Marc and Jay talk about the first three games of the season, Shane Larkin and Iman Shumperts contracts, defense, best new additions so far, Derrick Rose, a few around the league notes, and much more
Knicks vs. Hornets 11/2/2014 – Game Recap
Written by William Lee
January 24, 2014 Carmelo Anthony set a career high and franchise record with 62 points in Madison Square Garden against the then Charlotte Bobcats. It is only fitting that Anthony reached his 20,000 career point milestone against the now Charlotte Hornets as well.
Iman Shumpert started the game off very aggressively, possibly because of his contract not getting extended Friday night. Trying to make a point? Possibly…Shumpert looked for his shot early and often, scoring nine points in the opening five minutes, but was overly aggressive on the defensive end, collecting an early second personal foul, forcing him to the bench. With back to back threes, New York held an early double digit lead, 15-5. Carmelo Anthony’s three also put him in the 20,000 career points club.
Gary Neal kept Charlotte in the game, scoring eight of the ten points by the Hornets in between the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second quarter. Neal finished the game with 17 points. New York would lead by as much as 15 points in the first half, going on a 7-0 run capped off by an Iman Shumpert baseline slam dunk, giving the Knicks a 43-28 lead. The Hornets answered with a 22-9 run powered by Al Jefferson, scoring ten points working the low post, cutting the deficit to 52-50 by the end of the first half. Continue reading
Knicks @ Cavs 10/30/2014 – Game Recap
Written by William Lee
Knicks at Cavaliers 10/30/14
The Knicks starts off the season against the two candidates most likely to face off in the Eastern Conference finals. One night after getting demolished by the Chicago Bulls in the home opener, New York played the spoiler role, ruining Cleveland’s home opener, and the return of the King’s homecoming.
The game started right where the Knicks left off last night, no defense to speak of…allowing a wide open layup under the rim by Kevin Love. Carmelo Anthony righted the ship, scoring the first six points for the Knicks to take an early lead. Anthony looked a lot more aggressive Thursday night, making quick decisions instead of being passive and forcing it to his teammates like he did the night before.
On this night it was Lebron James who looked to be passive, forcing passes to his teammates in his first game back with the Cavaliers since the infamous Decision. Lebron finished the first quarter with more turnovers (3) than points (2). Instead it was his new running mate Kevin Love that imposed his will early on, registering 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assist in the opening period. We got treated to what will for sure be a consistent ESPN Top 10 Plays, anytime the Cavaliers take the court, when Cleveland went up 14-8 on a Kevin Love outlet pass to Lebron James. Love finished the game with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 assist.
Cleveland lead by as many as 11 points, although New York quickly got back into the game midway through the second quarter on an 8-0 run, cutting into the deficit 33-30. Lebron continued to struggle in the second quarter, having as many turnovers as points (4) by the end of the first half. New York really shared the basketball well in the first half, with ten players registering points on the box score.
Bulls @ Knicks 10/29/14 – Game Recap
Written by William Lee
Bulls @ Knicks 10/29/14 – Game Recap
The Knicks have a rough start to the season, beginning with the team that tried to steal Carmelo Anthony from the Knicks.
Knicks started off the game well enough, opening up with an 8-2 run, causing four turnovers in first six possessions. It was capped off by an Anthony steal leading to an Amare Stoudemire slam dunk. Bulls finished the first quarter strong though, going on an 8-0, taking a 24-20 lead. The Knick’s bench could not keep up with the Bulls’ bench, Taj Gibson and Aaron Brooks had their way. All the Knicks’ starters had positive +/- in the first quarter, unfortunately every bench player was negative…
The dominance of the Bull’s bench continued into the second quarter, scoring 22 of the 29 points in the quarter. Gibson in particular dominated, scoring ten points in the period, completely dominating Quincy Acy. Gibson finished the game with 22 points and 8 rebounds. The Bulls held a ten point led at halftime 53-43, with Pau Gasol grabbing an offensive rebound, and sinking an 11 foot jump shot to beat the buzzer.
The third quarter was a laugher, with the Bulls extending their lead to as much as 24 in the period. The Bulls just had their way offensively, shooting 68.8% from the field, and suffocated defensively, holding New York to 27.3% shooting.
Of course the Knicks played no defense, which everyone knew would be a sore spot for New York this season. This could not have been more evident than when the Bull’s gained a 20 point lead with 4:07 remaining in the third with back to back wide open dunks under the rim by Gasol, and Gibson. Gasol finished his first game with the Bulls with a double double, 21 points and 11 rebounds.
2014/15 Knicks Roster Power Rankings – Week 1
| The season starts for the Knicks today so lets take a look at the first addition of this years Knicks roster power rankings! 7 new faces this season and since no games have been played this week is just going on gut instinct and what I saw in preseason. I’m in a good mood so this will probably be the most upbeat rankings you’ll see all season. | |||
| Rank | Player | Comments | Last weeks Rank |
| 1 | Anthony, Carmelo | He’s the best player on the team by a very large margin. I’m hoping to see more passing and less iso plays now that the Knicks have an actual system. He’s also going to have to play acceptable D for the Knicks to make the playoffs, which he is definitely capable of. | – |
| 2 | Stoudemire, Amar’e | Amare looked good in the preseason on offense. Maybe taking baths in red wine actually helped. Hopefully he’ll continue to look good on offense, having another scorer on the floor should result in more ball movement. | – |
| 3 | Smith, J.R. | I’m not sure if JR should be this high, but if you just look at talent he’s a top 3 player on this team. No clue if he’ll behave or not but I think we’ll know after the 1st quarter of the first Sunday noon game. | – |
| 4 | Shumpert, Iman | It’s year 3 of getting excited for the leap Shump is about to make. Lets hope it actually happens this year. He’s up this high for being the only player in the top 10 that can actually play defense. | – |
| 5 | Calderon, Jose | A real point guard. An actual real point guard! He’s 32 and bad at defense and still our best point guard since that one good season Marbury had. | – |
| 6 | Hardaway Jr., Tim | If only we can make a frankenstein combo of Hardaway’s offense, JR’s athleticism and Shumperts defense. I’m not expecting THJ to be good on defense but not being the absolute worst would be great. | – |
| 7 | Dalembert, Samuel | Dalembert looks like he can clog up the middle a little bit. I’m not super impressed but I don’t think there will be any days where I’m mad at him either. | – |
| 8 | Acy, Quincy | Oof, these rankings are getting real tough already. Acy had a nice dunk in preseason and he has a cool beard. Apparently that’s good enough for #8 on this list. | – |
| 9 | Larkin, Shane | Not sure what to make of Larkin yet. He’s super fast, but in preseason I didn’t see too much other than running around really quickly. | – |
| 10 | Prigioni, Pablo | I love Pablo but I have a feeling he’s not going to play unless there are 1 or 2 injuries. | – |
| 11 | Smith, Jason | The Knicks sure do have a lot of big guys who can shoot midrange jumpers and not do much else. | – |
| 12 | Bargnani, Andrea | Bargs is already injured. I have a feeling he’s going to be a resident bottom 5 in these rankings. | – |
| 13 | Aldrich, Cole | Phil already said Cole isn’t going to play unless there are a lot of injuries. Not sure why, he seems just as capable as Smith and Bargs. Of course knowing the Knicks injury history he’ll be starting by January so it won’t be an issue. | – |
| 14 | Early, Cleanthony | Early is a lot more raw than I thought. If the Knicks fall out of the playoff picture I’d love to see him get a lot of run as he’s one of a total of 3 guys on this roster than can actually defend. | – |
| 15 | Wear, Travis | Glad Travis made the team, he impressed me in preseason. It looks like he’ll be spending most of his time in Westchester so I’ll leave him down here until/unless he plays in actual NBA games. | – |
Season Preview
Written by Nicholas McGowan
Season Preview
The New York Knicks open up the season at home on October 29 against the finally healthy Chicago Bulls. The team then travels to Cleveland for the nationally broadcasted homecoming of Lebron James. Expect the Knicks to be 0-2. We then play the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, maybe we could be 2-2, but I’m expecting a 1-3 start to the season. It will be interesting to see how the new Knicks will look against 4 probable playoff teams to begin the season. What I’m really looking for in the games against Chicago and Cleveland is for the Knicks to be competitive, show some indication that we can stay with these powerhouse teams. Regardless it should be an interesting start to the season, and to help you get ready here are some links to help you get to know this season’s Knicks a little bit better.
J.R. Smith it struggling with the triangle to say the least.
http://nypost.com/2014/10/09/knicks-j-r-smith-learning-triangle-will-take-few-months/
Cleanthony Early landed himself a shoe deal with Li Ning.
http://solecollector.com/news/li-ning-adds-cleanthony-early-glenn-robinson-iii/
Phil Jackson gave his thoughts on our roster.
The Knicks made two random signings… they won’t be with us for long.
http://www.postingandtoasting.com/2014/10/8/6946719/the-knicks-signed-d-j-mbenga-for-some-reason
Shumpert looks good so far, too bad we won’t sign him.
http://fansided.com/2014/09/28/new-york-knicks-rumors-iman-shumpert-contract-talks/
At least we get to keep Shane Larkin for an extra year.
A second round pick, and the right to swap second rounders earned us Arnett Moultrie
The Knicks and 76ers were just as bad as the Syracuse Orange when it came to shooting threes.
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400583964
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/183/syracuse-orange
And finally, Amar’e decides to take red wine baths to stay healty in last year of his contract
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/amare-stoudemire-red-wine-bath
Now that you are caught up with all the Knicks news, it’s time for some season predictions. I believe ESPN has us pegged for around 37 wins, while most Vegas places have us at around 41. Now personally I think we are good for around 45, a slightly above .500 basketball club would be a good start to Fisher’s career as a coach. When looking at the eastern conference over the past few years, there are teams that sneak into the playoffs that are either at .500 or below it. Knowing that the Cavaliers will certainly be in the playoffs and predicting that we will make it, that leaves two teams from last year who will need to drop out. The two teams that come immediately to mind are the Indiana Pacers and the Brooklyn Nets. The Pacers lost Lance Stephenson in free agency to the Charlotte Hornets and they lost Paul George to a gruesome leg injury in Vegas over the summer. The Pacers also need to find out what has happened to Roy Hibbert, perhaps it was Andrew Bynum or perhaps it was just mental weakness. Whatever it was, he needs to have a big season with both George and Stephenson gone. The Nets only seem to get older every year and were quick to replace Jason Kidd. While Lionel Hollins might be a good coach, I don’t think he can elevate the team like Kidd did. Kidd was able to help Deron Williams, Lionel Hollins is not known for his ability to guide point guards. The Nets will also have to battle through whatever injury Brook Lopez/Deron Williams comes down with. By the way, they also just traded away a 2019 second rounder to 76ers. Continue reading
2014-15 Predictions
Jay’s Picks
Eastern Conference
1. Cleveland Cavaliers
2. Chicago Bulls
3. Toronto Raptors
4. Washington Wizards
5. Miami Heat
6. Charlotte Hornets
7. Atlanta Hawks
8. New York Knicks
9. Brooklyn Nets
10. Detroit Pistons
11. Indiana Pacers
12. Milwaukee Bucks
13. Boston Celtics
14. Orlando Magic
15. Philadelphia 76ers
Western Conference
Episode 268: Predictions
Marc and Jay predict the end of the season standings, the signing of Travis Wear, bathing in wine, Phil Jacksons scouting report and much more
Episode 267: Season Preview
Marc the star and Jay preview every team, try out a live show which doesn’t go as bad as expected, preseason, listener questions and much more
Episode 266: Cole Aldrich is Mine
It’s our 5th annual live fantasy draft episode. We cut the league down to 12 teams this year so the episode is only 2 hours long instead of the four hour draft from last year. Jay makes a horrible error, can he recover? We also talk about the preseason games vs the Celtic.
The New York Knicks Podcast 