• Every week Knicks.com will be profiling some of the greatest rivalries in Knick history, this week they take you back to 90’s to relive some of the all time great Knicks-Bulls matchups.
• The New York Daily News caught up with Roger Mason Jr. in Harlem, handing out turkeys for the holidays. Unfortunately he didn’t have much to say about the lockout; Surprise, surprise
• Yahoo sports debates the legitimacy of Amar’e’s injury that  kept him out of Drew Gooden’s charity all-star game.
• Over at ESPN.com Jared Zwerling wrote a great piece about Tony Douglas and his brother, a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons.

Executive director of the NBA players' association Billy Hunter

You probably know him best as that guy who fans want to see enter home games when the Knicks are up 20 something points, but Roger Mason Jr. is also the Player’s Association vice president. After making some downbeat comments regarding the upcoming lockout, Mason’s now in the news for much more than anything basketball related.  (more…)

In many regards, Mason Jr. was a major disappointment considering with San Antonio in the 2008-2009 season, he averaged almost 12 points and shot 42% from three, making 166 of them.  His numbers dropped off in 2009-2010, but he still averaged over six points and played 79 games.  In Mason Jr’s defense, he was never given a real opportunity to play with the Knicks.  We have all learned how Coach D’antoni can designate a player to the bench for a very long time.

Finally in the playoffs, do to all of the Knicks injuries, Mason Jr. received more PT and played much better.  In the series against the Celtics, Mason Jr. played in three of the four games and averaged around six points.   Maybe if D’antoni gave him more of a shot, the Knicks would have seen better results.  I don’t understand how Mason Jr. was good enough to get significant PT with the Spurs and not the Knicks.  I guess Mike D’antoni must know more than Gregg Popovich. (more…)

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Why are we using a picture of Shawne Williams as a Memphis Tiger? Because before Sunday he'd never played on the court in a Knicks jersey. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

One of the oddest things about the New York Knicks’ double-overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday was that it also featured both coaches using double rotation strategies: getting everyone a shot initially, only to end up with a short leash.  By the end of the first quarter, Detroit coach John Kuester had already gone ten players deep.  For the Knicks, Mike D’Antoni went nine-deep in the first half, which might not seem like he went too deep into his bench, until you see who he played.

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Is it possible that Roger Mason Jr. has been the key for the Knicks' winning streak? Perhaps, because he seems to be best used by, as seen here, being off the court. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

New Buckets writer, Antony Marino, believes your New York Knicks’ current winning streak is due to everyone, particularly Roger Mason Jr, finding their roles:

I apologize for my recent lack of productivity. I awoke this morning to the unmistakable stench of smelling salts and the discomfort of a full beard. Doctors told me I had been in a deep coma since Blake Griffin’s dunk, but that I had fared better than Mr. Mozgov who was now eating his meals through a straw. Luckily, middling-grade vodka has been Timo’s primary means of sustenance for years, but the experience of drinking it through a straw has been harrowing nonetheless.

So where do we stand, Knick fans? (more…)

Raymond Felton hurt his back last night, but that wasn't gonna stop him from gutting out a win against his former team. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Last night, your New York Knickerbockers defeated Raymond Felton’s former team, the Charlotte Bobcats, 110-107, giving us a four-game winning streak and more.  It moved us into sole possession of the seventh seed in the East (with a full game lead over the eighth and just one behind being tied for fifth).  It left us just one game below .500.  And should we win tonight’s rematch against the Bobcats, we would have our longest winning streak in nearly five years.  Perhaps even more important, taking the rematch would also give us the season series against the Cats since we only play them three times.  Since they’re one of the teams who we’ll be fighting for the final playoff spots, that tie-breaker could end up being crucial.  But before we jump ahead to thoughts of April, let’s stay in November for a moment and discuss last night’s ART (The Awful, The Remarkable and The Terrific).

The Awful

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Stoudemire's 1st Knick game in NYC may not have resulted in a win, but it set the tone for a great, gritty, exciting rebirth of a season (Source: Yardbarker.com)

The Knicks lost both games this weekend, including the home opener against Portland where we led by 9 points with under six minutes remaining, but make no mistake: these are not last year’s Knicks.  We had tight games against both the Boston Celtics and the Portland Trail Blazers, two teams who, as I wrote in my pre-season Power Rankings, I believe are amongst the top five teams in the entire league.  Throw in the fact that in the last two minutes of the Blazers game we played some great lockdown defense, and clearly you should ignore the opening to the snarky recap by the Associated Press:

The elaborate pregame festivities were designed to emphasize that these are the “new” New York Knicks.

Crunch time was the same ol’ story.

Neither weekend game was anything like ones from previous years, so let’s look at what can be gleaned from them in order to better understand our new-look Knicks.  Last year we frequently had to examine things Clint Eastwood-style, checking out the Good, the Bad & the Ugly.  Life is looking up this season, so now and then we’ll check out a game’s ART (the Awful, the Remarkable & the Terrific):

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This is how the game would've looked to you if you were a piece of the hardwood. Reason #431 why it's good not to be a floor board. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

The Knicks won their season opener 98-93 over the Toronto Raptors, thanks largely not to Amar’e Stoudemire but to the just-relegated-to-the-bench Wilson Chandler.  Just last week we asked who would be the Knicks #2 behind Stat.  Danilo Gallinari was the runaway favorite by our voters, followed by Raymond Felton and even Toney Douglas before we got to Chandler.  Okay, in fairness, after Gallo the next highest total was that a different player would step up each night, and chances are that’s what’ll happen rather than Chandler regularly being this unstoppable.

What are the takeaways from this game?  Just as we said during the preseason that there’s a danger into reading into too much from those games, clearly it’s equally presumptuous to make large scale assumptions based on a single game.  But that won’t stop me.  Here are my comments: (more…)

Ray Felton's been coming along slowly. With only one preseason game left, will he be ready when the season starts next week? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

As hard as it is to glean anything from preseason games, it’s even harder when we sit most of our starters, like in last night’s 118-91 pummeling by the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers.  Coach Mike D’Antoni decided to give Amar’e Stoudemire, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari the night off.  Throw in the fact that Kelenna Azubuike is still recovering from injury, and it’s quite possible that we had four of our five eventual starters sitting.  How come those particular guys didn’t play?  My guess is because they’re the three guys who’ve had tons of experience playing in D’Antoni’s system so Coach wanted to give the other players more “real” game time to run it.

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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.”

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Walsh may get credit for snagging one of these All-Stars, but he definitely takes a hit for losing out on the other one. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

We’ve already evaluated Donnie Walsh based on his Drafting ability in Part I, resulting in a big ol’ zero, meaning he was neither particularly good or bad.  In Part II, when we discussed Trades, he definitely performed well, scoring a +3.  Today we’ll examine perhaps the most important aspect of his legacy so far: Free Agency.  For many execs this doesn’t play a huge role, however since Walsh’s stated goal from Day One has been to clear cap space for a run at the max players this past summer, then it’s only fair that this should be a hugely significant factor in his evaluation.  Once again, reprinting the rules:

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.

Free Agency Signings

December 2009 – Jonathan Bender

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Cheaper Fernandez? Works For Me

After Mason hinted he’d be a Knick in a recent video, Frank Isola of the NY Daily News is reporting Mason will sign for one year for 1.4 million. He’s also reporting we settled on Mason because the asking price for Fernandez was a first rounder, which Walsh wisely passed on.