2-2 record to start the season

Amare has been very TO prone so far.

Might just be because he's trying too much and he needs to learn to get into the flow of the offense with new teammates.

But it also might be partly due to missing a top notch point guard who can get him the ball in desirable spots on the floor.

3-2. Douglas looks sick. Felton playing great. Not much negative can be said about this team.

They do look good.

this team is very mediocre.

they'll be hovering up and down from the .500 mark all season.. and they'll probably collapse a couple of games below it by the end of the season. Around a 38-44 record.

and i don't get why Wilson Chandler's minutes have been down so far this season ... he should be playing 35 minutes a game.

I take back every nice thing I said... until they win another game.

Golden State looks good

curry and monte are a fun guard combo to watch

and D.Lee fits in nicely with that team

Very early.

But what was that about this supposed strong defense I got hurled at me in the offseason thread?

I guess the easy defense of that was that the evidence that was presented to me included Anthony Randolph's athleticism being an interior defense improvement, and I dunno how much he's doing in his 2.3 minutes/game.

Like I said a few months ago: Golden State East.

Maybe it's because we haven't seen good defense in many years but a lot of us have been fairly pretty impressed with their defense for the most part this season although it has been inconsistent. I didn't watch much of the last 3 games but the defense really did take a step backwards especially vs. Philly. The shotblocking has been superb and when Felton and Douglas are on the court together they really pressure the ball very well.

One of my biggest concerns is how they are closing games. Not something hard to believe when you have a new group that hasn't played together much. As for Randolph I admit I've been dissapointed so far but he missed some time with an injury and he hasn't seen consistent minutes even when healthy (note- he had a 7 board game in about 15 minutes last week then either had the injury or was felled by foul trouble).


Now, I only caught parts of last night's game but from what I understand there was a lineup change. Was it Mozgov to the bench w/Chandler in at PF? If so I don't like the move as WC looked to be in a perfect spot as 6th man/primary bench scorer/sparkplug.

It may have been too early to make a lineup change but If that's what Antoni wants to do I'd like to see what this lineup could do together:

Amare
Randolph
Gallo
Fields
Felton

w/ a bench of:

Mozgov (play him mostly against opposing team's 2nd unit Center)
Turiaf
Chandler
Walker
Douglas




I'd hope that starting frontcourt would benefit from having a rebounder/shotblocker in Randolph playing next to Amare and although I know he'll get into foul trouble Turiaf, Chandler and Mozgov could sub in depending on the match up.

Same ol Knicks

looks like they replaced one weakness (interior scoring) with another (perimeter shooting) more or less. But the common denominator in all of this is the lack of defense and abysmal and downright stupid coaching displayed by D'Antoni.

Running up and down the floor, players clueless on the defensive end. It doesnt appeal to me at all. You see guys trying to score in less than 7 seconds, its downright stupid.

the coach should get fired as he cant even get a half-way decent roster to play to their maximum ability. Believe me, if he was a baseball manager, his butt would have been canned a long time ago.

And i was wrong about Stoudemire. Seems like that guy was just a product of Steve Nash. He has zero handles, no back to the basket game, a poor rebounder. He scored most of his points thanks to great passes by Nash giving him easy dunks.

What a mess and embarrassment. Isiah Thomas will be the icing on this cake

Let's be fair, MJ. The Knicks are not a strong defensive team, but they are about middle of the pack right now. They give up 103.5 points per 100 possessions which puts them at 14th in the league. Opponents shoot 47.9% from the field against them which places them near the bottom of the league, but they also turn the ball over more than most teams and take a ton of 3's which leads to easy buckets and an inflated shooting percentages on the other end. They have a team rebounding rate of 49.7, which is 19th best in the league. Opponents get to the line against the Knicks an average of 27.0 times per game which is very high, but is not adjusted to the amount of possessions per game. Opponents score 1.26 points per shot against the Knicks, which is high and there is really no justification for that.

Here is my take. The Knicks play good man defense, but their pace and poor rebounding magnify their defensive problems. All in all, they are much improved defensively from last year, but still not a good defensive team and likely won't be if they continue to play the same style and a similar rotation.

And, by the way, Golden State is actually pretty good on D. They play fast as heck so opponents score a lot against them, but they are pretty solid if you factor in pace. And it is not just this year. The Baron, Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson, Matt Barnes, Mickael Pietrus, Monta Ellis 2006-2007 team was a nasty defensive team.

And I will add that the Knicks are also burned defensively because of D'Antoni's coaching. It is not his strong suit, so I can't really expect this team to get much better on defense by way of coaching.

Huh?

First, how did they go about replacing their interior scoring weakness with a perimeter shooting weakness? I missed that part of the offseason.

This is the first year where the Knicks are really expected to be alright... There's been 8 games... Do you also think Miami's coach should be fired now?

And about Stoudemire... It's been 8 freaking games... Little early to be saying his entire success as a player came from one other player...