No need for Chris Bosh this summer, because the Knicks have David Lee.
The loss was mostly attributable to an injury suffered by Jared Jeffries, some truly horrible (and stupid) minutes from Al Harrington (on a balky knee, mind you), and a handful of inane plays (which I won’t delve into here, but if you’re interested you can check out Dan’s twitter page). However, final score notwithstanding, David Lee thoroughly outplayed Chris Bosh. Last night he was the better shooter, finisher, rebounder, passer and defender. (Yes, I said defender too. Watching Gallo blow by Bosh twice on straight up drives was a sight to behold.)
And I think Lee believes he’s the better player too. You could see from his body language last night that he doesn’t think much of Bosh.
The only thing Bosh has over Lee is the support of the NBA’s marketing machine. If anyone over at the league office is paying any attention, that ought to be due to change pretty soon.
I have been thinking that for a while but I dont think its completely true. Bosh can get a block every now and then. And Bosh does have double team potential.
BUT
Lee may be better at 10 million a season vs bosh at max
I am glad some one else pointed this out
LEE should have been an all star
When you factor in their marginal value (Lee at $10-11 million versus Bosh at the max) it’s no longer even a close call.
But even if the salaries were equal, when you take everything they bring to the table into consideration, Lee’s defensive shortcomings notwithstanding, I still think he’s the better player.
The thing about the nate Tech. Isn’t a player allowed to hang on the rim if an opposing player is under the rim or preventing a safe landing for the “dunker”? if so, someone should go back and look at the tape cause i am pretty sure turkologou was preventing Nate from landing , if only from behind nate. could nate had swung his body forward? maybe, but it is still debatable.
From what I could tell, Nate wasn’t impeded from coming down at all. He could’ve just let go and there was no one close to being under him. Even Nate admitted last night that he broke it. http://twitter.com/TommyDeeTKB/status/8349499448
Now, he wasn’t celebrating excessively up there or anything. But he just held on for a tick or three too long.
As Dan says, the issue isn’t whether the rule is stupid, or whether it’s consistently enforced, or even whether it’s consistently enforced with the particular player that got whistled for violating the rule. The rule is out there, Nate knows it, and there’s always the potential that the official is going to blow the whistle on you if you break it.
Even worse, he broke it at a critical point in a close game when the Knicks were getting some momentum going. Whatever you think of the rule, Nate was really dumb to break it, especially then and there.
Nate is just a careless guy. And last night was a case where that carelessness cost his team.
Hi guys. I think this is really a good blog page with alot of intelligent arguements so thanks in advance for putting some good stuff out there.
With regard to Nate on the rim… after watching last night I really think that the time he was hanging was not so much the case as the look he had to give to the crowd while showboating as usual. I think he could have hung up there for that amount of time if he were actually appearing to look down and behind him (giving the impression that he was trying to land safely) rather than bolstering his ego again staring into the crowd.
And you guys are right.. these little things really do add up to differences between winning and losing close games.
They really needs to start enforcing that rule consistently. I’ve been watching a real lot of basketball lately and I’ve seen a few cases where guys broke the rule at least as bad as Nate and they let it go. I think what really happened was that Nate has a reputation for that kind of showboating. In marginal cases they are going to call that kind of thing against someone like Nate and excuse it against superstars or more conservative personalities.
If Bosh is any better than Lee, it’s not by much. So no matter how you slice it, Lee’s a much better value. Plus, Lee is so great in the halftime and post game interviews, I want to predict we already have our coach for 2025.
He’s clearly the team leader now and a very good one too.
This year feels like it’s over, but I’m sort of upbeat.
The year was basically about hoping that Chandler and Gallo would develop a little (and no back issues for Gallo) and Hill wouldn’t be a bust.
I am very happy with the progress Chandler has made. Gallo looks fine and is showing more on defense than most anticipated. You can also sort of get a whiff of the promise that Hill has. He’s going to be a solid rotation guy with some potential upside over that. The thing is, I don’t think anyone expected Lee to make a huge leap forward but he has. That’s a pleasant surprise. We are in an OK position for next year. We need further progress from Chandler and Gallo, continued solid play from Lee, Hill has to break out and become a solid replacement for Jeffries with better offense, and then we have some cap space to add something to the mix via trade or FA. (hopefully we find a PG somewhere)
I think the disappointing record has as much to do with other teams also improving a lot this year (as I expected) as it has to do with the play of the Knicks. The Knicks made progress.
Big bummer if Jeffries is hurt badly just before the trade deadline.
I agree completely. With all said and done.. whether they make the playoffs or not, there was a good amount of growth by the players that are looked at as future pieces. Not to mention the growth of D’Antoni in some interesting areas. It seems this year he became a coach that could learn how to adjust his system to get more out of his roster. I’m sure he will go back to a quicker pace when he gets the right players, but I am glad he had to slow things down with this group and really understand the importance of defensive energy and intelligence.
A big criticism of D’Antoni is how he has kept with Duhon through all of the ups and downs (mostly downs) and never benched him. This may sound a little far fetched but I have really begun looking at it as somewhat of a positive vibe going out to whatever top level PG they land in the future. It kinda shows that D’Antoni will develop a strong faith in the floor general and stick with him through the bad stuff. And for a PG, with so many other things that they need to worry about during a game, the last thing they need to suffocate with is the idea that they will be yanked for making some mistakes or hitting any kind of slump. My point is.. the coach and the PG need to have trust and faith in each other, and I think D’Antoni is showing that he can do that (even with a backup).
That’s a very interesting point about Duhon.
I also think that D’Antoni knows, regardless of whatever chatter is emanating from outside sources, that there is no suitable alternative to Duhon on this roster. And so far, he’s refused to be pressured into making a dopey change.
Completely agree