NYC talent has not been good in quite some time. Lavin has gotten the best player out of NY in his tenure here. Moe Harkless. The only other notable is Whitehead and Lav was not going to hire Tiny to get him.
Seriously start naming guys from NYC that Lav should have brought here?
Heres a few from the NYC/LI/Westchester area from the past few years:
Omar Calhoun, Jermaine Lawrence, Matt Ryan, Ty Jerome, Daniel Dingle, Khadeen Carrington, Mike Williams, Kentan Facey, Hassan Martin, Isaiah Cousins, Devin Brooks, Kadeem Jack. I'm sure I'm missing some too.
These are a bunch of 3 and 4 star guys that are really the glue in which programs are built. Some we went after and didn't get, some we never went after because we had no shot (Matt Ryan), but to say that NYC basketball is dead and that there aren't good players here is ridiculous. Doesn't take a team full of 5 star guys to build a good program.