Editor's Note: I love you guys for picking up the slack when I'm having trouble finding time to write. We make a perfect team.

So, the first thing many Knicks fans considered when hearing of the Randolph trade was "Will this cut into David Lee's playing time?"

And this is a reasonable concern. Assuming Lee doesn't play more than a couple of minutes here and there at 3, and Curry and Randolph stand pat at their MPG numbers for last year (35.2 and 35.7), that leaves about 26 minutes left at the 4 and 5. Lee got about 30 MPG last year. Could his minutes actually go down after that awesome year?

Here are what I see as the necessities and options with regards to the frontcourt:

Necessity #1:

Jerome James and Malik Rose CANNOT receive minutes. Any. At all. I don't care about their supposed defensive prowess. If this team is going to win, it's cause Curry, Randolph and Lee manage to play defense, not cause Malik comes in for 10 minutes, pulls the chair on Tyson Chandler, and then blows five consecutive layups. Nor will it be by playing Jerome James for 8 minutes, having him block a shot or two, and brick three running hooks.

Curry/Randolph/Lee are the guys in the post, they must play defense. This is the only option.

Necessity #2:

Lee CANNOT receive fewer than 28 minutes a game. He's our brightest young player, has a tremendous impact on the floor, and could end up being better than we're even imagining. After he reworked his free throws last year, do you really doubt his ability to develop a fifteen-footer? And if/when he does: ALL-STAR.

Semi-Necessity #3:

Randolph Morris needs to get some minutes. Not huge. Somewhere in the area of 10-15 MPG. He looked pretty solid at the summer league, and we have only one more year to evaluate this guy. Backup centers can be very valuable in this league, and he looks like he's got the skill set and body to be a very good one. Plus, he might already be a better shot blocker than any of Curry/Randolph/Lee.

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So, if we assume these three things, what are Isiah's options:

OPTION 1: Lee at the 3.

Not a huge fan of this one. Even playing Lee at the 3 for 10-15 minutes is problematic. That means that poor defense is likely being played at the 3,4, and 5. Lee simply can't keep up with good small forwards laterally. This isn't his position. Plus, it cuts into the time of probably our two best on-ball defenders (Balkman and QRich).

OPTION 2: Status Quo.

This would be just sticking with what happened last year. 35 a piece for Curry and Randolph, about 25 for Lee, and spot minutes for Morris. Here, you reduce Lee to a role player, when I think we all believe he could develop into more than that. We never see Morris and probably let him go. And we put all our eggs in the Curry/Randolph high post/low post basket. Fair enough. Somehow, this seems to be the most likely scenario.

OPTION 3: Reduced minutes for Curry/Randolph.

Why not reduce the minutes for Curry and Randolph, especially Curry? Couldn't Curry be a much more efficient player in 28 minutes? We don't need him to carry the offense in the post now with Zach, so approaching this from a TEAM persepctive (forgetting about stats) it seems to make sense.

If we reduce Curry's minutes, I suspect his rebounding rate would go up a bit. We could have more time with a very efficient rebounding duo of Lee and Randolph on the floor. And everyone's more fresh. The crunch time lineup could be based on who's playing well at the moment, and I suspect it would often be Lee paired with the hot hand of Curry/Randolph.

Check out this breakdown:

Center/Power Forward
Randolph - 30-32
Curry - 28
Lee - 28-30
Morris - 6-10

This seems to make the most sense to me. I find it hard to believe that Isiah will adopt this plan, but there really is no reason to slavishly adhere to giving Curry 36 minutes, when the team could benefit from a more balanced approach.