Comments on: The Knicks Don't Fancy Themselves As Scrubs

By: chris

chris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:48:29 +0000

Oh I know I was just praying we would get one through a trade

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:14:47 +0000

Hate to rain on your parade even more, but the Knicks don’t even have their lottery pick this summer. Isiah traded it years ago for Stephon Marbury.

By: chris

chris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:16:59 +0000

It has been horrible. What ever happened to the pick and roll I never see the knicks run it and when they do they seem to fail either on the pick or the pass to the role.

Lets just trade for Iverson. Maybe the grizzlies will be desperate enough to take jefferies or curry.

On the same note any way we can use our trade exception and mobley’s contract to get our draft pick back from the jazz. bc I have a feeling we are not making the playoffs

JOHN WALL 2010!

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:31:55 +0000

What must be kept from this awful start is that whatever passion, will or desire to win that once existed in many of these players is something non existent right now. Last year at least they could run and gun. Now that actually is a nice memory. I’ve always considered Duhon a player that lacks passion, but puts up with that with hard work (last season of course), now in his case everything is different. A coach’s job is not only to create a system around the players he has, but to keep that unwillingness to go down without a fight mentality always present. That this team just doesn’t have, at all. Not in the vets eyes. They don’t want it. They gave up on themselves and their teammates. I actually appreciate Hughes’ professionalism and integrity, because although he’s no a good player (decent most likely) but has managed to pick up his offensive production and try to defend. Gallo is stuck in a hell hole, where he, and three other guys (Douglas, Hill, Chandler) want to achieve something.
What saddens me about Will is that his expected improvement went completely to hell, to such point that I think it would be best for this team if he’s traded (or packaged with JJ, for example) before his value gets any lower. It might be too early to call that, but this team, in just 7 games, managed to dig themselves a hole pretty deep. Things must change for a decent attempt at light.
This team needs to be rattled in some way or another. The best way to do that is to take old negative faces out and bring new faces with desire in. That’ll give the rest a message (if management, of course, is seeing what’s going on with the Knicks): play or get out. That goes Mike D, as well. He needs to step it up. He is, after all, the coach of this team.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:47:01 +0000

How could you forget Chris Duhon?

I kid, I kid.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:42:45 +0000

@Stallion: I agree with all that for the most part though I think it doesn’t take into account the ways in which players contribute without the ball in their hands. For instance, Chandler, despite being a shockingly bad offensive player, manages to be a net positive during the minutes he’s out on the court. Almost invariably, the team is better when he’s out there. I think it might be because, though his shot selection is appalling and he shows no aptitude for dissecting defense, at least he doesn’t grind down offensive possessions like Nate and Harrington do.

By: Italian Stallion

Italian Stallion — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:46:04 +0000

IMO……

One reason that Houston does well is that they accumulate low usage scorers that are very efficient and good at other things.

Most fans, sports writers etc… look at how many points per game a guy scores.

The more sophisticated ones look at how many points a guy scores per 36 minutes of playing.

The most sophisticated fans look at the players eFG%, TS% etc… to see how efficiently he scored.

They want to know if he draws fouls and goes to the line a lot, hits a high enough percentage of his 3 pointers to justify taking them, hits a high percentage around the basket etc…

Houston plays smart basketball.

The Knicks player dumber than a rock (especially Harrington, Chandler, and Robinson)

All Houston’s players play within their skill set, rebound well, don’t turnover the ball a lot etc… They look like role players because they don’t score a lot of points but they play very well and very smart.

By: Sandeep

Sandeep — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:26:09 +0000

Very well said. I posted something to the similar on on another site. I’m not sure about D. Lee though. I really fee like he is over-matched on the post on a typical night. He cannot guard A. Bogut or big centers. This is also the reason he has trouble giving weakside help. He is stuck on his big guy. Granted, he could do a lot more but I really think he needs someone down there to bang with him. J Hill, maybe?

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:23:23 +0000

This is a such a cogent point and a truly great post. I think it cuts straight to the heart of the issue.

The NBA is always populated with players who are legends in their own minds. But for years now the Knicks have seemed to collect them like baseball cards.

Out of everyone, to me, Lee is the most maddening because he talks a good game and he puts up good numbers, but it’s ultimately smoke and mirrors. His game and sound bites are the illusion of playing with pride and passion when, in reality, at this point I suspect he’s not doing much more than playing for a big contract.