but at the very least, they're going to be a lot more interesting than they've been in a while.

3) Spike Lee, seer

So ESPN's Lisa Salters has Spike, sitting out in the audience with a shit-eating grin on his face, on for a live interview right after the Randolph trade. He ignores the trade entirely and proceeds to defend Zeke's drafting prowess, citing T-Mac and Damon Stoudemire and Renaldo Balkman (yup). Salters then asks him who he thinks the Knicks should take with their first-rounder, and Spike sort of hedges before busting out, with another loopy smile on his face, the title of this post.

I was sitting in the Anchor Bar (home of the chicken wing!) in Buffalo when this happened, and every single person in the place sort of turned and looked at each other with a confused look on the ol' face. Not because Spike was wrong, clearly, but because it was just such an improbable and bizarre thing to say on television. Plus, "the brother from DePaul" sort of has a nice, cooly Catholic cadence to it. God, I love Spike.

4) Zeke not taking Josh McRoberts

Now, I don't happen to think much about the brother from DePaul's chances of becoming an NBA contributor. That said, there was a lot of potential for mischief at No. 23, with a lot of Isaiah-type complete bomb picks sitting out there like tasty little ducks l'orange, and the big guy didn't take the bait.

McRoberts isn't even the type of player Zeke would have been looking for, although hearing the reaction of MSG had he been taken would have been absoultely priceless. I was genuinely worried he was going to take the Finnish dude Philly grabbed (and eventually sold to the evil billionaire Paul Allen) or Nevada's big stiff Nick Fazekas or even Aaron Brooks, the Staten Island version of Nate Robinson, even after picking up Fred Jones in the Randolph deal. Expecting the worse, I suppose.

Boring and a little off-the-wall > outright mockery. Progress!

Two reasons Knicks fans should not be thrilled about the outcome of 2007 NBA Draft night

1) The Atlantic Division got a whole lot better

Now, a productive and non-imprisoned Randolph might actually make the Knicks the favorite to win the division. The problem is that all of the teams' rivals got a lot better as well.

Boston brought Ray Allen over from Seattle for a stunningly reasonable price, and while I wouldn't have pulled the trigger on a deal that's not going to solve my long-term problems, they're going to be much better in the short run. The lineup of Rondo-Allen-Pierce-Jefferson-Perkins isn't all that bad at all.

Philly snagged a couple of guys who should contribute right away in Thad Young (less Joe Smith = progress) and the fella from Colorado State.

Toronto didn't really do much, but they won the division last year.

The Nets added the shot-blocker they needed in Sean Williams, a guy who should immediately take all of CBA reject Mikki Moore's minutes and swat about 2.6 shots a game in the process. Another potential nutcase, but hey, you can't credit the Knicks and not give the Nets the same benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, a much tougher group than last year, at least at this point.

2) Still no backup point guard

See, I certainly would have addressed this instead of taking the brother from DePaul, especially because Spanish sensation Rudy Fernandez was still sitting there at No. 23. (Phoenix took him with the next pick, then sold him to Allen for 30 pieces of silver and a chunk of the rights to PowerPoint.) Fernandez plays like a mutant combination of Manu Ginobili, Kevin Johnson and Ronaldinho -- it's all a bit unorthodox, if not actually spastic-looking, but it's cool as shit when it works and stylish as hell. This guy would have been a hit like none other in the Garden. Too bad.