Holy Crap! The dude looked very good, forget about his game high 20 pts for a second. Was really impressed with how he moves w/o the ball. He always looked to be active and in the right place. Get ready for BalkMania folks!!!!!
If he can maintain that level of effort on a somewhat consistent basis, then he should make the rotation with ease.
Balkman was the offensive juggernaut yesterday, and stepped his game up, both figuratively and literally.
I've always been a fan of Balks motor and activity around the basket both defensively and offensively. Hopefully, he can continue to play smart on the offensive end because I would love to see him get some minutes in the rotation.
Balk started out pretty good with denver, he really played well with melo..Then melo got hurt for a few weeks, balk got more touches, played well for a few games, melo came back and balks mins started fading fast until he ecentually fell out of the rotation...
Melo pushed MDA to keep him, and from the looks of it, they have some good chemistry..
knicks1248 wrote:Balk started out pretty good with denver, he really played well with melo..Then melo got hurt for a few weeks, balk got more touches, played well for a few games, melo came back and balks mins started fading fast until he ecentually fell out of the rotation...Melo pushed MDA to keep him, and from the looks of it, they have some good chemistry..
Really? Where did you hear this?
I always enjoyed Balkman's hustle. But he never did much offensively.
He made at few offensive moves the other night I never thought he could pull off.
I hope he cracks the rotation.
If Balkman sees anything but garbage time minutes this year, it's a bad sign for the Knicks.
nychamp wrote:If Balkman sees anything but garbage time minutes this year, it's a bad sign for the Knicks.
What if he's playing instead of Jared Jeffries? I think that would be awesome.
ATrain wrote:knicks1248 wrote:Balk started out pretty good with denver, he really played well with melo..Then melo got hurt for a few weeks, balk got more touches, played well for a few games, melo came back and balks mins started fading fast until he ecentually fell out of the rotation...Melo pushed MDA to keep him, and from the looks of it, they have some good chemistry..
Really? Where did you hear this?
Read it an article right before the season, when everyone thought balk would be amnistied
Past performance is not indication of the future......
IE: Things change.
One game is not an indication of his future either.
Especially a preseason game against inferior competition.
Childs2Dudley wrote:One game is not an indication of his future either.Especially a preseason game against inferior competition.
Thats my point......it happens on the court.
The guy played well enough to demonstrate a good motor and motivation. Things he was accused of not having.
We need a high energy SF/PF to play some minutes. You don't call his number, he gets the ball.
The way he was talked about only a buy out of his contract made sense.
He came to play. Rosters are going deep into rotation. We need him to step up and give us 10 minutes.
Does anyone really think this is anything else other than getting Balk's trade value pumped?
Who's our coach again?
The Knicks haven't figured out who is going to play back up minutes at both power and small forward that Shawne was going to supply. Playing time in the super short preseason is extremely valuable and MDA wouldn't have wasted it on Balkman if he didn't have a chance to contribute during the season. (This forum made a similar mistake when we accused MDA of playing JJ to improve his value in a trade. The fact that the Knick's have now resigned JJ is a clear indication that Mike sincerely liked the way JJ played with the Knicks.)
Now that Balkman is a two way player with a the ability to get open and score, he can take some of the minutes that MDA was previously thinking of sending JJ's way and play good defense, plus score some points. Also importantly, when Balkman is on the floor, he cuts down on the double teams of Amare and Melo that occur simply because JJ isn't a threat to score.
I don't see Balkman getting significant minutes this season. He is a pre-season player. Balkman has played 21 games over the last two years. He's still young at 27, but after six seasons in the NBA, I would not bet on him finding the motivation to contribute over an entire season.
He will, however, remain a key part of the Knicks garbage-time lineup.
Why does MDA waste his extremely precious preseason playing time on someone who he doesn't plan on playing? Please answer that question. I think he wanted to see if what Balkman was doing in practice, he was also able to do in a televised game? Using the answer that they are hoping to increase his trade value doesn't hold up because there is no value to Balkman currently, even if all the Knick's want is a bag of nuts.
rvwink wrote:Why does MDA waste his extremely precious preseason playing time on someone who he doesn't plan on playing? Please answer that question. I think he wanted to see if what Balkman was doing in practice, he was also able to do in a televised game? Using the answer that they are hoping to increase his trade value doesn't hold up because there is no value to Balkman currently, even if all the Knick's want is a bag of nuts.
How can you not increase the value of nothing by showing the world a Balkman who hits a three and shoots 5-6 from the line? And how do you use this extremely precious preseason playing time? By getting Melo and Stat and Chandler precious playing time together while also hoping to God they don't pull something in meaningless preseason playing time? Your argument doesn't hold up; how does what Balkman is doing in practice get seen by the rest of the league? Is the trainer publishing Balk's free throw shooting prowess on twitter? Obviously they want to try and get increased value, and given what we're now signing, a Balkman and some cash might possibly get us yet another aging backcourt player.
MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:I don't see Balkman getting significant minutes this season. He is a pre-season player. Balkman has played 21 games over the last two years. He's still young at 27, but after six seasons in the NBA, I would not bet on him finding the motivation to contribute over an entire season. He will, however, remain a key part of the Knicks garbage-time lineup.
I think with BD on board, Balkmans value to only increase. Him and Fields are good at finding the passing lanes, and always cutting and moving...looking for those back door passes....or in BD's case, back door lobs.
blkexec wrote:MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:I don't see Balkman getting significant minutes this season. He is a pre-season player. Balkman has played 21 games over the last two years. He's still young at 27, but after six seasons in the NBA, I would not bet on him finding the motivation to contribute over an entire season. He will, however, remain a key part of the Knicks garbage-time lineup.
I think with BD on board, Balkmans value to only increase. Him and Fields are good at finding the passing lanes, and always cutting and moving...looking for those back door passes....or in BD's case, back door lobs.
There could be something to that, but by the time BDiddy comes into play Balkman will have two feet and an arm under ground, buried on the bench there.
MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:blkexec wrote:MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:I don't see Balkman getting significant minutes this season. He is a pre-season player. Balkman has played 21 games over the last two years. He's still young at 27, but after six seasons in the NBA, I would not bet on him finding the motivation to contribute over an entire season. He will, however, remain a key part of the Knicks garbage-time lineup.
I think with BD on board, Balkmans value to only increase. Him and Fields are good at finding the passing lanes, and always cutting and moving...looking for those back door passes....or in BD's case, back door lobs.
There could be something to that, but by the time BDiddy comes into play Balkman will have two feet and an arm under ground, buried on the bench there.
I actually think Balkman could play his way into some minutes this year. Take a look at the schedule if you haven't yet. It's a friggin gauntlet. Balkman has lots of energy and high motor... I think that attribute has higher value this year than others
