- May 1, 2003
- 7,595
- 2,466
no jumpshot????
OFFICIAL NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON THREAD: TRAINING CAMP
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by the gr8,
- Start date
- Apr 11, 2007
- 741
- 10
Come on fam, Chandler is gonna be pretty good, but his J is one of the weakest aspects of his game. You gonna try to tell me he's a good shooter?
- May 30, 2003
- 1,478
- 282
Originally Posted by FlatbushKING
Funny piece of satire from realgm boards (evil_e)
Alan Hahn: Eddy, can you tell us how you prepared for this season going into the off season?
EC: Well you know, coach told me to come to camp in the best shape of my life. I spent a lot of time at Tim Grover's facility, A Nap Athletics. That place is great. They got XBox 360 and NBA 2K8, so I just played and played and played myself into game shape. I haven't been this round in years, I'd say it's the best shape of my life.
- Aug 30, 2005
- 79
- 10
What a fat piece of %!+$
- May 3, 2003
- 1,063
- 10
nah he a rainbow six type of guy he said......
- Aug 29, 2007
- 3,603
- 11
It ain't lookin good if they don't cut Marbury...he told me he's doing good up there but they can't keep him if they keep Steph.Or if they don't buy out somebody else
- Apr 11, 2007
- 741
- 10
^ Word. Now hopefully more of you dudes hop on the cut Steph train if it means Pat Jr. makes the squad...
- Aug 30, 2005
- 79
- 10
Originally Posted by amishpimp27
Originally Posted by FlatbushKING
Funny piece of satire from realgm boards (evil_e)
Alan Hahn: Eddy, can you tell us how you prepared for this season going into the off season?
EC: Well you know, coach told me to come to camp in the best shape of my life. I spent a lot of time at Tim Grover's facility, A Nap Athletics. That place is great. They got XBox 360 and NBA 2K8, so I just played and played and played myself into game shape. I haven't been this round in years, I'd say it's the best shape of my life.What exactly was he playing at Tim Grover's place, 2k8?
Referring to this video in the off-season....I bet they thought it would be funny to have theperson with the least knowledge of the facility give the tour
- Apr 4, 2008
- 74,939
- 24,349
If that's the case they might as well cut Collins or Malik Rose who won't contribute anything. I like Rose as a lockeroom guy, butlet's be serious, nobody in the lockerroom could make this team work cohesively.
- Sep 23, 2004
- 14,132
- 285
Trust,
Ewing >>>>>>> Collins + Jeffries + James + Rose
Cut all 4 of em.
Ewing >>>>>>> Collins + Jeffries + James + Rose
Cut all 4 of em.
- May 1, 2003
- 7,595
- 2,466
i wouldnt say hes a great shooter but you can't completely leave him out there. he didn't take many 3s last season or during summer league but did hitthem at a decent percentage.
- Aug 29, 2007
- 3,603
- 11
Mardy was the truth @ Temple...dude is just a flat out bum now. Sad to see....but honestly Malik Rose would seem like the "easiest" to buy out rightnow.
- Dec 3, 2006
- 5,010
- 473
John Hollingers Team Forecast:
Hollinger's Team Forecast: New York Knicks
Hollinger
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: September 30, 2008
* Comment
* Email
* Print
Knicks
David Dow/NBAE/Getty Images
David Lee, Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford should have a better sense of direction this season.
GO TO: 2007-08 Recap Offseason Moves Biggest Strength/Weakness Outlook
2007-08 Recap
About the best thing that can be said for the Knicks' season is that it finally convinced owner James Dolan that team president and coach Isiah Thomas was,in fact, an incompetent nitwit. Though this had been obvious to most outsiders for years, it took last season's 23-59 debacle -- completed with theleague's most expensive roster -- for it to really sink in with the one person who mattered most.
Dolan had even given Thomas a contract extension late in the previous season, and after an offseason trade for Zach Randolph it seemed the Knicks might bequasi-respectable for another year or two and allow Thomas to hang onto his job.
HOLLINGER'S '07-08 STATS
W-L: 23-59 (Pythagorean W-L: 21-61)
Offensive Efficiency: 101.4 (24th)
Defensive Efficiency: 109.6 (29th)
Pace Factor: 94.1 (14th)
Highest PER: Zach Randolph (18.04)
Not so fast. New York's season came unglued almost from the word go. Thomas and Stephon Marbury fought on a plane on an early-season West Coast trip, theteam basically quit on the coach when he reinstated Marbury before the next game, and the season went downhill from there.
As for Thomas' big offseason acquisition, it was another expensive failure. The frontcourt combo of Randolph and Eddy Curry might have looked good onpaper, but in reality they were about the worst thing that could have happened to each other. We've heard a lot about "making your teammatesbetter" over the years, but Curry and Randolph made each other worse. With both vying for position on the low-block, there wasn't enough space foreither, and both finished with lower offensive numbers.
And defensively, they were an abomination. Pairing two of the league's laziest, slowest defenders in the same frontcourt essentially gave opponents freerein to drive to the basket unmolested, something they took advantage of early and often.
The Knicks finished 29th out of the league's 30 teams in defensive efficiency -- it was essentially a three-way dead heat for last between New York and twoother teams that quit on their seasons early, Milwaukee and Memphis.
While the Knicks were bad in almost every phase, one thing that really stood out was their inability to block shots. New York sent back only 3.2 percent ofopponents' offerings, a pathetic rate that was barely half the league average (see chart).
The team's leading shot-blocker, Renaldo Balkman, had only 30; to give you an idea of how sad a figure that is, consider the fact that inferior playerssuch as Marko Jaric and Mike Dunleavy blocked more shots than anybody on the Knicks; or that then-Warriors point guard Baron Davis blocked nearly as many (43)as Randolph and Curry combined (45).
Percent of opponent's shots blocked, 2007-08's worst
TEAM % BLOCKED
New York 3.17
Minnesota 4.72
Orlando 4.86
Sacramento 4.96
Toronto 5.11
League average 5.81
Not surprisingly, given the lack of a deterrent inside, Knicks opponents shot 50.7 percent on 2-pointers. That ranked 27th in the league and was the mainreason their overall rank was so low.
It's not like their offense set the world on fire, either. Thomas' insistence on running a 1988 offense that went through the post on nearly every playwas a major drawback, especially since he hadn't bothered to acquire any guards who could throw an entry pass.
New York was 28th in true shooting percentage and had the league's third-lowest percent of assisted baskets, a direct consequence of employing a backcourtfull of shoot-first guards. Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Marbury and Fred Jones all looked for their own offense first and for their teammates only as a lastresort; having any one of these players on a team wouldn't be a problem, but having a roster full of them made the Knicks the most selfish-playing team inthe league.
Thomas made a similar error in building his frontcourt and wing rotations, stockpiling players who all shared the same strengths and weaknesses. His bigs werehuge and could post up, but none could space the floor or defend. And his small forwards were carbon copies, too -- good athletes who couldn't shoot orhandle the ball. That went along with a backcourt of players who could create offense for themselves but who couldn't shoot or pass.
The Knicks were good in only one respect --- they were 10th in offensive rebound rate, pulling down 28.6 percent of their own misses. Thanks to the heavy dietof post-ups, they also were slightly above the league average in free-throw attempts per field goal attempt; of course, they were a poor free-throw shootingteam (72.7 percent, 23rd), so this wasn't a huge help.
At least the worst is over. After the season, the Knicks finally cut the cord with Thomas and put a grown-up back in charge, hiring former Indiana Pacers GMDonnie Walsh as the new team president.
Walsh moved immediately to pluck Mike D'Antoni away from Phoenix as the new head coach, ushering in a new and hopefully less pathetic era in New York.Unfortunately, this won't be a quick fix -- the damage from the Thomas era will take several years to repair. In addition to all the bad contracts thatclog the Knicks roster, they also owe their 2010 first-round pick to Utah as a long-forgotten consequence of the trade for Marbury.
Biggest Strength: Interior scoring
When the Knicks have been successful over the past two years, it's been because their big guys are wearing out opponents in the paint. While Curry andRandolph have their shortcomings, each is a beast on the low post who can finish and draw fouls.
OFFSEASON MOVES
What roster moves did the Knicks make over the summer? And were they the right moves? John Hollinger breaks it down. Insider Insider
Randolph, in particular, could be a much more potent force than he showed last season. The southpaw had a huge year for Portland two seasons ago, and he'sboth much less mistake-prone than Curry and far less dependent on catching close to the basket. Additionally, his skills seem a better fit forD'Antoni's open-court, free-flowing system than Curry's. Of course, all that presumes he's still on the roster by opening day.
Then there's David Lee, who is a perfect complement to either Randolph or Curry because he's so good at roaming the weak side for offensive boards. Infact, there's a decent chance that Lee starts ahead of Curry, allowing Randolph to work his magic on the block without another teammate occupying hispreferred space.
And while we're talking about post scoring, don't sleep on Quentin Richardson. Yes, he was an absolute dog last season, but he can pummel smallerguards on the blocks, and the Knicks have been strangely reluctant to make use of this skill. He also had his best season under D'Antoni in Phoenix fouryears ago.
Biggest Weakness: Interior defense
As if those pathetic shot-blocking totals from last season don't give you some kind of hint, the Knicks are going to lose a lot of games because of theirinability to stop opponents' forays to the rim. In fact, they may even be more pathetic since their leading shot-blocker, Balkman, has been traded.
The Knicks will be counting on improved effort to make up for their inability to alter shots around the basket. Certainly that won't be difficult, as theteam blatantly mailed in much of last season; even notoriously lazy defenders like Randolph and Curry are likely to summon a bit more effort than they did lastseason.
Nonetheless, the Knicks still face severe shortcomings in their frontcourt defense. Neither Randolph nor Curry defends the pick-and-roll well, and theydon't react well from the help side to thwart an opponent's drive. Lee is more nimble than those two but isn't exactly Bill Russell himself and canbe overpowered in post-ups.
Gallinari is the only other frontcourt player who is likely to see heavy minutes, but he's not useful in this role, either -- he'll mostly be matchedup against perimeter-oriented big men.
Outlook
Predicting the Knicks depends as much on what you think the fallout will be from Thomas' ouster as how you feel about the actual roster. Certainly thepositive vibes coming from the end of the Isiah era will be worth a few wins, especially since D'Antoni is a glass-half-full guy who should help turnaround the KGB mentality inside Madison Square Garden.
There's only one problem: This is still Thomas' team. Duhon and Gallinari are the only new faces, and they're secondary players. The same problemof pairing Randolph and Curry remains, as do the hordes of shoot-first, ask-later types at the guard spots and the assorted overpaid underachievers filling outthe bench.
Even if you allow for the fact the Knicks quit on Thomas last season, it's still hard to imagine them cracking the league's top 20 in defensiveefficiency. Offense may be a struggle too, even with D'Antoni's genius at that end, as New York doesn't have great personnel for his preferredstyle of play (or any style of play, for that matter).
All told, then, this year will be more about the promise of what's to come and, especially, about the end of what was. MSG won't see a lot more winsthan last season, but at last the end of the tunnel is in sight.
Prediction: 28-54, 4th in Atlantic Division, 14th in Eastern Conference
John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. To e-mail him, click here.
http://sports.espn.go.com...n&page=KnicksForecast0809
Hollinger's Team Forecast: New York Knicks
Hollinger
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: September 30, 2008
* Comment
Knicks
David Dow/NBAE/Getty Images
David Lee, Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford should have a better sense of direction this season.
GO TO: 2007-08 Recap Offseason Moves Biggest Strength/Weakness Outlook
2007-08 Recap
About the best thing that can be said for the Knicks' season is that it finally convinced owner James Dolan that team president and coach Isiah Thomas was,in fact, an incompetent nitwit. Though this had been obvious to most outsiders for years, it took last season's 23-59 debacle -- completed with theleague's most expensive roster -- for it to really sink in with the one person who mattered most.
Dolan had even given Thomas a contract extension late in the previous season, and after an offseason trade for Zach Randolph it seemed the Knicks might bequasi-respectable for another year or two and allow Thomas to hang onto his job.
HOLLINGER'S '07-08 STATS
W-L: 23-59 (Pythagorean W-L: 21-61)
Offensive Efficiency: 101.4 (24th)
Defensive Efficiency: 109.6 (29th)
Pace Factor: 94.1 (14th)
Highest PER: Zach Randolph (18.04)
Not so fast. New York's season came unglued almost from the word go. Thomas and Stephon Marbury fought on a plane on an early-season West Coast trip, theteam basically quit on the coach when he reinstated Marbury before the next game, and the season went downhill from there.
As for Thomas' big offseason acquisition, it was another expensive failure. The frontcourt combo of Randolph and Eddy Curry might have looked good onpaper, but in reality they were about the worst thing that could have happened to each other. We've heard a lot about "making your teammatesbetter" over the years, but Curry and Randolph made each other worse. With both vying for position on the low-block, there wasn't enough space foreither, and both finished with lower offensive numbers.
And defensively, they were an abomination. Pairing two of the league's laziest, slowest defenders in the same frontcourt essentially gave opponents freerein to drive to the basket unmolested, something they took advantage of early and often.
The Knicks finished 29th out of the league's 30 teams in defensive efficiency -- it was essentially a three-way dead heat for last between New York and twoother teams that quit on their seasons early, Milwaukee and Memphis.
While the Knicks were bad in almost every phase, one thing that really stood out was their inability to block shots. New York sent back only 3.2 percent ofopponents' offerings, a pathetic rate that was barely half the league average (see chart).
The team's leading shot-blocker, Renaldo Balkman, had only 30; to give you an idea of how sad a figure that is, consider the fact that inferior playerssuch as Marko Jaric and Mike Dunleavy blocked more shots than anybody on the Knicks; or that then-Warriors point guard Baron Davis blocked nearly as many (43)as Randolph and Curry combined (45).
Percent of opponent's shots blocked, 2007-08's worst
TEAM % BLOCKED
New York 3.17
Minnesota 4.72
Orlando 4.86
Sacramento 4.96
Toronto 5.11
League average 5.81
Not surprisingly, given the lack of a deterrent inside, Knicks opponents shot 50.7 percent on 2-pointers. That ranked 27th in the league and was the mainreason their overall rank was so low.
It's not like their offense set the world on fire, either. Thomas' insistence on running a 1988 offense that went through the post on nearly every playwas a major drawback, especially since he hadn't bothered to acquire any guards who could throw an entry pass.
New York was 28th in true shooting percentage and had the league's third-lowest percent of assisted baskets, a direct consequence of employing a backcourtfull of shoot-first guards. Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Marbury and Fred Jones all looked for their own offense first and for their teammates only as a lastresort; having any one of these players on a team wouldn't be a problem, but having a roster full of them made the Knicks the most selfish-playing team inthe league.
Thomas made a similar error in building his frontcourt and wing rotations, stockpiling players who all shared the same strengths and weaknesses. His bigs werehuge and could post up, but none could space the floor or defend. And his small forwards were carbon copies, too -- good athletes who couldn't shoot orhandle the ball. That went along with a backcourt of players who could create offense for themselves but who couldn't shoot or pass.
The Knicks were good in only one respect --- they were 10th in offensive rebound rate, pulling down 28.6 percent of their own misses. Thanks to the heavy dietof post-ups, they also were slightly above the league average in free-throw attempts per field goal attempt; of course, they were a poor free-throw shootingteam (72.7 percent, 23rd), so this wasn't a huge help.
At least the worst is over. After the season, the Knicks finally cut the cord with Thomas and put a grown-up back in charge, hiring former Indiana Pacers GMDonnie Walsh as the new team president.
Walsh moved immediately to pluck Mike D'Antoni away from Phoenix as the new head coach, ushering in a new and hopefully less pathetic era in New York.Unfortunately, this won't be a quick fix -- the damage from the Thomas era will take several years to repair. In addition to all the bad contracts thatclog the Knicks roster, they also owe their 2010 first-round pick to Utah as a long-forgotten consequence of the trade for Marbury.
Biggest Strength: Interior scoring
When the Knicks have been successful over the past two years, it's been because their big guys are wearing out opponents in the paint. While Curry andRandolph have their shortcomings, each is a beast on the low post who can finish and draw fouls.
OFFSEASON MOVES
What roster moves did the Knicks make over the summer? And were they the right moves? John Hollinger breaks it down. Insider Insider
Randolph, in particular, could be a much more potent force than he showed last season. The southpaw had a huge year for Portland two seasons ago, and he'sboth much less mistake-prone than Curry and far less dependent on catching close to the basket. Additionally, his skills seem a better fit forD'Antoni's open-court, free-flowing system than Curry's. Of course, all that presumes he's still on the roster by opening day.
Then there's David Lee, who is a perfect complement to either Randolph or Curry because he's so good at roaming the weak side for offensive boards. Infact, there's a decent chance that Lee starts ahead of Curry, allowing Randolph to work his magic on the block without another teammate occupying hispreferred space.
And while we're talking about post scoring, don't sleep on Quentin Richardson. Yes, he was an absolute dog last season, but he can pummel smallerguards on the blocks, and the Knicks have been strangely reluctant to make use of this skill. He also had his best season under D'Antoni in Phoenix fouryears ago.
Biggest Weakness: Interior defense
As if those pathetic shot-blocking totals from last season don't give you some kind of hint, the Knicks are going to lose a lot of games because of theirinability to stop opponents' forays to the rim. In fact, they may even be more pathetic since their leading shot-blocker, Balkman, has been traded.
The Knicks will be counting on improved effort to make up for their inability to alter shots around the basket. Certainly that won't be difficult, as theteam blatantly mailed in much of last season; even notoriously lazy defenders like Randolph and Curry are likely to summon a bit more effort than they did lastseason.
Nonetheless, the Knicks still face severe shortcomings in their frontcourt defense. Neither Randolph nor Curry defends the pick-and-roll well, and theydon't react well from the help side to thwart an opponent's drive. Lee is more nimble than those two but isn't exactly Bill Russell himself and canbe overpowered in post-ups.
Gallinari is the only other frontcourt player who is likely to see heavy minutes, but he's not useful in this role, either -- he'll mostly be matchedup against perimeter-oriented big men.
Outlook
Predicting the Knicks depends as much on what you think the fallout will be from Thomas' ouster as how you feel about the actual roster. Certainly thepositive vibes coming from the end of the Isiah era will be worth a few wins, especially since D'Antoni is a glass-half-full guy who should help turnaround the KGB mentality inside Madison Square Garden.
There's only one problem: This is still Thomas' team. Duhon and Gallinari are the only new faces, and they're secondary players. The same problemof pairing Randolph and Curry remains, as do the hordes of shoot-first, ask-later types at the guard spots and the assorted overpaid underachievers filling outthe bench.
Even if you allow for the fact the Knicks quit on Thomas last season, it's still hard to imagine them cracking the league's top 20 in defensiveefficiency. Offense may be a struggle too, even with D'Antoni's genius at that end, as New York doesn't have great personnel for his preferredstyle of play (or any style of play, for that matter).
All told, then, this year will be more about the promise of what's to come and, especially, about the end of what was. MSG won't see a lot more winsthan last season, but at last the end of the tunnel is in sight.
Prediction: 28-54, 4th in Atlantic Division, 14th in Eastern Conference
John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. To e-mail him, click here.
http://sports.espn.go.com...n&page=KnicksForecast0809
- Dec 3, 2006
- 5,010
- 473
Originally Posted by FlatbushKING
What a fat piece of %!+$
No...that's what i'm disappointed about....i was looking forward to seeing what he could do this season...
Mike lol @ your disdain for Curry and that satire your posted.
- Aug 30, 2005
- 79
- 10
Mike lol @ your disdain for Curry and that satire your posted.Originally Posted by FlatbushFiyah23
Originally Posted by FlatbushKING
What a fat piece of %!+$
No...that's what i'm disappointed about....i was looking forward to seeing what he could do this season...
Yea man it has gotten to the point where I want him gone more than I do Marbury...yea that bad
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1287023185?bclid=715988028&bctid=1825926516http://link.brightcove.co...8028&bctid=1825926516
and Marbury continues to keep his rep w/ the funny interviews
Training Camp Day 1 media
http://www.zshare.net/video/1973493515f1a3c3/http://www.zshare.net/video/1973493515f1a3c3/ via Cosmic
- Nov 22, 2002
- 11,629
- 62
- May 22, 2007
- 11,525
- 28
im waiting to see Danilo...he and Wilson might be a solid forward tandem in a few years
Steph must be dealt with.
- Jul 16, 2002
- 30,787
- 5,784
Curry May Miss Camp
Marc Berman
Posted: 3:08 am
October 1, 2008
SARATOGA SPRINGS -ddy Curry Eddy Curry missedyesterday's first two practices of training camp and could be out for the weeklong training camp here after being felled by a bacterial infection Mondaynight in the team hotel, Knicks New York Knic officials said.
Curry was taken to Saratoga Hospital for evaluation yesterday. The Knicks won't know if he'll participate this week until later today. Curry,diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat three years ago, had a high fever and vomited most of Monday night.
Mike D'Antoni's speedball offense may not suit Curry anyhow. Curry came into camp in mediocre shape and is no lock to be the starter.
Using his trademark gallows humor, D'Antoni said: "It might've been lucky for him [missing practice]. He might've died otherwise. He wasthrowing up and everything. It's a great way to lose weight."
Marc Berman
Posted: 3:08 am
October 1, 2008
SARATOGA SPRINGS -ddy Curry Eddy Curry missedyesterday's first two practices of training camp and could be out for the weeklong training camp here after being felled by a bacterial infection Mondaynight in the team hotel, Knicks New York Knic officials said.
Curry was taken to Saratoga Hospital for evaluation yesterday. The Knicks won't know if he'll participate this week until later today. Curry,diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat three years ago, had a high fever and vomited most of Monday night.
Mike D'Antoni's speedball offense may not suit Curry anyhow. Curry came into camp in mediocre shape and is no lock to be the starter.
Using his trademark gallows humor, D'Antoni said: "It might've been lucky for him [missing practice]. He might've died otherwise. He wasthrowing up and everything. It's a great way to lose weight."
- Jul 16, 2002
- 30,787
- 5,784
Marc Berman
SARATOGA SPRINGS - For one day in this eclectic upstate town, the knicks New York Knicks looked like a team again - a team with an identity, plan andstyle.
It's Mike D'Antoni's team, and that means they'll run like the thoroughbreds down the street at Saratoga Raceway.
"They're ready to change," D'Antoni said after the first training camp practice at Skidmore College. "They're ready to play welland try something different. Give credit to the players. They want to do it. I'm happy to bring a different style and I'm not backing off on it.Whoever goes with us, goes with us."
The players were overjoyed talking about their speedball offense and not sexual harassment. Not only did Isiah Thomas' trial one year ago create a cloudof negativity among Knick fans, but he failed to give the team an identity, moving from one system to another during their 23-59 laughingstock season. As aresult, Donnie Walsh's major offseason change was not with the roster but the coach.
"It's a different atmosphere,"Zach Randolph Zach Randolp said. "It's pretty much last year's team but it's different- different coach and everyone's on the same page. A lot better vibe than last year - guys smacking each other on the butt, helping each other out, helpingguys get through it."
Monday night in the team hotel, D'Antoni gave the team a presentation, talked about the new style, and told them the Knicks have too much talent not towin. He showed clips of the Knicks championship years to underscore his message.
"It's a more positive vibe," David Lee David Lee said. "We're not going to learn this whole system anderase the past four years all in one day. But we're starting off on the right foot with a lot of positive energy and starting to learn a system if we canall pick this up, we'll be successful."
Thomas alternated between a low-post team based around Eddy Curry and Randolph, to a fast-paced, smallball unit. There was no defensive plan. D'Antoniis all about pressure defense.
"We went through different times last year where we dumped it inside every time to games we tried to bring more pace," said Lee, who could be thestarting center. "Having a consistent system this year will help us. The best thing about this is we have a way to play night in, night out, whether thatmeans shoot the ball from half court every time, at least we go in knowing what we want to do."
Jamal Crawford thought the low-post offense was a mistake.
"We tried to establish going inside, [but] after a while everyone in the league just knew we were going inside," Crawford said. "So that wastough."
After five successful seasons as coach of the Suns, D'Antoni was excited about the players' reaction to his style of coaching.
"In Phoenix, they kind of got stale," D'Antoni said. "Same old stuff. We put up 110 [points] and got tired of scoring. Right now it'sfresh and guys are excited about doing it. They want to believe in something. For me it's refreshing."
Of course, it's not even October.
"We'll see in three days," D'Antoni said. "Today everybody got the adrenaline going. In three days, we can be running inmud."
[email protected]
SARATOGA SPRINGS - For one day in this eclectic upstate town, the knicks New York Knicks looked like a team again - a team with an identity, plan andstyle.
It's Mike D'Antoni's team, and that means they'll run like the thoroughbreds down the street at Saratoga Raceway.
"They're ready to change," D'Antoni said after the first training camp practice at Skidmore College. "They're ready to play welland try something different. Give credit to the players. They want to do it. I'm happy to bring a different style and I'm not backing off on it.Whoever goes with us, goes with us."
The players were overjoyed talking about their speedball offense and not sexual harassment. Not only did Isiah Thomas' trial one year ago create a cloudof negativity among Knick fans, but he failed to give the team an identity, moving from one system to another during their 23-59 laughingstock season. As aresult, Donnie Walsh's major offseason change was not with the roster but the coach.
"It's a different atmosphere,"Zach Randolph Zach Randolp said. "It's pretty much last year's team but it's different- different coach and everyone's on the same page. A lot better vibe than last year - guys smacking each other on the butt, helping each other out, helpingguys get through it."
Monday night in the team hotel, D'Antoni gave the team a presentation, talked about the new style, and told them the Knicks have too much talent not towin. He showed clips of the Knicks championship years to underscore his message.
"It's a more positive vibe," David Lee David Lee said. "We're not going to learn this whole system anderase the past four years all in one day. But we're starting off on the right foot with a lot of positive energy and starting to learn a system if we canall pick this up, we'll be successful."
Thomas alternated between a low-post team based around Eddy Curry and Randolph, to a fast-paced, smallball unit. There was no defensive plan. D'Antoniis all about pressure defense.
"We went through different times last year where we dumped it inside every time to games we tried to bring more pace," said Lee, who could be thestarting center. "Having a consistent system this year will help us. The best thing about this is we have a way to play night in, night out, whether thatmeans shoot the ball from half court every time, at least we go in knowing what we want to do."
Jamal Crawford thought the low-post offense was a mistake.
"We tried to establish going inside, [but] after a while everyone in the league just knew we were going inside," Crawford said. "So that wastough."
After five successful seasons as coach of the Suns, D'Antoni was excited about the players' reaction to his style of coaching.
"In Phoenix, they kind of got stale," D'Antoni said. "Same old stuff. We put up 110 [points] and got tired of scoring. Right now it'sfresh and guys are excited about doing it. They want to believe in something. For me it's refreshing."
Of course, it's not even October.
"We'll see in three days," D'Antoni said. "Today everybody got the adrenaline going. In three days, we can be running inmud."
[email protected]
- Feb 26, 2005
- 4,973
- 19
I've never been this negative before the home-opener but my expectations are so low. We should start tanking from game 2
- May 1, 2003
- 7,595
- 2,466
"Watching Jerome James Jerome James flying on a fastbreak yesterday and dunking in transition is something I thought I'd never see."
http://blogs.nypost.com/s...8/10/dinner_with_don.html
man i wish there was a video of that
http://blogs.nypost.com/s...8/10/dinner_with_don.html
man i wish there was a video of that
- Aug 29, 2007
- 3,603
- 11
- Jan 29, 2007
- 7,084
- 45
^this team is looking GREAT. well, sort of
- Apr 20, 2007
- 4,058
- 11
Starting chances? If you mean that than i love Pat as well and i think he can do a great job at PF with Chandler at SF. But if we go that waywithout like Curry and Zach we would need to start Chandler at C because Jr. cant start right now. He is an energy guy off the bench, he cant shoot at all. Hecould be great off the bench for us kind of like he was at GTown but he didnt even start there.
If you are talking about making the team i think his chances are good because i feel that unlike Isiah D'Antoni realizes that some of these guys likeJames, and Rose and Collins are absolutely worthless and he wouldnt make a move like Isiah did last year like cutting Nichols just to keep James so he doesntlook like a moron. Hopefully Walsh wont be afraid to move on from Isiahs mistakes and make him look like an idiot.
- May 1, 2003
- 7,595
- 2,466
lets be serious....as much as im a fan of ewing jr. you're wild if you think he has any chance of starting. even if there are numerous injuries he wouldstill be coming off the bench.
