$2.5 Million for one year seals the deal for Baron Davis to join the Knicks. He’s got a bulging disc back problem, so that makes two important Knicks with back problems (the other one being Amar’e who is telling people in new interviews he’s now an outside-shooting power forward) but I digress.

Amar’e's first preseason game was forgettable, but Iman Shumpert’s wasn’t. He cut to the basket, showed good shooting ability and displayed a sort of confidence Clyde Frazier described as “almost cocky.” It makes losing Billups easier to cope with. With Douglas and Fields question marks in terms of being able to step up and take their game to the next level, it is good to have Shumpert, Bibby and now Davis (assuming he can get healthy and keep the weight in control) in the back court to go with our “most over-rated front court in the NBA.”

I don’t read too much into Balkman’s 2nd first game with the Knicks, preseason doesn’t mean anything and Balkman still can’t shoot and plays out of control when on offense. The image of Balkman barrelling into the paint to end up on the floor is all-too familiar to me during his first stint in New York. But with us losing out on Shawne Williams (What a damn shame, Shawne was a good Knick and showed grit in the playoffs; I wonder if it was easier for him to say goodbye to New York knowing that they did Donnie dirty and he knew Donnie was the guy who re-kindled his career) Balkman is a last resort and will probably get his number called at some point during this season if not for Amar’e's back issues then for Isiah’s continued influence of Jim Dolan.

Yes the Mike Woodson hiring was an Isiah Thomas hiring.

I have not seen any explosion in Amar’e's step and I heard he gained 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason, that’s not going to be good for his hops, but with Melo here I doubt he needs to play like he did in Phoenix on a nightly anymore.

Just curious: Did Chandler look like a $60 million man to you?

The Knicks are looking like a second round team, if Baron Davis can get 100% healthy, maybe deeper than that, but right now, a second-round playoff team.

Chauncey Billups should be back from injury for this one.

I have a knicks friend who is concerned for Mike D’Antoni’s job security.  Obviously we’ve had troubles rebounding and defending for the majority of the season (although this has improved slightly in recent times).  Is that on the players or the coach?  At the NBA level, do you really need a coach to show you how to defend, or is it ingrained in you by then?

I’m still of the thought that if Donnie Walsh is in New York, D’Antoni will be too.  Walsh knows D’antoni came in under the gun and coached through two years of roster-gutting.

Of course, Walsh could have been extended by now, so that fact that Dolan said they’d discuss it after the all-star break, means to me that Walsh could be the odd man out.  Who knows what kind of promises James Dolan made to World Wide Wes and the other clowns while Dolan was in LA for the all-star owners meeting.  As blind as Mr. Dolan is with regards to basketball, he couldn’t see that Melo was only ever going to play in New York , and now we find out that Utah would have offered Deron Williams to New York, had Carmelo waited it out and not signed with Jersey.  Imagine that, we keep all our guys prior to the trade, get Deron Williams at the deadline, Chandler walks after the playoffs, and Carmelo walks on.

The way it worked it is what we go with from here out.  Billups is a better passer and shooter than Felton, and Jeffries will help a little where Chandler and Mozgov were in the paint.  Carter has played admirably, and Toney is stepping up and trying to emulate Felton now, and Billups in the future.

Too bad we had to play Dallas with the gas tank half empty from the Memphis win.  Would have loved to see the Knicks bring their a game against them, but Melo never looked comfortable, and our three point shooters were MIA, so once again we had Stat trying to do everything, that’s rarely going to work.

Can’t say I pay much attention to Indiana, I know they have Granger, who should be a great match up versus Carmelo tonight at the Garden.

They’re currently the 8^th seed in the East, so you know this game means just as much to them as it does us, we’re trying to move up in the standings.

If the playoffs were to start today, the two teams I’d like to face in the playoffs are Miami and Boston.  I think we’d fare well against them.  The two teams I think we’d struggle against are Orlando and Chicago, more so Orlando.  I think we haven’t played either team enough this season, but Orlando seemed to have our number.  I think we’d love to play Chicago and humble them a little.  After all, we have the real MVP, not them.  We have a better coach for that matter too.

It will be interesting to see if Douglas can keep his production up with fewer minutes now that Billups is ready to go.

I apologize for the lack of posts towards the end of July. Not much happening in Knicks land right now, so I figure we might as well take inventory of just what we had at the end of 2007-2008 New York Knicks season, and what exactly we have as of right now, having just past the midpoint of the off-season.

Of course, this can all change at any minute. The powers that be continue to alter this well-documented losing roster. Considering the low stock value of some of our more expensive players, it may take some time to really put together a cohesive and competitive Knicks basketball team.

My barber is from Italy. He’s around 70 years old, an old-school guy named Pete. I don’t know how much Pete really knows about NBA basketball in the 21st century, but I was getting a cut the other day, and I was talking to Pete about D’Antoni and Gallinari and he said “watch them win the title next year.” I laughed, and respectfully replied, “I think it’s going to take a little more time before they can compete for a title.”

But I like the positive thinking. You have to aim high if you’re going to hit your mark. I hear that’s what D’Antoni is all about. I’m just glad they’re no longer pouring gasoline on the salary cap fire. Just because MSG has money to burn doesn’t mean they should literally burn it. We’ve had this problem since the days of Patrick Ewing, trying to get the quick fix. Someone finally stepped up, took the helm and decided to take on a new approach, hopefully the right approach to the problem.

Half way through the season defenders and I won’t lie to you: it has been a tough season for the orange and blue. I want to know how everyone sees this going down, check out this survey and please take the time to be honest about these knicks.