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.

Any doubt since Oden is out, that this young man will be the next rookie of the year? Al Horford may give him a run for his money in the second half of the season, but Kevin Durant is a safe bet to be one of the front runners by the end of this season. I haven’t seen much of his game in the NBA, but I did catch many of his college games last season on ESPN, and they were all phenomenal. He’s a pure scorer and is averaging 20.3p 4.6r and 1.3bl in his rookie campaign thus far. It gets boring to hear Charles Barkley saying every five seconds on TNT how this guy needs to put on weight at 6’9″, 215lbs, but I can only imagine his game would improve once he does.

A lot has been made about the roll the Knicks fans at the garden have had in the team’s recent struggles. The home crowd should cheer for the home team, I believe that, and I’ve never booed any of the games I’ve been to, even when they got blown out up in Boston earlier this year or when they were killing Marbury at this time last season at the Garden. Seems everytime they’d interview Marbury after one of those games, he’d always have the same response: “that’s New York. They’re going to boo if you don’t bring it,” if I can paraphrase last year’s Stephon.

If you want to show the Garden crowd how to really support the home team, check out this link, there are some good deals there on tickets for the Seattle game.

Stephon probably isn’t ready to play yet, but I don’t question by now, he wants to go out there and help the team win some ball games. Randolph shot his way out of his slump last game, so we’ve got one of our two big guys ready to step up and play basketball. Hopefully Eddy Curry isn’t too far behind… Maybe now that Malik Rose has been moved to the IR list, Chandler may actually get some minutes this month. He could be good for the knicks, last time I remember him in a Knicks jersey it was against the Nets in the preseason and there were some encouraging signs he can contribute at the NBA level. Crawford must really try to shift his focus on getting the other players in the starting five going, I’ve seen him do it before, so I know he is capable of finding his rhythm without it being to the detriment of the team.

Kurt Thomas will be back in the Garden, that should be interesting, and the Sonics have other weapons in Chris Wilcox, Earl Watson, WallyWorld, Delonte West, and former Knick guard Gerald Wilkins’ son, Damien, who is putting up solid numbers as a starter for the Sonics in his fourth year in the NBA. Oh, and watch out for the other rookie, Jeff Green, he’s a baller too.

Seattle comes to New York at 5-17, having been blown out by the Bulls 123-96 in the first of a back-to-back on the road.

When I first heard Jason Kidd was to miss the Knicks-Nets game because of a migrane, I was reminded of Steve Francis who also had migrane problems for a few seasons with the Houston Rockets.

Now it seems in the article below that the thought is being put forth that Kidd intentionally sat out last night because he wasn’t given the contract extension discussion he was seeking.

Assume it is true that he chose not to be there for his team: is it that much different in principle than Marbury leaving the team for one game last month for personal reasons?

You ask your average sports fan and they’ll tell you who’s who: Kidd is the winner who makes everyone better, Marbury is the malcontent who makes a team suck, that’s the image that has been ingrained over the years, fair or unfair.

This recent article by Fred Kerber of the Post tells me things may vary from the usual public opinion when it comes to Kidd. Reminds me of the shocking articles people wrote on David Robinson when he was petitioning for his last sports contract. For once, NBA’s model citizen was uncharacteristically painted as selfish by sports writers.

Also, now that I think about it, Vince Carter’s exit from Toronto was anything but graceful: he seemed to be playing bad on purpose to facilitate a trade, take a look at his numbers just before and just after his move to the Nets. Yet the dude makes the all-star team every single year so his image was not damaged by his successful scheme to get out of Toronto.

Bottom line, public perception in the NBA isn’t always very accurate or usually fair for that matter. I doubt LeBron, Carmelo or Durant will all be viewed in the same light as they are now in ten years; more than one of them will probably win the title, yet one of them may be relabeled a “Dominique,” a great player statistically but not a “champion.” Nique is still one of my favorite players ever, by the way.  Hopefully the newer generations (people like Jason Horowitz) realize how good of a player he was.

The New York Knicks (5-11) will face the New Jersey Nets (9-9) for the first time this season tonight at the Izod Center (Meadowlands for the old school) in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

New York may or may not have Stephon Marbury available to start at point guard, since he is still mourning the loss of his father Don Marbury. If Marbury is out, look for Mardy Collins or Nate Robinson to get the nod.

Nets point guard Jason Kidd is in a duel with Cavs forward LeBron James for near Oscar Robinsonesque triple-double averages (Kidd: 11.3p 8.7r 10.4a, James: 30.7p 7.6r 8.1a) and the Nets also have Vince Carter back in the lineup, so it would be an accomplishment for the Knicks to get their first road victory of the season against this Nets ball club. Over the past five years, the Nets have simply dominated the Knicks.

NBA.com has the preview article of Knicks-Nets 2007 round I here.

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In a related story (NJ basketball), I checked out the brand new Prudential Center in Newark last night at a Seton Hall-Saint Peters college basketball game. The new arena sparkles, none of the sticky floors or crappy seating of MSG and infinitely easier to get to than the Izod center via public transportation. Of course the Knicks are supposed to be getting a new building of their own, one of these years (behind the post office/future Moynihan station) but if the Nets franchise continues to struggle securing the Brooklyn Railyards property as they have been, the Nets are invited to move into this new building which seats 18,500 and currently hosts NHL’s NJ Devils. Regardless of where they end up, once the Nets move out of the Izod Center, that arena will probably be demolished.

Preseason game two has come and gone, and the Knicks are now 2-0. It was admittedly a tough game to watch, but I’m encouraged by some of what I saw and look forward to seeing this Knicks team again as they continue to learn how to play together.

Early on the Knicks looked nervous, Stephon and Quentin missed some easy buckets I’d like to think they’d make once they get into regular season rhythem.

Mardy’s got no hops yet coming off surgery, yet he did some great stuff including a spin move in the paint that dazzled. He had a few looks at the basket where it seemed he had no lift. I know from the Wheelchair Charity game last year that Mardy can throw it down, so I hope with more time he can redevelop his leaping ability. His defense was still very good, and he picked somebody’s pocket out there and pushed the ball on the break. That’s what I like to see from Mardy Collins.

Fred Jones played solid defense and challenged/altered some shots in the paint. I’d hate to think of what would happen if it were against a more athletic NBA player, Fred might get dunked on some times, but nobody said good defensive players don’t ever get dunked on–ask Mutumbo about that.

Nate looked like a real distributor out there. I’m liking what I’m seeing this year. His jumper looked good too–lookout AH7.

We’ve heard that Nate and Fred would be picking up their man at 3/4 court, yet I didn’t see much full court press tonight; I suppose we didn’t need it once New York took the lead.

Physically, Fizer looked like Boozer out there. He put on some weight while he’s been overseas.

I noticed they played Mardy at the Small Forward position some tonight, with Fred Jones and Nate Robinson in the back court. Very interesting lineup choice. There was some good chemistry between Nate and Fred, looks like that second unit is going to be a terror.

But what stood out most in my mind was Zach Randolph’s performance. He didn’t hit too many from the perimeter as he did in the first preseason game, but instead he showed great ability to score the ball with his lefty shot. Early on ZBO and Stephon played some promising two-man game, something to look forward to this season. All the rumors that ZBO doesn’t pass the ball once he gets it seem to be false, because I saw Zach passing to everybody out there, he just didn’t get any assists out of it.

Jared Jeffries had a nice dunk on the break, but he and Mardy still seem to be passing up open shots, I hope they develop the confidence and skill to take–and make–that shot this season.

The rookies: Chandler is very athletic, he has a shot too. Too bad Jared Jordan, Demetris Nichols and Randolph Morris played limited minutes, I’d like to see more from them in the next game.

Overall they looked rusty, but I like the team passing and I’m more than impressed that New York only had 11 turnovers for the game.

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I’m a lefty myself so it is nice to see such great lefties on this team like ZBO and DLee.

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I tried to get tickets to this game, the cheapest they had today at the Garden Box Office was $250. I couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for a game that doesn’t matter, even if it is for chairty. Outside MSG they were selling Maccabi jerseys and everything was very pro Maccabi Elite, I did not see much Knicks stuff at the merchandise tables. Suffice to say the crowd wasn’t a knicks crowd, they were still cheering for Israel despite being down by 20 in the fourth quarter.

Probably not the last one to come, either. There is a website called Bleacher Report where literally anyone can write a sports article and be published by them. It is actually a sweet deal for the owners of the site, grant these writers access to the site so they can get free content. They get the rights to the articles, make profit off the banners and even have final editing rights before publishing. Here is such an article, a preview article on the knicks by a guy named Harris Beringer. Already sounds like a fantasy league guy to me. Below is my response. Unfortunately, you have to register to post your reply, so this guy may never know just how off I find his article to be.

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I have to admit, this is absolutely the worst preview article I’ve ever read in my life.

there is no attempt to be unbiased, you could have effectively made the same case by editing down your article to “the knicks suck,” –i would have respected you more for it.

You dismiss Zach Randolph’s contributions to the team because of David Lee’s stats and what Randolph Morris did in summer league against rookie competition? Zach Randoph has been putting up 20 and 10 against the best power forwards in the league (previously found in the western conference) for years and Randolph Morris hasn’t even played 21 minutes in a single game yet, discussion over. David Lee still can’t shoot, Zach Randolph has incredible range for a big man, not to mention an array of moves in the paint. yes, 6’9″, 255lbs IS a big man. Karl Malone was a big man, Carlos Boozer is a big man, Zach Randolph is a big man. when you dominate all other power forwards in the league, you have earned the title big man.

Stephon Marbury’s game has statistically declined, which probably would matter to a fantasy basketball fan with no true concept of the game, but matters very little when the team is shifting it’s offense from the perimeter to the paint. you could have easily compared his numbers last year to the older Chauncey Billups, but instead focused strictly on the negative.

your synopsis of Crawford: “dump the ball to curry,” easier said than done pal. you make it sound like you could go out there and do it yourself. when the entire league knows you are trying to get the ball to one guy on the post, and a certain player has a knack for doing just that, you shouldn’t so easily dismiss the chemistry they have.

On Q getting hurt this season: well, you may have a point there, but I’ve never heard of any writer saying, “well, he’ll probably get hurt and miss a lot of time,” something is wrong with the way you phrase that. people may think it, but it is usually less negatively said.

eddy curry: again, you focused on the negative. you didn’t mention that his offensive game on the low block was unstoppable, which is true. it is also true that he can’t play a lick of defense, but if you are going to talk about the coin, why not present both sides of the matter?

“Rookies Wilson Chandler and Demetris Nichols may be assigned to the NBDL.” Shows how little you know about the knicks. they never share their players with the D league. I’d bet the farm they never play D league for one minute as knicks property.

Mardy Collins never punched a player in his life, that was Carmelo Anthony. You have the facts mixed up. Is that all you know about Mardy Collins? He did average 14p 6r 6a 2st per game over the last month of the regular season, in case you didn’t know.