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December 31, 2007

Are the children our future?

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 4:08 pm

Mr Jay Bee just beat me to the punch in the last thread with this topic, but I’ll cosign here.

What’s wrong with Mardy, Renaldo, Chandler and Morris?

Are they just rusty from rotting on the bench or are they damaged goods from prior injuries?

When you’re losing every game you might as well see what you have, those are basically Isiah’s exact words when he first came to New York and started playing a then rotting Mike Sweetney to see if he had anything. Those were the days when Isiah stood in the MSG tunnel overlooking the shoulders of Herb and Lenny and next town Brown. Isiah with his arms folded like he was going to get this team somewhere by now.

Renaldo and Mardy looked bad on sunday, but not as bad as Jamal and Stephon in street clothes sitting together on the bench like season ticket holders.

Loot at that cat Farmar in LA. He racked up minutes in the D league in the afternoon then suited up for the pros that same evening just to get some PLAYINGTIME. now he is doing well for the lakers. why not do the same with Randolph Morris? Has he played a single relevant minute this season?

The best thing Isiah does is draft. Destroying these draft picks by letting them rot negates his single greatest contribution to this Knicks team. When you compound that with the fact that these vets are not producing you might as well see who else can contribute from this roster AND the D-league.

At least Nate is playing now and Lee is starting and renaldo finally saw 11 minutes of daylight after two weeks of solitary confinement. Yes, that missed dunk was ugly, but I say let him play his way back into a rhythm since he’s been gone for so long. Like Mardy Collins, maybe Renaldo’s hurt, didn’t look like he had any ups.

When Curry came from Chi they said he had heart problems, I didn’t realize they meant the kid has no HEART. somebody inject that kid with a derivative mixture of Charles Oakley and John Starks’ testosterone. Inject the whole Knicks team now that I think about it.

At least the rotation is being shuffled, but how much of that is because crawford and stephon are out? the true litmus test is if Q is sitting. If Q is sitting, the rotation has truly changed. If he is still getting 30+ minutes per game, its the same old… you know what I’m talking about.

The two weeks are up.




Be Safe.

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December 30, 2007

Who will be the next ex-knick to win a title?

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 8:20 pm

A disturbing pattern has occurred to me over the years. Players not good enough to be Knicks have gone on to play minutes for other teams that go deep into the playoffs. Not anywhere is this more apparent than with the San Antonio Spurs. Forget Matt Carroll and Charlie Ward, although both wore Knicks jerseys before trading them in for Spurs ones. The Spurs’ signing yesterday of Demarr Johnson doesn’t even surprise me anymore when you consider what the future has had in store for some of these former Knicks. Just consider this:

DeMarr Johnson– signed yesterday with the Spurs after playing for Denver for a few years, DeMarr was cut by the Knicks.

Jackie Butler– Isiah balked when Butler asked for decent money for his services. Butler signed with the Spurs instead and rode the pine with them last year, was cut after the spurs won the 2007 NBA championship. Butler is currently not on an NBA roster.

Nazr Mohammad–traded to the Spurs for Malik Rose, Nazr started at center for the 2005 NBA Champion Spurs and played for the Pistons the following year.

Ime Udoka– Currently a San Antonio Spur. Formerly cut by the Knicks.

Matt Barnes– A key player for the revamped Warriors that knocked out the Mavs. Definitely cut by the Knicks.

Kurt Thomas– Key part of the Suns team that SHOULD HAVE BEAT the Spurs and won the title, the summer of the Horry “hip check” injustice that featured Tim Donaghy as one of the three officials that dreadful day. Thomas was sent packing from the Knicks after a feud with Stephon Marbury. The Knicks received Nate Robinson and a damaged-goods Quentin Richardson in exchange for the defensive specialist currently with the Sonics.

Tim Thomas– a member of the Phoenix Suns in 2006. played a key role against the Lakers in playoff victory. Traded to Chicago in the Eddy Curry deal, a deal that incidentally isn’t looking as good this year.

Shandon Anderson– won an NBA title with the Heat after being bought out by Isiah Thomas

Michael Doleac– despite great high screen-and-roll chemistry with Stephon Marbury, Isiah Thomas shipped Doleac off the island. Doleac washed ashore with the 2006 NBA champion Heat.

Trevor Ariza– was definitely headed for more playoff action with the Magic this year and probably still is now that he is Laker.

Antonio McDyess–injured during his tenure in New York, McDyess is still contributing quality minutes for the Detroit Pistons, consistently in the top tier of teams in the east.

Channing Frye–the blazers are the hottest team in the league having won twelve in a row.

My point is not that these players were the key to championship success–most of these players are roll players I admit–but rather that these players were singled out by this Knicks organization as factors preventing success, players that simply had to go. How can so many of these players that are perceived as losers by the knicks go on to win often immediately after departing New York? Think about it, the past four years, the ONLY knicks with any playoff battle stories are the players Isiah voted off the island.

So far this season, odds are once again looking good that another ex-knick will win an NBA title before any current knick sees a playoff series.

Just bloggin’. I am a knicks fans that is simply tired of missing the playoffs. Last year was an awful ending to a promising, exciting year. This year is a horrible beginning to a… well, put it this way: the Knicks can’t even successfully lose. Despite all the embarrasing blowouts, there are still three teams that are better than the Knicks at tanking games right now, Minnesota, Memphis and Miami. Still 50 games to go, but what exactly does a Knicks fan cheer for at this point? Either you got a 32-win season, or lots of lottery ping-pong balls and no promises of the top pick. Either way, that’s not much to cheer about right now.

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December 26, 2007

New York@Orlando

Filed under: eddy curry, fred jones, knicks, stephon marbury, zach randolph — knicksdefense @ 9:58 am

Back to business. The Knicks take on the Magic tonight in Orlando, game time 7pm. Orlando is one of the top teams in the eastern conference, but they’ve been much better on the road (13-5) than at home (5-6), and have recently struggled losing 7 of their last 10 games including four straight losses at TD Waterhouse. The odds are still against the Knicks since they are a dismal 1-10 on the road this season, but if Isiah actually follows through with his recent remarks about finally changing the starting five, this could be a very winnable game for the New York Knicks, because if Isiah plays the right team, the Knicks won’t be digging a hole in the first half–as has been the case lately for the Knicks.

Stephon Marbury is rumored not to be available for tonight’s game. Nate Robinson would be a good choice in the starting lineup, although Isiah will instead choose Jones again.

Turkoglu recently suffered an ankle injury that may limit his playing time tonight, and he is a 20-point scorer for the magic this season. Rashard Lewis has struggled shooting the ball recently, and it is safe to say this team is only as good as Turkoglu and Lewis’ play. Dwight Howard doesn’t know how to have a bad game this year and is averaging MVP-candidate numbers at 23.4 points 15.0 rebounds and 2.6 blocks on the season. The Magic have been booed by their fans lately.  They probably shouldn’t have traded Trevor Ariza away last month.

>>>

Bulls fire Skiles, shop Wallace

Scotty Skiles just got fired from the Bulls (9-16) with a better record than the Knicks (8-19) had going into the holidays. It will be interesting to see if Isiah has any interest in acquiring Skiles as a coach for the Knicks, assuming Isiah can stay on as GM. Also, realgm is reporting Ben Wallace is now available from the Bulls, should the Knicks be interested in packaging either of their two low-post scorers to get TEAM DEFENSE and SHOT-BLOCKING, two major areas of weakness for the Knicks. I personally like last season’s Knicks team better than this one, and I’d imagine Eddy Curry and Ben Wallace or Zach Randolph and Ben Wallace would be a great pairing for the Knicks to return to relevance in the NBA. It seems with Joakim Noah, Ty Thomas and Nocioni, the Bulls no longer need Wallace and would like to make a move to acquire the one thing they don’t have: a real low-post scorer. Consider it sleeping with the enemy, but the two former eastern conference titans could help each other out. It probably won’t happen, but I don’t think it should be dismissed so quickly considering New York’s needs. Wallace is having a bad year statistically, however, and may be slowing down in his 11th year in the NBA.

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December 24, 2007

Happy Holidays from Knicksdefense

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 6:43 pm

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To everybody celebrating the holidays, be it Christmas, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Hanukkah or any I may have missed:

Hope you are enjoying time with your friends, family and loved ones right about now. Wishing peace, love and harmony for all the people of the United States, and all the nations of the world.

Happy birthday to my brother Bilz.

Cheers from Starburyfan and Robin

 

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December 23, 2007

Lakers@Knicks

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 2:44 am

DVJ has been waiting for this… Put Jeffries on Kobe. Isiah will probably put Q on Kobe, then Fred–bet you everything but the kitchen sink.  Kobe will be Kobe, of course, but Fred is too short to guard anyone over 6′5″, and he’s been guarding Kevin Durant and all kinds of tall players this year.

Word is Bynum has improved.

Tipoff is at noon…

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December 22, 2007

just give me two more weeks

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 3:05 am

Great comments all around last night during the unfortunate loss. There was someone spamming the site, pretending to be African, Peaceman, STATESMAN and Steady, so I took care of those because I know their words and this guy wasn’t even close. Probably somebody we know trying to ruin things.

Very frustrating game to watch, but not an entirely unexpected outcome. I’m no one but a fan, but the knicks bench five is better than their starting five.  I’m not the only person in the world that believes this.

There is a rythm to this Knicks season, and it isn’t good at all. Good thing you had the “W” penciled in, right Peace? Seriously, we’re not good enough to assume victory against any NBA team now, not even the ones with the worst records in the NBA.

Simply put, there are some guys on this team with heart, and there are some guys on this team with a “less is more” attitude. I don’t think that all the guys have given up, but some definitely have given up. Its not only about effort though, chemistry is also a big issue, and the construction of the team is off. we’ve got no leapers in the starting five–and if you’re saying fred, well fred is 6′2″, and fred is just filling in for stephon. play below the rim in the nba these days and you’re toast because athleticism is the NBA. Skill is now secondary, it’s all about quickness and vert now.

We are now just one game ahead of Miami for dead last in the eastern conference. Why does Wilson Chandler play the last 30 seconds of the ball game, can anyone tell me? Is he that bad of a 23rd pick? Cause their 22nd pick Dudley got enough time to do something productive and feel like he belongs in the league, a scant 30 seconds of PT for the 23rd pick is barely enough time to commit an off-the-ball foul to get a “1″ on the stat sheet instead of all zeros.

Knicks played small ball in the second half and make it respectable but respectable does not equal win and therefor we get no respect with another loss to another irrelevant team.

Overall, if the Knicks don’t want to give 110% for Lenny Wilkins, or the loyal soldier Herb, or Next Town Larry Brown, or yet another hall-of-fame point guard Isiah Thomas (the guy that got them paid, no less), I’m thinking they won’t play hard for anyone else on the planet. And if you’ve got a team who won’t play hard for anyone, you might as well start dismantling said team. And if you dismantle that team, don’t have the same guy rebuild your team, it just isn’t a very logical way to approach rebuilding. The city of New York deserves a championship team, it has been a long time since the last one in ‘73. Four full years since Isiah came aboard, the time is right for change. We would have some keepers on this team thanks to Isiah (hint: said keepers not in starting five) but the keepers are the only players with real trade value, so adios muchachos. What was Herb’s record as head coach? 17-27 with Layden’s junk parts? that’s a .386 winning percentage, and right now with the better players we’re at 8-18 or .308. The Loyal Soldier really deserves a chance with a real contract as head coach of the Knicks. I also think Dave Hanners would make a hell of a coach for the Knicks based on the philosophy of his Knicks summer basketball team.

As for GM, well, that’s a whole other story, because Dolan could seriously f*** up any attempts by any incumbent GM to improve the Knicks. First, Dolan has to admit a big mistake with last year’s untimely contract extension, something he’s not happy to do. Any other human being would just say, “okay, my mistake,” yet with Dolan’s apparent infallible self-perception, you don’t have that common sense–ask the three guys that were still around the last time the Knicks were winning any ball games: Jeff Van Gundy, Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston. Okay ask Jeff and Latrell, we know what H20/AH7 is going to $ay if you ask him.

The Knicks were hoping that Zach could be the guy that could symbolize this team as “the warrior.” Right now, I’d say Jerome James is the best personification of this Knicks team.

And cooleyhigh, I thank you for coming in and lifting us up with your positivity, we need it these days with the constant disappointment.

Contrary to what some people will think after reading this, I don’t hate anyone associated with the Knicks with the possible exception of James Dolan because every else is just being themselves. Eddy is just being Eddy, Jamal is Jamal, Steph is Steph, Zach is Zach, Isiah is Isiah, Q is Q. Dolan, however, continues to ignore the elephant in the living room.  Last year we were supposed to make the playoffs, the year before that as well.

>>>

Strong post by our friend and long time knicks blogger bokonon last night, thought it should lead out the discussion for the day.

>>>Bokonon

Great point Peaceman. Komives was traded for DeBusschere not Frazier. By the way, after Komives departed, who REPLACED him at the point? Just curious.

This team isn’t progressing. They have no direction. They have no identity, unless you consider rudderless doormat an identity. As I’ve always said I don’t give a crap about making the playoffs as long as the plan is to build for long term contention and not a futile playoff run or two. You want to see a progression though. Baby steps. Small improvements in areas where they lack. This is blatantly not happening. The Knicks at this point are Charlie Brown trying to kick the football with Lucy holding. This team is going nowhere any time soon and one “franchise player” isn’t going to change that in my opinion.

And since when did the W/L record become a matter of opinion?

You’ve added a 20/10 guy to the team from last year, essentially taking away nothing but Francis and Frye, (addition by subtraction) and the team has not just gone backwards, but has nosedived. This is not opinion it is facts by the numbers. Many of you want to give Isiah a pass and blame the players for the Knicks woes. Who brought these players here? Wasn’t it the “great evaluator of talent”?

And can we stop comparing the Knicks to other crappy teams like the Bulls and saying “well we’re not much worse than them” and other such nonsense? Is that the standard now? To be “not the worst”? We want to be the best and the team has the resources financially to be the best, and to have the best talent. So why shouldn’t we aim higher than “someday we’ll be as good as the Bulls”?

Listen just because the media has acted poorly doesn’t make Dolan a genius for alienating them. The guy has the basketball IQ of a can of fruit salad. And furthermore has it worked? Has it made his team more successful or his employees and players happier or more productive? What has this moronic media policy done other than alienating fans as well as the hated media now.

Also can you please stop with the EA Sports style trade analysis? Sometimes the guy who is the more prolific scorer or better athlete is not the better player on a given roster. You know what I mean. You can’t put a list of stats on the floor. And can someone tell Isiah that? I know you guys got pull like Drossman’s season ticketholder batphone line.

And speaking of the “myths of Isiah’s tenure”, (Including his awesome roster turnaround);
Aside from the first year where Isiah was blowing up the roster, but still playing with a majority of “Layden’s guys” and they made the playoffs, the Knicks have CONSISTENTLY had a worse record than Layden’s teams. Those teams were bad. These teams are worse. Potential? Let’s see it. Potential means eventually getting a little bit better. Not consistently getting a little bit worse.

Fact not opinion.

Rebuilding you say? Where is it? Where is the plan? And wouldn’t it be nice to have an ownership/management regime who would go to the press and lay out their plan for the FANS? No, not for the journalists, for the fans, because maybe we would like to know where the fuck Isiah is thinking this team will be development wise two, three years from now so us “uneducated fans who don’t know basketball like kids who grew up on the mean streets of the wet side of blah blah blah…” can be a little more patient. And will we be the 04-05 Knicks vision “Phoenix Suns East”, or the power ball neo-bad boy 2006 Knick squad only maybe, you know, good.

Which is it Isiah, or has the plan changed again? Oh I forgot, you can’t say. It’s classified. If you tell us, we might tell the enemy. Frank Isola. And the press are children? How f-ing childish is that? I’ll tell you why, It’s because if Isiah says “this is where we’ll be in 3 years”, then he will have committed and in three years we might actually expect the team to win three or four more games than the year before.

Rebuilding means having a direction, not throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

This team doesn’t need a new direction. This team needs a direction period. Other than backwards or tits up I mean, which is where they are now. How about starting with someone who knows how to coach to see what we truly have talent wise. We will never know until this group has been led by a real coach exactly what kind of talent we have. I was one of the first to say last year that a coaching change would set us back to square one. I still believe that, only now I believe that square one is a great place to be. It’s much better than free fall. Or tits up.

Sorry for the long ass cameo part time post, but…
Oh who am I kidding I ain’t sorry. F you if you can’t take it.

Oh, sorry Steady,
just bloggin

Comment by bokonon

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December 21, 2007

Knicks@Bobcats

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 9:24 am

Tonight Isiah Thomas’ New York Knicks visit Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats. No love lost between the two hall-of-famers, each GM is hoping to kick the other GM’s teeth in via the teams on the court.

Charlotte has improved their roster by adding Jason Richardson via summer trade, and also by drafting Jared Dudley and recently acquiring former knick center Nazr Mohammad. After pulling the trigger on some of these moves, Michael Jordan was quoted as saying he wanted to “make the playoffs now.” The Bobcats main options remain Gerald Wallace (all the makings of a knick killer), Ray Felton and Emeka Okafor. The guy Scott Layden cut, Matt Carroll, is still a threat from downtown, so watch him on the perimeter. The Knicks still remember the block party Emeka literally threw this past January, a career high of 10 blocks and they were all impressive (I was at that game and had to call my girl at halftime to get an update on how many blocks that kid had, I think it was six). Okafor and Yao were the only two guys who seemed to have Curry’s number last year in my eyes (what a difference a season makes). Yes, I meant to exclude Dwight Howard from that statement.

Great opportunity for the Knicks to pick up a road win tonight. More info on tonight’s game here.

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December 20, 2007

Knicks, Bulls, Heat… Bottom of the Ocean?

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 1:38 am

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A lot of ground to cover boys.  Not saying it is impossible, but the knicks need to start winning on the road and the knicks need to start having winning streaks larger than two, more often than twice. Atlanta and Indiana are surprise teams so far.  57 games to be played, but the urgency is on now.  Please, no more 5 or 8-game losing streaks.

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December 19, 2007

Les Knicks face LeBron

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 2:44 am

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The Cleveland Cavs (11-14) come to the garden tonight to face the New York Knicks (7-17).

This is a rematch for the Knicks, who lost to the Cavs in Cleavland, 106-110, in the Knicks’ season opener on November 2nd. In that game, LeBron scored 45, pulled down 7 rebounds, dished out 7 assists and ripped 3 steals. For New York, it was Crawford and Randolph who had big scoring games with 25 and 21 respectively, and a now seldom used player named Nate Robinson contributed off the bench with 19 points and 6 rebounds in 27 minutes.

In recent days, Coach Isiah Thomas has said publicly that change is coming, and it is up to the reader to infer if he means a lineup change, or his own removal from the coaching staff. It is hard for me to envision Isiah relieving himself from coaching the Knicks, because Isiah never really volunteered to coach the Knicks to begin with; it was James Dolan’s order after Larry Brown was fired during the “show significant progress” days, which resulted in Isiah’s contract extension midway through last season.

If the Knicks are going to get back into the playoff race, they had better start winning soon–the season is going nowhere fast. The east may be weak in terms of records, but I don’t think it will be for much longer. The teams that are in playoff spots are going to fight to stay there, and the teams that were expected to make the playoffs that haven’t done so hot are going to want to cover lost ground right about now.

>>>

One last thing, as some of our defenders have already mentioned previously, there is a knicks protest coming up on the day of the bulls game, details can be found here.

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December 18, 2007

stop the madness

Filed under: knicks — knicksdefense @ 4:38 pm

I like to think that until the vets sit and the kids play, we don’t know ALL we have as a Knicks basketball team.  In terms of math, when you have 15 players and can play any combination of 5, that’s 3,003 different possible lineups (larry brown tried to go through them all two years ago).  Now you know certain lineups aren’t going to work, ie the current lineup isn’t working, but you have yet to see any lineups like the following:

Nate
Stephon
Jeffries
Chandler
Zach Randolph

or

Fred jones
Jamal Crawford
Jeffries
Zach Randolph
David Lee

and so on and so forth to 3,000.

Just bloggin, but repeating the same conditions everyday and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.  I rediscovered my belief in this team when new players got burn at the end of the bulls game and during the nets game, but with the substitution patterns regressing back to insanity against indiana, it is very hard to think we’ve got a chance when the best chances we have are usually rotting over on the bench.

Dolan mandated isiah coach the team to significant progress.  do you think isiah could get fired from the coaching gig and stay on as GM under such circumstances?  If it were anyone else but Dolan in charge, I’d say no.  For all I know, maybe Dolan could have ordered Isiah tank these games to get a lottery pick–it has been done before you know.

Was this a better basketball team last year with Eddy Curry as the focal point?   There were a lot of exciting games last season, from the double-overtime victory in game one, to the crawford steal and three-pointer in denver, to david lee’s tip-in against the bobcats, to stephon marbury’s buzzer beater layup against utah, to eddy curry’s three point dagger against milwuakee, just to name a few.  have we had very many moments like that thus far in the season, 24 games having passed us by?  whatever the reasons, whatever the excuses, we’re not competing out there.  when people are scoring career highs against you, that’s a red flag that your team is in trouble.

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