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The future of the New York Knicks hinges on reversing this trend of getting one dimensional players and instead starting a new trend of getting solid all-around basketball players, so that a sense of team identity and trust can finally be developed between the players.

Often times during the past four years, the Knicks have stock piled prolific scorers who are downright lousy defenders and/or passers, or work-in-project athletes who are devoid of fundamental team basketball skills, or good defenders who everyone knows can’t hit the broad side of a barn no matter how open a shot they are given. We don’t have to name names here.

This phenomenon needs to change now. It all starts with the #6 pick next month, but that’s only the beginning. The Eddy Currys, the Randolphs the Crawfords, the Nate Robinsons, those guys are pretty good at certain things and utterly atrocious at others, so instead of being pluses for the Knicks on both ends of the floor, they’re giving it away on the other end, and it is just that much more difficult to win basketball games for the Knicks, because they never can close out the game by the time 48 minutes have rolled around.

Any time you’re trying to come up with a starting five while trying to compensate for certain players inabilities in said starting five, it makes it too difficult to go out there and do what a competitive team should do: be in a position to win.

Some of it has to do with where you’re picking in the draft the past four years. When you’re picking at #23 every other year, there is a chance your talent is going to have some weaknesses and you only hope they can overcome them on the fly.

Yet there are going to be some guys that aren’t going to improve and it’s on them. Considering “it is not your aptitude that determines your altitude but your attitude,” if, for example, Eddy Curry doesn’t want to play defense, there is a very real chance he never will, at least until his current contract nears its expiration date.

You might think having a well-rounded team like I’ve described above is too ideal and impossible in reality, but how many Knicks currently fit the bill? Jamal Crawford, you say? Not close. Wilson Chandler? Chandler was nice at the very end, but so was Mardy Collins two years ago, and what has happened to him since his injury? We waited all season long to see Chandler get burn, and for what, to see a hobbled Quentin Richardson fail four four months of the season?

We need to start to get guys who can do all the fundamentals of basketball, not just one of them. Quentin could have been one of those guys but his back problems have prevented him from contributing at 100%.

Off topic: It will be really interesting to watch Lakers vs Celtics, if it comes to that. Imagine, the two teams that were involved in two infamously lopsided trades, and they make it all the way to the finals. Shame on you David Stern, for not doing something for the Knicks, but looking the other way when those two Enron deals went down, and then hooking up Chicago with the #1 pick this summer to top it off.

Off topic: You telling me Derek Fisher didn’t foul Brent Barry behind the three point line at the end of the game tonight? Shame on you David Stern, for corrupting the league with your Joey Crawfords and your Tim Donagheys puppets. Obviously you’re very desperate for Lakers-Celtics so you can reminiscence about the glory days of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, but to what shady ends are you willing to go to get it? They said after the game, “he didn’t sell the foul.” A foul is a foul. Especially when you call sissy flop fouls all season long, for the past five years. So now you gotta have a certain look on your face for a foul to be called? Get these shitty refs out of here. Magic and Bird aside, some basketball fans merely reminiscence to a time when NBA referees didn’t effect the outcome of the game with such blatant bias. You might as well have Nike signing their paychecks instead of the NBA treasury.

Kobe vs KG, here we come! Thank you Mr. Stern!

We’ve still got a full month to wait before we learn who the Knicks end up taking in the 2008 NBA draft.

Unless we trade for another pick, the pre-draft camp in Orlando isn’t going to be of much weight in the decision making process for the Knicks, because the projected lottery picks often only agree to do private workouts. The guys like David Lee and Renaldo Balkman, projected second rounders at the time they were taken, those are they guys that show up and play hard during the pre-draft workouts down in Orlando.

The last poll we did was very specifically which player to take, but perhaps a more general question will help us narrow down the selection process: which position do you fill?

For me, it seems like there are several good individual players on the Knicks, but there isn’t very much chemistry as a team. If the chemistry can be improved by adding –or subtracting– just a few elements, we’d be well on our way towards getting back into the playoffs and finally being competitive after years of residing at the bottom of the Atlantic Divsion.

That said, I think this draft would be well spent on either a fundamental point guard, or a defensive big man. The way last season went, the Knicks have neither in my eyes.

Sixth isn’t too bad. Obviously first or second would have been instant gratification for our Knicks, but the odds were best that we would get the sixth, and that’s what we ended up getting.

A lot can happen leading up to the sixth draft pick a month from now. We could trade up or down, players’ stock may rise or fall during the Orlando Pre-draft workouts, so we’ll see what Mr. Walsh and Mr. D’Antoni come up with when the time comes.

Tonight we find out where exactly the New York Knicks will pick in the 2008 NBA draft lottery this June. Again, we’ll be somewhere from 1-3 or 5-8, depending on the luck of the draw.

Let’s go Knicks!

Time to bring back some basketball magic to Madison Square Garden.

Didn’t think I’d make it to the Earl “The Perl” Monroe signing this past weekend at J&R, but I did have some time free up at the last minute, so I hopped on a train downtown at the buzzer so to speak. By the time I got there, they were getting ready to leave and there was basically no line to see one of the guys responsible for last bringing the city of New York “the shiny stuff.” Never met the guy before, it was an honor to meet Knick royalty and he was down to earth and friendly.

I got to chat with him a bit too–should have recorded it so it could have been an interview for Knicksdefense, but then again there was a grumpy looking PR guy sitting right next to him that probably would have prohibited any type of audio/video recording.

First thing I said was good job with the sudden MSG commentating at the end of the season. He said thanks and that it was his first time calling Knick games and enjoyed it. I told him that the Knicks seemed to play better while he was there and he agreed (Pearl’s time as an MSG announcer basically paralleled Wilson Chandler’s emergence towards the end of the season). He does not know if MSG is going to ask him back to call more games next season as of yet. I can see a vacancy opening up, especially if Kenny Smith somehow becomes GM somewhere…

But then I asked Pearl if he thought Mike D and Donnie Walsh will be able to turn it around, and he said “they have to.” I kind of made a remark that anyone could do a better job than Isiah, and then, knowing this guy just got some paychecks from MSG, tried to cover my ass by saying, “well, it wasn’t all Isiah’s fault because they were also a mess when he got here,” but this is all he had to say about the Knicks’ recent failures under Isiah:

“Yeah, but those were all his guys.”

So it turns out I have something in common with Pearl, and from the other Knicks blogs I’ve read throughout the years, Clyde doesn’t think Isiah’s made the right moves in New York either.

I love J&R. I ended up buying a laptop a few minutes later. If it was a marketing ploy to get customers in the door it worked. I should have had him sign the laptop, but then I couldn’t return it in case I end up not liking it for some reason…

Over the past four years, it was my understanding that Isiah Thomas does not think too highly of European basketball players, so why did they recently put him on a plane to go over there and scout them?

From Wikipedia:
“After the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks are determined, the 4th-14th picks are assigned to teams based on weakness of record.”

Now for some hypothetical thinking aloud (online):

If I understand this correctly, lets say that none of the three teams with the worst records finishes with the top three picks (very unlikely, but mathematically still possible). After the three top picks are determined, you would then have 4, 5, and 6 going to Miami, Seattle and Minnesota, respectively. So with that in mind, the knicks could finish anywhere, except we know for a fact, that the Knicks will not get the #4 pick, or any picks between #’s 9-14.

That leaves the Knicks a possible pick at #’s 1-3, or 5-8, depending on our luck, which so far seems to be changing this summer.

The solution then?

[1,3][5,8]

But will our choice be part of the solution?

It’s all about the luck of the draw…

For all of you in the NYC area this weekend who would like a chance to meet a living Knick legend, my sources have informed me that NBA great Earl “The Pearl” Monroe will be doing an autograph session at J&R this Saturday at 1:30pm.

You are invited…

The Knicks would have tied Seattle’s 20-win record had they lost those three relatively meaningless games.

The 2008 lottery is scheduled for one week from today, on May 20, 2008 in Secaucus, New Jersey. The results are to be revealed on ESPN at 8:00-8:30 EDT. Here are the odds of winning it all.

(Remember, the Rockets got Yao with only the seventh best chance of winning it all, so there is hope for landing Derrick Rose-with some old fashioned luck)

Latest mock draft from nbadraft.net

We already know the blockbuster news around town yesterday, that Mike D’Antoni has accepted the New York Knicks head coaching position last for $24 million over four seasons.

I admire D’Antoni for the job he’s done in Phoenix, the way he sort of transformed the league with the now highly copied system he introduced in Phoenix, but D’Antoni is not known as a defensive specialist, and considering the Knicks we saw in 2007-2008, I wonder how this is all going to be put together this November and in the Novembers to come leading up to 2010.

So we have another big splash in a series of big splashes. Lenny Wilkins, Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas–Herb Williams never had a chance with the way the Knicks ownership likes to do things at 2 Penn Plaza. I wonder if Dolan forced Walsh’s hand (yet again, since Dolan forced Walsh to keep Isiah with the Knicks organization instead of justifiably firing him outright as he should have done), because Walsh probably did in some degree want to bring in someone like a rookie coach named Mark Jackson.

Especially when you consider what Walsh has already said about the Knicks’ immediate future. If we’re gutting the roster and looking to get under the cap by 2010, what sense does it make to bring in another big-name, top-dollar coach when the roster isn’t much of a match for the style that D’Antoni has clearly mastered? Do the Knicks right now have the horses to “run and gun” considering the way that they shot the ball this past season? How could the Knicks suddenly be athletic enough to get up and down the court the way D’Antoni has with Phoenix? Quentin Richardson can barely run up and down the floor at a slow pace these days. The Knicks were a high turnover team in a half-court offense, how would they fair pushing the ball the entire game?

Here is the thing: I think Chi-town wanted another Jackson (Mark) to coach the Bulls and were maybe dragging their feet making D’Antoni an offer in time. Wouldn’t be the first time the Chicago organization fleeced the Knicks (see Eddy Curry ,and the bad heart drama, versus the no heart reality). Now Chicago isn’t bidding against Cablevision, should they choose to bring in a Mark Jackson or a Tom Thibodeau, should Tom suddenly become available after the playoffs. I assume since Jackson quit his Yes gig that he is intent on getting out of broadcasting and into a NBA head coaching job.

We all know Stephon Marbury’s career with Knicks is soon nearing its end, but with D’Antoni on board, that severance package might be offered sooner than the Feburary ‘09 trade deadline. Just as Bird dismissed Isiah through Walsh in Indiana, D’Antoni’s successful start in Phoenix was nearly paralleled with Marbury’s departure.

What’s up next for the Knicks? We have the draft lottery coming up in about ten days or so, and also the possibility that Donnie Walsh will announce a new GM to go with that new coach from Phoenix/Europe.

Another thing the D’Antoni signing indicates to me is that the Knicks will draft a point guard in June, irrespective of where they pick in the draft. One thing you’ll need if you want to play D’Antoni style basketball is an excellent point guard, and right now, the Knicks don’t even have a decent point guard.

And if you remember our poll last week, we had 26 defenders chime in and vote for their favorite coaching choice, Mike D’Antoni finished in second place.

It is worth mentioning that the current MVP of the NBA thinks the world of the Knick’s new coach, as does the former MVP Steve Nash, of course.
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From Wikipedia:

Kobe Bryant, star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, grew up in Italy during the height of D’Antoni’s European career and cites D’Antoni as the player he loved most growing up as a child. During his early career with the Lakers, Bryant chose to wear the numeral 8, D’Antoni’s old jersey number with the Olimpia Milano.

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Lastly, for all the people that think Wilson Chandler will flourish under D’Antoni, did you actually see the injury at the end of the season? That looked pretty bad. I hope Chandler is all right. We’ll know by summer league how bad Chandler’s injury is in reality (can’t ever trust what MSG tells us about Knick injuries), as was the case last season with Mardy Collins. Collins sat out summer league due to knee surgery, and ended up having a horrible second year in orange and blue. If Chandler sits out summer league, consider that a red flag that Isiah played Chandler much too much at the end of a season that was already clearly lost.

For the file attached below, the February numbers are indicative of what Chandler was getting all season long, about 5mpg for about 5 games each month. Then March and April come, and you start seeing heaving minutes from out of nowhere, just like that other promising rookie that got hurt, Mardy Collins, in the preceding season.

Chandler’s season-ending stats