Best Season as a Knick: 2008-09, age 24. 17.2 points, 84% from the line, winner of Slam Dunk Contest (his second). 

A jester during the franchise’s darkest era, Nate Robinson lit up Madison Square Garden while kings of the court like Isiah Thomas and James Dolan relentlessly tried snuffing it out. New York finished last, second to last, last, and last in the Atlantic Division during Robinson’s tenure with the Knicks. It seemed like frustration was boiling over onto the city’s streets on a nightly basis, and the dark path the beloved team was traveling on had no end in sight; it wasn’t a pretty time. But Nate made everything a little better. He was a bag of skittles trying to feed a starving city.

Let’s get this out of the way right now: Nate Robinson didn’t cure any previously untreatable diseases or solve the country’s then (and now) aching economic troubles, but he did put a smile—or at the very least a smirk—on your face; he was as unpredictably entertaining a player as the league had, infamous for shooting on the wrong hoop or attempting an in-game self-alley-oop which resulted in a traveling violation.  Robinson was there for show, and that’s why we/some of us loved him.

Twitter: @BucketsOverBway

Mike D'Antoni was dejected after our last loss, but maybe it's us fans who should be dejected with him.

Josh Sage gives his second, more in-depth, view of the New York Knicks’ loss to the Boston Celtics:

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Amar'e Stoudemire is the new King of Broadway (Source: Yardbarker.com)

After attending last night’s heartbreaker to the Celtics, I figured it would be a good time to add my initial contribution to the site .I don’t want to get too much into the nuts and bolts of the game, but just add a few observations of the scene at MSG before during and after the game. I’ll start out by saying that this is my 7th season covering the Knicks so I have witnessed some dark days at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

• Stephon Marbury anointing himself “the best point guard in the NBA” before the 2005 New Year’s Day tilt with the Jason Kidd’s Nets. We all know how that proclamation turned out.
• Nate Robinson’s circus act leading to a vicious brawl with the Denver Nuggets in December of 2006.
• Jerome James. Enough said.
• The poisonous atmosphere that existed during Isiah Thomas’ last days at the helm with the continuous “Fire Isiah” chants booming down from the rafters. The fact that two Italian dudes constructed this rap song just about says it all.

Last night, all of the darkness seemed to have drifted far away from that hallowed cathedral of hoops. There was life again in Madison Square Garden, the kind of life not seen since Latrell Sprewell roamed the court more than a decade ago.  It was the most pregame anticipation I had ever felt at that place. There was a tangible buzz in the crowd and the place erupted when the lights dimmed and the Knicks were introduced. Amar’e Stoudemire, the new hero on Broadway, got the loudest ovation any Knicks player has gotten in years. I’d say the guy deserves it with the way he’s been playing.

Ronny Turiaf then did his now customary twirling dance, circumventing the the rest of the Knicks players as they huddled under the basket. It almost like he’s a witch doctor casting some kind of voodoo on the opposing team. Pretty cool to see in person. Unfortunately on this night, there wasn’t quite enough voodoo to hold off what I would consider the best team in the Eastern Conference if not the entire NBA. Paul Pierce is a cry baby and gets phantom fouls a aplenty, but the guy is a cold-blooded killer in the 4th quarter. The second best closer in the NBA behind Kobe Bryant in my book. He stuck the dagger in the Knicks, but that does not temper the positive vibes I took from their performance last night.

Mike D’Antoni, Amar’e and Raymond Felton all expressed their disappointment in not being able to close the Celtics out during their postgame meetings with the press. Sometimes, you hear guys talk about no moral victories in losses, but you could tell each one of these guys was proud of the effort the Knicks put forth and you could see and hear a confidence and swagger continuing to build, even in defeat. Here is a little sampling of what I heard:

“Everybody has their own opinion. Real basketball players and people who understand the game know we have a good team and we can play with anybody. We lost a tough one against possibly the best team in the league.” -Raymond Felton

“I guarantee you that Boston respects us. We are not slouches. They know how good we can be and how good we are. We’ll see them again.” -Amar’e Stoudemire

Before I close up shop, here are few scenes I witnessed and heard while moving between the media room and the two locker rooms:

• Nate Robinson hooting and hollering and spitting out more obscenities than Rex Ryan as the Celtics left the court and headed to the visitor’s locker room. Pipe down Nate. Your act was one of the reasons this franchise was such a joke the past few years. Once a punk, always a punk I guess
• A smiling Kevin Garnett and the huge rocks in his ears talking to a small gathering in front of the media room after I left the Knicks locker room. He was chatting with a blond-haired woman about two feet shorter than he was and said something to the effect of, “Whew boy, did you feel the electricity in here tonight? [The Knicks] thought they had us but we are bunch of champions. Not gonna argue that one.
• Amar’e Stoudemire walking toward the exit leading out to the where the Knicks park their shiny vehicles next to Amber Rose. You may want to click on the link provided. Check out Amar’e's tweet from Dec 5th at 10:41 PM. That my friends is a bird call. It appears as if we may be seeing a lot more of Ms. Rose at MSG in the coming days

Bring on LeBron and crew. It appears these Knicks are not afraid to tangle with anyone.

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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Somehow Donnie Walsh was able to get rid of Jerome James (center). It's appropriate that the first photo that came up features him surrounded by food. Also in the pic are former Knicks Jerome "Mad Dog" Williams, Antonio Davis and actor Dennis Quaid. (source: Yardbarker.com)

For those who missed it, we had Part I of our evaluation of Donnie Walsh yesterday, in which we examined how he’s done in terms of drafting.  The rules again:

1. I don’t believe in negative Monday morning quarterbacking, so I don’t punish people for making decisions that were widely held to be smart at the time, but ended up working out poorly.  Meaning if LeBron James breaks his leg in seventeen places in a car accident tomorrow and can never really play better than an average player again, I can’t fault Pat Riley for signing him down the road.

2. I do, however, believe in giving credit for decisions that seemed poor/insignificant at the time but turned out great.  When the Suns reacquired Steve Nash from the Dallas Mavericks, many pundits felt they overpaid due to Nash’s back issues and age.  Two MVPs and many amazing seasons later, it’s clear that was a good move.

3. Draft-wise, in addition to no negative Monday morning quarterbacking, I also don’t believe that if someone makes a pick that turns out surprisingly great, you can’t fault all the other teams for passing on the guy.  Like Isiah Thomas gets kudos for finding David Lee at #30, but since no one thought he’d be as good as he ended up being, I can’t penalize all other 29 teams for passing on him.

4. For each positive thing, I’ll add some points (the # of points will depend on how big a thing it was).  Similarly, for each negative decision, I’ll subtract some points.  We’ll keep a rolling tally.

At the end of adding and subtracting points in the Drafting section, it all ended up back at zero.  today This piece has gotten longer and longer, so we’re gonna break up the second category, Trades/Free Agency Signings, into two parts, getting rid of that slash.  Today we’ll do Trades, tomorrow Free Agency, and then probably Friday the last category of Other/General.

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After Game #1 it seemed like Mo Williams would be a Major X-Factor. After Game #2 and Rajon Rondo's defense, we're downgrading Mo to a mere Minor X-Factor. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

After last night’s game, it’s clear there are 5 Major X-Factors in the Cleveland Cavaliers/Boston Celtics playoff series, 3 Minor X-Factors, and 1 Under-Reported Straight-Out Factor.  What do I mean by Major, Minor and Straight-Out Factors?  Well, first a Straight-Out Factor versus an X-Factor is something you know is going to happen versus something that may or may not happen.  Like it’s obvious now that Rajon Rondo is a force who’s gonna bring it every night. Earlier in his career that wasn’t the case, and he was an X-Factor. Now he’s a Straight-Out Factor, but he’s an Over-Reported Factor (or rather a Justifiably-Frequently-Reported Factor), so we ain’t gonna go into him.

In terms of Major X-Factors or Minor ones, a Major one is a change that will effect the whole series, while a Minor X-Factor effects just one game.  For instance, Doc Rivers has said that he hopes Nate Robinson can come in at some point during the playoffs, get hot, and help them win that game.  However, Nate clearly isn’t gonna be a major X-Factor who’s gonna suddenly be a force who leads them to victory in every single remaining battle.  Honestly, I don’t even have him as a minor X-Factor, but who knows?

The Five Major X-Factors:

To read the rest, click here.

Note Bender's proper defensive form while attempting a block: 1. Swing up and from behind, not down and from above. 2. Aim for the wrist instead of the ball. Lastly, most importantly: 3. Try not to look directly at the play as the ugliness of it could hurt your eyes. (source: Yardbarker.com)

Jonathan Bender, a phenom drafted by Indiana straight outta high school, initially retired at a young age due to injuries.  This year, still only 29, the seven-footer decided to make a comeback on the Knicks for GM Donnie Walsh who had drafted him for the Pacers.  With our team mired in mediocrity, it seemed an intriguing possibility.

Bender came out in his first couple of games with energy, looking like a potential find.  It soon became clear though that he could not bring it consistently, nor was he willing to do Big Man work.  Tellingly, despite being the height of a center, ESPN lists him as a Small Forward.  His career rebounding high is 3.1.  Sure, that season he only played slightly over 21 minutes, but still double that to an outrageous 42 minutes and we’re still talking only 6.2 boards.  Meaning if he did get decent 30+ minutes, even in his prime he would’ve given you like 5+ boards.  For comparison sake, the 5’8″ Nate Robinson has averaged nearly 3 boards in 24 minutes during his career.  Hmmm…

Okay, okay, but this is the Knicks, where we don’t care about defense and rebounding, we care about offense, right?   (more…)

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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(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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Would legendary Boston coach Red Auerbach be more likely to roll over in his grave from not only Celtic cheerleaders, but ones with kilts, or... (source: Yardbarker.com)

For those who didn’t watch last night’s game you can be forgiven for thinking that a 97-109 loss to the Celts doesn’t sound too, too bad.  That’s ‘cuz you didn’t have to sit through it.  And ‘cuz the Knicks had a useless run in the fourth against the Celtics’ bench-warmers to make the game seem more respectable than it was.  The boys in green didn’t need the luck of the Irish on St. Patty’s Day to maintain a 20+ point against us for most of the game. This iteration of the Celtics over the past few years has made its mark on defense, not offense.  We made ‘em look like the high-octane Phoenix Suns, letting them shoot over 50% from the field.

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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?"

"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

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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…

On a more interesting note, Nate Robinson is to sit out tonight’s game, implying that a trade for him could/should be finalized for him this evening.

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!

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Out of all the dunk contests I’ve seen over the years this was by far the worst. The crowd was never into it, and Nate looked like the only one out there who even slightly cared. It was easily the worst event of the weekend so far.

Nonetheless, congrats to Nate on being the first 3 time slam dunk champ!

There Was None Of This

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

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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!"

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Wizards' Mike Miller: "Aww yeah, it's white boy versus white boy now!"

We all know David Lee is extreeeeeeemely undersized for a center, but because he hustles, he usually holds his own in the rebounding department.  Plus, even though he’s short, Jarred Jeffries at 6’11″ and Danilo Gallinari at 6’10″ are pretty darn tall for the forward spots, while Wilson Chandler at 6’8″ towers over all SGs.  So they shouldn’t have trouble rebounding.  For the most part, that’s been true.  This weekend teams battered us so badly on the boards that we looked like a little boy jumping for his hat while a tall bully just holds it above his reach.  In Saturday’s loss to the Washington Wizards, 5’9″ Nate Robinson (have we officially moved to calling him 5’9″ instead of 5’8″ like he used to be?  Has he actually grown?), was tied for 3rd for most offensive rebounds.  Meaning he got just as many as Lee, Chandler, and 7’0″ backup Jonathan Bender.  And more than Gallo’s 0 offensive rebounds.

Maybe if we did this with our players they'd get up higher & snag rebounds.

That isn’t meant to single out Gallo, as he actually lead the team in rebounds in that game with 10, so he stepped up his game in that department.  However, when you see that we shot 44.7% versus the Wizards’ nearly identical 44.9%, yet we got to the free throw line more, getting 14 points to their 7, it would seem like we shouldn’t have lost by 10 points.  (Side note: even though we did get 7 extra points at the line, we should’ve gotten even more as the team shot a miserable 63% from the charity stripe, highlighted by Jeffries’ 1-for-5 showing.)  So what was the big difference, the Short White Boy asks rhetorically because he already told you what this was all about?  Rebounding.  We was outrebounded 59-40 by the Wiz.  They had 24 grabs on the offensive glass, meaning, yes, 24 extra shots.  Against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday our boardwork was even worse: we were outrebounded 58-36.

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David Lee: "Gimme that ball, Kevin Love! I'll show you how a real white boy plays!"

After being severely, and historically, whupped by Dallas by 50 points the other day, last night the Knicks came out determined to show their stuff and won by nearly 30 points.  Jared Jeffries got the team off on the right note.  The first two times Minnesota tried to bring it up court, the 6’11″ Jeffries stole it from the Timberwolves’ maybe 6″ point guard, Jonny Flynn, before he even made it across half-court.  Both resulted in baskets.  Flynn, who played in Syracuse last year and was part of an epic 6-OT extravaganza, was darn psyched to play in NYC for the first time.  Unfortunately for him, the Knicks’ gambit of covering him with Jeffries worked wonders.  The kid is darn quick, but he clearly doesn’t trust his jumper.  Whenever he started to drive, Jeffries would back further and further up, often leaving Flynn open enough to shoot a jumper from as close as the free-throw line.  Flynn never stopped and shot it.  Instead he had 6 turnovers in just 25 minutes.

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Those deep, chocolate eyes. Those arms. That earning power. According to the NBA’s rookie scale, Gallinari will make $2.6 million over his first three years. Currently in his second year, the Knicks’ Italian Stallion — he hails from Milan, with a to-die-for accent — lives in Westchester, near the team’s practice pad. (Psst: We hear he hits his favorite Italian restaurant, Via Della Pace, in the East Village after every home game, so you’ll know where to find him.)

Pros: He’s an amazing cook, and proud of it. He’s been overheard discussing his famous pasta (plus homemade tomato sauce) with teammates. And he’s young, which means you’ve got a good chance of being able to shape and mold him.

Cons: You’ll never be able to measure up to the gnocchetti sardi al gorgonzola — his favorite dish from Mama’s kitchen.

First, I’m too lazy to check, but I assume Gallo probably will make about $2.6 million each year, not over three years.  Second, the dude’s only 21!  Wouldn’t you rather someone like David Lee?  Lee got $7+ million for this season, and it’s likely that he’ll get even more this summer (& for many years).  Gallo could get injured before he gets to the truly big $ (or maybe his game never advances enough so that he’s worth it).  And, c’mon, how much experience could he have in bed?  At 6’11″ he’s probably all awkward-like, versus you know Nate Robinson’s gotta be a non-stop panther in the sack.  Then again, sometimes you don’t want a panther in the sack.  Lastly, not only will he make you eat all these carbs, but being so tall he must eat a ton.  You’ll look like a whale within a month, and he’ll dump you for some 19-year-old who has a complete collection of Jonas Brothers’ albums.

That said, it is nice to see a Knick receive recognition.  It’d be nicer if it was recognition for their on-the-court skills, but we’ll take what we can get these days.

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.

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?

Despite the Knicks’ slowing down from their earlier winning pace from a few weeks, this is definitely a different, better team than the one that started this season.  If in November someone told me the Knicks would be only a game and a half out of the playoffs in January, I would’ve responded, “The only way they do that is if they get a great steal of a trade.”  Yet here they are with the same personnel as the beginning of the season (okay, so they picked up Jonathan Bender, who’s been decent, but definitely has been a game-changer.  Plus he seems to have already fallen out of the rotation).   Thus to figure out what helped bring about this change, there’s no better place to start than with Coach Mike D’Antoni (okay, maybe a better place to start would be in a bank that gave away free money and chocolate cake, but they’re hard to find).  Mike Berman of the New York Post gives some insight here:

After the Knicks’ franchise-worst 1-9 start, Mike D’Antoni woke up one morning with an epiphany: To hell with coaching with the future in mind and just try to win now.

D’Antoni’s win-at-all-costs approach has meant a tight-as-a-drum rotation; the end to the Eddy Curry experiment; the exile of their two first-round picks, Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas.

“To be honest with you, when we started off slow, I got off track, too,” D’Antoni said [...]  “It was for 2010. So let’s throw all the rookies in, let’s do this, let’s do that. But after 1-9, there was no way I was going to make 82 games like this. You kind of said, ‘The hell with that. Let’s win today.’ And it’s worked out better than I thought.”

D'Antoni cuts the cord on the still-born that was the Knicks' first 10 games

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“If a player fouls out in a game, can they keep on playing?”  Had you asked me that question before this past Friday, I’d've called you a moron for asking it.  Duh, if they get 6 fouls and foul out, clearly they can’t stay in the game anymore.  Seems that’s not true.  Apparently there’s a little clause that perhaps has never actually been invoked before.  The Golden State Warriors have had more injuries this year than a Yao Ming family reunion.  As a result, they went into Friday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks with only 8 players (the minimum allowed under NBA rules).  Within a few minutes Anthony “Don’t Call Me Rob” Morrow tweaked his knee, adding him to the infirm group that included Ronny Turiaf, CJ Watson, Kelenna Azabuike, Vladamir Radmanovic, plus some others that I’m blanking on.

Fine, the Warriors still had two subs.  Unfortunately, D-League call-up, Chris Hunter then fouled out in just 11 minutes.  No worries.  The Warriors pull within 3 with less than a minute left.  And Andris Biedrins fouls out.  Okay, less than a minute to go, no subs.  However, to get the clock to stop running, the Warriors purposely foul the Bucks twice.  And both times it’s rookie Stephen Curry who does it.  The last time there’s only four seconds left.  But it’s his sixth foul, which’d leave the Warriors with just four players.  What happens then?  Do you play four on five?  No, apparently the last guy who fouled out (in this case Curry) gets to come back in!  However, the other team gets a technical free throw in addition to the foul shots they were already getting.

Sad Post-Script #1: Due to the NBA’s minimum requirement of 8 players, for Monday’s game against Chicago the Warriors called up some dude named Anthony Tolliver from the D-League for a 10-day contract.  Did he feel alone being the new guy from the minors?  No, the whole 3-person bench was D-League call-ups.  Tolliver even lucked out and got to start the second half.  That’s when his luck dried out.  He injured his knee and had to leave the game.

Sad Post-Script # 2:  Despite playing against a team with a bench of D-Leaguers, Chicago still lost that Monday game.  By nearly 20 points.

Sad Post-Script #3: Which D-Leaguer got the least minutes on the team?  Answer: None.  Pathetic NBA “regular” Devean George, who started the first half, only played 6 minutes.

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According to NewsOK (apparently that’s the name of an Oklahoma newspaper, although isn’t that kinda like naming your paper NewsFineWhatever?):

Hawks forward Joe Smith, who has written 400 to 500 songs, released his first CD, a 19-track debut entitled “The Beginning,” last season when he was with the Thunder. Smith, whose music name is Joe Beast, hopes to release his second rap CD before the NBA All-Star break.

Really?  400 to 500 songs?  And Joe Beast?  I thought the era of bball players trying to become rappers was over.  With him spending that much time writing songs, it’s no wonder that the former #1 pick has never amounted to anything more than a role player.

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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (a former baller at Harvard) at a recent NCAA convention pretty much said the NBA’s policy of basically “forcing” kids to go to one year of college before they can enter the pros, well, that it sucks donkey meat.  It’s not that he wants everyone to be able to go to the NBA straight outta high school, it’s that he feels like the one-and-done players aren’t getting the true value of the educational experience.  One possible solution is allowing high school players to make the jump straight to the pros, but if they do decide to go to college they then have to stay for two years.  For more info, check out this New York Times’ article, as well as TrueHoop’s exclusive interview with Arne “Don’t Call Me Tim” Duncan.
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Who’s the best player in the NBA?  Dwight Howard’s answer may surprise you:

I tell my friends all the time if I had to chose between LeBron, Kobe and Carmelo, I’m gonna choose Carmelo.

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Would Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson like to also be a General Manager someday so he can control what players his team has?

“I have no interest in that. I don’t want to have to deal with agents. I don’t want to have to lie.”

Wait a sec, doesn’t the General Manager hire and fire the coach?  In other words, the Lakers’ GM is Phil’s boss.  Forget about the fact that Phil makes $10 mill a year or that he’s won 10 championships, who wouldn’t want his job just so you could publicly call your boss a big ol’ liar?
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Nate Robinson painting.  And yes, I want it if it’s painted on velvet.

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In a recent post, I showed the Pacers & Knicks beating each other up and lamented that those days are gone.  However, it wasn’t all roses and glory for those Pacers.  Sadly, back then people felt they had to keep their homosexuality secret.  It’s time to come out of the closet.  C’mon Mark Jackson, you’re better’n that!

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Yao Ming in an Esquire interview on forcing himself to dunk:

When I was young, [in China] we were taught not to dunk. We were taught not to stand out from the rest of the team. It’s different now. The young guys in China are new age. They want to show their stuff. But I am old-school. It was a big adjustment when I first came here to play at a camp. The coaches told me to dunk, but I would lay the ball in. Finally, the coaches made everyone else on my team run laps when I didn’t dunk. I didn’t want my teammates to be punished because of me. That’s how I learned to dunk.

Pretty smart that in order to get him to “stand out from the rest of the team,” they used his desire to be part of the team.

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Lastly, Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs and his lovely wife, actress Eva Longoria-Parker (of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”) do an amazing job of recreating “Summer Loving” from that Olivia Newton-John classic, “Grease.”  Between this and Joe Smith’s 500 songs, how much free time do these guys have on their hands?

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.

The NBA announced Nate Robinson will be in this year’s slam-dunk contest, defending his title. Actually, although this is just a fun little side-show, Nate has a chance to make history. He’s already won the contest twice (as have many other players), but no one has ever won it THREE times. Who’d've thunk the Knicks would have a chance at historical greatness this year? Yeah, yeah, so they might not even make it to the playoffs, but if Krypto-Nate wins, ain’t nobody able to take that away from us. …Okay, okay, so nobody would even want to take such a frivolous award away, but we’ll take what we can get.

The dunk contest will have one new part to it this year. And no, it’s not that LeBron will participate (even though he promised he would last year). Hold on a sec, there’s an article about him being a scaredy-cat… right here.  If only he was like Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly in the “Back To The Future…s” so that if we called him chicken, he’d have to compete to prove he wasn’t yeller (that’s “yellow” in cowboy-speak, in honor of the third “Back” being set in the Wild West — man, this is a long, dumb tangent).  Oh yeah, so the new component is that so far only three players are in the dunk contest (Nate, Gerald Wallace of the Charlotte Bobcats, and Shannon Brown of the Lakers).  However, during halftime of the rookie/sophomore game, two players (Eric Gordon of the Clippers and DeMar DeRozen of the Toronto Raptors) will have a dunk-off to see who gets the final spot.  Yeah, it’s nothing too exciting.

Y’know, I just had an idea.  If they really wanted to do something like that, they should have dunk-offs between every team, now, leading up to the All-Star game.  It’d be pretty fun if during halftime of the regular season games now, each of the two teams submitted one player and they have a dunk-off.  Whoever wins goes onto the next level.  Think of how much fun and drama that would create!  Highlights on Sports Center every night as we get closer and closer to All-Star weekend, winnowing out the weak from the strong.  Then fans would come into the All-Star Weekend with favorites who they’ve been watching.  Like as someone who lives in LA, all the Laker games are shown on tv, so I’ve seen them a bunch.  And Shannon Brown is a phenomenal athlete who’s had some crazy dunks.  But for the rest of the world, they don’t know Shannon Brown from James Brown.  However if they got to watch him compete in dunks week after week, he’d get a huge following and people would turn on the dunk contest just to see how their boy Shannon’s doing.

Man, I sure can babble.  This was just supposed to be a two-sentence thing, followed by video highlights to get you psyched up.  Well, let’s get to that now.  A couple of my faves in this mix, beside the dunks from the contests, include the 5’8″ Nate blocking 7’6″ Yao Ming, him crossing-over Jose Calderon so badly that Calderon literally ends up on his butt, and another move where he steps back, totally freezing Steve Blake, then zooms right past him.

Enjoy.

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…)

**Great NYT article on David Lee’s improved jump shot:

For the previous 15 games before Saturday, Lee had been as brilliant on the perimeter as he had been at the rim, his rapid evolution on full display. Since Dec. 6, Lee had converted 53 percent of his jumpers from 16 to 23 feet, and 75 percent of his shots from 10 to 15 feet, according to an analysis provided by HoopData.com.

In 35 games, Lee had converted more perimeter shots (86) than he did all of last season (82). He had hit 66 shots in the 16-to-23-foot range, compared with 51 last season and only 18 in 2007-8.

…  Lee’s accuracy rate from 16 to 23 feet was in the low 30s every season until this one. He was shooting 45 percent (66 of 146) in that range this season, well above the league average for power forwards (40.5 percent) and for centers (40.4), according to HoopData.com.

Another interesting thing they note is that Lee was a point guard early on in high school, so he’s got a pretty good handle (in the Houston game he caught one rebound, dribbled up the court, did a nice move on his man, and got a layup) plus he’s one of the Knicks’ better passers.

**On a sad note, the NY Post reports that David Lee’s grandfather is deathly ill.  As a result, Lee may have to leave the team momentarily.  They also mention:

Lee’s grandfather, E. Desmond Lee, made a fortune in coat hangers and became a well-known St. Louis philanthropist, donating $50 million to various charities in the city.

How do you make a fortune in coat hangers?  Did he have some unique design?  Was he the one who invented the part on them fancy hangers that clamps down on your pants & holds ‘em in place?  I’m curious.  Someone do some research on this.  Maybe I can make a fortune in like toothpicks or something.

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.