Knicks State Of The Union
What’s been good and bad about the Knicks through their recent run of games? Here’s what new Buckets writer Stan Chin has to say in his return post:
Sorry for the delay, Knick fans, but my computer was down with a broken fan. Now I am back, with a lot to say.
Firstly, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
Back to basketball now.
When last I posted, the Knicks were about to play the Sixers… which started a bad stretch of games for the good guys. The less said about how I took these losses, the better.
In retrospect, I believe this was just what the Knicks needed… 4 bad losses (horrendous, terrible and embarrassing were the words I used at the time) … followed by better play, resulting in close games against the Rockets and Nuggets.
By the way, I maintain that the losing streak they went through was in response to my computer going kablooie. So, Knick fans, if you want to stop this from happening again, contact me and I will tell you where to send donations to keep my computer running (fine, use the money to buy presents for your loved ones for the holiday)
Which leads us to…
9-1.
Ok, I know 8 of those games were against teams under .500 and we were 1-1 against teams with a winning record, but you still have to win them, and as the saying goes: you can only play who is on your schedule.
Then try to remember that last year we’d have maybe been 3-7 in those 10 games.
Lets touch on some highlights.
– 7 game road winning streak. Best since Ewing in the Riley era.
– 5 game winning streak followed by a 4 game and counting winning streak.
– Stoudemire has a streak of 4 games of 30+ ppg.
– Felton and Stoudemire building chemistry.
– Speaking of Felton I think he deserves serious consideration for an All-Star Appearance.
– Fields winning Rookie of the Month honors (and turning out to be the steal of the this year’s draft).
– More on Fields… he is leading ALL guards (not just rookies) in rebounding at 7.4 RPG.
– Still playing good defense (more on this later).
– 5th best record in the East… 13th overall.
– Shawne Williams? Really? Whoa.
– Curry still on the bench, thank you very much.
Ok, now I have to say this. Blocks and Steals are only part of Defense. The best way I can point this out is to show you these stats…
+3.00 in block shots differential
+0.33 in steals differential
-0.19 in turnover differential (which INCLUDES blocks and steals)
-0.76 in fouls per game
I love the blocked shots and the steals, and don’t get me wrong, they are important. BUT the Knicks also have the 6th worst FG% against and the 7th worst 3pt FG% against. Still, the blocks and steals are a HUGE difference from last year, so I’m not complaining. Also, the Knicks will get better on defense as they play more. I believe they have the athletes, and the length, to be a good defensive team; it will just take a while.
And I know the Knicks were not supposed to be known for their defense, so anything we get on that side of the court is gravy.
And besides, when you have the 3rd highest scoring offense, why complain about the defense?
By the way, I know we are already well into the season, but I didn’t start posting until recently and the above mentioned computer problems curtailed my submissions. So my next article will be what would have been my preseason picks (along with updated comments where I was egregiously wrong or smugly correct).