Danilo vs. Carmelo: a spirited battle of ridiculously Italian first names. (Source: Interbasket.net)

After failing to get LeBron James in the off-season, followed by a pre-season loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, things looked bleak this summer, but what a difference a few months makes.  Antony Marino takes us through the lows of our past, up to the highs of our present (without using drugs):

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10.Because Jared taught Wilson Chandler how to keep a single facial expression for 48 minutes straight.

The many facesface of ILL Wil.

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Amar'e needs to work on getting better post position. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Our win against the Bulls last night inspired Buckets reader Demetrios Tsamutalis to write the following:

The Knicks are just competing at a winning level. Their effort tonight against the bulls is the type of effort you need to win consistently in the NBA, especially on the road. Defensively, they are challenging shots, cutting off driving lanes, taking charges and not giving up easy layups (instead they’re making guys have to make free throws).  Offensively, they were lights out from three and while you can’t depend on shooting that well every night, they are not just settling for threes.  When teams are closing out our shooters, they have put the ball on the floor and attacked the basket.

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Gallinari, like everyone on the Knicks not named Stoudemire, has vacilated between inconsistent and awful. (Yardbarker.com)

While Amar’e Stoudemire has been a Master of Consistent Brilliance during the preseason, his fellow Knicks have been Apprentices at the Temple Of Inconsistency & Mediocrity.  As Buckets’ reader Brendan pointed out in his comments: will anyone else step up?  To have any hope at making the playoffs, let alone securing more than 35 wins, we need at least one more guy to produce regularly at a solid level.

The possibilities for the other rock to lean on have been flawed in both different and similar ways.  Point guard Raymond Felton was supposed to be our other huge upgrade partly because he simply wasn’t Chris Duhon.  While Felton has had a few games with decent assist totals, his shooting has in fact been consistently Duhonesque.  Yup, poor shooting and inconsistent assist numbers hasn’t inspired the Garden Faithful with hope.

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Wilson Chandler, aka Wil The Thrill, has been one of the few good Knicks the last two years. Will he be a starter again this season, or could he >gasp< find himself glued to the bench? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

With a few days before training camp and positional battles begin, today we discuss who will likely be the Knick starters, part of the rotation, and the bench boys.  We have considerable depth, but as we said when discussing previews from other sites, Coach Mike D’Antoni has consistently shown himself to be someone who likes a short rotation.  Why?  A combination of it being easier to develop chemistry amongst a smaller group and the fact that he literally doesn’t seem to trust lots of players.

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(Source: Yardbarker.com)

The excellent Orlando Magic site, Howard The Dunk, ran an interview yesterday asking Buckets our thoughts on former Knicks/new Magicians Chris Duhon and Quentin Richardson.  Here are the first and last questions excerpted from it:

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Alexis Ajinca was picked 20th but has only played 37 games. And he was a first rounder. What happens to players chosen 10 to 40 picks later? ...Usually not much. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

This year the Knicks have no first round picks, although there have been rumors that they might try to buy a late one.  On the other hand, they do have two second-round picks, and yet another rumor (as mentioned by ESPN’s Chris Sheridan) has them possibly buying two more second-rounders.  Me, I can’t help but wonder why?  Many fans seem excited about it and love talking about these hidden diamonds in the rough that we might find to help us turnaround.  My first thought is that if we truly do want to get LeBron or some of the big names to come here, how excited are they going to be about a roster with five rookies (particularly since none of ‘em would be lottery picks or even top 25).  My second thought was: how often do 2nd rounders even end up being valuable players, let alone useable?

I decided to do a little research to answer that question.  I looked at the draft classes from the five years from 2000-2004.  Why those years?  I figured rookies sometimes take a little while to hit their stride, so this means everyone’s had at least 6 years to finally hit their groove.  If they haven’t come into their own yet, we can safely assume it ain’t gonna happen.  I didn’t want to go too much further back though ‘cuz it wouldn’t have included the influx of foreign players.  Plus the year 2000 is cool.  Oh, and one thing to note is that the Charlotte Bobcats joined the league in 2004, so that year we’ve got 30 second-rounders, but the earlier four had just 29 guys each.

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Will LeBron join D'Antoni? And is that even a championship combo? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

The following comes from my friend Shai:

Since Alex generously allowed me to post my ramblings about college basketball players on this Knicks site, I asked him if he would consider posting the following honestly-curious question to Knicks fans:

What exactly are you expecting to happen?

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Duhon may shoot the ball like a blind paraplegic, but he's one of the few Knicks to play some defense. Is that enough to warrant keeping him? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

For those of you who are new to the neighborhood, no, the title of the post isn’t a stab at Chris Bosh’s recent Twitter post — it’s a Clash homage.  We introduced the idea to this series a couple of weeks ago: an analysis of the 10 Knicks who we don’t have under contract for next year.  Going alphabetically, we already examined Earl Barron and Jonathan Bender.  Skipping over definite returnees Wilson Chandler, Eddy Curry & Toney Douglas, we now arrive at the man who was our starting point guard for the majority of the last two seasons: Christopher Riley Duhon.  Okay, I made up the Riley part, but it sounds right, don’t it?

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Should we have Sergio Rodriguez, JR Giddens and Bill Walker return next year for us? It's time to start thinking these things through. (source: Yardbarker.com)

In a homage to the seminal band The Clash, I present the beginning of the “Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?” series where we look at each of the Knicks’ 2009-2010 players and examine whether… well, whether they should stay or go. We’ll be discussing not simply if they were good for us or not, but also factoring in how much it would cost to retain them, how it would effect our salary cap space, and what role we would want from them. For instance, it’s a no-brainer we don’t want to pay Chris Duhon $6 million to be our starting point guard again. However, giving him the veterans’ minimum of like $1+ million to be the backup (or simply a bench/practice presence) becomes a far more interesting question.

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Damn straight, Phil Jackson should be walking with his head down after some of his coaching choices! Right? ...Right? Um, maybe not. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Is there anyone in the NBA who gets criticized more than coaches?  It doesn’t matter who you are, how successful you are (or have been), or what players you have at your disposal — we can always find problems with you.  Earlier this year, Greg Popovitch was criticized for being unable to make his big off-season acquisition, Richard Jefferson, productive.  The other night, Phil Jackson, winner of more NBA titles than God himself, left himself open for target practice by choosing to draw up a play for Pau Gasol to attempt the game-tying three-point shot (Pau missed, which could cause the Lakers to lose home court advantage if they play the Magic in the Finals).

We, the fans and media, aren’t necessarily wrong in complaining about these points, but I think sometimes we not only expect too much, we also don’t always see (or know) the full picture.  For instance, maybe Phil was trying to make a point to Kobe about how the Black Mamba needed to give his body rest or it would cost the team (the previous possession Kobe missed two free throws that would’ve given the Lakers the lead).  If Kobe/Fisher/Artest/whoever hit a three for the tie, then maybe Kobe remains convinced that he can play through his injuries.  Sure, you can say this was a costly way to make a point (& I have no idea if Phil was trying to make this point), but if Kobe’s sitting out these two last games enables him to be healthy enough to lead the Lakers back to a championship, it’d be hard to argue with the results.

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The Knicks' gave the Garden Faithful something to cheer about as they left their final home game. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Last night, the final home game of the season, the Knicks gave the crowd something to cheer for on Fan Appreciation Night.  Losing wouldn’t help our lottery chances, winning wouldn’t help our playoff chances.  We were going up against an equally sucky team in the Washington Wizards, a team without even an exciting superstar.  And yet if you listened to the amazing crowd at Madison Square Garden last night, you’d've thought it was Game 7 of the Finals.

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Pacers' coach, Jim O'Brien, watches, appalled that the Knicks made him seem competent by forcing his team to look like an offensive juggernaut (source: Yardbarker.com)

We all love an epic battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object.  The Knicks’ game last night against the Pacers was the opposite.  Indiana, the third worst shooting team in the league, is far from an unstoppable force on offense.  And us, New York, tied for second in allowing their opponents to shoot the highest percentage, is no one’s idea of an immovable object on D.  They like to shoot only .442, but we like to give up .482.  In backwards world it meant: could we force them to score more than they normally do, or would they make our defense look better than it is?  Turns out we decided to go 50/50.

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The Celtics' Rajon Rondo drives to the hoop and is shocked to find that the Knicks have a 7-footer playing defense there. Meet Earl Barron. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Two seasons ago the Boston Celtics were the cream of the crop with Kevin Garnett leading their monstrous defense.  Last season they started out strong until KG went down with a knee injury which kept him out of the playoffs.  As a result, they struggled to get past the Chicago Bulls, then were eliminated in just the second round.  This year Garnett is back and ostensibly healthy.  But the mojo is gone.

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Back in 2001, Earl Barron played for Memphis. Both he and the Knicks thought they had a promising decade ahead of them. They were wrong. But perhaps now we can combine forces and make the Tens be OUR decade. (source: Yardbarker.com)

For those who don’t know, though I’m a born and bred New Yorker, I’ve spent the last decade-plus in Los Angeles.  While here, I’ve adopted the Clippers as my sad, pathetic little brother to encourage.  That resulted in my creating the site FullyClips.com for the FanSided Network here before I got promoted up to the big leagues and was given the Knicks’ site.  For my first post on this site, I did a piece on The Smackdown Battle For Title Of The Past Decade’s Worst NBA Franchise.  Much to Isiah Thomas’ chagrin, I gave the award to Donald Sterling’s Clippers.  Although to be fair to Isiah, he only had a few years of being in charge to screw up the Knicks, versus Sterling had the entire decade (& more).  I’m sure if Isiah had a larger time frame in which to work his (black) magic, he could’ve stunk up the joint just as poorly as The Donald did.

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(source: Yardbarker.com) This isn't from Friday's game, but it's exciting lookin', ain't it?

In my last post, I complained about the Knicks’ lack of energy and hustle.  Clearly the players read my blog ‘cuz Friday night they were willing to work.  Yeah, yeah, they lost, but sometimes you can’t control that.  You can always control whether you come to PLAY.

(source: Yardbarker.com)

After Jordan Hill’s solid play Sunday against the Knicks, Tom Ziller of NBA Fanhouse examined the issue of whether Coach Mike D’Antoni plays rookies:

Hill [...] hardly played for Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, despite the fact that N.Y. remains one of the worst teams in the league and that the franchise needed all the boosted assets it could manage.  [Hill returned as] a legit rotation player with Houston, mind you.

Hill had tantalized at various times while playing for the Knicks, but he was never given much room to learn and grow and well… time to play.  Many fans rightly felt Coach Mike D’Antoni should’ve given Hill more burn, particularly since it’s been clear for a long, long while that we ain’t making it to the playoffs.  In his return the other day, Hill himself stated that D’Antoni doesn’t like to play rookies.  As we mentioned yesterday, unfortunately D’Antoni responded with his comment that he just doesn’t like to play “bad rookies.”  Other players & fans have also leveled the accusation that Coach D doesn’t play rooks (& truth be told, many coaches prefer to rely on the consistency of vets), but Ziller has D’s back:

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Poor Outlet Passing

On two separate occasions, the Knicks turned the ball over in the backcourt.  The first comes after a Rockets three pointer:

Now, both J.R. Giddens and Chris Duhon are at fault here:

(source: NBAPlaybook.com)

This is because Trevor Ariza is hanging around and it should have been noticed by either guy (or at least 1).  This is something that a lot of teams do to get the ball out of the PGs hands, but it rarely turns into a steal.  However, Giddens grabs the ball out of the net and just tosses to where Duhon is without looking.  For his part, Duhon floats away from the basketball as it comes to him instead of meeting the ball and ensuring the catch.  The Rockets went from being down 14 to being down 9 after this.  This was a huge 5 point swing in this game as the Knicks went from pulling away to trying to hang on to the lead.

This happened yet again later in the game, this time coming off of a missed basket:

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Gallo didn't shy away from contact ...which seemed to include head pats mussing up his hair plus kidney bunny punches (source: Yardbarker.com)

Friday night, David Lee missed his first game of the season due to a sore right knee.  What made it hurt as much for fans as it did for him is the fact that he inexplicably played 40+ minutes in the previous game even though we were getting blown away by the Celtics.  However, in the continuing saga of a bizarre season where nothing makes sense: we won.  What made the win against the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers even more unlikely? Our second (or third?) best player, Wilson Chandler, missed the game again due to injury (at this point it’s possible Wil might not return this season).  Throw in that our fourth best player, Tracy McGrady went 0-for-7 in 29 minutes.  Gently stir and mix in that our replacement starting center, Jonathan Bender, left the game when he broke a finger on his left hand in the first half (which’ll cause him to miss the rest of the season).

Yup, East is West, Black is White, Up is Down.  I’m pretty darn good at math, but I can’t figure out the calculus of how we won this thing. You figure, well, Al Harrington must’ve had one of those nights when he exploded.  Nope, the dude played 40 minutes, yet only tossed in 11 points on a pathetic 25% field-goal shooting.  We came into the fourth quarter trailing.  We’d been down as much as 12 points.  The Sixers, who killed us on the boards in the last game (as most teams do), even had their point guard snag 8 rebounds — yet somehow they lost the battle of the boards by a sizable 13 of ‘em!  It’s like this game took place in Bizarro World or something.  In a bit of nostalgia, Coach Mike D’Antoni played Chris Duhon an astounding 31 minutes.  In a ton of normalcy, Duhon responded with three points on 20% shooting and not a single assist.  Nice to see some things don’t change.  EVER. (more…)

Is it just me or have the Knicks looked a little different lately?

With the Knicks racking two wins in a row, rumors have really rapidly run rather rampantly.  Is it true that the players’ life-forms have been inhabited by aliens?  How else do you explain wins over a top team like Atlanta, ending Dallas’ 13 game winning streak in a blow-out, and not playing down to Philadelphia’s level last night and losing like we like to do?  We here at Buckets Over Broadway are not afraid to plunge into such hard-hitting journalistic investigations to uncover the truth for you.  Are these the same Knick players we’ve known all year?  Or are they hosts to a possibly hostile race of space creatures who’ve come to slowly yet surely destroy any sense of logic in our world, thus creating chaos, leaving us unable to know up from down, and easy pickings for interplanetary conquest?  At this point, either seems feasible.  Let’s compare what clues point towards being a Knick versus an Alien:

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Yes, Douglas was sensational last night along with Walker both adding 20+ points and shot the ball extremely well. Sergio did not even see the court last night, and in a surprise lineup change Duhon was inserted back into the rotation.

The Knicks shot the ball extremely well, and the Mavs couldn’t hit anything all night. The Knicks were able to do whatever they wanted all night and dominated the Mavericks in all facets of the game.

The Knicks travel to Philly tomorrow to take on the Sixers in what should be a winnable game.

Joe Johnson – Atlanta Hawks

As we discussed after the recent Knicks/Hawks game, JJ has a nice relationship with Coach Mike D’Antoni from their time together in Phoenix, plus the Knicks have somehow managed to look competitive this year in the three games he played against us.  When JJ was on those D’Antoni Suns teams, although he was huge for them, at the time he was considered to be at best their fourth most important player (after Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudamire & Shawn Marion).  Joe rightly felt he could be more, a centerpiece, and he wanted to be paid accordingly.  Having achieved all that with the Hawks, he now has reached the point most vets get to: the main thing he wants now is the chance to play for a championship.  He is even one of the few stars who has literally put his money where his mouth is and has stated he’d be willing to take a bunch less money to be on such a team.

Now don’t misunderstand: he knows he has a very good thing going with the Hawks and that they are a really, really good team.  He’s not gonna just leave them to play on a mid-level Knick team.  So ignore this quote in the NY Daily News:

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After playing so well, Gallo felt like he was sitting on air. (source: yardbarker)

This year the Atlanta Hawks picked up former Knick Jamal Crawford, who is second on the team in scoring and is the likely winner of the Sixth Man Of The Year Award for the most valuable player off the bench.  In addition, their should-be-All-Star power forward, Josh Smith, aka JSmoove, has taken his game to the next level by no longer settling for hoisting up three-pointers, thus greatly improving his field goal percentage (& shot selection).  As a result, the Hawks have taken that next step to where they’re almost up there with the big boys in the league.  No one would likely pick them to beat Cleveland or Orlando in a seven game series, but they’re no longer the gimmes they used to be.  And if the Cavs or Magic came out with less than their A game, the Hawks could easily come out as victors. All of which makes it more amazing that the Knicks beat the Hawks yet again last night.  Particularly right after losing to one of the historically worst teams ever in the Nets.

To further highlight the difference, in the Nets game the Knicks made negative NBA history by attempting the most threes (18) without hitting one (aka 0).  Against the Hawks, the Knicks came out and went four-for-four from out deep to start the game.  Of course they didn’t keep up that insane pace, but they still finished off hitting 10 of 15, for a whopping 66.6%.  Teams would kill to shoot that well from two-point range, so to do that from beyond the arc is just downright amazing.  And don’t kid yourself into thinking that it has anything to do with the other team’s defense — the Nets are one of the worst teams at defending from the three-point line.

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We were up by 5 points with about two minutes to go in regulation, and it looked like we’d have a nice win.  But then we let ‘em score 6 unanswered points, with the last five happening in a mere 18 seconds.  Yikes.  Al Harrington hit only one of two free-throws to tie it up.  Then Harrington got a layup and a foul, meaning a chance to give us a  nice three-point game with 32 seconds left.  But again Harrington missed the gimme.  And in less than 7 seconds we let ‘em score and tie it up.  And while Harrington could’ve iced the game if he’d hit those two free-throws, if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have even been there in the first place.

Big Al shot a nice 12-of-21 from the field for 37 points.  He hit 5-of-8 three-pointers.  Yet somehow from the closer range of the free-throw line, and with no defenders, he shot about the same, 66%, missing 4 freebies.  The overtime was also odd, ‘cuz all game long it was just an offensive fest.  Washington rang up from 26-30 points in each quarter (we ranged from 24-31).  Yet in the five minute overtime, they managed only 4 points.  And we had only 6.  And we only got those last two points with seconds left, thanks to David Lee.  Of note, TMac, who had another solid game with 23 points, did not play at the end of regulation or during overtime (I’m unsure if this was due to his knee hurting or a lack of conditioning).

TMac's been great about driving to the hole rather than settling for the jumper... when he's able to make it on the court

Last thought about that game.  As some of you know, I used to write a Clippers blog (even though I’m a New Yorker, I currently live in Los Angeles and have pathetically adopted the Clips as my secondary team).  As a result, it was bizarre noticing this version of the Wizards had five, count ‘em, five former Clippers.  The day of the game they signed former Clip prodigy (before a devastating accident), Shaun Livingston (who sadly had a costly turnover for the Wiz late in the game), plus newly acquired Al Thornton, James Singleton, Quinton Ross and Earl Boykins.  I mean knowing how bad the Clips are/have always been, how dumb do you have to be to acquire five of ‘em?  And not even just any five, but five who pretty much always came off the bench.  So you’re not just choosing players from a bad team, you’re choosing players who couldn’t get much playing time even when they were on an awful team?  Moving on…

Saturday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, we remained competitive for most of the game, even taking a lead into the fourth quarter.  Once again, Al Harrington was unstoppable.  31 points on 18 shots.  Again he was on fire from three-world, hitting better than 50% at 6-of-11.  And again, oddly, he was worse with free throws, making only 3-of-6.  McGrady had his first terd of a game, 0 points and 2 assists in only 15 minutes before having to sit out the whole second half due to knee pain (yikes!).  The thing that really killed the Knicks though was the rebounding disparity.  The Grizz used their superior length to outrebound us by 20 rebounds.  Pathetically, we allowed former Knick Zach Randolph to get a career high in rebounds with 25.  Our team, combined, managed to get just 32 boards.  Yup, one man almost outboarded our whole frickin’ team.

Comedian Tracy Morgan (from TV's "30 Rock"), watching the Knicks get whupped on the boards, ain't laughing

Last thoughts:

-D’Antoni has started regularly playing new acquisition Bill Walker, ‘cuz he’s been impressed with his athleticism.  Walker does have potential, so it’s nice to see him get some run so we can determine if he can be a piece down the road.

-Sergio Rodriguez didn’t have that non-stop energy in Saturday’s game.  Maybe he was tired from the back-t0-back, or just from being on a team where he often didn’t play at all to now getting big minutes and needing to initiate everything.

"Oh my God, your jaw is so strong & square! I must touch it!"

-As much crap as we’ve given Chris Duhon here over the last few months, we oughta comment that the dude has been pure class since not only losing his starting gig, but also losing all minutes whatsoever.  He’s gone beyond being a professional about it.  Always the first guy jumping up and cheering, and he seemed as thrilled as anyone when the Knicks pulled out the Wiz game.  He even issued a statement acknowledging that he sucked and that he was given MORE than enough of a chance to right things but he couldn’t, so he thinks it’s a good move to go another direction.  And I used to think a classy guy meant someone who didn’t eat with their fingers.

-Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, despite being the only key players who’ll definitely be here next year, remain marginalized in the offense, usually getting at best the fourth or fifth shot attempts.  And mostly getting those off of broken-down plays rather than having plays run specifically for them.  This is a very, very bad trend.

Chandler rarely gets the ball 'cuz he takes low percentage shots like this. Oh wait, he drove past his man for an easy dunk. ...Hmmm, then I dunno why he don't get the rock more.

That disclaimer aside, the Knicks played worlds better against the Celtics (a team that’s one of only like 4 or 5 legit title contenders at this point), plus this good showing was in Boston so they didn’t even have the home crowd behind them.  Well, there was one exception.  New acquisition, Eddie House, got a standing ovation from his former fans.  Likewise, new Celtic, our former L’il Him, Nate Robinson, got tons of applause when he checked into the game to play his first minutes as a Celt (Krypto-Nate had been ill so he hadn’t played in any of Boston’s last few games).

Happily, once again Chris Duhon did not get off the bench (I believe I may’ve seen him wearing a suit, so maybe he wasn’t even on the active list for the game).  Sergio Rodriguez, still a bundle of energy, already has grown to better understand how to run D’Antoni’s offense.  He played 38 minutes, racking up 18 points on a fabulous 7-of-10 shooting, with 3 three-pointers, five rebounds, six assists, two steals, and one block to top it all off nicely.  This is a guy who was a third-string point guard for a team mired in mediocrity (the Sacramento Kings) who couldn’t get off the bench.  He’s always shown flashes of brilliance, but no NBA team has ever let him just go to town.  If he can keep up this level of play, I’m betting the Knicks will try to bring him back for next season (at a reasonable low salary).  This is a win-win situation for both sides.  We’re giving him a chance to prove himself, and in return we might get a great bargain for the future.

If we're gonna assume the Knicks lost from now on, we can also assume David Lee had a great night on offense and the boards. At Boston he racked up 28 points and 15 rebounds. Dang.

House gets a standing ovation from the crowd. Except for the rich people in front. They don't get up for nobody. Damn rich people.

Surprisingly, instead of Toney Douglas coming off the bench, D’Antoni gave new shooting guard Bill Walker some minutes.  I’d always assumed Walker was end-of-the-bench material who was thrown in to make salaries work in the Nate Robinson trade.  Sorta like how we also tossed in Marcus Landry who was our 15th man who rarely got to see the floor.  Now of course there’s the possibility that D’Antoni gave Walker some extra burn ‘cuz we were going up against his old team, but the kid looked good.  Yeah, he accumulated four fouls in just thirteen minutes, but he’s got some serious athleticism and potential.

Is it just me or does this look like one of them Lord Of The Rings shots were they digitally shrunk Eddie House so he'd look like a hobbit next to normal humans?

There was fear Tracy McGrady wouldn’t be able to play last night since we’d played the night before and he’d talked about how he was feeling all these minutes in his surgically repaired knee.  Again, he drove several times which was friggin’ awesome.  He did put up one or two ill-advised outside jumpers.  That, combined with him not getting some foul calls that he should’ve gotten, resulted in a less-than-stellar 3-for-8 shooting night for a mere six points.  Plus he only had enough energy to play 27 minutes.  But as I said, just the fact that he played at all was a great sign.  And while his shooting stank like skunk poo, that court vision was in full effect, allowing him to get eight assists.  Most point guards don’t even get that many assists in a game, so to get that from a shooting guard is a beautiful thang.

Battle Between Two Formerly Exciting All-Stars With Bad Knees Who Are Now Shadows Of What They Once Were. On A Tuesday Night.

Between McGrady, Rodriguez & Eddy House, we got nearly 20 assists, which resulted in us getting a ton of easy baskets against one of the best defensive teams in the league.  How easy, you ask?  We shot a sick 52.5% from the field.  The other thing that kept us in the game?  Our rebounding.  The Celts have taller big men than us in Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace, plus much stronger big men in Kendrick Perkins and Glen “Big Baby” Davis.  Not only did we not let them dominate us on the boards, we actually out-boarded them by one!

The last impressive part about the game was that even though we got down by something like 14 points within the first quarter, the team never gave up.  In the fourth quarter we got within one point and were in it until the very end.  With less than 50 seconds remaining, we were down by three.  After several great passes getting the Celts out of position, we got it to Wilson Chandler for an easy lay-up at the basket with no one in front of him.  Then a truly unexpected thing happened.  Ray Allen, never known as a good defender and having lost a bunch of lift in his legs, came and blocked Chandler from behind.  Probably if Chandler had just dunked it instead of flipping it up it would’ve gone in, but there was no way he could’ve anticipated being blocked from behind by Ray friggin’ Allen.  It would’ve been a one-point game with less than a minute to go, giving us a real shot at stealing the game.  ‘Course if we did that, then I could’ve turned to you and said, “Guess what?  We won the lottery today.”

Sergio: "Hey, how come Nate's shooting at our basket?? What, he's not a Knick anymore?"

The Good:

1. New point guard Sergio Rodriguez took over the starting gig from Chris Duhon.  Spanish Chocolate was a never-ending blur and managed an unbelievable EIGHT steals!

2. New undersized shooting guard, Eddie House, played point when Spanish Chocolate went out, which meant: Chris Duhon didn’t play at all!  Not a second!  And that was goooood.

3. The Knicks did a good job hustling and scrambling on defense, holding the Bucks to a mere 43% fg shooting.

4. Tracy McGrady did not just settle for easy jump shots and instead had a few nice drives to the hoop.  Yes, none were dunks and a couple didn’t go in, but it’s excellent that he’s not shying away from contact with the big boys.

TMac, unafraid, drives to the hole, yet the Knicks still seem to be playing in the dark

5. At halftime the fans were thrilled as the Knicks honored the 40th anniversary of the 1969-1970 championship team.

6. To show how truly stupendous that 1970 team was, the current Knicks, in an outstanding show of support, got together before the game and decided to purposely play horribly so the fans would appreciate the old-timers even more. (more…)

"Dude, you said the Knicks sucked!" "Yeah, well you said TMac was done!"

The Oklahoma Thunder have made one of the most remarkable turnarounds in NBA history.  After winning only 21 games last year (or in a glass half-empty view, losing 61 games), they now are 5th in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.  They are in the middle of the longest current winning streak in the league (nine games), and they have third-year phenom, Kevin Durant, a legit MVP candidate.  It could be argued that Durant is second in the MVP race to only LeBron.  Plus, he’s in the middle of a streak of having scored 25+ points in 27 straight games.  At first that last statement didn’t seem that impressive to me, ‘cuz after all like LeBron and Carmelo are averaging nearly 30 a game, while others like Kobe and Allen Iverson have averaged that much (or more) for a whole season too.  However, in the last 35 years there is only one person who has ever accomplished that feat: Michael Jordan.  Yup, no other active player has done it.  Not LeBron, Kobe, Wade, Shaq, AI or even the Knicks’ newbie, TMac (a man who’s lead the league in scoring a couple of times).

All of which goes to say that after the way the Knicks have been playing, it was pretty darn remarkable we almost won this game, let alone played well.  The big story, as everyone’s already heard, is Tracy McGrady’s big game.  That he’s back.  Not to be glass-half-empty again (what am I, thirsty or something?), but I’m skeptical that he can bring that kind of production regularly.  What I do think that he can help keep bringing back is the energy in the Garden.  The crowd was more alive than they are on Free Taco Night.  Okay, there’s no Free Taco Night (the correct question here is: why the hell not?), but Madison Square was rocking Saturday night.  For once, people came to see the Knicks, not the other team, or just to be “seen.”

McGrady's most athletic play of the night: When a Thunder-ite goes to block his shot on the right, mid-air Tmac does a loopedy-loop and scoops it in lefty

(more…)

The second one, which we also talked about before it was finalized, was a trade with the Houston Rockets involving Tracy McGrady & his big ol’ expiring contract.  Turns out the deal didn’t contract, it expanded, becoming a threesome with the Sacramento Kings.  The Knicks basically gave up everything that was initially reported, and their attempts to protect their draft picks were laughable.  The Rockets get the choice to swap 2011 picks with the Knicks, but we stood our ground and got the pick protected.  If it’s the top pick in the draft.  Really?  That’s the best we could do?  What was the conversation like between Donnie Walsh and Houston GM Daryl Morey?

Walsh, “No, no, you’re asking for too much, we’ll only do it if the pick is lottery protected!”

Morey, “Nah.”

Walsh, “Fine, top-ten protected.”

Morey, “No.”

“Top five!”

“Nope”

“Top three!  And that’s as low as I’ll go!”

“Can’t do it.  Oh, got Sacramento on the other line, so I best be going-”

“Okay, okay, no protection!  Wait, no, that’ll make me look like a total chump who didn’t even attempt to fight this.”

“Know what?  You seem like a nice guy, tell ya what I’ll do.  We both know the chances of it being the number one pick are like a hundred-to-one, whadaya say we make it Top One protected.  It won’t affect me, and you… you can make up stories about how you stood your ground, refused to be bullied about.”

“Hmm, I can live with that.”

“But ya also gotta call me the ‘Grand High Poobah’ whenever we speak.”

“As you wish, Poobah.”

“That’s ‘Grand High’ to you.”

Ummm, but I digress.  Incredibly far.  Back to the actual facts of the trade.  So the Rockets, who made out like bandits, not only get to swap that 2011 pick, they also get the Knicks 2012 pick (oooh, but it’s top-5 protected), Jordan Hill, Jared Jeffries, and the biggest thing… Sacramento’s sweet shooting Kevin Martin.   Martin, who’s still recovering from injury, has been able to easily score 25 points/game in the past, getting to the line 7-10 times a game for free buckets, and hitting threes with impunity despite having one of the oddest looking shooting motions.  He should thrive in the Rockets’ current free-flowing system, and should Yao Ming return healthy next year, Martin’s outside shooting should complement him much better than T-Mac’s game ever did.  Oh, and the Rockets also have to take Sacramento’s Hilton Armstrong (now on his third team this season).

The Kings, who had decided that Martin wasn’t working well along their rookie wunderkind, Tyreke Evans, get Martin’s contract off their books, plus the Rockets’ contender for sixth-man-of-the-year, Carl Landry.  Despite coming off the bench, Landry has been top 5 this season in points scored in the fourth quarter.  With the Kings struggling to close out some games, he could be a big boon.  And the wily Rockets had signed Landry to a great, reasonable deal too.  The Kings also get Larry Hughes from us, plus Joey Dorsey from the Rockets.

As for us, we get TMac, plus Sacramento’s third-string point guard, Sergio Rodriguez.  As mentioned, the key impetus for this whole deal was to get Jared Jeffries’ contract off the books for next year.  Since TMac’s contract expires this year, we get what we want: enough cap space to sign nearly two max free agents (it depends on what the final cap limit will be, which won’t be determined until this summer), which’ll be more cap space than any other team in the league is expected to have.  However, in the meantime, like I said previously, we get a free audition of McGrady to see if he has anything left.  And if he does, maybe he’ll choose to stay in NYC for a discount.  The other short-term bonus is that even though he’s not a PG, he’s a good distributor so maybe he can take minutes away from the god-awful Chris Duhon.  Along those lines, the throw-in Sergio Rodriguez is actually a pretty darn exciting PG himself, nicknamed “Spanish Chocolate” (kinda odd that he ended up in Sacramento where Jason Williams, aka “White Chocolate” made his name.  What’s up with Sac-town’s desire for Chocolate?  I mean it ain’t like they play in Hershey, Pennsylvania or something…).  “Spanish,” much like “White,” is known to be a mediocre defender, but hell, on this Knicks’ team he should fit right in.  Unlike Duhon, he is aggressive, and unlike Nate Robinson, he is a pass-first type of point guard.

Whew, this is getting long, and I haven’t gotten to the third trade yet.  It’s with the Celts, and sadly it includes fan favorite Nate Robinson (plus another Knick, who for some reason is still unknown — I’m thinking Jonathan Bender or Marcus Landry) in return for Eddie House and seldom used players J.R. Giddeons and Bill Walker.  Kind of an odd trade.  The Knicks do it solely to get rid of Nate, not for better talent, versatility, money or anything.  His inconsistency and free-lancing just bugs the hell out of Mike D’Antoni, so they got rid of him even though along with David Lee he’s the longest tenured Knick and as I said, the fans love him.  On the opposite end, Eddie House is not only a big fan favorite for the Celts, but also someone who Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers says is a core player who he doesn’t want to lose.  However, the Celts have been playing poorly lately (for a team who wants a championship or bust) so management used this to send a “message” that players better step it up.  I mean Nate’s a slightly better defender than House, and has more offensive versatility (meaning he’s not just a spot-up three-point shooter), but he won’t be the difference between a championship or not for Boston.  Their real problem is with their power forwards: Kevin Garnett (gimpy), Rasheed Wallace (fatty), and Glen “Don’t Call Me Big Baby” Davis (no D).

Oh yeah, and we lost again last night to the Bulls (played well for three plus quarters, then fell apart).  If only the summer of 2010 could get here sooner so we could get a real team…

Not A Good Sign When The Bulls' Cheerleaders Do "The Dance Of The Dead"

Word is that the Knicks’ have chosen to go in a new direction since they clearly no longer have a shot at the playoffs after their month-long visit with mediocrity (actually mediocrity’s too good a term for them, let’s substitute that with suck-itude).  No, that new direction alas, is not “let’s play well” or “at least pretend to play some defense,” but rather “we suck so much, why don’t we at least let the rookies lose for us so we can see how they are.”  Thus last night we went out and made the Chicago Bulls look like they still had Jordan & Pippen, losing to them by a mere 33 points.

Bad Sign #2: The Players Join The Fans In "The Wave"

In fairness, Derrick Rose came out on fire, and I believe shot 9-for-9 for 19 points in the first half before he even missed a shot.  Rose, not know for his jumper, had it going last night, which makes him nearly unguardable.  Of course the Knicks’ persist in using Jared Jeffries to defend opposing teams’ point guards, which basically means he backs off and dares them to shoot the jumper.  If they hit ‘em, like Rose did, then we’re outta luck.  Actually, even when Jeffries plays up on ‘em, then if he gets beaten off the dribble it leaves players like Chris Duhon, Danilo Gallinari & David Lee to help out, none of whom are shot-blockers or particularly good at help defense.  It’d seem smarter to have Jeffries on one of the big men so that he can be the one who helps out.  Not only is he (sadly) the Knicks’ best shot blocker (out of the players who get minutes), but he also actually leads the league in drawing charges.  Meaning if Rose was to beat Duhon off the dribble, Jeffries could position himself so Rose would have to run him over, forcing Rose to commit a foul.

Bad Sign #3: Harrington Gives Up, Starts Doing One-Handed Push-Ups

When Rose went out at the end of the first quarter, the Knicks actually battled back and looked like they might make a game of it.  That lasted until about midway through the second quarter, and then I believe they lost interest when they saw a shiny object.  Or maybe they started to think about what they’d type if they were on Twitter.  Perhaps I’m short-changing them.  For all I know, they could’ve been contemplating the tragedy of Haiti.  Regardless, the focus was definitely on the game.

Wilson Chandler Spots Shiny Object Off-Court, Loses Focus

However, particularly with Nate Robinson out, the two kids we drafted (Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas) got some run.  Heck, the game got so out of hand that even Marcus Landry and Jonathan Bender got to jog up and down the court a few times.  Oddly, with the game clearly out of hand, Coach Mike D’Antoni still kept starter Chris Duhon in.  Maybe it was his way of punishing Duhon for his awful play the last two months.  And y’know even putting aside the fact that Du hasn’t hit a shot since the first Gulf War, it seems like all Duhon does offensively is run pick-and-rolls with David Lee.  I got nothing against pick-and-rolls, but how about doing some with Gallo, Wilson Chandler or Al Harrington?

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Smack 'Em

Anyway, the good news is that we won’t have to play Chicago again for at least a few more hours.  Yup, they’re coming to the Garden tonight.

These last few months may end up being very, very long…

Why's Chicago's Derick Rose Smiling So Big? He Gets The Knicks Two Nights In A Row!

Clusters of spectators occupy sections in every arena, waving Israeli flags, chanting his name, pleading for an autograph, a high-five, or even a glance.

These past few days in particular have been a blur of activity: Pregame and postgame chats with a throng of fans Sunday in Toronto; a post-practice gathering Monday at Madison Square Garden with members of the media, including several Israeli television and print journalists; a private audience with Commissioner David Stern in his Olympic tower office hours later; a reception sponsored by the Israeli Consul General in the early evening and, finally, tonight’s long anticipated Kings-Knicks matchup that is being marketed as Jewish Heritage Night.

A Jewish acappella group sang the National Anthem

(more…)

Um, Jared, for a bounce pass you're supposed to bounce the ball on the ground, not your butt...

However, the Knicks seemed fairly disinterested for much of the first half.  Kinda like they’ve looked in general.  One amazing exception was Larry Hughes, who got an early call off the bench and decided to play with energy this time instead of sulking.  He played well enough to get minutes in the second half too, and afterward D’Antoni said that if Hughes keeps playing like that then he’ll keep getting minutes.  Of course the bigger more important question is whether this means Hughes will shave his beard.  Early word says he’s not ready to commit to that just yet.  We’ll keep you on top of this vital news as soon as more information breaks.

Hughes: "One, two, step, kick and... jazz hands!"

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2. Chris Duhon’s shot is starting to come back, but whenever it does briefly return he then seems to follow it with some ill-advised jumpers.  It’s like a shooter who gets hot and then keeps trying harder and harder shots, looking for a heat check.  Except Duhon (who’s been like 3 for 912 over the last few games) has been in such a rut that if he hits just one shot he seems to think he must be on fire.  Weird.  Going from passing up open shots and layups to forcing looks ‘cuz he thinks he might be feeling it.

Duhon: "Who cares if I'm surrounded by 4 Wizards? I hit my last shot, so I'm shooting this one!"

(more…)

For the Knicks I don’t usually examine teams in a position-by-position analysis since the team does a lot of switching, swarming and zoning, very rarely leaving one guy isolated to play D against another one.  So for instance, we don’t have any good low-post defenders, meaning Big Al should kill us, but in the last game we double-teamed him whenever he got it.  That said, I think the Wolves’ weakest spot is SF where they’ve rotated Gomes and Damien Wilkins and haven’t gotten the consistency they’d like.  Earlier in the year I would’ve said SG ‘cuz Corey Brewer was defending great but was an offensive liability.  Now he’s huge on both sides of the court.

As I mentioned, in single-coverage, we can’t contain Al Jefferson.  Jonny Flynn also would be too much for Duhon to handle, but for the most part we’ll probably have Jared Jeffries on him instead.  He kept backing off Flynn, daring him to shoot a jump shot.  If Flynn doesn’t take at least a few of those to keep Jeffries honest, he’ll have a tough night again.

Positions are almost irrelevant for the Knicks since they switch so much and use such unusual matches, like having Jeffries often cover the point guard.  We tend to not post up normal sized SGs, so we don’t gain any advantage there, but if a team does choose to play like 2 PGs then we will post-up.  Defensively, when going up against a Kobe-type, we just double, so again it don’t really matter that whoever is considered SG doesn’t have the lateral speed.  The big general disadvantage is that besides Jeffries, we don’t have great individual defenders, which is why we have to resort to such a chaotic D (which can kill us if the other team has good outside shooters).

The Knicks have played so poorly of late (except for that game), that if anything I’m less confident.  Teams sometimes get more pumped for better teams, so if the Knicks even slightly think they can take the Wolves for granted…  well, we ain’t playing well enough to do that and we’ll get shellacked.

See above.

6. What is your prediction for the game?

The Wolves will get a solid 10-point lead early on.  The Knicks will climb back up at some point.  Will they have enough energy to then take the lead too?  I dunno.  But I gotta put my sunglasses on and say in the end it’ll be a beautiful sunshiney day & we’ll win.

A few question unrelated to the game

1. Was David lee the biggest snub?

No, I think Josh Smith was.  But Lee’s second.

2. Are both Lee and Nate Robinson gone after this season?

Sadly, I think so.

3. Scale of 1-10 how much do you miss Isiah Thomas?

On a scale of 1 to 10 I’d say I miss Mr. Thomas about a negative infinity.  Plus or minus two.

]]> http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/31/thoughts-on-todays-knickswolves-game/feed/ 0 http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/25/knicks-make-history-like-the-titanic-did/ http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/25/knicks-make-history-like-the-titanic-did/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:40:37 +0000 Alex David, aka Short White Boy http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/?p=344 Sunday afternoon the Knicks had their worst loss in Madison Square Garden EVER.  But at least they lost by a nice round number: 50 points.  There’s no point going too deep into this game because clearly it’s an outlier, but there are definitely a few things to take away from it. 1. Duhon finally got [...]

Knicks Make History! …Like The Titanic Did. - Buckets Over Broadway - Buckets Over Broadway - A New York Knicks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> Sunday afternoon the Knicks had their worst loss in Madison Square Garden EVER.  But at least they lost by a nice round number: 50 points.  There’s no point going too deep into this game because clearly it’s an outlier, but there are definitely a few things to take away from it.

1. Duhon finally got a couple of shots to go in.  Maybe that’ll help get his confidence back.  Interestingly, even though he’s been missing everything, his shot has looked good and is lined up, it’s just either a tad short or a tad long, but it’s how you want to miss a shot.

2. Gallo, on the other hand, when he misses shots seems to kinda miss ugly.  I don’t get it.  Sometimes he’s got a beautiful stroke, and other times it’s just a clang.  And more and more it seems like he comes out flat with his shot and needs to warm up during the game.

3. Back to Duhon, he has also stopped passing up wide open shots, which is good.

4. Without Nate, and with Duhon struggling to score, we’re in a tough spot.  Toney Douglas actually did a decent job the first half, but like everyone else in the second half he laid a big fat one.

5. If you were told that the Mavs would be missing two of their starters, Jason Kidd and Eric Dampier, and that Dirk would shoot only 1-for-6, you would’ve thought we’d be in the game, wouldn’t ya?

6. If you were told that Jared Jeffries led the team in scoring with 14 points, and he got 12 of those in the first quarter, you’d've known we lost big time, wouldn’t ya?  Particularly if we then said that Dirk would only miss one shot in the second half.

7. I don’t get the Knicks’ bench.  Most of them don’t get to play often (or at all), and yet none of them seemed interested in wanting to use that extra run to prove themselves.  Jonathan Bender, who’d fallen completely out of the rotation, just wanted to shoot or drive (&then shoot) every time he got it.  None of them played any defense.  I know D’Antoni was criticized in Phoenix for his team’s supposed lack of defense, but he’s switched that up here.  ‘Cuz we can’t score like Nash, et al, did.  And when we had our biggest run of success, it was because of our D.  And that’s why Jared Jeffries gets so many minutes.  So you’d think some of the bench mob would come out with energy & try to play some great D.  You’d've been wrong.

8. Drew Gooden owned David Lee on both ends.  Completely.  Like he didn’t even have any mortgage left to pay, he just outright owned him and could do whatever he wanted with him.  Gooden ain’t known for his shot blocking ability, but he got two of Lee’s.

9. David Lee needs to work, defensively, on not letting his man get such good position before he catches the ball.  It’s one thing if Lee’s up against Shaq and Lee don’t have the weight/strength to do that, but against Gooden?  Gooden’s taller, but he’s not a muscle-bound wide-load.

10. Everyone made it off the bench except Larry Hughes.  Good.  Hughes wined about not getting minutes (or when he got 9 minutes several games ago he called it a joke).  The last game when Nate Robinson injured his hamstring, Hughes got another shot.  He sucked.  He needs to realize (actually the whole bench does) that to get minutes he has to work harder.  The reason Jordan Hill’s gotten a chance the last few games is because he supposedly works crazy-hard in practice.  And he had some great hustle when he finally got some minutes (although lately he’s been making those rookie mistakes that happen when you don’t know how to hustle — like committing fouls by falling for shot fakes or going over the top to grab a rebound).

11. LeBron isn’t gonna wanna join a team like this.  If we don’t turn things around again and get back on track, it won’t just be a long year.  It’ll be a long decade.  Again.

]]> http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/25/knicks-make-history-like-the-titanic-did/feed/ 0 http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/23/knicks-hang-with-lakers-but-fall-in-the-end/ http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/23/knicks-hang-with-lakers-but-fall-in-the-end/#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:56:56 +0000 Alex David, aka Short White Boy http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/?p=342 For two quarters, the Knicks looked great.  During the third quarter they lost a bit of their mojo, but they played good defense, keeping the Lakers’ mojo out of the conversation too.  They even enter the final quarter up by a point.  Alas, after a few minutes the Lakers kicked it into a higher gear, [...]

Knicks Hang With Lakers, But Fall In The End - Buckets Over Broadway - Buckets Over Broadway - A New York Knicks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> For two quarters, the Knicks looked great.  During the third quarter they lost a bit of their mojo, but they played good defense, keeping the Lakers’ mojo out of the conversation too.  They even enter the final quarter up by a point.  Alas, after a few minutes the Lakers kicked it into a higher gear, while the Knicks remained in neutral.  Part of it was indeed the Lakers taking over when it got to “winning time.”  However, even in the third quarter, you could see the Knicks lacked that energy and hustle that had served them so well in the first half.

What happened?  First and foremost, Nate Robinson, the human spark plug, injured his hamstring and was unable to play in the second half.  Second, this resulted in D’Antoni using disgruntled Larry Hughes (who hadn’t played in eight of the last nine games), and Hughes blew chunks.  Bad chunks.  Not good ones like chocolate chunks.  Man, I like chocolate chunks.  Just the word takes things to the next level, like who would take normal chocolate chip cookies over chocolate chunk cookies?  And I won’t even go into the immortal Chunk and his truffle shuffle from “Goonies” ‘cuz this clearly has nothing to do with bball.

Where was I?  Oh, yeah, Hughes blew chunks.  You’d think with him having sat out so long that he’d come in focused and wanting to prove that he deserved to get regular minutes (see Nate Robinson returning from exile with a 41 point explosion).  Hughes played sloppy and I was praying for D’Antoni to take him off the court (& I never pray — I’m not a religious man).  Third, D’Antoni finally replaced Hughes with Duhon, but Duhon still can’t hit a shot.  I was happy that for the most part Du was at least taking those wide-open shots, and it’s not like his shots were godawful things like say Shaq shooting free throws.  He just can’t seem to connect for whatever reason.  I’ve never seen someone get as into his head as much as Du do (mmm, scatological humor).

Fourthly, Jordan Hill, who was an amazing rebounding/hustling machine off the bench in the first half, didn’t seem to have the same energy.  I dunno what happened, maybe he had like a big ol’ double cheeseburger at halftime and was feeling groggy.  But in the first half he was key to helping Lee dominate on the boards against the taller Lakers.  Fifthly, the whole team in general seemed to lack a bit of energy.  Maybe after President Clinton’s halftime plea for donations for Haiti, it all seemed insignificant in the larger sense.  Oh, and I’ve never understood why Presidents get to be called President their whole lifetime.  That seems wrong.  I mean, Trevor Ariza used to be on the Knicks, do people still call him Knick player Trevor Ariza?  Or in these hard times if you were VP at a company, got fired, and ended up working at the postal office, would you still demand your fellow sorters call you veep?  I find it even odder with one-term Presidents, like say the OG (Original George… Bush that is), who we specifically voted out of office, saying we didn’t want him to be Prez anymore.  Like you could sorta make the case with the two-termers ‘cuz it’s like ahh, we would’ve voted for you again Clinton, but since you couldn’t run again you’ll always be Pressy to me.  Sorry, I’m sick, I think I’m babbling extra hard today.

Anyway, the last thing that was different between the two halves, was that the Knicks didn’t seem to be trapping quite as strongly as they did the first half.  In the first half, every time Bynum, Pau or Kobe got the ball, the Knicks instantly double-teamed the dude, resulting in them panicking and having to give it up.  In the final quarter they seemed to stop doing that (they did do it in the third quarter though).  Yes, the Lakers adjusted their triangle formation a bit so that just Pau and Kobe were on the strong side.  This meant if the closest man doubled Pau when he got it down low, it would have to be Kobe’s guy, and the Black Mamba ain’t someone ya wanna leave unguarded.  However, there were many times earlier when the person who doubled came from the weak side, so I’m not sure why this adjustment froze the Knicks so completely.  In the fourth whenever they did double it was usually much later, and thus too late because Pau/Kobe were just finishing their move.  The first three quarters we swarmed before they could start their move, keeping ‘em off balance.

That said, the Lakers are the team with the best record in the league, and for the most part we played a great game against them.  They were also saved because they were on fire from three-point land, shooting an insane 52.2% (Ron Artest went 3-for-3 himself, and he ain’t known as a high percentage shooter).  Maybe that’s why the Knicks adjusted their defensive strategy in the fourth?  They felt the Lakers were hitting too many open threes and they decided to shut those down?  However, if it’s a choice between letting Kobe & Pau show their stuff or see if the supporting cast can keep up an unbelievable barrage from the hinterlands, don’t ya gotta force the unknowns to win it for them?

]]> http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/23/knicks-hang-with-lakers-but-fall-in-the-end/feed/ 0 http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/19/knicks-go-1-2-over-mlk-weekend/ http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/19/knicks-go-1-2-over-mlk-weekend/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:05:29 +0000 Alex David, aka Short White Boy http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/?p=323 The Knicks had a busy 3-day weekend.  While the rest of us were lying around, goofing off, they played Friday night, Saturday night, and then Sunday morning.  Basically three games in a little more than 60 hours.  That’s tough.  Watching them play?  That’s even tougher.  You can’t blame the two losses on fatigue since they [...]

Knicks Go 1-2 Over MLK Weekend - Buckets Over Broadway - Buckets Over Broadway - A New York Knicks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> The Knicks had a busy 3-day weekend.  While the rest of us were lying around, goofing off, they played Friday night, Saturday night, and then Sunday morning.  Basically three games in a little more than 60 hours.  That’s tough.  Watching them play?  That’s even tougher.  You can’t blame the two losses on fatigue since they were the first two games of the weekend.  Our boys in blue lost to the Toronto Raptors on Friday, then lost to the Pistons in Detroit, before finally winning back in NY against the Pistons again (although this time the Pistons lacked one of their best players, Rip Hamilton).

The nice thing is that the team is developing a consistency.  We come out flat at the beginning of every game, let the opponent get a nice lead, and then make runs throughout where we turn it into a game.  The final part is where our variance comes in: often after we turn it into a game we then like to lose, but as shown on Monday and last week in Philly, sometimes we actually win.  The first part though, that’s apparently written in stone.

What’s the issue, you may ask?  Or maybe you don’t, but I’m answering it either way.  Coaches tend to always say focus on defense when things are awry, but I’mna buck that trend and go with offense (and hey, Mike D’s an offensive-minded coach, so it’s only appropriate).  In three-out-of-four of our last games, we’ve kept the opponent under 94 points.  That’s pretty solid in today’s high-scoring game.  However, we come out shooting awfully.  Duhon’s in the middle of a horrible shooting slump, and finally D’Antoni decided to limit Chris’ playing time Monday, giving him just 20 minutes and letting Nate Robinson run the point.  Of course, afterward D’Antoni said something to the effect of how he’d have a heart attack if he keeps running Nate at point, due to Nate’s uh… questionable decision making.

That said, it hasn’t just been Duhon.  For a few games Gallinari came out cold.  The last two games he finally got hot, but it almost made me wonder if Gallo would do better coming off the bench.  Maybe he’s the type who needs to get a sense of the game before he can get going.  The other he needs to work on is knowing when to shoot the three and when to drive.  There were a bunch of times he had an open three but he passed it up and drove because he’s obviously been told to do that once teams overplay him on the jump shot.  Thing is, what usually happens is that rather than get to the rim, he only goes a foot or two closer and has to shoot while his defender is lunging at him.  The idea is that by shooting closer, it becomes a higher-percentage shot.  However, since it goes from being a three-pointer to a two-pointer, it also becomes a less valuable shot.

There was some recent study (which I’m too lazy to look up) which I believe showed that the best, most valuable shot was one right at the rim.  Second to that though was not like five feet out, it was the three-pointer.  Or maybe it was five feet out and then the three-pointer?  Regardless, the three was definitely much more valuable than the ten-footer, and worlds better than the 15-22 footer inside the arc.  The math to show it is pretty simple.  If you shot 50% from within the two-point range (which usually only big men who operate by the basket can do), and you took 6 shots, you’d make 3, right?  And with each one being 2 points, it’d be worth 6 points.  On the other hand if you shot 6 three-pointers and hit only a third of them (aka 33%), you’d make only two shots.  But since each was a three, that’d also be worth 6 points.   Now let’s look at Gallo.  He shoots much better than 33% from three-point land: he’s at 41.6%.  However, from two-point land he’s much worse than 50%: he’s only 45.9%.  In other words it’s clearly better for him to go for the big one.

Now I’m not advocating that Gallo only jack up threes and turn into an Italian version of Antoine Walker.  He needs to keep driving when teams stick too close to him.  But he needs to be more aware of when they are too close.  Right now, he’s too into his head.  You can see that sometimes after he hits a three, the next trip down he’s already decided to fake the shot and drive to “fool” the defender.  But you can’t decide beforehand.  You need to actually go for the shot, and then if you see the defender closing too fast, you instinctively put the ball on the floor instead.  And then either go all the way to the hole or start to drive and kick it out to someone else.  They say the mid-range game is a lost art, but the truth is that’s because it’s often a poor choice.

But the losses aren’t all on Gallo — I just went off on a tangent about him.  Really Duhon is more the issue.  It’s not simply that Duhon’s shot is off, it’s more that he’s lost his confidence so much that he passes up open shots, often resulting in him either turning it over or forcing a teammate to make a tougher shot.  If say Wilson Chandler drives and kicks the ball out to Duhon, even if Duhon’s wide open he’ll pass it around the circle to the next guy (say Al Harrington) when Harrington’s defender is right by him.  As a result, Wilson’s drive was for naught, and now Harrington needs to create something with even less time on the clock.  Truth is it’s similar to how Gallo needs to learn to read the charging defender before deciding whether to shoot or drive.  Particularly as a point guard Duhon should have enough court vision that when he gets it he should know whether he’s open or whether he should shoot it.  If it’s his man who let’s say doubled Chandler, then he’s gotta put it up.  Even worse is when Duhon drives and actually gets all the way to the basket, he’s too nervous to shoot, so he suddenly looks to pass it to someone.  But that close to the basket he’s usually surrounded and a pass will result in a turn.  One time he drove past Ben Wallace on a pick, had an easy open layup, but didn’t shoot it.  Realizing he should’ve shot it, he then went in a little loop right underneath the basket (with Wallace following after him — it was actually kinda funny), and then threw up an awkward off-balance shot because he was worried Big Ben would block him (but Ben wasn’t anywhere close enough).  It was a simple play that he mucked up ‘cuz he’s all in his head.  And Duhon’s so in his head, that it isn’t even like this was because he was shooting 1 for 9 or something.  In the second Detroit game he only took 3 shots.

It’s even more important that he shoots because the fifth man on the floor is usually Jared Jeffries, who isn’t much of an offensive threat.  It’s like we’re already playing 4-on-5.  If Du’ won’t shoot, that brings us down to 3-on-5.  Plus, since Wilson Chandler now tries to get a higher percentage shot because he struggles at the three-point-line, it means we really only have one player out there who can stretch the other team’s D out to the arc (either Gallo or Al Harrington).

Oh, one nice thing that happened over those three games is that it seems that rookie Jordan Hill’s hard work at practices has finally gotten him some playing time.  He seems to have taken Jonathan Bender’s place in the rotation (or maybe Bender’s hurt and I haven’t heard about it).  Either way, it’s good.  He needs minutes to develop.  His outside jumper is pretty darn good for a big man.  He still gets over-excited and makes those rookie mistakes (like falling for pump fakes, thus fouling his guy & bailing him out).  But he could be good.

Okay, so I didn’t go too indepth on any of the three individual games, but this is all you’re gonna get from me.

Until I make another post.

]]> http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/19/knicks-go-1-2-over-mlk-weekend/feed/ 4 http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/14/knicks-barely-beat-philadelphia-sixers/ http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/14/knicks-barely-beat-philadelphia-sixers/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:14:13 +0000 Alex David, aka Short White Boy http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/?p=308 First, before we get to bball, let’s take a moment to talk about things that really matter.  Sadly, David Lee’s grandfather, who I reported was ill, passed away yesterday.  He was 92 years old.  Lee still played last night, which must’ve been both tough and perhaps a relief to have something else to focus on [...]

Knicks Barely Beat Philadelphia Sixers - Buckets Over Broadway - Buckets Over Broadway - A New York Knicks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> First, before we get to bball, let’s take a moment to talk about things that really matter.  Sadly, David Lee’s grandfather, who I reported was ill, passed away yesterday.  He was 92 years old.  Lee still played last night, which must’ve been both tough and perhaps a relief to have something else to focus on for a few hours.  I believe the funeral is today.  On the other side of the court, Philadelphia’s center Samuel Dalembert is Haitian and was reeling from their devastating earthquake.  Dalembert had spent much of the day struggling to find out whether various friends and family members are even alive.  He’s already started a relief fund.  Dalembert’s always been one who has used his time and money to help those in need, even when it doesn’t hit so close to home.

However, back to bball.  In times like this, we need sports more than ever.  Sports provide an outlet, an escape, a place where we can have a battle between good and evil without devastating consequences (despite how some fans feel after their team loses).  Players go to war, giving it their all, and we scream and cheer them on, able to let ourselves go in a way we never would at work.  At least I hope you don’t roar, “Let’s-Go-Account-ant!”   Sorry, I’m babbling — back to the game.

The Knicks came out on fire, hitting like 15 of 17 shots or something insane.  Surprisingly, one of the more successful scorers was Jared Jeffries.  He hit a jump shot, a three, drove to the basket, everything.  It was like no one told him he had no offensive skills and is just in there for his defense.  The last couple of games he’s seemed to be a bit more aggressive on offense.  My guess is that D’Antoni rightly told him that if he’s open he has to take those shots.  Otherwise the opposing team can just play four-on-five.  And the more Jared feels like the coaches want him to take those shots, the more confidence he’ll have in putting them up.  This, after all, is what they did with David Lee, and we’re seeing the great results now.  So kudos to D’Antoni and staff.  And to Jeffries, who hopefully has realized that if he works on his shot he can stay on the court even more.  The most useful top defenders in the league (Bruce Bowen, Shane Battier, Raja Bell) are the ones who can hit that open three so that they won’t be a liability on offense.

(more…)

]]> http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/14/knicks-barely-beat-philadelphia-sixers/feed/ 0 http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/12/the-ballad-o%e2%80%99-the-knick-massacre-at-the-ok-corral/ http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/12/the-ballad-o%e2%80%99-the-knick-massacre-at-the-ok-corral/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:17:21 +0000 Alex David, aka Short White Boy http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/?p=288 Gather round me, pardners, a story I will tell, How our Knicks flew to OKC, yet ended up in hell. Both sides came out blasting, defendin’ their flanks, But they were using real ammo, we was firin’ blanks. —- They had a young gunslinger, Slim Durant was his name, His shot was so hot, he [...]

The Ballad O’ The Knick Massacre At The OK Corral - Buckets Over Broadway - Buckets Over Broadway - A New York Knicks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]>

Gather round me, pardners, a story I will tell,

How our Knicks flew to OKC, yet ended up in hell.

Both sides came out blasting, defendin’ their flanks,

But they were using real ammo, we was firin’ blanks.

—-

They had a young gunslinger, Slim Durant was his name,

His shot was so hot, he done nearly burst into flame.

For some reason we often put little Duhon on ‘im,

Then we’d double, leavin’ his teammates wide open.

—

Their team’s called the Thunder but they was like a tornado,

They tore through our defense, like Injuns on a raid-o.

Shootin’ like they was Wyatt Earp an’ ol Doc Holliday,

I ain’t religious, but Lord fer relief I did pray.

—

I know, I know, OKC is Oklahoma City, not the OK Corral,

Yeah, that town was in Arizona, but it’s artistic license, pal.

Last year these guys was nothin’, a bunch o’ jokies,

Now they’s a serious team, these hard-playin’ Okies.

—

Defensively this year, they’re top three in the land,

With General Carlisimo gone, they play real grand.

Point guard Russell Westbrook’s underrated, 7-11 he went,

I ain’t talkin’ convenience stores, it’s shootin’ I meant.

—

Our I-talian, Gallo, didn’t hit not a single shot,

So he focused on boards – an’ eleven of ‘em he got.

Why he don’t rebound like that regularly, I don’t know.

Guess the kid’s still young, his consistency will grow.

—

Duhon like Gallo, went 0-fer, just shootin’ awf-ul-ly,

From two feet away he proly couldn’t hit a big oak tree.

David Lee, skills growing daily, this game he’ll remember,

‘Cuz he lost faith in his shot, played like he done in November!

—

Least we got to see our young talent, Jordan Hill,

Kid is raw, but his potential gives me a thrill.

Wish his minutes would get a big spike,

That’s unlikely ta happen under Coach Mike.

—

Tiny man Nate was the only cowboy that done kept fightin’,

Sadly, that meant his shot selection was still darn frightenin’.

Harrington came back, seemed to reinjure his leg,

At times he was great, other times he laid an egg.

—

Now what’s a team to do after such a sad, sad loss?

“Throw it down the toilet” said D’Antoni, the boss.

Forget this one bad game, try’n keep up team morale,

‘Cuz thankfully we only play  once a year – in the OK Corral.

]]> http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/12/the-ballad-o%e2%80%99-the-knick-massacre-at-the-ok-corral/feed/ 0 http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/11/advanced-stats/ http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/2010/01/11/advanced-stats/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:23:30 +0000 Alex David, aka Short White Boy http://bucketsoverbroadway.com/?p=285 In honor of xandersdad being the first to comment, I present this post talking a bit about advanced stats in relation to the Knicks.  This comes from the Dallas Mavericks former stat guru, Wayne Winston.  It was Wayne Winston who before the season began said he wouldn’t take Kevin Durant for free because of his [...]

Advanced Stats - Buckets Over Broadway - Buckets Over Broadway - A New York Knicks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> In honor of xandersdad being the first to comment, I present this post talking a bit about advanced stats in relation to the Knicks.  This comes from the Dallas Mavericks former stat guru, Wayne Winston.  It was Wayne Winston who before the season began said he wouldn’t take Kevin Durant for free because of his adjusted plus/minus stats.  Shortly thereafter the Mavs fired him.  Coincidence?  Who knows?

For those who aren’t up on stats, a brief explanation.  Normal plus/minus is just a measure of while a player is in, how much did his team outscore, or get outscored, by the other team.  The idea is that say someone like Houston’s Shane Battier who’s a phenomenal defender, you can’t determine that from the traditional stats of points, assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, etc.  But if he IS playing great D, then his team should theoretically be scoring more when he’s in.  So if Houston scored say 63 points while he was in, but their opponent only scored 47, he’d have a plus/minus of +16.  Or maybe it’d prove the opposite, that even though he’s a good defender, he’s such a liability on offense that the other team scored 84 points to his team’s 63.  That’d give him a plus/minus of -21.

Now there’s a ton of problems with normal plus/minus.  For instance, let’s say the Rockets were going up against the Lakers, so whenever Kobe was in, Battier went in.  If Kobe sat, Battier sat to rest so he’d have more energy to hassle the Black Mamba.  Meanwhile Houston’s bench guy only has to cover like Adam Morrison’s corpse or something.  Chances are that Bench Guy will have a better plus/minus than Battier, even though Battier’s far superior.  Adjusted plus/minus is supposed to account for not only the difference in the opposition, but also for which teammates are on the floor at the same time.  Meaning just ‘cuz Derek Fisher starts and plays with Kobe, it won’t effect that Jordan Farmar has to play with Morrison The Undead (or actually The Dead).  How do they do that?  I dunno.  It’s a bit hush-hush.  Also, all the stat-heads say that small sample sizes are useless for plus/minus.  If Adam Morrison happens to be on the floor when Kobe suddenly scores 29 points in 1 minute, then it’ll show Ammo has +29 when he just stood there and watched.  However, over a long enough period of time, the fact that Ammo is useless will be shown ‘cuz he won’t always have someone else on fire while he’s on the court.

Anyhoo, so here’s some stuff from a recent Q & A interview with Wayne Winston on ESPN’s TrueHoop Blog:

10. You have told me that many coaches do things you simply cannot understand, for instance by ignoring some really good lineups. What are some of the best lineups from this season, and are some of them not being played enough?

As I described above, the Lakers have the best lineups. After that, some of the best in the League are:

Hawks: Mike Bibby, Jamal Crawford, Al Horford, Josh Smith and Joe Johnson Rating: +37

Cavaliers: Daniel Gibson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao and Delonte West or Anthony Parker Rating: +53

Mavericks: Erick Dampier, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion Rating +31

Warriors: Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, Anthony Morrow, Anthony Randolph, Vladimir Radmanovic Rating +40

Bucks: Charlie Bell, Andrew Bogut, Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings Rating +29

Knicks: Chris Duhon, Danilo Gallinari, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries and David Lee Rating +51 [Note: I, Short White Boy, bold-faced this for you, not TrueHoop.]

Thunder: Nick Collison, Kevin Durant, Nenad Krstic, Thabo Sefelosha and Russell Westbrook Rating +32

Magic: Ryan Anderson, Matt Barnes, Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and J.J. Redick Rating +56

Magic: Matt Barnes, Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, Dwight Howard and Jason Williams Rating +36

Raptors: Andrea Bargnani, Marco Bellinelli, Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu Rating +35

Jazz: Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer, Kyrylo Fesenko, Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews Rating +26

Jazz: Ronnie Brewer, Andrei Kirilenko, Paul Millsap, Mehmet Okur, Deron Williams Rating +26

With all that in mind, some notes:

* For the Knicks, Wilson Chandler, Chris Duhon, Al Harrington, Larry Hughes and David Lee is bad (minus-21). Put Gallinari (+30 rating) or Jeffries (+8 rating) for Chandler and the Knicks are much better. So why has first lineup played almost as often as the other two put together (85 minutes vs. 87 minutes)? [Again, that's my bold-ifying, not TrueHoop.]

So according to WW, the Knicks can play the fourth best line-up in the ENTIRE league.  However if you watch the actual games that are a few things about this don’t pass the Something’s-Egregiously-Erroneous (S.E.E.) test.  First, when Hughes was playing, the Knicks weren’t winning.  When he’s played more than 8 minutes, the team’s record is 9-17.  In the remaining games they’re 6-4.  The real issue was that Chandler started off the season playing like doggie doo.  That said, I do believe that adding Jeffries to core group has been a huuuuge plus for the Knicks (much more so that Gallinari, despite Gallo’s +30 to Jeffries +8).  As many have noted, the key to the Knicks’ recent run of success has had a bunch to do with their suddenly improved defense.  And that’s all Jeffries.

So I like the idea of advanced stats, but to blindly follow ‘em as WW does is to misuse ‘em.  As Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben (no relation to the rice king) once sorta said, “With great power (from stats) comes great responsibility.”

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