Originally Posted by BangDak
what are the Rockets going to do with tmac then? just let him rot on the bench?
[h2]Knicks find answers without A.I.[/h2] [h3]PER Diem: Dec. 14, 2009[/h3]
Comment Email Print >http://a.espncdn.com/icons/share-i... -moz-initial;">Share </div><cite class=
ESPN.com
Archive
Nick Laham/Getty ImagesThe Knicks have won four straight and five of their last six. Is passing on Iverson the reason why?
Remember how people used to say that every team Stephon Marbury left improved dramatically upon his departure?
Now we're seeing a similar phenomenon with one of Marbury's contemporaries. After Allen Iverson exited Philadelphia for the first time early in 2006-07, the 76ers rallied to make a surprise playoff appearance. The Nuggets dealt him early last season and zoomed all the way to the conference finals, which was the team's best NBA finish ever. And while this season's Pistons haven't rallied yet, they've managed largely to replicate last season's performance despite numerous injuries.
If anything, the pace of the Iverson effect has accelerated. The Sixers haven't won a game since Iverson rejoined the team, while the Grizzlies experienced the opposite phenomenon after his brief stay in Memphis. After a 1-8 start with Iverson on the roster, the Grizzlies have won nine times in 14 games after Sunday night's 118-90 blowout of the Heat in Miami. Seemingly hopeless just three weeks ago, the Grizzlies are now on pace for a win total in the mid-30s -- if they were in the East and the season ended today, they'd be a playoff team.
And then there are the Knicks. New York bypassed the process of signing Iverson entirely -- just mentioning the possibility of signing Iverson and getting to the brink, before deciding to move on, appeared to improve the team significantly.
Since ending their dalliance with "The Answer," the Knicks have gone 6-6, including their current four-game win streak. That statement dramatically understates how well they've played, as it was quite possibly their toughest stretch of the season. New York's losses came at the hands of the Lakers, Nuggets, Celtics and Magic (twice); the only stinker was on the road in Sacramento. Meanwhile, New York flogged Phoenix by 27, beat Atlanta on the road, and knocked off the Blazers and Hornets convincingly.
So profound has been their success that they're on Page 1 of the Power Rankings for the first time in memory. Today's Playoff Odds give them better than 50-50 odds of making the postseason, which is another phrase we haven't heard in the Big Apple for several years.
How have the Knicks accomplished this? The unconsummated affair with Iverson is actually just a coincidence; at almost the same time, the Knicks shifted around their rotation. For instance, the day they stopped pursuing Iverson (Nov. 20) was also the day they decided to stop bothering to play perennial disappointment Darko Milicic, who hasn't seen a minute since.
Another example is guard Nate Robinson. Although he's put up decent individual numbers, the Knicks banished him to the bench because of his bizarre behavior -- including shooting at the Sixers' basket just after the buzzer in an early-season game and cavorting with Orlando players before a recent loss. Although Robinson's on-court versus off-court stats aren't that bad, New York has yet to win game in which he's played more than 15 minutes.
With those two out of the picture and rookie Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas also seeing less duty, Mike D'Antoni has done what he does best -- limit the rotation to seven guys and make sure all of them get plenty of minutes and shots.
Three players in particular have benefited. The first is Al Harrington, who is having a career year after a very slow start; New York's renaissance corresponds almost exactly with his rediscovery of his shooting stroke in mid-November. Harrington is averaging 25.6 points per 40 minutes and has broken the 20-point plateau six times in his past 11 games, including 30 against Boston's vaunted D and 41 in a close loss to the Nuggets.
Second is guard Larry Hughes, who has proven far more potent than expected as a playmaker despite his usual wayward shooting (39.4 percent). His 5.7 assists per 40 minutes help offset the disappointing start by Chris Duhon, and his newfound passing ability makes him a useful creator in the backcourt when Duhon leaves the game. It's Hughes' ability to play the point that has allowed D'Antoni to limit his rotation to seven players.
And finally there's center David Lee. He's added a stronger midrange game to his arsenal and has proved more accurate than ever, shooting 57.3 percent from the floor. And he's shooting a lot -- his 20.7 Usage Rate is easily a career high -- and as a result he's added three points to his 40-minute scoring rate. Lee has been good enough that if the Knicks can get somewhere close to .500 by the All-Star break, he has a great shot at making his first All-Star team.
Knicks fans may have missed all this in their lamentation over New York's failure in the draft. Both Brandon Jennings and Ty Lawson slipped through the Knicks' grasp with the eighth overall pick while the player New York picked, Hill, can hardly get off the bench.
That's particularly painful in light of Duhon's struggles. He's shooting just 32.8 percent from the floor and averaging a measly 9.8 points per 40 minutes. But as the only pure point guard on the roster, he almost has to play for D'Antoni's system to function. One can only wonder how well the team might be playing with Jennings or Lawson at the controls.
Nonetheless, the Knicks are much improved, which has fans in the Apple reinvigorated and those in Utah worried. (The Jazz own New York's first-round pick in 2010.) New York's renewed vigor could have important implications going forward as well. It should be much it easier to persuade a top-level free agent to join their roster next season if the Knicks aren't viewed as such a daunting rebuilding project. That's especially true when you consider the rapid development of 21-year-old Danilo Gallinari, who's thriving in his first full, healthy season with a 17.3 PER and a league-leading 64 3-pointers made.
Of course, much water must go under the bridge between now and then, and we're still talking about a team that's 8-15. If they don't take advantage of a stretch of winnable games coming up this month, they may not get nearly as close to .500 as our current projections indicate.
But the mere fact that the Knicks are threatening to become relevant is a newsworthy development in light of the horrors of the past half-decade. It's something that would be much more apparent if they hadn't been playing such a rough schedule the past few weeks. Iverson or not, they appear to have found enough answers to have a good shot at the playoffs.
Remember how people used to say that every team Stephon Marbury left improved dramatically upon his departure?
Now we're seeing a similar phenomenon with one of Marbury's contemporaries. After Allen Iverson exited Philadelphia for the first time early in 2006-07, the 76ers rallied to make a surprise playoff appearance. The Nuggets dealt him early last season and zoomed all the way to the conference finals, which was the team's best NBA finish ever. And while this season's Pistons haven't rallied yet, they've managed largely to replicate last season's performance despite numerous injuries.
If anything, the pace of the Iverson effect has accelerated. The Sixers haven't won a game since Iverson rejoined the team, while the Grizzlies experienced the opposite phenomenon after his brief stay in Memphis. After a 1-8 start with Iverson on the roster, the Grizzlies have won nine times in 14 games after Sunday night's 118-90 blowout of the Heat in Miami. Seemingly hopeless just three weeks ago, the Grizzlies are now on pace for a win total in the mid-30s -- if they were in the East and the season ended today, they'd be a playoff team.
And then there are the Knicks. New York bypassed the process of signing Iverson entirely -- just mentioning the possibility of signing Iverson and getting to the brink, before deciding to move on, appeared to improve the team significantly.
Well damn.
[h1]Lakers are about to get a 1-2 punch from schedule[/h1]Brian Shaw smiles. Or maybe it's a grimace. It wasn't that long ago that he was the one who had to work his way through back-to-back games.
The Lakers assistant coach knows all too well the pratfalls that await, the 24-hour endurance checks lingering in the very near future for a team that has fattened up on home games.
The Lakers coasted through the first month and a half of this season, mostly sleeping in their own beds, strolling through game after game at Staples Center, experiencing only three situations in which they played on consecutive nights.
Welcome to the rest of their schedule. Last Friday at home they beat Minnesota, then flew to Salt Lake and lost badly to Utah on Saturday. So began a period during which 22 of 32 Lakers games are scheduled in back-to-back sets, a majority of them on the road.
Not since the lockout-condensed NBA schedule in 1999 have the Lakers had such a rush of back-to-back attacks.
The fun begins anew tonight at Chicago and Wednesday at Milwaukee, continuing Saturday at New Jersey and Sunday at Detroit.
Some other notable double dips over the next eight weeks: Christmas Day at home against Cleveland followed by an immediate departure to Sacramento for a Dec. 26 game; back-to-back lung-burners against run-and-gun teams Phoenix and Golden State (Dec. 28-29); two sides of the Texas triangle in San Antonio and Dallas (Jan. 12-13); an eight-game Eastern trip that begins in Cleveland and New York (Jan. 21-22) and ends with an electrifying starter at Boston (Jan. 31) and a potential trap game the next night at Memphis; and a home game against Denver (Feb. 5) followed by a visit to their personal house of horrors, Portland.
It's all part of the penance they pay for a schedule in which they played 17 of their first 21 games at home.
The Lakers will have a total of 20 sets of back-to-backs this season, their most since 22 in 1999-2000, when Shaw was a reserve guard for the Lakers.
"The first night of those back-to-backs, you've got to take care of business, get yourself in position to get an [opposing] team down, keep them down and try to get the starters off their feet as early as possible," said Shaw, in his fifth season as a Lakers coach. "The second night of back-to-backs are when you definitely rely on your bench a lot more to make a contribution."
It could be worse: NBA teams sometimes played on four consecutive nights from the 1950s to the 1970s, not to mention three nights in a row for some of the Lakers' " Showtime" teams of the 1980s. (NBA teams also sometimes played three consecutive nights in 1999 to squeeze 50 games into three months.)
The Lakers (18-4) claim they are ready for the consecutive-night consequences.
"They're good tests to see where we're at," reserve forward Lamar Odom said. "If we can come out of them really strong, that says a lot about us. It helps on the back-to-backs if we can avoid the close games, know what I mean? It's going to be a test, which we should expect after all these home games."
For all their talents, the Lakers aren't exactly young. Derek Fisher is 35. Kobe Bryant is 31. Odom and Ron Artest are 30.
"For Kobe and particularly for Fish, it's going to be harder to get everything all lubed up and going on that second night," Shaw said. "The guys that are coming off the bench have to contribute greatly."
That used to be Shaw's duty, along with Robert Horry and Rick Fox in 1999-2000, when the Lakers began the first of three championship runs by going 19-3 in the ever-important second games of back-to-backs.
This season, they are a mundane 2-2 in similar situations, with one-sided losses at Denver and Utah. Now they get plenty of chances to show they're better than .500 in that area after going 14-5 last season.
"You just have to play through that," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said of follow-up nights. "The start of the season might be a little difficult for teams to recover, but you get used to doing that. There's no excuse. You have to play through it. Some years, you have 20 back-to-backs, some years 15."
The schedule really is the luck of the draw. The Lakers often play most of their road games in the second half of the season because the Grammy Awards knock them out of Staples Center in late January and early February, though that 1999-2000 team had plenty of road games in the early part of its schedule on the way to a 67-15 record.
"It's going to be a good time to get in the weight room, stay sharp, stay strong, try to avoid fatigue as much as possible," Odom said. "Back-to-backs are when you want to do all the small things -- control tempo defensively and offensively."
Many observers say the Lakers have the NBA's best starting five, but their reserves will need to make a mark after some inglorious efforts this season. The second night will be the barometer.
Shaw remembers those times as a player.
"Phil always made us aware of the fact that the rotation on the starters might be shorter in their first run," he said. "He would come around to the [backup] guys -- myself, Robert and Rick -- and say, 'Be ready to come in a little bit earlier than normal.'
"Not that I felt like I was going to have to come in and do something great, but for somebody coming off the bench and probably playing anywhere between 12 and 20 minutes, if you can't get cranked up for the second night, then something's wrong."
Hope this makes everyone feel better now.
That's why I hold my stance that these dudes are fraudulent.Originally Posted by CP1708
D Will with a HUUUUUUUUGE game.......
........in the L.
Originally Posted by JapanAir21
That's why I hold my stance that these dudes are fraudulent.Originally Posted by CP1708
D Will with a HUUUUUUUUGE game.......
........in the L.
Cool.Originally Posted by CP1708
Everybody loses games they aren't supposed too. It happens. I'd take Utah over Dallas right now in a series, Williams and Boozer are too much for Dirk by himself imo.Originally Posted by JapanAir21
That's why I hold my stance that these dudes are fraudulent.Originally Posted by CP1708
D Will with a HUUUUUUUUGE game.......
........in the L.
That's whats upOriginally Posted by JapanAir21
Cool.Originally Posted by CP1708
Everybody loses games they aren't supposed too. It happens. I'd take Utah over Dallas right now in a series, Williams and Boozer are too much for Dirk by himself imo.Originally Posted by JapanAir21
That's why I hold my stance that these dudes are fraudulent.Originally Posted by CP1708
D Will with a HUUUUUUUUGE game.......
........in the L.
2-on-1, you're right, Deron and Boozer against Dirk I'd take Deron and Boozer too.
Good thing there's other guys on the floor that contribute.
Not a chance we'd lose against them in a series.
LAL, Denver, SAN ANTONIO sure. Not teams like Utah.
[h3]Randolph on the trading block?[/h3]
3:53PM ET
[h5]Anthony Randolph | Warriors[/h5]
Top Email
The intermittently awesome Anthony Randolph -- whom the Warriors dangled in proposed trade deals last year during his rookie season -- is again on the trading block, according to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.
"Several NBA teams say Golden State officials have offered Randolph in trade discussions, but as one Eastern Conference executive said: 'I think all of their roster could be had.'" writes Wojnarowski.
So who are some potential suitors? Well the Bulls are in need of some low-post scoring, but they'd likely send Tyrus Thomas' expiring contract in a deal. Thomas might have to prove he's fit and ready to play in the coming weeks as he returns from injury.
The Knicks are also looking to unload Al Harrington plus some other contracts, so that's also a potential destination for Randolph.
http:// [h3]LBJ's and Calipari's growing friendship[/h3]
3:33PM ET
[h5]LeBron James | Cavaliers[/h5]
Top Email
If you've kept up with John Calipari's Twitter feed since he took over as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, you may have seen some references to him hanging out with LeBron James here and there.
According to Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, James has also forged a friendship with Kentucky point guard and surefire No. 1 NBA draft pick John Wall.
Today, Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski makes the leap that Wall is a clear target for James' marketing company, LRMR. But does his relationship with Coach Cal mean he might someday come to the league to coach him? It's not likely right now, but in the future it's a possibility.
One source close to Calipari told Wojnarowski this: "I don't see a scenario anymore where he would leave to join LeBron in Cleveland, but another situation? Different team? In two or three years? That might be a different story."
http:// [h3]Blazers' future less bright?[/h3]
3:13PM ET
[h5]Portland Trail Blazers[/h5]
Top Email
Back on Nov. 10, ESPN's Chad Ford and John Hollinger ranked the Trail Blazers as the No. 1 team in their Future Rankings.
A young, talented roster mixed with a good front office had them atop the rankings.
But what a difference a month makes. The Blazers have now slid to sixth in the latest version of the Future Rankings, thanks to some question marks about their roster.
[h5]NBA Future Power Rankings[/h5]
Blazers: No. 6
