Patrick Ewing Jr has not had the same post-Georgetown success that his dad had. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

The Knicks, needing to cut their roster down to the league-mandated 15 players, chose to cut Patrick Ewing Jr.  This is the second time in three years that we’ve sent our former franchise player’s son packing.  Supposedly Poppa Patrick even tried to put in a good word and convince management to keep his boy on our squad.  Instead, we opted to keep Shawne Williams.

A couple of facts:

-The 15th player pretty much never plays.  Maybe if it’s a blow-out or if there’s a bizarre set of circumstances like last year in Golden State where every single player got injured, but otherwise forget it.

(more…)

Timofey Mozgov (R.) starts at center tomorrow; how will he deal with the pressure? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

On Twitter Chris Sheridan posted that Timofey Mozgov has won the starting center spot.  Sounds like reporter conjecture (which I’m starting to realize Sheridan does a bunch) rather than actual news.  Coach Mike D’Antoni might be leaning that way, but no way has he 100% decided that because he’s concerned about foul trouble.  At the very least, he’ll wait and see how Moz does in his first start on Wednesday against the Celtics (and potentially the-still-extremely-capable-at-getting-opposing-centers-into-foul-trouble Shaq).

—————————

More useless Twitter news?  The NY Post’s Mark Berman twatted:

Eddy Curry is doing shooting drills on his own here at #Knicks practice. Looking OK. Probably back sooner than later.

Reportedly a few words got cut off from the message and it was supposed to read: Probably back [to being a disappointment] sooner than later.

(more…)

Ronny Turiaf (shown here rejecting Baron Davis, aka Boom Dizzle) could be our starting center. But on the other hand, couldn't he remain glued to the bench? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Yesterday, in Part I of this preview, we discussed how Coach Mike D’Antoni tends to prefer a shorter rotation (meaning a bunch of our 15 person roster won’t see the court) and what types of players excite or disgust him.  One new note, based on a press conference that D’Antoni and Knicks President Donnie Walsh held (which Buckets reader Brendan linked to in the comments section of Part I, and which Chris Sheridan and many others have reported) is that apparently Coach is enamored with Timofey Mozgov after seeing him practice in person for the last few days:

“Have to see how he adapts to the NBA game, but at 7-1, 270 pounds, he’s maybe our most athletic guy, that runs, that’s a great guy, that has great hands and knows how to play,” D’Antoni said. “(Watching him) I’m like, ‘Yeah, what am I missing?’ So I’m happy with him and excited about the possibility. We have a lot of guys we should be excited about the possibilities.”

(more…)

Toney Douglas may not have been great for the Knicks last season, but he shone in summer league last night. Could this be a good sign of things to come? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Toney Douglas lead the Knicks’ losing effort last night in Las Vegas Summer League with an impressive 27 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Bill Walker, who showed a lot of promise after coming over from the Celtics in the second half of the season, scored 14, but on an unimpressive 6-14 shooting (only 1-6 from long range) with a whopping 7 turnovers and a… wait for it… 9 personal fouls (in Summer League you can get up to 10 fouls. Sorta makes me think of how in Spinal Tap their speakers went up to 11 so they’d be louder). Andy Rautins in 30 minutes got just 11 points on 4 of 11 shooting, but the good thing is he shot a respectable 3-8 from long distance. Under Coach Mike D’Antoni’s system, an ability to hit the three is critical.

(more…)