The Knick Effect 2010/11

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So I noticed there’s been a lot of players who seem to do really well against the Knicks lately.  I decided to do a little research and find out how many players have had their highest scoring game this season against the Knicks.  The list got big enough that I decided to call this trend the Knick Effect (formerly the Golden State Warrior Effect).  So far this season 22 players have benefited from the Knick Effect.

Brandon Roy – 10/30 – 29 points
Taj Gibson – 11/4 – 18 points
Gary Forbes – 11/16 – 19 points
Derrick Brown – 11/23 – 12 points
Tayshaun Prince – 11/28 – 31 points
Rodney Stuckey – 11/28 – 29 points
Brook Lopez – 11/30 – 36 points
Andrea Bargnani – 12/8 – 41 points
Goran Dragic – 1/7 – 17 points
Ben Gordon – 1/30 – 35 points
Elton Brand – 2/4 – 33 points (Is this the Elton of 2005)
Jameer Nelson – 3/1 – 26 points
Quincy Pondexter – 3/2 – 14 points
Luke Harangody – 3/4 – 18 points
Al Jefferson – 3/7 – 36 points
Derrick Favors – 3/7 – 16 points
Tyler Hansbrough – 3/13 and 3/15 29 and then 30 points
Carlos Delfino – 3/20 – 30 points (career high)
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute – 3/20 – 19 points
Brandon Jennings – 3/25 – 37 points
Anthony Morrow – 3/30 – 30 points
Ed Davis – 4/5 – 22 points
Stephen Graham – 4/8 – 12 points

The list almost doubles if you add the 2nd highest game of the season:

Blake Griffin (44 points)
Trevor Ariza (21 points)
David Lee (28 points)
Amir Johnson (22 points)
Jerryd Bayless (23 points)
Paul Pierce (32 points)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas (14 points)
DeAndre Jordan (17 points)
Randy Foye (29 points)
Beno Udrih (29 points)
John Salmons (27 points)
Dahntay Jones (18 points)
DeMar DeRozan (36 points)
Thaddeus Young (25 points)

and let’s not forget Kevin Love’s epic game (31 points and 31 rebounds).

So that’s 37 players that love playing the Knicks.  Over 50% of the games played since the Melo trade have had Knick Effect games as well.  That’s something to keep an eye on.  It seems like more than a coincidence at this point.  At first I was thinking that maybe the Knicks pace had something to do with it, but if that were the case then wouldn’t the list be full of normally high scoring players like Kobe, LeBron and Nowitzki?  How come a good portion of this list is filled with names like Pondexter, Forbes and Harangody?

I guess the point is the Knicks need to learn to play some defense and they need a big man. That was  a lot of research to make that quite obvious point. Now I am going to go watch tape of the games to figure out how the Knicks could be better on defense…oh wait, I am probably just going to open a can natty light and try to forget how much I love this team.

The Ewing Theory is Officially Re-Named the Carmelo Theory

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as the Nuggets keep rolling.

Knicks All time Draft and More

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Fantasy Draft Results

Episode 43 – All Time Knicks Fantasy Draft

Be sure to check out out post on podcast where we did our all time (post 1990) Knicks team draft and vote on who has the better team (in the poll on the top of the main page). Posting this one more time, we’ll have a new poll up shortly and our next podcast (probably an angry one) should be out tomorrow night.

More thoughts from last night

Carmelo willing to shoot less…but is he willing to play defense?

 

Do I blame D'Antoni too much for the Knicks defensive problems?

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Knickerblogger disagrees. It is not D’Antoni’s fault as his roster just lacks talented defenders.

Definitely an interesting argument. I just think there is more D’Antoni could do with this team. There always just seem to be so many players open under the basket, so many uncontested offensive rebounds and so many easy lay-ups. So many players seem to have career nights against the Knicks these days. I just question how much D’Antoni is focusing on defense with this team.  I do, however, completely agree he can only do so much with this roster. In particular, the knicks roster is screaming for big men who could clog the middle and get rebounds. No defensive genius could magically turn anyone on this roster into the center they desperately need.

Carmelo + Amare = Indiana Dominance

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One cool thing about last season was that I could always look on stubhub the day of the Knicks game and get two tickets for like $20. I could do this because the team sucked. I guess D’Antoni is hoping to help me buy cheap tickets again by producing another awful team.

I know this game was close and things do not always work out but this team is just not that great. How do you get swept in a two game set by the Pacers? Is this why we got Carmelo and Amare? D’Antoni can’t be the coach of this team next year.  I don’t care that the Knicks basically have a new team with chemistry issues, you can’t lose these games. You have to have a coach that knows how to emphasize defense. D’Antoni either doesn’t understand defense or doesn’t care.  How can this team be continually so unprepared on the defensive end?

  • Last play of the game: why doesn’t Carmelo know you can’t catch and shoot with 0.3 seonds? Why is Jared Jeffries of all people throwing this important pass in? Why not have a better set play? At least Landry realized you need to tip it in.
  • In the post game interview D’Antoni said Shawne Williams did everything he could defending Granger. While you have to give props to Granger for hitting a tough shot, Williams could have done more. He could have actually been in Granger’s face instead of allowing him to step back for an open shot. He could have and should have forced Granger to go left.
  • If you score 117 points you should win. I am fairly certain that with any coach this team would have one of the better offenses in the league. When you have so much natural offensive talent, you need to emphasize defense. This team will never lead the league in defense but if they could be middle of the pack they would be dangerous.
  • Last game Hansbrough had a season high 29 points, tonight he had 30 points. I bet Hansbrough wishes he could play the Knicks every night.
  • Hibbert again looked like a beast. Collison looked awesome. Granger looked like Kobe. I guess you need to start calling this the Knick Effect. When good players look like hall of famers, it is called the Knick Effect.
  • Billups looked old tonight and you can see why Denver was eager to move him. He will, however, be a good tutor for Toney Douglas. He also is still good but he is no longer great.
  • Amare and Carmelo combined for 49 points…who cares if this is in a losing effort. Amare needs to play better D, or should I say he needs to play D.
  • Frazier keeps lamenting about the lack of boxing out and how it is a forgotten art. He is right. I wish he had D’Antoni’s phone number.
  • On a positive note, Jared Jeffries tied his season high with 4 points. That was a pretty unexpected offensive explosion.

 

George Karl Simply Won't Stop Criticizing Ex-Girlfriend

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We get it already. You are happy he is gone. Life is so much better now. If you had to do it over again you would have traded Carmelo for a pair of high tops just to get him out of Denver.

Barkley calls the Knicks out

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words like disgrace and worst defensive team ever seem to get just thrown around these days.

Knickerblogger continues every Knicks fan’s favorite obsession, trying to figure out if this Carmelo thing is working.

The Denver Nuggets post-Carmelo move up the power rankings only because analysts tend to put an overemphasis on actually winning.

Is Andy Rautins getting any better by not playing?

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The Knicks are not winning the title this year. It is a fact, not a shocker and no fan will be disappointed when the Knicks do not win it. The Knicks are unlikely to go far in the playoffs and most fans will likely be happy if they can just push the first round to 7 games. The bar will be much higher next year when we have a full year of Carmelo and Amare plus possibly a few good pick-ups in the off-season. Knicks fans may not expect to win it next year but they do expect to at least go far in the playoffs.

So, how will the Knicks go from a good team to a great team. They will need to work on their chemistry. They will also need to develop the players around them. They will need a solid bench that can really help them compete the way Big Baby Davis makes the Celtics better or Jason Terry makes the Mavs better. They will also obviously need to get better on defense (but we will not focus on that now).

Where am I going with this? Well the Knicks are not going anywhere this year and unless things fall apart greatly they will at least make the playoffs. Why not use the rest of the season to find out what we have on the bench? Why not give Rautins, Derek Brown and Balkman some playing time? I am not saying these guys deserve to start or that we should give Carmelo a night off but why not run a larger rotation.  Why not give them 10 minutes a night a see if they can earn more minutes especially on nights when their starters suck like last night against the Pacers. Not every game is a must win where your starters need to play 40 minutes when you know you are not going to win it all anyway.

Why not have a longer term approach? Andy Rautins is not getting much better by sitting out for a year. No one would argue Landry Fields would have been better off riding the bench all year. Roger Mason is not playing better lately because he sat on his butt for the first 60 games of the year. Why not give some playing times to guys that could be good role players next year and in the future. Let’s see if some of these players deserve a roster spot next year. If Derek Brown is not good enough to get a look this year, why would he suddenly be good enough next year and why even waste a roster spot on him.

I understand these players practice and D’Antoni sees them there. The players do learn a lot in practice (at least on the offensive side) but it is hard to believe that just practicing without a chance to compete in real games will really develop these players into valuable pieces for the future.

Who’s Better?

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Raymond Felton has stated that the Nuggets are a better team than the Knicks.

It’s a very interesting experiment because Denver is pretty  much the Knicks plus a big man and another PG, AKA our plan B if we didn’t get Carmelo.  It’s only been 11 games since the trade but it’s been hard to argue for the Knicks so far.  The Nuggets are 7-2 since the trade and one of those losses was a 1 point loss in overtime.

So what do you think?

Why Coach D'Antoni will never lead us to the promised land.

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Defense wins titles, while offense does not make up for lousy defense.