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Weekend At Bibby’s

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In honor of Bibby’s performance this season we give you:

Mike Bibby

Thank you Evan for sending us this.

The Knicks display their lack of desire to lead catch division leader

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This is a photo of the Knicks shot selection tonight:

The Knicks had a chance to close the gap on the 76ers tonight, playing the terrible Raptors.  They had a multi-faceted strategy:

  • Turn the ball over every other possession
  • Miss at least 10 layups and/or dunks
  • Miss as many shots as possible
  • Don’t tire yourself out contesting any Raptors driving to the basket
  • J.R. Smith should shoot constantly no matter how contested or how far from the net he is
  • Keep Jorts on the bench even though Jeffries is injured
  • Throw the ball into the stands at least once a quarter
  • Make sure no one is boxed out, someone might accidentally get a rebound if that happens

This strategy did not work.

 

Carmelo Admits to Dogging It

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Carmelo Anthony said that since Mike Woodson took over he’s had focus and energy he hasn’t had all season. It’s not like this is game 5 of the season. It’s game 45 and he finally decides to try on defense. What a guy! It’s good to know that our 18 million dollar a year man decided to start trying. Now it would be nice if he could remember how to shoot again too.

What pisses me off the most is that the Knicks have a much better chance of getting out of the first round if we finish the season as the 6th seed and play the Magic instead of the Heat or Bulls. We have 19 games to make up 3. That’s doesn’t leave much room for error. I can’t help but think if Melo graced us with some effort a few games earlier our road to the 6th seed would be much easier. And if the plan was to get D’Antoni fired don’t half-ass it, just completely tank and let management make a decision 20 games ago.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re on a 5 game winning streak and everything seems great now, but if this is the kind of personality we’re dealing with who knows when he’s going to lose his motivation again. He had 18 million reasons not to the first few months of the season and that didn’t seem to work.

The Knicks are about to sign J.R. Smith

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Anyone want to fill me in on the logic of this move?

This is my guess as to what the GM was thinking, “Hmmmm, I think I’d rather sign a 4th shooting guard and continue to play Jeremy Lin 40 minutes a game instead of signing a backup point or even a backup big man.  OK so I’ve talked myself into a SG, but our 4th SG can’t be just any SG.  What we need is a ball stopper.  Preferably one who’s a very streaky shooter like Jamal Crawford was.  Oh let’s make sure he is suspect on D and has a bad attitude, things were getting a little too happy around here, we need to make things interesting.  I know, J.R. Smith!”

Last I checked we have Landry Fields, Iman Shumpert and Toney Douglas all fighting for minutes at the 2.  Obviously Douglas is currently the odd man out, but it looks like Shumpert will also lose most of his playing time when Smith arrives.  You know, our best wing defender.  Also a young player that needs to get some run to develop. 

I hope this works out, but I have a feeling I’m going to be waching the game from my computer (not my couch because MSG still has their channel blacked out in NY) and thinking about this post when he’s in the middle of a 2-14 game and Shump looks miserable on the end of the Knicks bench.

The Knicks Depth

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Remember a few weeks ago when we were complaining that the Knicks went 4 deep with one of the worst benches in the NBA?  Well now if Baron Davis ever comes back we’re suddenly 2 deep at every single position.

Jeremy Lin                Baron Davis
Landry Fields             Iman Shumpert
Carmelo Anthony      Steve Novak
Amar’e Stoudemire   Josh Harrellson
Tyson Chandler         Jared Jeffries

And that’s with Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Renaldo Balkman, Mike Bibby and Jerome Jordan all getting zero minutes.

Are we actually resembling a real team?

The Knicks Win Their Sixth In A Row

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The Knicks won their sixth in a row, the first five with a starting lineup of Jared Jeffries, Bill Walker, Landry Fields, Jeremy Lin and Tyson Chandler.  If you’re doing the math that’s 1 legit starter, a D-leaguer, a 2nd round pick, a guy who was the 11th man in Boston and a guy who couldn’t break into Houston’s rotation when all of their forwards and centers were injured.  Amar’e was back for this one, but started out real rusty.

So why are they winning?

Continue reading →

Thoughts on the season so far

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The season is 25% finished already. What have we learned?

  • Chicago and Miami are by far the two best teams in the east, as expected. They should really start the eastern conference playoffs with the conference finals. The first two rounds are just going through the motions.
  • Philly and Indiana are better than expected. One of those two will make it to the second round this year. These teams can actually get much better at the trade deadline as they are both in favorable cap situations with a lot of movable assets. That is something to keep an eye on, especially in Indiana’s case; they are a piece or two away from being a contender.
  • Orlando should trade Dwight now. Two complete drubbings in the last two games, a thin bench and a disgruntled Dwight = a situation that is barely keeping it together right now, could totally implode any day, and has a ceiling of getting a beatdown in the second round of the playoffs. Dwight is leaving, time to face that reality and rebuild.
  • Atlanta will do what they do every year; lose in the 2nd round. Moving on.
  • Boston is starting to get it together, 4 wins in a row and 4 easy games this week. If they can be healthy come seasons end they will be a tough draw in the playoffs. Their really weak bench is suspect, however they totally won the Big Baby for Brandon Bass trade. Continue reading →

Western Conference Initial Reactions

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Western Conference

Oklahoma City – This team is on fire right now.  The loss of Maynor for the season doesn’t seem to have affected them at all.  The Westbrook/Durant feud seems to have been nothing but hot air.  The team that everyone expected to make the conference finals before the season started is on pace to do just that.

Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe is ignoring the fact that this team is much worse than last year and Metta World Piece has only had 1 good game all season.  Playing with a chip on his shoulder after ESPN named him the 7th best player in the league, he’s been destroying teams,  recently with four straight 40 point games.  Will be interesting to see how they handle Bynums annual injury.  You know it’s coming Laker fans.

San Antonio Spurs – These guys just won’t go away.  They’ve been called old and past their prime for years and yet still lead their division.  It helps when your scouts consistently find a player no one has ever heard of that ends up being very good.  Gary Neal was that player last year;  James Anderson is that player this year. Continue reading →

Eastern Conference: Initial Reactions

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As part of my weekly columns on Popblerd I deceded to write my initial reactions on every team in the eastern conference:

Eastern Conference

Miami Heat – They look scary good so far. They’ve had 4 blowout victories in their first 8 games and a win without Wade OR James. It also looks like they got a steal in Norris Cole. Exactly what a team with 2 of the 5 best players in the league needs, to get really lucky in the draft on top of that. Barring any long-term serious injury to their big three, they are pretty much a lock for the conference finals.

Chicago Bulls – Boozer is playing closer to what the Bulls thought they were getting last year, Rose looks even better and they were able to steal Richard Hamilton for next to nothing. The East is a two horse race this year between Miami and Chicago.

Indiana Pacers – They made some great moves in the offseason, getting David West being the best of those moves. They have a lot of good young pieces and no terrible contracts. While not contenders this year, they will be a tough out and they are in position to make some noise in the very near future. Continue reading →

Easy Shots vs. Hard Shots…In Baron Davis We Trust…Why the Knicks look so awful right now

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If Kevin Garnett had hit that last second shot against the Knicks on Christmas then this season would have been an absolute disaster so far. Instead, the Knicks are 1-2 and we are all comforted by the thought that, “hey, it has only been three games.” Yes, the season is young but I think the Knicks need to take their problems very seriously or this season could get out of control really fast and by February we could all be speculating as to what lottery pick the Knicks will get in next year’s draft (assuming they have not traded this pick away which is very possible).

Last night, in their loss to the Lakers, it seemed like the Lakers had quite a number of easy looks while the Knicks seemed to have to work hard for every basket. The Lakers shot extremely well last night especially in the first half where the Lakers seemed like they never missed a basket. The Knicks, on the other hand, managed to stay in the game despite an awful shooting night. This may make you think that if the Lakers did not get so lucky with their shooting and if the Knicks had a little more luck last night then the outcome would have been different. The problem with this thought process is that you are missing why the Lakers were having more “luck” shooting and the Knicks lacked “luck”. Teams can make their own “luck”. The real difference is that the Lakers shot a lot more easy shots than the Knicks and that is why they shot the ball much better last night. The Lakers were hitting lay-ups and short, open jumpers while the Knicks were focusing on 3s and almost always taking contested shots. It is very understandable that the team taking the easier shots will more times than not shoot better than the team taking harder shots. If the Knicks want to improve their offensive performance they need to really focus on taking easier shots, or what you would call higher percentage shots (and if they want to improve their defense they may want to focus on forcing teams like the Lakers into lower percentage shots by say having everyone stick with their man). The Lakers were able to shoot a lot of easy shots last night because they did some very important things like moved the ball around, found open cutters, used screens and basically worked as a team. These things sound pretty basic but maybe D’Antoni, the Offensive Genius may want to work on these things with his team. He may also want to try basic, youth league rules like you have to pass the ball twice before anyone is allowed to shoot so at least this team thinks about passing (Toney “I shoot way too early” Douglas in particular should never be allowed to shoot before having passed the ball at least once).

The common collective response to the Knicks’ offensive woes is that we do not have a true point guard and once Baron Davis gets back everything will be fine. Continue reading →