Knicks · Team has a chance to be better than last year (page 5)

StarksEwing1 wrote:
54 wins was great to see. I loved the way we ended the season. i just felt that we should have played better against indiana and it was disappointing. The Bulls and Indiana both have their best players coming back so they will be better, the nets as much as i hate them will be better,and miami still has the best player on the planet.

I was disappointed at the time, but looking back, we had injuries to Melo, JR, Amar'e and Tyson wasn't recovered from his pre-playoff illness(again). I'm sick and tired of us being injured when the playoffs come round! 2011 Billups and Amar'e went down, 2012 Lin, Baron Davis, Amar'e and Tyson. 2013 same c**p! Please, just let us be healthy for a change in 2014!

A couple of things people are overlooking- there's no way Melo plays as well as he did last year. Last year he was a man on a mission, had played all summer on the Olympic team, and just had an edge about him. Seemed like he started each game (when healthy) nailing about 3 or 4 3s in a row. This was both good and bad- it carriued us to victory, but it also made us dependent on him. Plus he's injured and having to rest this offseason instead of working out.

A bit less from Melo, and a bit more from other players will hopefully be a good thing, but it may mean we lose a few more games in the regular season.

Also JR Smith won't be at the top of his game like he was last season- he put in a tonne of work in the offseason. This year he won't be able to work out, will be recovering from knee surgery and will be playing catch up.

The Way I look at it, having a TEAM of players all able to contribute to wins isn't going to make this team less than it was last year. We lived off Melo and JR and Felton, but this year we'll have more players able to contribute to the teams wins. The more capable talent you add the less pressure on your top players. When STAT came back he was able to contribute on a very efficient level. Now imagine how that will be when you add AB, MWP, THJ, another PG and more Shump to the equation. Actually we still have 4 slots open so there could be a lot more help coming to an already good team. I think Knick fans and the Media are so conditioned to think less of the Knicks and their moves that they don't give them a fare examination or credit. To some extent this happened last year. Very few thought the Knicks would be the #2 seed in the East. Now there's this consensus that the Knicks will fall back to 5th in the East. I just think this is part of a bias towards the Knicks that is ever present.

it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

yea and indy gave us more than a hard time, they turned tyson into the jailyard you know what and bounced us out of the playoffs, what a stinker that is,

bulls would've beefed us out of the building too,

celtics gave us a hard time and they were running only on two old men (two old men that will be more effective in combination with the young guys on nets),

and now the pacers and bulls are improved, d rose is mvp guy,

what did we do? we have bargs,

i'm holding out hope for a blockbuster shump trade that brings us a flashy name, because that's the only chance we have at making a splash in the pond,

right now, yea you can make playoffs and make few noises in the regular season, but you're out of town when prom night is here, you're not on the party bus

IronWillGiroud wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

yea and indy gave us more than a hard time, they turned tyson into the jailyard you know what and bounced us out of the playoffs, what a stinker that is,

bulls would've beefed us out of the building too,

celtics gave us a hard time and they were running only on two old men (two old men that will be more effective in combination with the young guys on nets),

and now the pacers and bulls are improved, d rose is mvp guy,

what did we do? we have bargs,

i'm holding out hope for a blockbuster shump trade that brings us a flashy name, because that's the only chance we have at making a splash in the pond,

right now, yea you can make playoffs and make few noises in the regular season, but you're out of town when prom night is here, you're not on the party bus

i love shump and i dont wnat him to go but he alone wont get us anything great. His is the only asset we have left but he isnt gonna get us a bigtime player

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

IWG, very well written and explained (with the talent on those teams, it really shouldn't be necessary)
I do like it that, again, we are being under dogs like last year, it worked to our favor, and that was the reason why we probably came out BALLING with a *BANG*

I simply just don't believe in Coach Woodson's system on OFFENSE and DEFENSE and by the play off, he needs to be much more creative with some deception, learn to anticipate and negate the strengths/weaknesses of our opponents, as well as preparing on how other team's will defend us *be ready to counter how Indiana played us in the play offs without double teams and outside of Hibbert protecting the paint*

We cannot rely on ISO ball because with Miami, Pacer's, Bulls, Net's, it plays right to their strengths with their DEFENSIVE abilities and ability to counter on transition/fast breaks
On top of it, our players on the floor do not know how to anticipate what MELO/JR will do, so they find themselves standing still while letting the players rest on DEFENSE with rebounding position because our players are giving space to Melo/JR to operate

We might not be a TOP 4 team but like NixLuva says, it is a possibility that we move up from that as well
Vice Versa, with the improvements of Cleveland, Washington, and Orlando, they have the ability/talent to challenge us, especially with Cleveland
Honestly, even Detroit/Toronto/Bobcats, these teams have the improved dramatically and have the talent/ability to playoff contenders

Honestly, last season, who thought Atlanta/Orlando were as good as they were, we just cannot predict who will do well with the improvements/development in their young talent, in addition to their acquisitions/trades, and rookies/undrafted FA/European acquisitions

In my opinion, The East has improved greatly so far this summer, and I do not expect any GIVEN teams, it is just likely that the TOP 4 teams with the Heat, Pacers, Bulls, and Nets
will be much improved on top of well they played last season

The West is still strong, but they are not as deep as they once were with the balance shifting towards the East now

IronWillGiroud wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

yea and indy gave us more than a hard time, they turned tyson into the jailyard you know what and bounced us out of the playoffs, what a stinker that is,

bulls would've beefed us out of the building too,

celtics gave us a hard time and they were running only on two old men (two old men that will be more effective in combination with the young guys on nets),

and now the pacers and bulls are improved, d rose is mvp guy,

what did we do? we have bargs,

i'm holding out hope for a blockbuster shump trade that brings us a flashy name, because that's the only chance we have at making a splash in the pond,

right now, yea you can make playoffs and make few noises in the regular season, but you're out of town when prom night is here, you're not on the party bus

Based on the way you are laying this out....

Technically, for the regular season the Knicks are adding Bargs and Metta.....and getting back Amare and Shump.

I agree that on Paper, the Nets look better right now. Given the age factor of Pierce, Garnett and Terry....we'll see how it plays out.

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

yea and indy gave us more than a hard time, they turned tyson into the jailyard you know what and bounced us out of the playoffs, what a stinker that is,

bulls would've beefed us out of the building too,

celtics gave us a hard time and they were running only on two old men (two old men that will be more effective in combination with the young guys on nets),

and now the pacers and bulls are improved, d rose is mvp guy,

what did we do? we have bargs,

i'm holding out hope for a blockbuster shump trade that brings us a flashy name, because that's the only chance we have at making a splash in the pond,

right now, yea you can make playoffs and make few noises in the regular season, but you're out of town when prom night is here, you're not on the party bus

i love shump and i dont wnat him to go but he alone wont get us anything great. His is the only asset we have left but he isnt gonna get us a bigtime player

I love Iman Shumpert but with JR Smith/Tim Hardaway JR all playing the same position as Iman Shumpert, it is very likely that Iman will eventually get traded if the right deal came along because his extension is in the same year of the summer of 2015 FA class
He surely rubbed Dolan, Woodson, and maybe even Melo/JR is a negative way with his comments about ISO ball/Needing a change

Truth is, he is one of our only real assets on the team that the league have interested in, and with Tyson Chandler *I am not sure what his value is because of his contract*
If we can get starting caliber PG like Dragic, or a real ALL STAR like Aldridge/Love to team up with Melo, it would be a deal hard to reject especially if we can get some picks out of it with a player exemption as well

With The Sun's it looks like, combo guard, "rook", in Archie Goodwin will look to get a serviceable role on the team, climbing ahead of last year's pick in Kendall Marshall

Bledsoe/Archie Goodwin
Dragic/Archie GOodwin
Beasley/Morris
Frye
Gortat/Alex Len

Archie Goodwin
Shannon Brown
Markieff Morris
Marcus Morris
Louis Scola
Alex Len

Caron Butler
PJ Tucker
Malcolm Lee
Hamed Haddadi

vs

Bledsoe/Goodwin
Iman Shumpert/Goodwin
Beasley/Morris
Frye
Tyson Chandler/Alex Len

Archie Goodwin
Shannon Brown
Markieff Morris
Marcus Morris
Louis Scola
Alex Len

Caron Butler
PJ Tucker
Malcolm Lee
Hamed Haddadi

There is obviously interest from Suns's in Iman Shumpert from last year's rumors of Nash to Dudley, and this was even before Iman showed the ability to hit 3ptr's at a 40% rate, on top of his defensive abilities
Let's not forget that the Sun's were willing to sign Eric Gordon to a max deal in which New Orlean's eventually matched
Sun's are likely hoping to tank and develop their young players this year, while getting the chance to Andrew Wiggons who is physically comparable/resembles Rudy Gay much more than Lebron

With Bledsoe teaming up with Iman Shumpert at PG/SG as well as using Tyson Chandler to help mentor Alex Len, it is a realistic trade that would benefit both teams
Many of us wanted Bledsoe on the Knick's because we know Iman/Bledsoe would be one of the best combinations, of young talent with potential, and DEFENSIVE/Lockdown abilities as guards

Something like

Dragic
Gortat *expiring one year deal* Gortat is one of the most, agile, mobile/with speed, quickness, and decent athleticism/rebounding/shot blcoking abilities/steal's/defensive C's in the NBA
future picks, maybe a combination of 1st and 2nd round picks, with a bunch of 2nd round picks being more realistic with maybe a top 5 protected 1st rounder
Trade Exemption and/or throw ins *Beasley/Hamed Haddadi/Scola/Morris twins*

for

Iman Shumpert
Tyson Chandler
Felton??? *if we are interested in cutting our 2016 salary because Felton has a player option to target more "high profiled" names/players*

A Shumpert, Bledsoe back court would lock guys down. Dragic and Gortat would be a nice addition to the Knicks.

I still think too many Fans and Media are down on the Knicks based on the loss to the Pacers. I don't put as much into that loss cuz I think the Knicks actually wore down and had injury to key players. We didn't have the needed depth to survive a war with the Pacers. Kidd, Camby, Sheed, KT and White weren't able to help or make it thru the season. JR and Melo were not healthy and Tyson was weak with no backup. STAT was just getting back and not able to really go hard. That's a lot of issues to deal with a young team that is fully healthy. Then when you add in the mistakes that Woody made it's amazing they went 6 games and came darned close to getting it to 7 in NY. IMO the loss to Indiana distorts everything or really revealed how weak the Knicks were by the time they go to the 2nd rd.

I don't see all of those things repeating again this season. If they do then we're cooked. However, a younger and deeper team will be able to compete with anyone in the East. I'm confident that the Knicks will be a match for the Nets or Bulls this year if both teams are relatively healthy. Better depth should help the Knicks in that dept. We won't have a AARP crew coming to camp this year.

nixluva wrote:I still think too many Fans and Media are down on the Knicks based on the loss to the Pacers. I don't put as much into that loss cuz I think the Knicks actually wore down and had injury to key players. We didn't have the needed depth to survive a war with the Pacers. Kidd, Camby, Sheed, KT and White weren't able to help or make it thru the season. JR and Melo were not healthy and Tyson was weak with no backup. STAT was just getting back and not able to really go hard. That's a lot of issues to deal with a young team that is fully healthy. Then when you add in the mistakes that Woody made it's amazing they went 6 games and came darned close to getting it to 7 in NY. IMO the loss to Indiana distorts everything or really revealed how weak the Knicks were by the time they go to the 2nd rd.

I don't see all of those things repeating again this season. If they do then we're cooked. However, a younger and deeper team will be able to compete with anyone in the East. I'm confident that the Knicks will be a match for the Nets or Bulls this year if both teams are relatively healthy. Better depth should help the Knicks in that dept. We won't have a AARP crew coming to camp this year.

It wasn't so much on that we loss to the Pacer's, it was how we loss
it was more of the lack of coaching, adjustments, poor rotations, poor TEAM work, getting abused by 1 player but putting in the same players that showed the inability to defend him or at least on the offensive end, get him (Hibbert) out of the paint for the REB's, and we had Copeland/Camby/and even Earl Barron glued to the bench

JR and Melo did not command double or triple teams, they were were 1v1 coverage for the most part, except for Hibbert in the paint
We were unable to get in the paint period, while the Pacer's were scoring everything in the paint with drives/layups/offensive boards, FT attempts, and wide open 3ptr's
While we continued to go ISO and shoot 30% and when there was team chemistry/ball movement, Melo/JR was sent back in to play the super hero, and Woody was fine with that
That is why I feel FA's don't want to come over here in a lower salary *also becomes a tradeable asset that the franchise would do for the next big name available* because it isn't a very successful way to play for the W and for their next contract

When the coach gives the green light to players that were playing with injuries and were fine shooting 30 shot attempts and making 10 shots out of the inefficient way, it is just a poor, ineffective and horrible strategy to boost stats for players that the coach favors

Hmm, Bargnani's stats in the lockout shortened season were looking pretty good the first two months before he got injured:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

That was following on from a good 2009-2010 season. I thought I hadn't imagined it- I remembered vaguely, writers saying it looked like Bargs had finally figured things out and was looking like an all star. After last years injuries, they seem to have erased that from history and make out the way he played last season was the way he played his entire career.

Hope he turns out to be another Keith Van Horn, we need some good luck!

smackeddog wrote:Hmm, Bargnani's stats in the lockout shortened season were looking pretty good the first two months before he got injured:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

That was following on from a good 2009-2010 season. I thought I hadn't imagined it- I remembered vaguely, writers saying it looked like Bargs had finally figured things out and was looking like an all star. After last years injuries, they seem to have erased that from history and make out the way he played last season was the way he played his entire career.

Hope he turns out to be another Keith Van Horn, we need some good luck!

Keith Van Horn as a Net or Knick?

RonRon wrote:

smackeddog wrote:Hmm, Bargnani's stats in the lockout shortened season were looking pretty good the first two months before he got injured:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

That was following on from a good 2009-2010 season. I thought I hadn't imagined it- I remembered vaguely, writers saying it looked like Bargs had finally figured things out and was looking like an all star. After last years injuries, they seem to have erased that from history and make out the way he played last season was the way he played his entire career.

Hope he turns out to be another Keith Van Horn, we need some good luck!

Keith Van Horn as a Net or Knick?

Knick- I actually hated him and the trade, but he surprised everyone by playing well and proving to be tougher than people thought.

smackeddog wrote:

RonRon wrote:

smackeddog wrote:Hmm, Bargnani's stats in the lockout shortened season were looking pretty good the first two months before he got injured:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4129...

That was following on from a good 2009-2010 season. I thought I hadn't imagined it- I remembered vaguely, writers saying it looked like Bargs had finally figured things out and was looking like an all star. After last years injuries, they seem to have erased that from history and make out the way he played last season was the way he played his entire career.

Hope he turns out to be another Keith Van Horn, we need some good luck!

Keith Van Horn as a Net or Knick?

Knick- I actually hated him and the trade, but he surprised everyone by playing well and proving to be tougher than people thought.

He played well with Marbury, mainly with the pick and roll, like a poor man's Sheed, with the ability to hit wide open shots off the PnR, mid game post, with a decent jump hook
Tim Thomas was the beginning of Fugazy, traded for slightly more physical attributes over BB IQ, chemistry, consistent shooting ability, capable of playing on and off the ball

RonRon wrote:

nixluva wrote:I still think too many Fans and Media are down on the Knicks based on the loss to the Pacers. I don't put as much into that loss cuz I think the Knicks actually wore down and had injury to key players. We didn't have the needed depth to survive a war with the Pacers. Kidd, Camby, Sheed, KT and White weren't able to help or make it thru the season. JR and Melo were not healthy and Tyson was weak with no backup. STAT was just getting back and not able to really go hard. That's a lot of issues to deal with a young team that is fully healthy. Then when you add in the mistakes that Woody made it's amazing they went 6 games and came darned close to getting it to 7 in NY. IMO the loss to Indiana distorts everything or really revealed how weak the Knicks were by the time they go to the 2nd rd.

I don't see all of those things repeating again this season. If they do then we're cooked. However, a younger and deeper team will be able to compete with anyone in the East. I'm confident that the Knicks will be a match for the Nets or Bulls this year if both teams are relatively healthy. Better depth should help the Knicks in that dept. We won't have a AARP crew coming to camp this year.

It wasn't so much on that we loss to the Pacer's, it was how we loss
it was more of the lack of coaching, adjustments, poor rotations, poor TEAM work, getting abused by 1 player but putting in the same players that showed the inability to defend him or at least on the offensive end, get him (Hibbert) out of the paint for the REB's, and we had Copeland/Camby/and even Earl Barron glued to the bench

JR and Melo did not command double or triple teams, they were were 1v1 coverage for the most part, except for Hibbert in the paint
We were unable to get in the paint period, while the Pacer's were scoring everything in the paint with drives/layups/offensive boards, FT attempts, and wide open 3ptr's
While we continued to go ISO and shoot 30% and when there was team chemistry/ball movement, Melo/JR was sent back in to play the super hero, and Woody was fine with that
That is why I feel FA's don't want to come over here in a lower salary *also becomes a tradeable asset that the franchise would do for the next big name available* because it isn't a very successful way to play for the W and for their next contract

When the coach gives the green light to players that were playing with injuries and were fine shooting 30 shot attempts and making 10 shots out of the inefficient way, it is just a poor, ineffective and horrible strategy to boost stats for players that the coach favors

I mentioned the mistakes by Woody. He surely played a major role in the loss to the Pacers, but so did our health issues. With better health I think the Knicks would've been able to beat the Pacers. Although it's also true that Woody didn't use every player he had available to him. I really didn't understand not using Barron at all. We all know about Cope, but also sticking with guys that weren't getting it done made no sense. Woody also had the most simplistic battle plan I can imagine. Instead of making things harder for the Pacers he actually made it easier for them. The Pacers are the toughest team in the league to score on using ISO plays. You simply MUST use motion, picks and ball movement against them. You've got to make their bigs move and not just sit in the paint waiting for Knick players to penetrate.

I think more motion and options will be a huge part of the plan this year. That's why you bring in a Bargnani. Wherever he goes they have to pay attention. That will open up the floor for other guys on the Knicks. If he's inside the outside will have more holes. If he's outside the paint will be more open. Against our PnR teams just learned to sag into the paint on Tyson, cuz he's not a threat to shoot. They can't do that with AB on the floor. AB can PnR or PnP from ANYWHERE. AB is dangerous from the 3pt line all the way into the post. Then you add in a younger more able PG than Kidd, THJ and an improved Shump. I think this team will be stronger later in the season and playoffs than this year.

RonRon wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:

IronWillGiroud wrote:it's not bias if one team has pierce, kg, deron, brook lopez, joe johnson, ak47

and second team has melo, jr, bargnani

can you guess which team is knicks, one or second?

this is how it is, knicks overshot their expected wins last year because they caught the hot fire balls streak,

so in 13-14, if they win less than 54 games it is not because current team is worse but because 12-13 team was over achieving and most of the time they would win maybe 47 games or so if you run it back

Exactly plus the East has impoved greatly. Both the Pacers and bulls were missing their top players and they still gave us a hard time, the nets are much better, and miami will win every year until lebron is gone

yea and indy gave us more than a hard time, they turned tyson into the jailyard you know what and bounced us out of the playoffs, what a stinker that is,

bulls would've beefed us out of the building too,

celtics gave us a hard time and they were running only on two old men (two old men that will be more effective in combination with the young guys on nets),

and now the pacers and bulls are improved, d rose is mvp guy,

what did we do? we have bargs,

i'm holding out hope for a blockbuster shump trade that brings us a flashy name, because that's the only chance we have at making a splash in the pond,

right now, yea you can make playoffs and make few noises in the regular season, but you're out of town when prom night is here, you're not on the party bus

i love shump and i dont wnat him to go but he alone wont get us anything great. His is the only asset we have left but he isnt gonna get us a bigtime player

...and with Tyson Chandler *I am not sure what his value is because of his contract*

yea because we might not be able to afford resigning tyson, there is a lot of demand in the wnba for his services at center

Iman Shumpert ‏@I_Am_Iman 1h
Can we please DEAD these dumb ass rumors! I love my team as well as the new additions. I wanna win! #thatisall
-Iman Shumpert

nixluva wrote:

RonRon wrote:

nixluva wrote:I still think too many Fans and Media are down on the Knicks based on the loss to the Pacers. I don't put as much into that loss cuz I think the Knicks actually wore down and had injury to key players. We didn't have the needed depth to survive a war with the Pacers. Kidd, Camby, Sheed, KT and White weren't able to help or make it thru the season. JR and Melo were not healthy and Tyson was weak with no backup. STAT was just getting back and not able to really go hard. That's a lot of issues to deal with a young team that is fully healthy. Then when you add in the mistakes that Woody made it's amazing they went 6 games and came darned close to getting it to 7 in NY. IMO the loss to Indiana distorts everything or really revealed how weak the Knicks were by the time they go to the 2nd rd.

I don't see all of those things repeating again this season. If they do then we're cooked. However, a younger and deeper team will be able to compete with anyone in the East. I'm confident that the Knicks will be a match for the Nets or Bulls this year if both teams are relatively healthy. Better depth should help the Knicks in that dept. We won't have a AARP crew coming to camp this year.

It wasn't so much on that we loss to the Pacer's, it was how we loss
it was more of the lack of coaching, adjustments, poor rotations, poor TEAM work, getting abused by 1 player but putting in the same players that showed the inability to defend him or at least on the offensive end, get him (Hibbert) out of the paint for the REB's, and we had Copeland/Camby/and even Earl Barron glued to the bench

JR and Melo did not command double or triple teams, they were were 1v1 coverage for the most part, except for Hibbert in the paint
We were unable to get in the paint period, while the Pacer's were scoring everything in the paint with drives/layups/offensive boards, FT attempts, and wide open 3ptr's
While we continued to go ISO and shoot 30% and when there was team chemistry/ball movement, Melo/JR was sent back in to play the super hero, and Woody was fine with that
That is why I feel FA's don't want to come over here in a lower salary *also becomes a tradeable asset that the franchise would do for the next big name available* because it isn't a very successful way to play for the W and for their next contract

When the coach gives the green light to players that were playing with injuries and were fine shooting 30 shot attempts and making 10 shots out of the inefficient way, it is just a poor, ineffective and horrible strategy to boost stats for players that the coach favors

I mentioned the mistakes by Woody. He surely played a major role in the loss to the Pacers, but so did our health issues. With better health I think the Knicks would've been able to beat the Pacers. Although it's also true that Woody didn't use every player he had available to him. I really didn't understand not using Barron at all. We all know about Cope, but also sticking with guys that weren't getting it done made no sense. Woody also had the most simplistic battle plan I can imagine. Instead of making things harder for the Pacers he actually made it easier for them. The Pacers are the toughest team in the league to score on using ISO plays. You simply MUST use motion, picks and ball movement against them. You've got to make their bigs move and not just sit in the paint waiting for Knick players to penetrate.

I think more motion and options will be a huge part of the plan this year. That's why you bring in a Bargnani. Wherever he goes they have to pay attention. That will open up the floor for other guys on the Knicks. If he's inside the outside will have more holes. If he's outside the paint will be more open. Against our PnR teams just learned to sag into the paint on Tyson, cuz he's not a threat to shoot. They can't do that with AB on the floor. AB can PnR or PnP from ANYWHERE. AB is dangerous from the 3pt line all the way into the post. Then you add in a younger more able PG than Kidd, THJ and an improved Shump. I think this team will be stronger later in the season and playoffs than this year.

woodson now has two players to deal with who are inefficient at scoring and selfish and don't defend the position. if they are on the floor together it is very bad. if any soul out there wants to refute that assertion then have at it.

meanwhile it is a combination of a coach's ability to teach and a player's ability to learn. track records say something to me-- based on the track record it's a given that woodson can't really coach properly and, based on recent videos that were posted here, it's also a given that melo is a poor student-- one look at his efforts with hakeem sealed the deal for me.

anyhoo... if bargnani plays with the second unit you have a player who destroys chemistry unless he is working directly with prigioni on the picking game, which will limit his toxicity. but then that is what stoudemire requires and there's only one ball. and then there's the prospect of those two, stat and andre out there together on defense... yikes