OFFICIAL NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON THREAD: TRAINING CAMP

[diceloveme]

If they can't close out on the warriors tonight, Imma be rocking the fire Isiah Avy

 

[nyk orange and blue]

while we on the subject of firing isiah, who do you like as potential replacements (GM of course)?

kiki vandeweghe
Jerry Colangelo (this is an interesting read) http://lakers.topbuzz.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-p-87645.html
Allan Houston? i do remember him saying he would be interested in this position

 

[harlemtothebronx]

I'll take anyone as a replacement.

Kicking everyone out of practice? He's just making things worse at this point.

 

[allen3xis]

he must be feelin the heat now...

All indications point to him being gone before January now, imo...

 

[maxelite]

this guy had the nerve to let steph play 34 mins against the clippers after he LEFT the team. there are too many bad pieces on this team. from dolan all theway down to players like jamal crawford.

 

[justhotkicks]

all the way down to players like jamal crawford.

^ You clearly know nothing about the Knicks.

 

[allen3xis]

I know Jamal is our clutch guy, has heart, etc...

but what good is it when we win 30 games?

Oh, Steph is the heart of the team...yeah a horrible team.

Not one player should be defended by us on this team, maybe Zach just cause he's new and had done his job but

everyone is at fault


Clean house.

 

[blackmagnus514]

i want Kiki or Jerry (west or colangelo)

hell anyone's better than what we have. there's no sense of urgency with this god damn franchise. Dolan needs to get axed too

 

[maxelite]

^ You clearly know nothing about the Knicks.

ok first of all i am a Knicks fan. secondly, the guy plays ZERO perimeter defense which is by far the biggest weakness on this team. so what doesthis guy do? score 18 pts a game shooting under 40% from the field. give me a break.

 

[allen3xis]

the guy plays ZERO perimeter defense which is by far the biggest weakness on this team. so what does this guy do? score 18 pts a game shooting under 40% from the field. give me a break.
I agree

he'll have his moments, but really....he's a decent player, almost strictly a scorer on a sorry team.

We gota stop thinkin this group of players is gona take us anywhere, outside a select few

We've been brainwashed

 

[justhotkicks]

Trust me, we know this group is going to take us nowhere. We have some good pieces, but we can't do much with the rest.

As for Jamal Crawford, he's not a marquee player and what you said about him is not inaccurate, but he's one of the brighter spots on the team, whichis pretty pathetic to say the least.

 

[flatbushfiyah23]

Just heard on WFAN....MArbury will start tonight!! I have never been so pumped for the announcement of of the starting lineups LOL!


Isiah kicking players off the court is just lame....I feel like this is stuff he should have been doing last year or in training camp. The man is obviouslyscared to lose his job and desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Stephon Marbury has regained his starting job, Isiah Thomas announced today, one week after Marbury went AWOL after learning he was going to be a backup.

Marbury had come off the bench in the Knicks' previous three games and Thomas felt he had played well enough to warrant being a starter again.

Marbury, however, is still upset about the demotion and when asked about the entire episode, said, "To be honest, not a whole lot of good has come out of this."

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...stephon_marbury_returns_to_starting_line.html

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Damn, you beat me to it.

 

[flatbushfiyah23]

^Sorry HTTB....the reporter in me had to break the news! LOL!

 

[blackmagnus514]

these people are$@#@ backwards

 

[eaglebball1499]

[h1][/h1]

[h1]Thomas says Marbury will start against Golden State[/h1]
Associated Press

Updated: November 20, 2007, 1:36 PM ET

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GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Stephon Marbury was set to rejoin the New York Knicks' starting lineup Tuesday night, a week after he responded to a demotion by leaving the team for one game.

Marbury

Marbury said he was told by coach Isiah Thomas at the beginning of the morning shootaround that he would start against the Golden State Warriors. Marbury was a reserve for three games, and the Knicks lost all of them to extend their losing streak to six.

"I'm excited about playing always, and to be able to come back home and start and get back into the flow of things is always a good thing," Marbury said.

It may be only a one-game return. Marbury's aunt died Monday, and Thomas wasn't sure if his point guard would be with the team when it travels to Detroit on Wednesday.

Marbury played poorly in a home loss to Miami on Nov. 11, and Thomas told him that he wouldn't start at Phoenix in the opener of the Knicks' road trip. Marbury returned to New York and skipped that game, then returned to the Knicks the next night.

Thomas said at the time he wanted better defense and leadership from Marbury, and believes they will be provided.

"I just think he needed a reminder," Thomas said. "I don't think it's something that he doesn't know how to do. He definitely knows how to play the position and he has great skill. He has great talent and we needed to remind him of what we need and expect from that position for us to be successful."

Thomas said he expects Marbury to remain the starter, though Marbury said he wasn't told his return was permanent. But the Knicks desperately need some form of stability, having fallen to 2-7 and last in the Atlantic Division.

Marbury said nothing good came from last week's ordeal, though Thomas felt it may have been necessary.

"In order to have progress and to move forward, sometimes you have to have some uncomfortableness between player and coach," Thomas said. "To get the most out of the player sometimes it's got to be a little bit uncomfortable, but that's the way it goes in sports. You've got to move on and you've got to get better.

"It's not going to always be a smooth, nice path of friendly relationships. Sometimes you're going to have some situations where it's testy, but for the most part you've got to get the player and you've got to get the team to improve and that's our goal."

It's been a particularly tough stretch for Marbury, who said he also had another recent death in the family. The Knicks docked him a game's pay for skipping the loss at Phoenix without an excuse, but may choose to reconsider given what Marbury has gone through.

"It's been difficult, but at the same time I'm weathering the storm," Marbury said. "I had two deaths in my family, so coping with that and trying to continue to maintain as far as what we have to do on the basketball court has been a little bit different as well. So I've made some adjustments."

His aunt's death may have been the reason Marbury was gone before he could be interviewed after practice Monday. There was a report the whole team was kicked out of that practice, but Knicks spokesman Jonathan Supranowitz called it an "erroneous report" and Thomas said he hadn't done that since sometime last season.

"I'm concerned as far as the wins and losses that we have," Marbury said. "We're just trying to get that to turn around. That's what I want to happen."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press



Okay, I'm a Heat fan, but even I feel genuinely bad for you Knicks fans. Isaiah is such a bleeping joke. After all the crap going on with Marbury, andbasically "putting his foot down" and making Marbury understand his role on the bench...less than one week later guess who's starting again? Ihave NO idea how his players or anyone else in the organization can respect him or take him seriously at this point. It really is a shame, and as much as Ishould be predisposed to hating the Knicks, I actually think it's better for the league and better for the NY/LA and NY/Miami rivalries when the team inthe nation's biggest market is relevant in a way other than being the punchline for news tabloid fodder.

 

[woodside718]

this thing is just a mess

, how are you going to bench marbury and start collins and then be ignorant enough to have nate as the 2nd string pg and then putmarbury in. now you have steph back in the starting lineup

, this $!@% is a joke. we don't have one player on our roster that you can call a bonifiedstar/leader and honestly none of the players we have can step up and become that. we are really about to get hurt tonight by the 3 ball watch

 

[flatbushfiyah23]

Eaglebball1499, I agree with your analysis and it is a shame the Knicks organization is a mess...its really bad for basketball.

We have no leadership or stability...I just pray we go back to a consistent rotation.

 

[woodside718]

remember last year with jerome james starting the first 5 minutes of every game lol

 

[flatbushfiyah23]

^Yeah son another move that still has me scratching my head. When will Isiah be held accountable for these ridiculous actions?!

 

[the gr8]

Thank god we putting Stephon Marbury back. Lets face it right here if we want to sav this season, Marbury is going to have to take us there. He got us intothis mess and now hes gonna take us out. He is still our best player talent wise in my opinion. But this dude is gonna have to take his head out of his +#%$$#**** and play +#%$$#* hard.

Marbury has to cut this act, and start playing some tough Coney Island ball. I want to see that tough kid from NY that amazed be back when he was on the TWolves, !*%+ i would even take the Net or Pheonix Marbury. Sure it is better that he is passing more now, etc. But Stephon HAS to get back that killer instinctthat too khim to the NBA. Sure it will take a lot of finding to get that back. After all it is not all his fault. Dude got *$%%$+ up because of all this media@$%% and all the @$%% he takes from coaches, etc. I would be a little *$%%$+ up if i was in his spot. But we need that old Coney Island Marbury back if we areto win. It will take hard work to get back, but we can get him back. I'm stil a strong believer in Marbury. Maybe this situation will be a greenlight tohim in that it may be his last shot.

Also out of all the Knicks nobody should be dissing Jamal Crawford. This guy is our vocal leader and right now without him our whole team would fall apart. Heis holding everything together and while this may look bad, it is still curable. Remember when our season fell apart last year? It was when Crawford went down.This guy works hard for us. And like i always say if a guy puts in hard work each night for my team i will ALWAYS back him up.

Zeke better cut this @$%% as welland stop +#%$$#* with the players.

I ont know about yall but im not ready to let this season go away after 9 games. We better get our +#%$$#* act together and start to play hard again. That @$%%we pulled vs Denver on Saturday was a disgrase to the uniforms they were rocking. No Knicks team should ever just lay down and die like they did just becausethings werent going well and maybe they were a little tired. That fault is mostlly but not all directed toward Isiah. Last years team was good because evenwhen things got tough we never laid down to die. When we got in the fight and were underarmed we just fought harder. same thing when everyone got hurt at theend. Sure we started to lose. But i also saw that old Marbury. That tough%%%% Coney Island kid who dont take @$%% from no one. When we were underarmed that wascue to Steph to play +#%$$#* harder, same thing to guys like Mardy Collins and Nate who filled roles nicely. Right now we are disgrasing the Knicks and im notready to do that. Lets turn this season around starting tonight!!!!

 

[the gr8]

Good Article i found on realgm.com. A lot of good points stressed in this article.

"The New York Knicks have limped out of the gate, miserably falling to a 2-7 start, with seemingly no end to their current six-game losing streak insight. While it may seem like the city is on fire and the New York media has done nothing but pour gasoline on the heads of Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury,it may be too premature to count these Knickerbockers out.

Looking into their first nine games of the season with the glass half full, one would notice that the Knicks have already suffered through some strangeoff-the-court distractions and key players missing critical games. They have also been handed one of the tougher schedules to begin the season.

Nearly half of their games have come on back-to-back nights and they have already ventured to the west coast to play the likes of the Phoenix Suns, Los AngelesClippers, and Denver Nuggets. They have played only three games versus teams with records under .500 (1-2) and were missing their leading scorer and rebounder,Zach Randolph, for both losses, as he was home mourning the passing of his grandmother.

In addition to missing their productive power forward, they have also already been without Stephon Marbury, Quentin Richardson, Jared Jeffries, RenaldoBalkman, and Mardy Collins for various reasons this season, and only three of their first ten games are against Eastern Conference teams. While it may seemlike the Knicks are off to one of the worst starts in franchise history, the season is still young and they still have plenty of time to make up ground in theEast.

After the much publicized debacle in Phoenix last week, which saw point guard Stephon Marbury leave the team and return to New York, I decided to meet up withthe Knicks in Los Angeles and get the scoop on what was going on with the team. The mood in the locker room was not what I expected. Starbury had returned tothe team and Isiah Thomas and he were talking it up like nothing had ever happened. The two egocentric point guards were seen on the Knicks bench shaking handsand burying the hatchet prior to the start of their tilt against the surprising Clippers.

"Whatever happened in the past is in the past. We move forward," explained Zeke.

Some Knick players didn't seem so willing to accept the quickly-forgiving Thomas, and questioned what type of organization would allow Marbury to return tothe court one day after an alleged fist fight with the coach that preempted him to ditch the team to return to New York. I overheard a couple of players andteam officials discussing how bizarre and unfair it was that Marbury was allowed to come and go as he pleased, but could not gather any quotes on the record.

Following their buzzer-beating loss to the Clippers, the Knicks were then dealt with another set of back-to-back games in Sacramento and Denver. They lost thefirst game in double overtime without Zach Randolph to the Sacramento Kings in Ron Artest's return to Arco Arena, and were then slaughtered by the DenverNuggets the following night at the Pepsi Center.

Despite the pair of disheartening and disappointing losses, the team continues to rally behind its coach.

"We believe in Isiah," spouted sparkplug guard Nate Robinson upon returning back to New York.

His sentiments explained that despite the swirling rumors about the fragility of Zeke's job, his players are still rallying behind him and are looking toget back home to break out of their latest funk. With the banged up Golden State Warriors headed to town Tuesday night, the Knicks realize that this is amust-win to get their confidence back on track. This game is even more important for New York, considering that they will have their third consecutive set ofback-to-back games as they travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons Wednesday night.

As the Knicks prepare to climb up the Atlantic Division standings, it will be important for them to take each game one at a time. They have a stretch in theschedule that is approaching that could see them regain some confidence and get back on a competitive level. Ten of their next fifteen games are against teamsunder .500 and only five of those games are on the road. This is the time where the Knicks need to make a stand if they want to save Isiah Thomas' job.They have the talent and the depth to compete in the weaker Eastern Conference, but they need to cease the off-court shenanigans and play together similar tohow they responded last season after the brawl."

 

[woodside718]

its hard for steph to be that coney islands finest player he was earlier in his career because he lost a lot of his hunger i think. when he got drafted we allsaw the tears he shed and the adversity it took for him to come out of the projects and he finally made it. now he is a player getting paid a max contract andwe all know money speaks for itself. im not saying his heart is off basketball but a lot of his desire has been lost. THEGR8, personally i would liketo see the phoenix suns marbury come out in him. dude was feriocious to the basket and became the leader of that young suns team. tony parker use to be deadscared to play against steph back in his phoenix days when he use to just *+*% on him. he needs to penetrate a lot more to make things happen because everygame i see the team at the top of the key running set plays all day giving the defense time to set up. we'll see the outcome tonight but all i want to seeis EVERYONE playing hard and hustling thats all i ask.

 

[ultrasur1]

damn man we lost like 3 games over this last west coast tour for no damn reason at all.

instead of bringing the team together, it was self sabotage to make it look like dude's in control

if anything, there's less cohesion between him and the players now it seems