The Knicks played small ball as they were without Tyson Chandler, who joined the likes of Amar’e Stoudemire, Kurt Thomas, Marcus Camby and Rasheed Wallace as injured Knicks’ big men.

Apr 9, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) looks to drive around Washington Wizards shooting guard Garrett Temple (17) during the third quarter at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 120-99. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

All news wasn’t great though as Kenyon Martin returned to the lineup after missing two games with a sore left knee, but K-Mart had to leave the game in the fourth quarter after suffering a severely sprained ankle.

The win extended the Knicks win streak to 13 and clinched their first Atlantic Division title in 19 years.

In addition, the Knicks tied a franchise record with 20 three-pointers, shooting 56 percent from beyond the arc. They hit nine triples in the first quarter alone, a season-best for the team.

The Knicks shot 56.3 percent from the floor on the night and despite being small, outrebounded Washington 39-38.

The only negative on the night is the fact that they were torched by the opposing point guard once again as John Wall finished with 33 points, but it didn’t really matter as the Knicks led comfortably most of the night.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how each Knicks player graded out in their 13th consecutive win.

Individual Grades

Pablo Prigioni (5 points, 2-of-2 shooting, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal)

It’s coincidence that the Knicks took off when Prigioni was inserted into the starting lineup as they are 13-0 with him as a starter. He was very solid in his 23 minutes on the floor, moving the ball and playing solid defense. Grade: B+

Raymond Felton (10 points, 4-of-9 shooting, 8 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals)

Felton was solid offensively. He got off to a good start by scoring eight first quarter points and had one of his better assists days in recent memory. He did struggle big time defending Wall, but still ended up a plus-23 on the night, which tied him for the best mark on the team with Carmelo Anthony. Grade: B

Apr 9, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Iman Shumpert (21) drives past Washington Wizards center Nene (42) during the first quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Iman Shumpert (18 points, 7-of-10 shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block)

Since his return, this was Shump’s best and most efficient game, scoring 18 points in 24 minutes. He knocked down 4-of-6 attempts from behind the arc on the night and at one point in the third quarter, Shumpert scored eight straight points, canning two threes and knocking down a mid-range jumper off the dribble. His explosiveness looked like it had returned on this night. Shump looked very good. Grade: A

Carmelo Anthony (36 points, 13-of-21 shooting, 8 rebounds, 6 assists)

‘Melo has been on some kind of roll and was outstanding again Tuesday night. Of his 36 points, 21 of them came in the third quarter where Anthony was simply on fire. ‘Melo scored in a variety of ways and filled up the stat sheet in other areas as well. He grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists. He did it all in only three quarters, as he sat the entire fourth. Grade: A+

Kenyon Martin (2 points, 1-of-2 shooting, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal)

Before the ankle injury, Martin played pretty well defensively in his 18 minutes and energized the Madison Square Garden crowd with an alley-oop slam and a couple of big blocks in the third quarter. Coming off an injury, it made very little sense for him to be on the floor in the fourth quarter with the Knicks up 24 points. Hopefully he can return fairly soon. Grade: B

Chris Copeland (17 points, 6-of-11 shooting, 9 rebounds, 1 assist)

It was another awesome night for the Knicks bench and Copeland was a big part of that, draining four of his six three-pointers and hitting 6-of-11 overall. He also pulled down nine rebounds in 30 minutes of action and provided instant energy off the bench. Grade: A-

Jason Kidd (3 points, 1-of-1 shooting, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist)

Kidd had a typical Kidd night- quiet but productive. He made his only shot, but he did enough to contribute to a big win. Grade: B

Steve Novak (12 points, 4-of-8 shooting, 1 rebound)

Novak was shooting it well on the night and scored all 12 of his points on threes, and he brought the belt back out after draining his third one of the night. Grade: B+

James White (0 points, 0-of-2 shooting, 1 rebound)

White only played seven minutes and didn’t do anything to get noticed. He also was the only Knicks player to have a minus rating on the night at minus-two. Grade: D

J.R. Smith (17 points, 7-of-14 shooting, 3 assists, 2 rebounds)

Smith started very quiet, with only six points through three quarters. But the Sixth Man of the Year candidate went nuts in the fourth quarter and finished with a respectable 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting. The only negative is that Smith was sloppy with the ball and coughed it up four times on the night. Grade: B

Follow Matt Shetler on Twitter for news, reaction and analysis from around the NBA.

Follow Buckets Over Broadway on Twitter and on Facebook

Knicks center Tyson Chandler (bulging disc) is doubtful for tonight’s game while backup big man Kenyon Martin is listed as “questionable” because of his sore left knee. In addition, Marcus Camby (plantar fasciitis) is out once again.

Apr 2, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler (6) during the first half against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

With Chandler, Martin and Camby likely joining Amar’e Stoudemire, Kurt Thomas and Rasheed Wallace on the sidelines, that leaves Chris Copeland and Carmelo Anthony as the Knicks biggest players and they aren’t conventional bigs by any stretch of the imagination, but will be forced to play against physical big men like Emeka Okafor and Nenê.

Chandler missed 10 games with the neck injury and looked good for the first time since his return on Sunday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He moved well and finished with 15 points and added five rebounds and two blocks.

Now the question has to be asked of is this just a precaution that Chandler is getting some rest or his neck injury more serious than originally thought?

As for Martin, this could be the third consecutive game he has missed with the knee issue, but don’t expect K-Mart out for too long, although the 35-year old would like to return to the lineup Tuesday night.

“Yeah, definitely. I just don’t want to risk nothing,” Martin said, according to Newsday. “Doc said she was expecting that, at some point. It’s better now than two weeks from now.”

As for Martin sitting out the rest of the season and resting for the playoffs?

Not a chance in the world.

“Oh, hell no,” Martin said. “Hell no. Not at all.”

If Martin and Chandler are forced to miss the game against the Wizards, it wouldn’t be anything new for Knicks head coach Mike Woodson who has had to juggle lineups and rotations all season long.

He may have to pull another rabbit out of the hat for the Knicks streak to continue.

Follow Matt Shetler on Twitter for news, reaction and analysis from around the NBA.

Follow Buckets Over Broadway on Twitter and on Facebook

The sheer volume of games played by each individual player will lead to more accumulated statistics, which is why now is the time for owners to start filling out their rosters with players whose teams have bulkier schedules for the remainder of the season.  Snagging these guys off waivers could be the key to winning your championship.  While this is especially important in head-to-head leagues, it is also important in rotisserie leagues as well as weekly leagues where rosters need to be set prior to the start of each week.

Below is a list of players that meet the aforementioned criteria.  As usual, all players are under 50 percent owned in ESPN and Yahoo! leagues and their remaining games per week are in parentheses.

Mar 3, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Atlanta Hawks point guard Devin Harris (34) drives against the Los Angeles Lakers during the game at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Jose Juan Barea (Timberwolves):  He’s been getting steady minutes (24.8) over the past 5 games and finding guys on the wire who are capable of providing assists isn’t always the easiest thing to come by.  To go along with his three assists per game in his last five, he’s also averaging 13 points and 1.8 threes.  (6.1% owned in ESPN, 11% owned in Yahoo!; remaining weekly schedule: 4,4,4,4,4,2)

Devin Harris (Hawks):  There were high hopes for both players when Atlanta landed Harris in the trade that sent former second overall draft pick Marvin Williams to Utah.  Although neither player has lived up to expectations, Harris has been picking it up a little as of late and has a favorable schedule down the stretch which could help fantasy owners.  Over the past 10 games he has averaged 11.7 points, which included a stretch where he had double-digit scoring in seven straight games, and his yearly averages of one steal and 1.2 3’s per game as well as his dual eligibility at PG and SG are nice bonuses.  (6.6% ESPN, 21% Yahoo!; remaining weekly schedule: 4,4,4,4,2,2)

Tony Allen (Grizzlies):  Known as a defensive stalwart, you would always be guaranteed a good amount of hustle stats from him on a nightly basis, but since Rudy Gay was sent packing he’s been given a larger role in the OFFENSIVE part of the Memphis’s offense.  In the month of March (five games) he’s averaged 11.4 points, 1.2 steals and 5.6 rebounds.  He won’t get you any three-pointers (he’s only made three on the year), which is disappointing for a shooting guard, but his free throw shooting (93 percent in March) may help alleviate that statistical deficiency.  (25.5% ESPN, 36% Yahoo!; remaining weekly schedule: 4,4,4,4,3,2)

Trevor Ariza (Wizards):  It took a while, but Ariza is finally starting to heat up in the Beltway.  He provides a rare, fantasy-friendly combination of points, rebounds, assists, steals and threes and is mired on a team always looking for guys to score.  Over the past 10 games he’s putting up averages of 13.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.4 steals and a pair of three-pointers in 30.8 minutes, numbers that are very reminiscent of his 2009-10 breakout campaign in Houston.  Bradley Beal’s impending return from an ankle sprain may reduce his minutes slightly, but you can expect those averages to stay around the same level.  (31.8% ESPN, 48% Yahoo!; remaining weekly schedule: 4,4,4,4,3,2)

Others to keep an eye on with favorable schedule volume (under 50% owned):

Mario Chalmers (Miami: 4,4,4,3,4,2), Eric Maynor (Portland: 3,5,3,4,3,2), Iman Shumpert (Knicks: 4,4,4,4,4,2), Dorell Wright (76ers: 3,4,4,3,4,2), Avery Bradley (Celtics: 3,4,4,4,3,2), Brandan Wright (Mavericks: 4,4,3,4,3,2)

Teams to avoid: Clippers, Pistons, Kings (they only play 17 games each)

Follow me on Twitter: @SethDaSportsMan

February 6, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Wizards power forward Kevin Seraphin (13) shoots the ball as New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith (8) defends in the second quarter at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Perhaps the outcome of the game could’ve been predicted by New York’s start. The Wizards raced out to a 16-8 lead, taking advantage of the Knicks’ porous defense, where switches and rotations often went without execution or communication. Though the Knicks quickly caught up through some dishing and swishing from Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton, the poor start was a sign of things to come. The two teams exchanged blows throughout the first half with Amar’e Stoudemire providing a nice spark off the bench to combine with the Felton-Anthony punch for the Knicks. For the Wizards, John Wall and the hot shooting from Trevor Ariza and Martell Webster provided them with enough power to take a 51-48 lead going into halftime.

The second half was mostly miserable for the Knicks. A slow start to the third quarter found the Knicks down by nine points as they continued to defend poorly. Missing ten of their first eleven attempts from the field didn’t help either. Once again, the Knicks had to dig themselves out of an early hole, still led by Anthony and Stoudemire. The fourth quarter brought more of the same for the Knicks, minus the late resurgence. The collapse was almost entirely on the defensive end where the Knicks couldn’t handle John Wall’s penetration off high pick-and-rolls. If they were able to contain the dribble drive, or even force a miss, the Wizards canned open looks from downtown from the Knicks’ repeated collapses on the pick-and-roll. On offense, the Knicks stagnated and just couldn’t produce enough to get closer than two baskets.

The Wizards stuck two daggers in the forms of a Martell Webster open corner three, and a Trevor Ariza offensive rebound-putback layup. Eventually, the Knicks recognized their futile attempt to close the gap and waved the white flag, falling to 31-16, and ending their win streak.

Here’s a look at the individual performances:

Carmelo Anthony – 44 minutes, 31 points, 10-23 FG, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 TOs

Though he put up another gaudy stat line, Anthony’s offensive attack wasn’t as crisp or well executed as we’ve gotten used to seeing this season. There was a lot of isolatin’, penetratin’, and those one- or two- dribble pull-ups from midrange. He got (and sank) some clean looks from the outside, but forced a few, too. It was, however, nice to see him consistently pass out of double teams, and dropped passes and missed shots robbed him of a few assists. His defense – like the rest of the Knicks – left a lot to be desired.

P.S. – Credit to Nene for catching ‘Melo midair on a reckless drive to the hoop. Anthony was nearly turned upside down as his legs got caught on Nene’s arms, and as he went crashing to the ground, Nene braced his fall, and perhaps saved the Knicks’ season in the process.

Final Grade: B

Amar’e Stoudemire – 28 minutes, 19 points, 6-11 FG, 7-9 FT, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks

Stoudemire provided an immediate boost off the bench in the first half, aggressively going after the Wizards in the post, working off the dribble for a bunch of tough finishes around the rim. His approach changed a bit as the game went on, switching to cutting into open space off the attention the defense gave Anthony, and cleaning up misses and broken plays around the basket. Oddly, Stoudemire may have played the best/most inspired defense on the team, switching aggressively onto pick-and-rolls and making attempts to close out on shooters, not to mention registering the Knicks’ only blocked shots of the game. Then again… there was that play where Stoudemire stood body lengths away from Wall and watched him look around, open, and decide to shoot after three or four seconds. It was that kind of night.

Final Grade: B-

Raymond Felton – 40 minutes, 17 points, 6-13 FG, 3 rebounds, 4 assists

Felton once again began the game with a strong start, taking it to the basket, cleverly evading defenders for easy finishes, and swinging the ball to find the open man. As has been the case all season, however, his hot start didn’t carry over through the whole game. In the second half, Felton seemed invisible, doing little else other than bringing the ball up the court and getting burned by the blur that is John Wall (the latter is excusable, in my opinion). The assist tally is surprisingly low, though that can’t be pinned entirely on Felton as he did a decent enough job of contributing the ball, but teammates didn’t always can the looks he set them up with. It happens.

Final Grade: B

J.R. Smith – 35 points, 13 points, 6-14 FG, 0-4 3FG, 2 rebounds, 2 assists

A considerably quieter outing from Smith than we’re used to seeing. The scoring production seems OK (although 13 points on 14 shots really isn’t very efficient), but Smith just never had a point in this game where he had much  of an affect. Though, besides for Felton, he had the best +/-  on the team with -2. After launching a combined 40 three-point attempts over the previous three games, Smith only attempted four and didn’t hit any of them. Knocking a couple of those down could’ve been hugely helpful in the second half.

Final Grade: C

Tyson Chandler – 36 minutes, 8 points, 3-6 FG, 13 rebounds

Chandler seemed oddly pouty in this game. He had a terrific steal on the perimeter to open the game, raced down court, and was never rewarded for his hustle. To me, things went downhill from there as he was perhaps a bit peeved by the lack of reward. His effort on the boards was nowhere near what he showed the last three games, though 13 boards is nothing to sneeze at. He was relatively ineffective in the pick-and-roll and didn’t do much to orchestrate the Knicks’ lackadaisical D.

Final Grade: C+

Iman Shumpert – 22 minutes, 5 points, 2-8 FG, 2 rebounds, 2 assists

Shumpert’s return to the court has taken the reverse curve of Amar’e Stoudemire’s return cycle. Whereas Stoudemire started off slow and has gained momentum, Shumpert has slipped in recent outings. Woodson’s slotting of Shumpert at the 3 has been wildly ineffective – almost as ineffective as Shumpert’s shot and offensive production playing off the Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks’ pick-and-roll game. Likewise, Woodson (for reasons unbeknown to us) refuses to put Shumpert on the primary offensive backcourt weapon on opposing teams. Perhaps Iman is still adjusting to plying basketball for the first time in nine months, but he’s been sadly underwhelming lately.

Final Grade: C-

Pablo Prigioni – 8 minutes, 3 points, 1-3 FG, 3 rebounds, 1 assist

No Pablo after the first half for some strange reason. He looked decent in the first half, and riding a recently-returned Raymond Felton for 5/6 of the game seems like a bad idea. To be fair, Prigioni had no shot at stopping Wall off the dribble, and he can’t guard bigger guards.

Final Grade: C+

Jason Kidd – 18 minutes, 0 points, 0-4 FG, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal

Kidd’s three-point percentage by month this season: November – 48.9%; December – 41.9%; January – 32.7%; February – 20%. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Knicks have been starting poorly in first and third quarters – there’s where Kidd sees the bulk of his minutes.

Final Grade: D+

Steve Novak – 10 minutes, 0 points, 0-2 FG, 1 rebound

Novak hasn’t been making a good case for himself to make the Three Point Shootout at All-Star Weekend.

Final Grade: D

It’s hard not to overreact to this loss, and in some cases, it might be justified. The Knicks have the second toughest schedule in the NBA after the All-Star break. Dropping games like this, especially while riding a hot streak, can come back to hurt a team. No choice but to move on now. They play in Minnesota on Friday.

Jan 9, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Milwaukee Bucks power forward John Henson (31) talks with coach Jim Boylan during the second half against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center. The Bucks beat the Bulls 104-96. Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports

“In 2013 I RESOLVE to avoid any players mired in a coach’s rotation carousel”:  Messing with players who play for teams where the coach likes to tinker with lineups and minutes is about as frustrating as it can get for a fantasy owner.  The No. 1 culprit for these scenarios was former Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles.  For weeks on end we would pull out our hair while struggling to understand why $40 million man Ersan Ilyasova was losing minutes to guys like Marquis Daniels and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (say that five times fast!).

Last week, to the delight of the fantasy world, Skiles was exiled from the Badger State and assistant coach Jim Boylan was handed the reins on an interim basis.  Boylan vowed that he would immediately put Ilyasova into the starting lineup, which he did, but this switch hasn’t necessarily paid dividends for owners yet.  While he IS seeing much more consistent minutes (26, 27, 27, 26) in the four games under Boylan, they are not light years more than the 23.2 he was already averaging for the season.

Skiles always seemed to have a player “in his doghouse”.  This usually meant he’d either get a DNP-CD or very limited and erratic minutes, which would wreak havoc on fantasy owners, especially ones who had to set weekly lineups ahead of time.  Coach Boylan has obviously not gone this route, but the point remains that Milwaukee is a team that is deep in the forward and center positions and the “hot-hand approach” may be used at any given time.  The only players that are safe are Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis, both guards.  Their last game on Sunday against Toronto is a perfect example of Boylan’s distribution of minutes, excluding Jennings and Ellis:

Mike Dunleavy:               30 minutes                L. R. Mbah a Moute:       18 minutes

Larry Sanders:                 28 minutes                Beno Udrih:                       16 minutes

Ersan Ilyasova:               26 minutes                Marquis Daniels:              14 minutes

John Henson:                   22 minutes                Samuel Dalembert:         yet another DNP-CD

Epke Udoh:                       20 minutes

You can see how a rotation like this saps any heavy minute potential from any of these players.  A great example of this is rookie John Henson’s recent production/minutes.  Having not played much of the season, the North Carolina product burst into the scene right after the New Year, tallying either double digit rebounds or double digit points in four consecutive games.  The final game of that run, versus Phoenix, was Boylan’s first game as the head coach.  He logged only 5 first half minutes and only ended up playing 19 total, but still managed a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.  This kind of production in limited minutes would almost ALWAYS guarantee a boost in playing time, but he actually received one minute LESS the next time out vs. Chicago, which produced a rather tepid five point, six rebound line.

Unfortunately for fantasy owners the Bucks are 3-1 under their new coach, and as long as they are winning games this nightmare should continue for the unforeseen future.  My adage towards certain coaches’ rotational fickleness also deserves monitoring in regards to any fantasy players in the Keith Smart Sacramento debacle as well as the new developments in the Hawks’ backcourt and the inconsistent minutes Tom Thibodeau is handing out to his guards.  So whatever you have to do, avoid these kinds of situations like the plague, unless you plan on making the same New Year’s Resolution in 2014!

Jan 12, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Wizards point guard John Wall (2) reacts during the game against the Atlanta Hawks during the first half at the Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA Today Sports

“In 2013 I RESOLVE to keep in mind that this is Fantasy, not ‘real life’”:  The All-Star break is right around the corner, marking the unofficial midway point of the NBA season, and just because a team is up by 10 games in their division it doesn’t mean that all their players are worth owning in fantasy.   Around this time teams are getting a better idea of whether they will be playoff contenders or pretenders.  Teams like the Bobcats, Wizards, Cavs, Hornets, Suns and Kings, among others, have all but punched their ticket to this summer’s Draft Lottery.  While these teams may want to just give up now, they are in fact required to play all 82 games of their schedule, which means lots of garbage time for the stars on these teams as well as opportunities to showcase trade bait and give their young talent some extra run.

On the other side of the spectrum are players on teams that ARE going to the playoffs, but will most likely have reduced minutes in the stretch run in order to save their strength for when it matters.  Swapping players like this could help you win your league.  The top players I’d try to acquire from the aforementioned “lottery” teams would be the Cavs’ Kyrie Irving, the Bobcats’ Kemba Walker and the Wizards’ John Wall.  The key with making trades or picking up free agents that are on these teams is making sure that they are in fact staying put and won’t be traded to a contender, which would most likely result in lost minutes and production.  Those three players aren’t going anywhere and are still very young, meaning that the heavy minutes they are logging will not budge and may actually increase.

Wall’s situation is a little harder to gauge because he just made his season debut, but once his minutes limit is lifted he should be back to his normal career average of 37 minutes per game.  Since these guys are on bad teams and have relatively no national media exposure they may be easier to land in a trade than a higher profile player on a top-tier team.  If you have faith in Wall’s knee holding up he may be the guy to snag immediately before he goes on a tear and an owner will have a larger asking price.

Now as far as the players you might want to dangle, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Garnett, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki are guys that come to mind.  They are still big names and may intrigue a rookie owner enough to part ways with a younger guy.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are guys that you will most likely find on the waiver wire that could either see a huge bump in minutes if a team that is out of contention trades one of their stars or if they themselves are traded to a contender and will assume a lesser role in that particular offense.  Some players will also be impacted when injured players come back to action.

Here is my list of such player that you may find on the waiver wire, and as always all players are owned in less than 60% of ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, respectively:

Dec. 23, 2012; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe (12) handles the ball during the game against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center. The Clippers defeated the Suns 103-77. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

Players with speculative minutes increase:

Ed Davis-PF/C, Raptors: An imminent Bargnani trade will make his already expanded role much larger (21% ESPN, 30% Yahoo!)

Amir Johnson-PF/C, Raptors: see Davis, Ed. (22% ESPN, 32% Yahoo!)

Jae Crowder-F, Mavericks: Trading Marion, Vinsanity not out of the question (0.4% ESPN, 1% Yahoo!)

Markieff Morris-F, Suns: Dudley and Beasley could be on their way out (0.6% ESPN, 4% Yahoo!)

Gerald Henderson-SG/SF, Bobcats: Ben Gordon’s almost a lock to be traded (32% ESPN, 33% Yahoo!)

Eric Bledsoe-PG, Clippers: Though LA has vowed not to trade him, if he is sent to a bottom feeder his Per 36 Minute stats of 16.8 points, 5.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 2.9 steals will make him a must own player(4% ESPN, 13% Yahoo!)

Thomas Robinson-PF, Kings: Everything in Sac-Town is tumultuous right now, but a DeMarcus Cousins trade still remains likely. T-Rob, as well as Jason Thompson, would be the main benefactors (6.5% ESPN, 21% Yahoo!)

Players with speculative minutes decrease:

C.J. Miles-SG/SF, Cavs: 30 min/gm over last 16 will decrease a bunch if traded (14% ESPN, 19% Yahoo!)

Anyone on the Spurs not named Duncan, Parker or Ginobili: an already crowded bench will only get more crowded if they make any trades for the playoff run

Ayon, McRoberts, Nicholson-Big men, Magic: Big Baby’s return spells the end of their recently increased minutes (avg 3% ESPN, avg 0.3% Yahoo!)

Harrison Barnes-SF, Warriors: Though he’s been playing well of late, they won’t balk at the opportunity to acquire a veteran inside presence with a chance to make the playoffs (14% ESPN, 46% Yahoo!)

Nate Robinson-PG/SG, Bulls: Return of D-Rose will chop his minutes (9.5% ESPN, 21% Yahoo!)

Emeka Okafor-C, Wizards: A $14 million salary almost guarantees he’ll be traded to a contender where he’ll likely assume a backup role (22% ESPN, 53% Yahoo!)

Sticking with this is going to take a lot of will power and dedication, but now that I have come up with my Fantasy Basketball resolutions, it’s time to hit the gym and buy some yarn!  Wishing everyone a joyous and prosperous 2013!!

Follow me on Twitter: @SethDaSportsMan

Whether you’re a seasoned vet or a fantasy novice, the early season rust should be starting to wear off and now is the time to start making moves!

In competitive leagues many of the prized free agents may have been snatched up, but there is still always room to make speculative adds, stashes and maybe hop on players that another owner wasn’t willing to ride out a cold streak with.

Here is a look at some of those type of players and as always, the players I feature are owned in less than 60 percent of ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, respectively.

Dec 15, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Alexey Shved (1) shoots during the fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks at the Target Center. The Wolves defeated the Mavericks 114-106 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Alexey Shved (SG/PG-Timberwolves):  The rookie Russian import hit stateside without much fanfare, but had since etched a niche in Minnesota’s rotation.  Given playing time while the team was waiting for Ricky Rubio’s return from knee surgery, he has outshined guards J.J. Barea and Malcom Lee, and at times, Luke Ridnour as well.

Over his last seven games he has averaged 12.8 PPG while playing over 28 minutes in all but two of them.  His per game averages of 2.3 3-pointers, 1.6 steals and 4.6 assists during that stretch is a good example of how he can help you in many categories.  He was inserted into the starting lineup this weekend with Rubio’s return and should stay there even when Rubio’s minutes are back to normal.  In his second game starting he played a career high 44 minutes and scored 18 points.  Coach Rick Adelman likes his athleticism and youth and Minnesota has a glut of guards, meaning someone like Barea or Ridnour could be a likely trade candidate, which would make his value skyrocket even more.  Get him while you can.  (9.5% owned in ESPN, 18% Yahoo!)

Jarrett Jack (PG/SG-Warriors):  The Golden State Warriors have to be one of the biggest surprises of the season.  After winning 11 of their last 15 games, the Bad Boys from the Bay are now a robust 16-8.  Much of their early season success can be accredited in part to the well-rounded play lately of veteran guard Jarrett Jack.

When given minutes, the Georgia Tech product has proven he can fill up the stat sheet.  Playing a career-high in minutes with New Orleans last year, he put up 15.6 points, 6.3 assists, 3.9 boards and almost three free-throws made per game (at 87%).  While it took coach Mark Jackson a few weeks to integrate him fully into the rotation, he has since seen starter’s minutes even as a sub.  He has averaged 30 min/per over the past seven games while averaging 12.1 points, 5.6 assists and 3.7 rebounds.

Never known for his defensive prowess or his 3-point shooting, he has used the attention put on Stephen Curry and David Lee to reel in stats in both categories.  Career averages of 0.8 steals and 0.7 3’s are nothing to brag about, especially for a guard, but he has hit on 1.4 treys and had 1.3 swipes per game over the past  seven.  Now is the time to take him off the waiver wire before another owner is getting the last laugh with this “Jack” of all trades.  (45% owned in ESPN, 35% Yahoo!)

Dec 12, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal (3) leads the fast break against the Houston Rockets during the first quarter at the Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports

Bradley Beal (SG-Wizards):  Many NBA experts questioned Washington’s use of the third overall pick to draft the University of Florida freshman.  While the raw talent was there, having only played in one college season there wasn’t a lot to go on.  His numbers weren’t eye-popping and his shooting efficiencies weren’t amazing, plus he had analysts comparing him on a daily basis to all-time 3-point king Ray Allen.  That’s a tough act to follow for any basketball player, let alone a first year player.

While he’s years away from “Ray Ray status”, he has made great strides in his first couple months in The Association.  In November he scored 11.2 PPG and shot a paltry 34 percent from the field to go along with 1.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 0.8 steals per game.  While he didn’t excel in those areas, he had his 3-point and free-throw shooting going, which would be a good sign of things to come.  He was making 1.4 long balls a night to go along with very accurate free throw shooting for a 19-year old (85%).  While those aren’t great all-around numbers, they’re not awful for a still very raw player being thrown to the wolves.  That was November…then came December.

In the beginning of the month Wizards’ starting point guard A.J. Price fractured his finger and Beal was teamed with Jordan Crawford in a much faster and offensively-friendly starting backcourt.  In seven December games he has averaged 14.7 PPG on a much-improved 39 percent shooting, which is significant because he is actually attempting 0.5 more 3-pointers a game.  He’s averaging 1.7 more assists per contest and turning the ball over even less than in November which sheds a light on his passing skills.

Beal’s rebounds have improved by 0.8 and he is now over a steal per game in the month.  While franchise player John Wall’s return dates have been all over the place (some say next week, some say February), Price had been given a 4-6 week timetable on Dec. 8.  Coach Randy Wittman prefers to play Crawford off the bench for his scoring punch, so even when either of those aforementioned injured players return, Beal should remain in the starting lineup.  The Wizards are going nowhere fast and have no reason not to give Beal a long look, so you should, too.  (51% owned in ESPN, 58% Yahoo!)

You can find me on Twitter: @SethDaSportsMan

The Southeast Division is arguably the worst division in basketball right now. Yes, the division contains the defending NBA champion Miami Heat, but other than the Heat, this division might not include another playoff team this upcoming season. In years past, the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks have been middle of the pack playoff teams, but with the departures of key players like Dwight Howard and Joe Johnson, those teams might be on the outside looking in now. The Washington Wizards on the other hand, have retooled big time and are looking for John Wall to take the next step and become an All-Star. And the other team in this division, the Bobcats, are just hoping to gain a little respect. With that being said, here are my Southeast Division predictions.

First Place- Miami Heat

Starters:

PG- Mario Chalmers

SG- Dwyane Wade

SF- LeBron James

PF- Udonis Haslem

C- Chris Bosh

The defending champion and two-time defending Easter Conference champions feature a starting lineup with three of the top 20 players in the NBA today and the hands down best basketball player in the world right now- LeBron James.  Nobody had a better 2012 than LeBron did. He took home a regular season MVP, his illustrious first ring along with a Finals MVP, and a gold medal in London. Now with all the pressure off his shoulders, we might see an even better James. Dwyane Wade was banged up all of last season but has recovered since successful offseason surgery, and Chris Bosh is all healed up as well. With the Big Three at full strength and Chalmers and Haslem doing the little things, Miami once again has one of the best starting lineups in the league.

Key Reserves: Ray Allen, Shane Battier, Mike Miller, Rashard Lewis, Joel Anthony, Norris Cole.

The rich got richer this offseason. With the additions of sharpshooters Allen and Lewis, the Heat are an even better team than they were last year. With the ability of LeBron and Wade to drive and kick going to the basket, Allen and Lewis will be getting some very good looks from behind the arc.

Team MVP: LeBron James- No need to explain this.

The Heat will cruise to the division title and ultimately the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. And I don’t see any team stopping them from reaching a 3^rd consecutive NBA Finals either. This team is too good and with their recent additions, how could anyone pick against them

Second Place- Atlanta Hawks

Starters:

PG- Jeff Teague

SG- Lou Williams

SF- Anthony Morrow

PF- Josh Smith

C- Al Horford

The Hawks kind of fall into second place by default this year. I don’t think Washington will make a big enough step to get past Atlanta, although the Hawks will hurt from losing Johnson and Marvin Williams. I think the Atlanta can get back into the playoffs by grabbing a low seed, probably the No.  7 or 8 seed. Lou Williams will provide a spark in the starting lineup, moving from his sixth man role with the 76ers last season and having Horford healthy all year will definitely help them stay afloat. Another thing in their favor is playing in the same division as the Magic and Bobcats, the two weakest teams in the Eastern Conference.

Key Reserves: Devin Harris, Kyle Korver, Zaza Pachulia, DeShawn Stevenson, John Jenkins, Johan Petro.

The Hawks bench consists of many ex-Nets (Harris, Stevenson, Petro) and sharpshooters in Kyle Korver and rookie John Jenkins. The always-reliable Zaza Pachulia rounds out a unit that will provide some spark and see some big shots hit from guys like Korver and Harris. Look for Korver to see a lot of time at the small forward position when the Hawks go to their “big” lineup and put Anthony Morrow at the shooting guard spot.

Team MVP: Al Horford- Horford missed almost the whole season last year and the Hawks were never able to recover without him. With Horford, a top ten center, back at 100 percent, look for Atlanta to be right back in the mix to earn another playoff berth. His rebounding and scoring is key to Atlanta’s success, and with Johnson now out of the picture, look for the offense to flow through Horford this season.

Atlanta is a good enough team to make the playoffs, but nowhere near the 4-6 seed range they have been over the past few seasons. The Eastern Conference is too good now and the Hawks lost too much to be considered a viable threat.

Third Place: Washington Wizards

Starters:

PG- John Wall

SG- Bradley Beal

SF- Trevor Ariza

PF- Nene

C- Emeka Okafor

On paper, this team looks very dangerous. On the court, things could go south very quickly. Wall will miss at least the first month on the season due to injury and who knows how Beal will develop in his first go around through the league. Okafor is solid and so is Nene, but both often struggle to stay healthy. If this team can play up to it’s potential and avoid injury, I think they can shock the NBA and make it to the postseason. But if turmoil strikes, expect the Wizards to be in the same situation as they have been in the last couple of years.

Key Reserves: Jordan Crawford, Jan Vesley, Chris Singleton, Martell Webster, Trevor Booker.

There are few players I’m as excited to see play this year other than Vesley (Jonas Valanciunas being the other).  Vesley is supposedly a big time overseas talent and could be exactly the spark the Wizards need off the bench. As for the rest of the bench, Crawford can score at will, but his shot selection is questionable and he can bump heads with Wall as we saw last year.  Singleton is a big time defender but he is basically a poor man’s, less athletic Ariza. I don’t like the frontcourt help off the bench and I think Washington is in major trouble if one of their oft-injured starters up front goes down.

Team MVP: John Wall- The Wizards will go as far as Wall can take them. This is his third season in the league and it’s getting down to nitty-gritty time. Can Wall become a top-ten point guard or is he all flash? His love for the game has been questioned and so has his leadership, both big time red flags for any organization. The front office has surrounded him with enough talent this year than Wall should be able to get the Wizards near a playoff berth.

Washington is good and the potential for this team is scary. With that being said, I don’t trust Wall and I don’t trust the health of this team. Too many injuries and not enough leadership will once again lead the Wizards to an under .500 record with no playoff berth.

Fourth Place- Charlotte Bobcats

Starters:

PG- Kemba Walker

SG- Gerald Henderson

SF- Michael Kidd-Gilchrest

PF- Bismack Biyombo

C- Byron Mullens

The Bobcats are coming off one of the worst seasons in NBA history and are currently the joke of the league. That can all change this season when the Bobcats younger players finally come together and produce some wins. Walker is the leader of this team and should have a productive sophomore season. Look for rookie Kidd-Gilchrest to be a big time playmaker and big man Mullens to build on a good 2012 season. Much of Charlotte’s success will depend on how second-year power forward Biyombo plays. Last year was just a small sample size of what he can bring to this team. I expect him to be much improved and for this team to crawl out of the Southeast basement.

Key Reserves: Ramon Sessions, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Brendan Haywood, Reggie Williams.

The Bobcats quietly built a nice little bench over the offseason, with the prized possessions obviously being the backcourt duo of Sessions and Gordon. Both of these players are proven NBA players and could easily be starters. In Gordon’s case, he has thrived throughout his career coming off the pine, which answers the question of why Gerald Henderson is starting over him.

Team MVP: Ben Gordon- Gordon is coming from a bad situation in Detroit. He was signed to a big contract that he never lived up too and left on bad terms with the Pistons organization. As he arrives in Charlotte, this might be his last chance to save his career. The Bobcats are going to need help scoring the ball and that is exactly what Gordon will provide for them. If this team wants to avoid a last place finish, then Gordon will have to regain his old form.

The Bobcats can’t get much worse than last season, so obviously I think they will improve. I love Jordan’s pick of MKG, and I believe in Kemba Walker enough to put Charlotte ahead of Orlando in the standings. I think that if the young players develop enough and if Jordan can bring in a veteran, Charlotte can be dangerous in the future.

Fifth Place- Orlando Magic

Starters:

PG: Jameer Nelson

SG: Arron Afflalo

SF: Hedo Turkoglu

PF: Glen Davis

C: Nikola Vucevic

The Magic had a terrible offseason, losing all-world center Dwight Howard and getting basically nothing in return. They also fired their coach, Stan Van Gundy, and were unable to get rid of Hedo Turkoglu’s ridiculous contract. The backcourt will be solid with Nelson and Afflalo but the frontcourt is arguably the worst in the NBA. Hedo, Big Baby and Nikola Vucevic don’t exactly strike fear in opponents’ eyes. Look for Orlando to get outrebounded almost every game and have trouble winning games down the stretch without a star to go to.

Key Reserves: Al Harrington, JJ Redick, Andrew Nicholson, Gustavo Ayon, Moe Harkless, Josh McRoberts, Quentin Richardson, Kyle O’Quinn.

Not exactly household names jumping off the page, other than Harrington and Redick. The youngsters will surely have growing pains early but I certainly expect ex-Johnny Harkless to eventually mold into a nice scorer off the bench.  Ayon might be a name to remember moving forward and we know Harrington has the ability to hit big shots.

Team MVP: Arron Afflalo- Afflalo was the key return for Orlando in the Howard deal, but this is a bad spot for him. He is expected to fill some big shoes and it is virtually impossible for him to do so. Fans will unfairly expect him to be a star on this team while in retrospect; he is just a role player. If Orlando wants to stay out of the basement and not finish behind Charlotte, Afflalo will need to step up his game.

Orlando lost a top-five player in Howard and didn’t get much in return. Without him and the loss of Ryan Anderson, I don’t see Orlando making it out of last place. This team doesn’t have enough talent right now to compete and their bench is too unproven. Their frontcourt is a joke and if one of their starting guards gets injured, things will turn ugly in a hurry.

The likes of Amar’e Stoudemire (knee), Iman Shumpert (knee), Marcus Camby (calf), Chris Smith (knee), Rasheed Wallace (conditioning) and Ronnie Brewer were out of the Knicks lineup, while stars such as John Wall (knee) and Nene (foot) and Trevor Booker (hamstring) were among those sitting out for the Wizards.

May 6, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Steve Novak (16) dribbles the ball against the Miami Heat during the second half of game four in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals of the 2012 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 89-87. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

But when the ball was thrown up, it didn’t really matter because it was good to see the new look Knicks on the court against another team. With all the hype surrounding the Knicks coming in, they opened some eyes with a blazing hot start en route to a 108-101 win.

New York shot 70 percent from the floor and knocked down 6-of-8 three-point shots- including a 3-for-3 start for Steve Novak- and opened up a 38-21 lead after one, behind 12 points from Carmelo Anthony.

But that all changed quickly in the second quarter as the Wizards’ bench dominated the Knicks’ bench, scoring the first 22 points of the quarter to take a 43-39 lead. The Knicks didn’t scorer their first points of the quarter until 4:20 left when Novak knocked down a three. Before it was all said and done, Washington outscored the Knicks 35-15 in the quarter. Rookie Bradley Beal paced the Wizards with 12 points off the bench to give the Wizards a 56-53 halftime lead.

The Knicks’ starters and regular rotation guys came out in third quarter and had similar success to what they had in the first and outscored the Wizards 29-24 in the third quarter to take an 82-80 lead.

Things stayed relatively tight in the fourth until Novak broke it open with a couple more bombs from behind the arc. Novak finished with a team-highs of 32 minutes played and 21 points, knocking down all seven of his attempts from behind the arc.

In addition to Novak, four other Knicks scored in double figures: J.R. Smith (20), Anthony (17), Pablo Prigioni (14) and Tyson Chandler (13).

On the night the Knicks shot 47.4 percent from the floor (34-for-72) and a whopping 54.5 (18-of-33) percent from long-range.

However they were outrebounded 45-32 and turned the ball over 15 times. They did dish out 26 assists on the night with Raymond Felton leading the team with eight and Smith recording six.

Jordan Crawford led the Wizards in scoring with 17 and the rookie Beal was one of three other Washington players in double-figures with 15.

The Knicks next preseason game is Saturday against the Boston Celtics.

Follow Matt Shetler on Twitter for news, reaction and analysis from around the NBA.

Follow Buckets Over Broadway on Twitter and on Facebook

A year ago, the Knicks won all three games against the Wizards, but in this particular matchup, neither team looks anything like it did just one year ago.

Feb. 20, 2012; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Washington Wizards guard John Wall during game against the Phoenix Suns at the US Airways Center. The Suns defeated the Wizards 104-88. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

We all know about the changes the Knicks made in the offseason, but the Wizards revamped as well by drafting Bradley Beal and trading for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza. The Wizards will be more athletic and better defensively, but let’s see if they match up well against the Knicks.

Point Guard: Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd, Pablo Prigioni vs. John Wall, A.J. Price, Shelvin Mack

Without a doubt, Wall is the best point guard of the group, but I like the Knicks depth much better. Wall still must improve a shooter and prove he can become the Wizards leader. Statistically Wall should have the best year of any of the point guards, but I like the fact that New York can run three veteran guards at the opposition every night. They get the slight edge here.

Advantage: Knicks

Shooting Guard: Ronnie Brewer, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert vs. Bradley Beal, Jordan Crawford, Tomas Santoransky

This is another position in which the Wizards have closed the gap. I love Beal and think he will be a fantastic NBA guard and I like that Washington can bring a capable player such as Crawford behind him. When healthy though, the Knicks have a very good trio of 2-guards. They will be much better defensively for sure, but I don’t know if they will provide the perimeter shooting that Beal can. He’s going to prove to be the best all-around player as he’s a good defender and rebounding guard as well. Because of him Washington gets the edge.

Advantage: Wizards

Apr. 13, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Steve Novak (16) shoots a three-pointer during the second half against the Washington Wizards at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 103-65. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

Small Forward: Carmelo Anthony, Steve Novak, James White vs. Trevor Ariza, Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton, Cartier Martin, Martell Webster

The addition of Ariza gives the Wizards an outstanding perimeter defender, but this one is a no-brainer. The scoring ability of ‘Melo and Novak’s light’s out shooting gives the Knicks the decisive advantage.

Advantage: Knicks

Power Forward: Amar’e Stoudemire, Kurt Thomas vs. Nene, Trevor Booker

This is the closest position battle on the floor as STAT and Nene are both outstanding power forwards. Nene will play the 4 for the Wizards instead of his traditional 5 spot, Stoudemire is a better scorer, but Nene is a much better defender. I’m giving a slight edge to Amar’e, assuming he has a post-game now. If he doesn’t, Nene gets the edge. Overall though this is a position thin on depth for both teams.

Advantage: Knicks

Center: Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby vs.  Emeka Okafor, Kevin Seraphin

The center position is one of defensive dominance for both teams. Chandler and Okafor will make it tough to score in the paint for the opposition. I like the reigning Defensive Player of the Year though in this matchup. In addition the Knicks can bring Camby off the bench, while the Wizards don’t really have much.

Advantage: Knicks

Coach: Mike Woodson vs. Randy Wittman

Woodson showed how he could change the Knicks into a defensive team and is widely considered a good coach around the league. Wittman doesn’t impress me as a coach, but he has a little bit better talent to play with now. The difference is that Woodson has a great bench to play with and Wittman does not. Easy decision here.

Advantage: Knicks

Series Result: Knicks in five games

Follow Matt Shetler on Twitter for news, reaction and analysis from around the NBA.

Follow Buckets Over Broadway on Twitter and on Facebook

Should Knicks fans be nervous about tonight's Wizards game?

After a much needed day off for the New York Knicks, the team returns to Madison Square Garden to battle with the Washington Wizards with only eight games left in the regular season.

While many fans were on edge with the sloppy but huge win for the team in Milwaukee, this particular match-up should be of concern for Knicks fans. Why?

Because everything about tonight’s match-up screams trap game.  (more…)

Again, Jeremy Lin was the story. Lin dropped 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting to go along with his 10 assists and only 2 turnovers.   The Knicks also got big games out of Tyson Chanlder who has 11 rebounds and 25 points while providing some extremely solid interior defense;Landry Fields also pitched in with 16 point and 8 rebounds.

The Knicks also got a good lift out of their bench, highlighted by the play of Steve Novak and Iman Shumpert who combined to score 26 points and grab 9 rebounds. (more…)

And for those of you who have blocked that era of Knicks’ basketball out of your mind I also have something more recent for you… (more…)

Jeremy Lin is playing like an MVP. Credit: Nicole Sweet-US PRESSWIRE

Since then, their paths through the NBA have been very different. Wall has started 89 games for the Washington Wizards, averaging 16 points and 8 assists. He is the star of his team, nearly impossible to stop from getting to the basket.

Lin has spent time with the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, but has played sparingly. He has been sent to the NBA Development League several times. Lin has only recently played significant minutes. He made his first start for the New York Knicks two days ago. But his last two games have been incredible. Lin is playing like an MVP.

Tonight, Lin and Wall go head-to-head again. Lin has his work cut out for him this time. The Knicks will again be without Carmelo Anthony (injured groin) and Amar’e Stoudemire (death of his brother). So Lin will have his hands full defending Wall and generating offense. Will Lin outplay Wall this time? Can he carry the Knicks to a third straight win? Tune in tonight to find out.

Edwin Torres was born in New York City. He has been a Knicks fan since the early 1980s. He has visited Madison Square Garden on many occasions to watch the Knicks and his favorite player, Patrick Ewing. For more articles, follow him on Twitter @FlipPoker.

Sources:
NBA – Statistics – Yahoo! Sports

Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

According to ESPN.comCarmelo Anthony could be out for the next two weeks with a strained groin suffered in last night’s victory over

the Utah Jazz.  Anthony left the game after just 6 minutes and was in obvious discomfort.

The Knicks went on to win the game despite missing both Stoudemire and, for a large portion of the game, Carmelo Anthony. Without their two starts the Knicks got some big contributions out of Tyson Chandler and more notably, Jeremy Lin.

Things are about to get very interesting for the Knicks who will be without both of their star players for at least the next game against the Wizards on Wednesday evening, and perhaps again on Friday night against the Lakers. Amar’e Stoudemire has left the team to be with his faimily following the unexpected death of his brother.

Hottest Seats:

(more…)

(more…)

Popular movie, or an omen of Pat Riley's impending arrival? You decide.

Could it be that the explanation for the Knicks excellence is due to evil supernatural causes?  Stan Chin plunges into the netherworld to find the Devil in the Details:

(more…)

The Knicks' ran all over the Wizards Friday, and it was 'cuz everyone knows their role. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Another potential new Knick blogger, Antony Marino, has fun writing about his take on Friday night’s victory over the Washington Wizards.  Sorry this wasn’t up sooner and that we don’t have anything for the loss against Philly yet.  It’s not that I only look at the Bright Side O’ Life (after all, I’m a %$^#$@& New Yawker) — it’s that my internet at home has gone MIA (no, it hasn’t taken it’s talents to South Beach, c’mon, that’s Missing In Action).  As one who watches Knick games on-line, non-existant interweb provides a serious impediment.  But enough of my belly-achin’ and back to Gufano’s excellent examination of our Friday Night Fight:

Yawn. Another day, another eleven blocks; another Knicks win. Good teams take care of business at home, and good franchises take care of toxic, 19th Century insulation and its resulting vascular liability at home. Or something. Great job all around.

With the John Wall hype machine and a healthy Yosemite Arenas coming to MSG on a Friday Night [Knicks Y’all] there was cause for concern of a letdown. But as has been the case in every game this year, the Knicks showed confidence, character and talent—exposing an inferior team time after time. Each Knick played their role to a “T”, other than young Anthony Randolph (who continues to look like a lost camper mistakenly left at Al Harrington’s Youth Clinic), but why rain on the parade? There is an imperative difference between one who is a “role player” and one who “plays one’s role”. Last night the Knicks continued to exhibit that they are largely composed of the latter. What follows is a giddy description of the roles and actors from last night’s praiseworthy performance against the Washington Walls.

The Wild Card: Bill Walker

(more…)

The Knicks victory against the Wizards last night left us giddy as Maria Von Trapp. Before the Nazis came.

Tonight’s win against the Wizards has inexplicably made new official Buckets writer Stan Chin break out into song… be warned though his singing voice has been compared to that of William Hung… and has been found wanting…

Take it away, Stan:

(more…)

Kobe bites his shirt! Does that mean he's worried the Lakers won't be on top this year? Nah, probably he just forgot to eat dinner. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

With the season beginning tonight, it’s time to rank how strong all the teams are at this point.  This isn’t who will be strongest at the end of the season or who will have the best regular season.  This measures how strong each team is right NOW.  If a team engaged in a seven game series today with any of the teams listed below them, I’m saying they’d win.  So yeah, injuries count big time.  And chemistry.  And like, how good they are.  It’s basically a highly complex formula that you mere mortals wouldn’t understand.  Either that or it’s all based on pure opinion.

1. Los Angeles Lakers — Even with the recovering Kobe shooting 28% this pre-season they’d still beat everyone.  Hell, he only shot 24% in Game 7 of Finals.

(more…)

When discussing coaches on the hot seat, consider Don Nelson's butt on fire. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

In the first part, we looked at the coaches in good positions, but today we look at the ones in bad and ugly situations.  We went over those who were Bulletproof, 95% Bulletproof (aka Impervious), Pretty Safe and Fairly Safe.  Note that this is NOT about which coaches are good or bad, simply what the chances are that they get fired during the season.

Maybe Safe… Um, Maybe Not:

Jim O’Brien – Pacers: They’ve been mediocre for several years now and Bird hasn’t fired O’Brien yet.  Although the addition of new exciting young point guard Darren Collison gives hope for the future, there’s no reason to expect this team to be any better this season without a halfway decent power forward, so unless the team’s significantly worse than last year, O’Brien should make it through the season.

(more…)

With the Cavs having lost the unstoppable Delonte West (plus I think some other guy?), how bad will they be? You might be surprised by our take. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

We already examined how much teams improved/regressed during the off-season, but now we’ll talk about how they stack up against each other.  Meaning, we gave Orlando a zero for their summer and the Wizards a +2, but now we’re here to tell you that yes, of course Orlando is still gonna be far better.  For those who haven’t seen those posts on off-season grades, click the following links to see what we had to say about the Northwest, Atlantic, Central, Southeast, Pacific and Southwest Divisions.  Also, we’re only gonna be talking about the regular season here.  So even though we don’t think the Celts will be a top two team record-wise, it doesn’t mean we think they’re incapable of making it through the gauntlet again.  Lastly, some teams will be put in clusters ‘cuz they’ll likely end up with similar records and what does a victory or two here and there matter?

(more…)

Miami snagged this trio over the summer. I'd say that's a pretty good off-season, wouldn't you? But how good...? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

In part III of this series, we’ll be looking at off-season moves of the teams that make up the Southeast Division: the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic & Washington Wizards. If you wanna check out the first two parts, we covered the Atlantic Division and the Central Division.  The upcoming parts will look at the Pacific Division, Southwest Division and Northwest Division.The rules, as previously stated:

1. Rather than a standard A through F grade or going for a scale of 1-10, we shall use a system that my friend Noriko loves: -5 through +5.  It helps differentiate things a bit more, ‘cuz like if a team gets a C-, it’s better than an F, but is it good?  With this scale, you can instead give the team a +1, which shows that they improved the team, but only marginally.  Or maybe they get a zero ‘cuz they didn’t hurt the team or help it.

2. These grades are not, I repeat, NOT, about how good teams will be.  It’s purely about how good their summer moves were.  For instance, the Sacramento Kings may get a higher grade than say the Orlando Magic, but that doesn’t mean I’m insane and think the Kings will be better than the Magic.  It simply means I like the Kings’ draft of DeMarcus Cousins more than the Magic’s signings of Quentin Richardson and Chris Duhon (although I haven’t fully examined those teams yet, so I dunno what grades they’ll get).

3. The grades are not just based on how good the players are, but also their contracts.  Joe Johnson is definitely a top 30 player, but with Atlanta giving him $120 million/6 yrs, the largest contract of anyone this summer, his signing turns into a negative.

4. Grades will be scaled based on what each team could have done.  Meaning the Lakers, a team over the salary cap, get major kudos for snagging Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, Theo Ratliff and bringing back Shannon Brown with their limited financial flexibility, but if say the Knicks, with all their cap space, had only made those moves, I’d pan ‘em.

5. Fit matters.  I like Kirk Hinrich a ton, and had he gone to the Pacers (a team that desperately needed a point guard before the Collison trade), I would’ve raved about the move.  However, Washington acquiring him is a bit odd considering they already have PGs in John Wall and Gilbert Arenas.

And now…

(more…)

Knicks were down as much as 20 points, but managed to come from behind led by Leo Lyons who dropped 21 points in 21 minutes. Marcus Landry continues to impress by scoring 12 points in 12 minutes. Landry Fields had another solid game and scored 8 of his 14 in the 4th.

The dissapointments continue for Andy Rautins and Jerome Jordan who have both struggled to make even somewhat of an impact so far. Rautins shot 4 fg’s, all were 3′s. I expected Rautins to be a major project, but Jordan has really struggled doing much of anything thus far. Today, Jordan only grabbed 3 boards and 6 points.

Out of these two guys, is it possible that Mike Miller's the one more likely to be in a Knicks uniform next season? (source: Yardbarker.com)

Mike Miller, the Washington Wizard’s sharp-shooter, is one of the lesser known free agents this summer, but it’s players like him who could help round out the Knicks.  Argus Leader reports:

As an unrestricted free agent, Miller can sign with a team that gives him what he wants – and what he wants is to stop losing.

“I’m looking for a winner,” confirms the 6-foot-8 swingman, who averaged 10.9 points and 6.2 rebounds in 54 games last season. “The last couple of years have taken a toll on me, as far as not being in the playoffs and not playing this time of year. So I’m looking to change that. This time, if it doesn’t work out, there’s no one to blame but myself.”

You might be thinking, um, but the Knicks weren’t exactly winners this last year.  However, if we can sign some of the big free agents…
(more…)

"You want ME to give this ball up to John Wall? No, siree." (source: Yardbarker.com)

No sooner had the Washington Wizards won the lottery, and the presumed rights to phenom PG John Wall, when the rumors started: current PG Gilbert Arenas is on his way out.  And where better than New York, the city of overpaying?  Heck, we even have a big contract of our own, Eddy Curry, so the trade makes perfect sense.  Well…. there are a few creaks in that proposition.

(more…)

Evaluating players before the draft is not easy, but at least you know who you are talking about. Predicting who is going to get picked when is harder. Everyone has their own ranking system, but the big question is whether a team is going to pick the best player available or pick the player who best addresses the team’s needs.

The other question is, what on earth was that GM thinking? The most recent “what was he thinking” award goes to the Minnesota Timberwolves, for using the 5th and 6th draft picks on point guards (Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio), followed by having one of them (Rubio) make noises that he would never play for the Wolves, and creating a situation where the other, Flynn, felt unsure of the team’s commitment to him, and for good reason.

So for me to say who will make which pick is guesswork, because every year there are inexplicable decisions made, and there are players drafted in the top 20 whose name you hear when he is selected, but then never again. Comparing mock drafts, I have seen players’ names move twenty spots or more.

Mostly, I’m seeing mocks that describe players, not why they will be picked or what the team is thinking. I already wrote about the players likely to be drafted in the first round, so instead, lets’ discuss what the team should do, not what they will do, because many teams have a weird tendency to pick the same type of player over and over regardless of the results. (Lakers trying to find a point guard, Bulls drafting post players, Houston drafting 3’s, Warriors drafting skilled bigs, etc.) Redundancy makes sense for some teams, but for others it’s stupid. I’ll take those case by case.
(more…)

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

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

(more…)

Joe Johnson – Atlanta Hawks

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

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

(more…)

Sadly, Big Al goes in for the layup even if it means shoving others aside. (Source: Yardbarker)

Maybe all the cold weather in New York this year has made the Knicks think it’s still Christmas, ‘cuz they’ve been non-stop giving out the gift of victories to any team that comes near them.  The New Jersey Nets, who had won only 6 our of 61 games, were on a path to be the team with the worst record in NBA history.  The previous record low is only 9 games (out of an 82 game season) held by Washington in like 1982 or something (their leading scorer was Fred Carter).  If the Nets kept at that 6 of 61 pace, they not only would’ve been unable to win more than those 9 games, they wouldn’t have even won 9.  Now though at 7 of 62 after we let them whup us on Saturday, suddenly they’re on pace to out-do those 9 games.  Not a bad gift from their cross-river rivals?  This is one mark in the record book for which ya don’t wanna become famous.

(more…)

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.

And New Yorkers are buying into this hook, line & worm (why is it supposed to be sinker — I mean when a fish really falls for it he goes after the worm, much like an alcoholic with a bottle of tequila).  Darren Rovell who discuses the business side of sports tweeted yesterday that “Knicks 2010/11 tickets went on presale last Thursday. They’re on record pace, having sold 770 new tickets so far.”  Record pace???  Do fans realize we haven’t signed ANYONE yet?  If we end up looking like we’re gonna suck, even one-legged Tracy McGrady will look to leave town.  So this is a two-part look at what to realistically expect.  Part II will be sometime next week.

Let’s look at this first based on the available teams.  First, here are the ones who’ll be competing for poaching rights:

New York Knicks: $18.64 million in 2010-11 payroll
Miami Heat: $26.07 million in 2010-11 payroll
New Jersey Nets: $26.63 million in 2010-11 payroll
Chicago Bulls: $31.85 million in 2010-11 payroll
Los Angeles Clippers: $33.53 million in 2010-11 payroll

Sacramento Kings: $34.0 million in 2010-11 payroll

The Washington Wizards and Minnesota Timberwolves could also conceivably get in on the bidding, but they seem unlikely to join the chase.  I doubt Sacramento will even seriously look into trying to grab a big name and instead will prefer to build up a bit more from the ground up through draft picks.  It’s also kinda erroneous to list Miami as only having about $26 million.  Well, first the reason I list them even that low is ‘cuz I assume there’s no way they pick up James Jones’ $4.6 million option.  However, what makes them even lower is that their payroll includes Dwayne Wade’s $17.15 million contract that he’s said he’s gonna opt out of.  In other words, they’ll have less than $10 million in committed contracts!  So they could pay a max salary to both Wade & LeBron and still have say $10 million to offer to say Carlos Boozer.

Next let’s look at what each of the five teams has to offer (I’m excluding Sac).

The Knicks:

1. the second most cap space (after Miami),

2. the mass market of New York to provide much richer endorsement deals and better national exposure,

3. Perhaps the allure of playing at Madison Square Garden, aka “The Mecca of Basketball”,

4. An open and willing wallet (& now a well-respected GM in Donnie Walsh to make you feel they’ll spend wisely),

5. Coach Mike D’Antoni has a good rep as a “player’s coach” and as an assistant coach on Team USA he’s actually worked with most of these guys before.

Cons: 1. David Lee could likely be gone, meaning they’d be coming to a team with literally only Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler (oh yeah, plus Eddy Curry in the trainer’s room),

2. Perhaps a feeling that you’d have to sorta start from nothing.

The Heat:

1.For Wade it’s the only team he’s known(&he’d get more $), and for others it might feel less risky to jump with someone else to a brand new team rather than to join someone on their current team,

2. No income taxes in Florida,

3. Perhaps Pat Riley?,

4. A solid young player in Michael Beasley, and

5. The weather (& yes, that is a real factor for players).

Cons: 1.For some players it might actually be less appealing to join “Wade’s team” rather than go with him to a new place where it could be “our team” (kinda like how it’s usually better for a young couple to move into a new place rather than say just the gal moving into the guy’s place ‘cuz then it’ll always feel like “his place.”),

2.The fact that the Heat/Riley haven’t really looked for help for Wade since the championship year might make some concerned (including Wade) that this isn’t a franchise that will do whatever it takes to win the trophy.

The Nets:

1. Jay-Z is part-owner (& you bet that’s a factor for this hip-hop idolizing generation),

2. Will be moving to Brooklyn, giving it that New York mass market appeal, plus a chance to sorta “recreate” this franchise from the ground up in this new location,

3. Potentially a stud rookie (like John Wall),

4. Some decent players in the spots that are often toughest to fill: Brook Lopez at center and Devin Harris at point.

Cons: 1. They will be coming off a season where they were either the historically worst team ever or darn close to it,

2. It’ll be at least one year, if not two or more, until the team does actually make it to Brooklyn and the crowds ain’t been stellar in Jersey,

3.Uninspiring coach and front office,

4. If the NY angle is exciting, why wouldn’t ya just go to the Knicks?

The Bulls:

1.A chance to play alongside a franchise player in Derrick Rose, as well as solid pieces like Joakim Noah and Luol Deng,

2. Get to play in the house that Jordan built,

3. For Wade a chance to go home,

4.Good media market and good city.

Cons: 1. You’re playing in the house that Jordan built so you’ll likely always be second in the city’s heart to him,

2.Not enough $ to get a second max player so you’d have to feel that the addition of you alone can turn this team into a contender,

3. Questionable coach in Vinny Del Negro, and a timid front office that’s proven to be afraid to go all in (like by refusing to give up Luol Deng for Pau Gasol).

The Clippers:

1.Best nucleus of players with Baron Davis at point, potential all-star second-year player Eric Gordon at shooting guard, Blake Griffin at power forward, and Chris Kaman at center.  Throw in LeBron James at small forward and they could be contenders ‘cuz you could make a legit argument that the Clips would be stronger at every position than the Cavs supporting cast,

2. The huge market of Los Angeles,

3. The warm weather and Hollywood connections/glamor of LA,

4. A chance to do the impossible and turn a cursed laughingstock into a champion.  Even Jordan couldn’t have saved the Clips,

5. The chance to out-do Kobe Bryant in his own arena.

Cons: 1. It’s the Clippers,

2. Cheapskate owner Donald T. Sterling, so basically what you see is what you get — don’t expect any help walking through that door,

3.The injury curse — Wade gets hurt enough as it is, if he joined the Clips his torso would probably fall off his legs,

4. It’s Kobe’s arena and it’s a Laker town, even LeBron bringing the Clips three championships in a row still might not catapult him and the team to town favorite,

5. It’s the Clippers.

–To Be Filed Under “And You Thought Jordan Hill Was A Bad Draft Pick”

When Brandon Jennings, the #10 pick in this last year’s draft, started showing he’s fo’ real, everyone bitched about the Knicks not snagging him with their #8 pick.  ‘Course that means 9 other teams passed on him too, so it’s not like NYC was the only one who misjudged him.  And with #1 pick Blake Griffin injured and unable to play a single minute this season, really the only two higher picks who’ve been clearly better are Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry.  Others like James Harden and Jonny Flynn have been solid, and word is that Minnesota Timberwolves’ pick Ricky Rubio has been phenomenal  …playing over in Europe.  Everyone thought the draft would only produce one stud (Griffin) and the other players would be mediocre.  Instead, they’ve done wildly better than anyone would’ve guessed.  Which only makes it sting more for the Memphis Grizzlies who just sent their #2 pick, Hasheem Thabeet, to the D-League.  While his name is pretty darn fun to say (or even to sing, particularly when you replace the chorus of the Go-Go Girls’ “We Got The Beat” with his name), he will be the highest draft pick EVER sent to the D-League.  The dude is so bad that the Grizz decided to replace him at backup center with Iranian, Hamed Haddadi, who thinks he’s playing something called “net ball.”

–The Last Straw

Newly acquired Dallas Maverick, Caron Butler, has been banned by the NBA league office.  Banned from chewing on straws during games.  Really?  We’ve become so overly concerned about appearances that we’re cracking down on straw chewing?  And for those of you who think “straw chewing” is a euphemism or slang for something, no, it’s literally what it sounds like: Caron likes to sit on the bench and chew on McDonald’s straws.  Since Butler used to play for the Wizards, the Washington Post once did a hard-hitting news piece on this insidious habit:

(more…)

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

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

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

(more…)

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.

(more…)

Not so fast, Sparky.  One slight difference between the rules for the coaches’ voting and the fans’ voting is big.  The coaches are allowed to vote for a player in a different position than the one they play if they think that person can play that spot.  Meaning, Chris Bosh may like to call himself a power forward, but he (like many others such as Tim Duncan) should really play center.  Thus, Bosh is the guy most likely to get that backup center spot.  Meaning David Lee’s chances boil down to the two Wild Card spots.  But to determine who he’ll be going up against, we kinda gotta figure out who’ll be left after the 2 guard & fwd spots are filled.

Top Eastern forwards: Josh Smith, Paul Pierce, Gerald Wallace.  Even though Luol Deng, Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala & Antawn Jamison have had solid statistical years, they’ve all seemed pretty ineffective in bringing about wins on their teams, and most of ‘em have had better years in the past.  Leaving it down to Smith, Pierce & Wallace.  Honestly, I think they all deserve to go, and rather than pick specifics, we’ll say two get the forward spots and one gets one of the Wild Card spots.  That leaves one possible wild card spot remaining for Lee.

Top Eastern guards vying for the last spots: Joe Johnson, Rajon Rondo, Stephen Jackson, maybe Derrick Rose or Jamal Crawford.  Joe’s a definite.  Derrick Rose’s last few games have been great, and more importantly it seems like he’s hit his groove so we should expect the same going forward.  Unfortunately for him the voters had already sent their votes in and he came out sucking not swinging at the beginning of the season.  Crawford’s been great off the bench, but I think the fact that he’s on the bench will mean he won’t get a spot.  Meaning we’re down to Rondo & Stephen Jackson.  I honestly haven’t actually visually seen (as opposed to emotionally seeing?) either of them that much this season.  Some pundits have said Rondo has to make it.  Others have left him off their list.  In terms of Stephen Jackson, some people feel the Bobcats don’t deserve to have two All-Stars so you need to choose between him and Gerald Wallace.  I’ve got no idea.  One of ‘em will take that second guard spot.  The question is: will the other one take the last remaining Wild Card spot away from David Lee?  Honestly, I don’t know.  Guess I’ll have to wait these next few hours.