Congratulations New York. You just got yourself Tyson Chandler. He is an NBA champ, one of the NBA’s 
best defensive stalwarts and a fine addition to the roster.
Or was it?
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the Knicks’ newest member.
Pros:
- With Chandler, New York sports arguably the best front line in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chandler will be a fearsome trio for any opposing team to deal with and plan for.
- Chandler isn’t simply one to simply plot in the middle. He is active, athletic, long, can rebound, block shots and patrol the paint. Not to mention he will clean up misses and score, which will be somewhat of a bonus for New York on some nights.
- He will bring a championship mind-set to New York. A team who got a taste of making the playoffs, and going further in the playoffs will be on the team’s mind.
- Amar’e will now get to play at his natural position at power forward where he excels as he showed in Phoenix.
- He won’t take away from the “7 seconds or less” style Mike D’Antoni likes to run. Tyson can get up the court and it might actually help him increase his offensive output with some easy buckets. He also will actually bring a defensive mind set to a coaching style not known for emphasizing defense.
Cons:
- Knicks just shelled out a near max-contract at four-years, $56 million contract, with a starting salary around $13 million. Add that to Melo and Stoudemire’s deals and the team pretty much shut the door at adding a star point guard. Can you say Chris Paul?
- The Knicks do not have much more size. Chandler will have to pretty much be everything the Knicks do defensively. In other words, Tyson won’t have much help. Let’s face it, Melo and Amar’e are not known for their defense. Now the Knicks will be asking Chandler to do a lot. Should Tyson get hurt or in foul trouble, then your current backup is Renaldo Balkman because Ronny Turiaf was shipped to the Washington Wizards in a salary dump.
- And should Chandler get hurt or foul trouble, then New York will have to move Amar’e out of his natural spot at power forward which hurts team rebounding and means a clear path to the rim for any would-be penetrator.
- Another point is how the Knicks’ first line of defense at the guard positions is lacking to say the least. Toney Douglas, Iman Shumpert, and Landry Fields won’t be able to slow guards from getting into the paint. And seeing how opposing guards most obviously will get in the paint with the current state of the Knicks guards on the roster, Chandler will have to come out away from his man or jump in the paint to help, leaving a wide path to the basket if no one rotates over to help.
- Now granted, Amar’e can be a solid weak-side defender. He proved that with the Suns but the Knicks have to get some perimeter defenders to help. But then again, this is a team coached by D’Antoni so this might be asking for a lot. And adding Mike Bibby doesn’t help one bit.
Now to say Chandler ranks among Knicks’ best centers in team history like Patrick Ewing would be premature but there is no doubting he will improve the team. But it may have drawbacks Knicks fans are blinded to it by the bright light of the Knicks’ future they are seeing.
So what do you have to say Crossover fans? Think the pros outweigh the cons or vise versa? What other pros or cons do you see with this deal?
