20 Points, 10 Rebounds, and Rebuilding the Knicks

20 points and 10 rebounds.

If someone can give you that night in and night out, they are a star. In fact, if we are judging by the current NBA elite, they are superstars. I’m talking endorsements, commercials, All-Star appearances—the works.

Brand, Garnet, Howard, Duncan, Shaq, Boozer, Gasol—these are all players that you would rush to give big money to if they would come to your team and get you a championship (maybe not Shaq anymore, but in his prime, god yes).

Right now the, New York Knicks have a 20-10 guy. His name is Zach Randolph, he is 27 years old, and his best years may be ahead of him. And through no real fault of his own, they want to ship him. The Knicks want to trade Randolph so they can make enough cap room to sign a big name.

So, I guess this is my question: Wouldn’t it be smart to keep a great player around, which would surely help to motivate another great player to come play for your team?

Unfortunately for the Knicks, this is another problem that has to be pinned on Isiah Thomas. Marbury and Curry have two of the three biggest contracts on the team, but no other team in the league wants them—or Jerome James.

So it has essentially come down to an interesting situation: The Knicks could get rid of middle-of-the-line salaries like Jared Jeffries, Quentin Richardson, and Malik Rose (if anyone wants them). Or, they get rid one of the only seriously desirable players on this team, but lose their 20-10.

This is an incredibly tough decision to make—especially when you consider that the talent level of the Knicks and their success under the D’Antoni system will profoundly affect a legitimate superstar’s decision to join this squad.

If you are meeting with a LeBron James or a D-Wade, you want to say to them, “you are the missing piece.” A player like Z-Bo is the kind of player that needs to stick around for a team to have honest-to-god great shot at being one “missing piece” away from being a championship contender again in the next two years.

There is no such thing as a standout superstar who wants to go to a place where a team is going to have to build around him again. That is why Shaq wanted to ride into the sunset with Phoenix, and why Cleveland fans are so concerned that LeBron is going to bounce.

And I know what you are thinking—you are about to say, “Takeover, Zach Randolph has never even been to the playoffs. How could you be so high on him?”

Well, you would be right about the first part, he hasn’t been to the playoffs, and the Blazers got rid of him because of the money that a player as good as him would be expecting. But why don’t we take a look back at that list of superstars that we spoke of before?

Of the big-name 20-10 players currently in the NBA, more than half of them did not make a playoff impact on their own. Some of them in fact, didn’t even do it with their first team.

Elton Brand had several disappointing seasons both in Chicago and in LA. Boozer wasn’t playing consistent playoff basketball until he went to Utah, and got a great supporting cast that included one of the best point guards in the game. Gasol was on a Memphis team that for years was a number-eight seed at absolute best.

The point is that no 20-10 player has ever done it alone. And no prolific guard has ever done it without a 20-10 player. They both need each other.

If I am Donnie Walsh, Zach Randolph is officially off the trading block—because if we are looking at the ball he has been playing in the last few years, we may have half of the equation already solved.