Knicks Rumors: New York Better off Without Jamal Crawford and Baron Davis

The New York Knicks have done a lot of good things in the past year.

The addition of Amar'e Stoudemire was a no-brainer. Finding a way to land Carmelo Anthony, regardless of price, will be worth it. Giving up on a Chris Paul trade pipe dream and adding a dominant defensive-minded big man in Tyson Chandler was genius.

However, adding Jamal Crawford or Baron Davis after the signing of Mike Bibby will end their hot streak.

According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, the Knicks are chasing Crawford with Davis as a backup plan:

"

If the Knicks can’t get Jamal Crawford to accept their $2.5 million exception or have his agent, Andy Miller, help swing a three-team trade, interim general manager Glen Grunwald has a fallback plan — sore-backed point guard Baron Davis. Sources said Davis will either be waived via the amnesty clause or waived outright Friday.

"

Crawford wants more money than what the Knicks can offer and he's already seen a deal twice that size put on the table by the Indiana Pacers with an opt-out clause at year's end. The Knicks are stronger contenders than Indiana, so it's up to Crawford to decide whether he wants to play for titles or money. He's also being pursued by the Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves.

As for Davis, the achey-backed 32-year-old is a veteran option at point guard that the Knicks seem far too enamored with.

Obviously a point guard rotation of Toney Douglas, Mike Bibby and rookie Iman Shumpert is far from ideal, but the Knicks are also sporting one the league's best front courts now.

Davis is a health risk and his production a year ago was the lowest it has been since his rookie year.

What we know about Crawford is that he's a proven scorer as a starter or a bench player, but he takes a ridiculous number of shots and has a history of taking bad shots. He doesn't like to give up the ball and New York already has two alpha males for crunch time as it is.

Davis wouldn't mind being a distributing point guard at all, but if the Knicks opt to sign either player it will mean the end of Shawne Williams.

Say what you want about Williams, and he certainly isn't a first-choice player, but the 6'9" swingman knows his role with the Knicks. He can score in spurts if he gets hot and the Knicks did just waste (or use, whichever word you prefer) a first-round pick on a rookie point guard whose scouting report basically said "all he can do is jump and play defense."

There will be no scoring coming from Iman Shumpert, but it would be great to see why the Knicks decided to draft him in the first place. The only way that happens is if he steps on the court. With Douglas, Bibby and Shumpert already on board, it doesn't make much sense to add a fourth player who can play point guard.

There certainly is something to be said for clutch scoring and veteran leadership at the position, but the Knicks can do better than taking a chance on Crawford not causing problems with the game on the line or Davis' balky back.