Iman Shumpert: Jus spoke to Doc!!! 10 days till I get to walk...well at least try n take my first step lol about 19 minutes ago

Read more: http://hoopshype.com/twitter/tag/new_york_knicks#ixzz1wYOnGFza


Coming back from an ACL tear is a grueling, difficult process. But reading Shump's tweet's over the last few weeks have given me the feeling that the guy's attitude toward life, and toward the game of basketball he plays for a living, is going to mean two things:

1. He'll come back 100 percent from this injury
2. He'll be the starting two guard for a contending Knicks team in the years ahead.

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OK, so, I read this article:

http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2012/05/the-knicks-and-the-salary-cap.html

Good stuff. It outines some of the numbers the Knicks need to skirt around in their quest to sign their guys or other guys and field a basketball team next season, which is something most of us agree should be done if at all possible.

But what the article doesn't do is actually get into the nitty gritty of how much the Knicks can offer whom, and what the options are, and how J.R. Smith's option-taking or not-taking affects all that.

So now, dig this:

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OK, so this is the height of optimism... How can I be optimistic about the Knicks chances of winning a series that they have already lost 4 games of? Read on, my fellow MILPCATers, read on!

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Hi, it's your friendly neighborhood Knick Fan Optimist (KFO) with another thread for positive MILPCATing.

To start us off today, here's a quote from Howard Beck

Howard Beck: Mike Woodson says Toney Douglas will be first guard off the bench tonight. Also, Woodson just hit a 3-pointer. about 20 minutes ago

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"New York was merely an average team (at best) when Stoudemire suited up this season, but without him they've played like a plus-7.5 team per 100 possessions. By comparison, the 2012 Heat have only been a plus-6.7 team after adjusting for opponent quality -- meaning the Knicks go from being 6.7 pts/100 worse than Miami with Stoudemire in the lineup to 0.9 pts/100 better than Miami without him."

-Neil Paine of Basketball reference

Hmmmmmm........

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As the day goes by, I find myself believing more and more in this course of action. LOL if you want - I don't care.

With Amar'e out, Melo moves to the 4, and we have an improvement in power forward scoring, and also likely an improvement in defense and rebounding from that position. Silver lining people!

And If we go by our regular season Amar'e-less lineup, Landry Fields moves to the 3. He's now guarding LeBron James instead of Dwayne Wade. Landry can't guard either one of those guys. Neither can anyone else, really. From the 3 spot, at least Landry may be able to get some rebounds. But though Landry is a nice intangibles glue guy, he's not a particularly talented defender and his broken shot gives him nothing to work with being guarded by Bosh or LeBron. He can make nice cuts if someone knew how to hit him, but I'm not really seeing that.

So I say Landry might not play a ton of minutes. Novak's another option that should play because he's at least got a weaponized shot. But he's still a minus defender and rebounder. J.R. Smith can also spend some time at the three and has shown some ability to compete on the D end and hit contested shots. There are some decent 2/3 combos here, but if you go with a 2/3 rotation of Fields/Smith/Novak, you don't have an option in which you can have decent defenders at the 2 and 3.

That's why I say it's time to take a chance on Toney. And I think the best way to do this is to have him start alongside Baron Davis in order to keep J.R. in his familiar bench role.

We all know Toney's no point guard, but he does have experience bringing the ball up - and that might help the Knicks keep the ball moving if the Heat pressure Baron or Bibby. But by pairing Toney with Baron, we leave no doubt as to who is the primary point guard. For the first 25 years of his life Toney could score the ball. I strongly feel that Toney just never got into a good groove post lockout. But you know - you know - that Toney's been working hard behind the scenes... because it's What Toney Douglas Do. Toney could conceivably hit a bunch of shots and stretch the floor. With a Davis - Toney - Fields - Melo- Chandler lineup, the Knicks have 3 outside threats. If Toney can hit some outside shots, and then they bring in Novak for Fields, the Knicks suddently have 4 guys capable of hitting 3's. If they bring in Smith for Fields, the Knicks also have 4 shooters and 2 decent defenders.

Basically the idea is that Toney replaces Shump in the Amar'e Bulging Disk lineup of Baron / Shump / Fields / Melo / Chandler. Toney's not the defender Shump is..... and he seems to have lost some of his mojo there. But he used to be a good defender. He's got some experience guarding Wade. He's got playoff experience from last year. And he might be able to hit 3 pointers better than Shump would. And I like the idea of Toney and J.R. Tag teaming Wade and keeping an energetic body on him for 48 minutes.

I think the key in engineering a successful Toney Douglas appearance is to keep him at the 2 guard at all times, either with Baron or Bibby. Take the decision making pressure off him and tell him to defend and hit open shots.

I think everyone agreed that the method for the Knicks possibly taking this series was to grab one of the first two games. It would have been totally awesome if we had been able to do that.

But we didn't do that. So that's not totally awesome. But it's also not totally unexpected. The Heat knew that our best path to victory was to win one of the first two games at Miami, they knew we were possibly dangerous, and they are a very good team that took care of business. Sure, they were helped by friendly whistles as a home team with lots of stars will be. They were also the beneficiaries of our elite defensive center getting the flu, and our best perimeter defender going down with a torn ACL. Not to mention our other defensive intangiblor, Jeffries, being hobbled with half a knee.

Now, our backs are against the wall, and we have to win games 3 AND 4 at the Garden if we are going to win this series. The good things are that Tyson should be at full strength, and Baron will get an extra day of rest for his back, and the Garden crowd should help us and the refs should be friendlier. The bad stuff is, well, we all know the bad stuff. Oh, yeah, plus Amar'e fileted his hand.

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Well, the Knicks exceeded my end of season prediction with 10 games to go. I thought they'd end up 34-32 with the 8 seed, but they ended up 36-30, in the 7 seed. So they face the Heat instead of the Bulls, rendering my prediction null and void... so I have to make another one.

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There's much hand-wringing over the issue of (assuming the Knicks don't crash and burn out of the playoffs entirely) which seed the Knicks get. Will we play the Bulls, the Heat, or the Pacers? Many will try to figure out which matchup is more favorable - which team would be easiest for the Knicks to beat in order to advance to the second round.

I think this is the wrong way to think about it, particularly when home court advantage isn't part of the equation. And I hope the Knicks aren't thinking about it this way either. Even though it might be tempting to wish for an easier opponent so that we can still be playing basketball games when Jeremy Lin returns, I still think we ought to look at it this way:

Which team do we want to punish the most?

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As the Knicks bravely limp toward the finish line of this season, clinging lustily to the #8 seeding and a chance to face those top two teams who have had their shit together all season in a playoff series, it suddenly hit me this afternoon....

THIS TEAM IS SERIOUSLY GOING PLACES.

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The Knicks, with a tougher schedule, find themselves quickly neck and neck with the Bucks just in time for the their final meeting. The Knicks prevail, but hten lose to Washington while Milwaukee beats Detroit to pull back into a tie. But the Knicks, with Jeffries back, beat Miami, Boston, New Jersey and Cleveland to take a three game lead.

Meanwhile, a Sixer losing streak has moved the Knicks to within a half game of the Sixers and 1 game back of Boston for the divsion lead. Boston loses to Orlando, Atlanta, and Miami, the Knicks lose to Atlanta and, despite getting Amar'e back, lose to the Clippers, the Sixers reel off a couple of wins vs. Indiana and New Jersey, regaining the divsion lead, but then lose to Milwaukee, which has once again moved into a tie with the Knicks with one game to go.

The Knicks hold the tiebreaker so need only to win their last game against Charlotte or have Milwaukee lose to get in. But the Celtics, having lost 1st place in the Atlantic, and holding the tiebreaker over the Knicks and the Bucks, have no motivation and lose to the Bucks. Luckily, the Knicks beat Charlotte. With all three teams having identical 34-32 records, the Knicks and Celtics get in, Celts in the 7 seed and the Knicks in the 8th.

The Knicks activate Lin for the first round, but he doesn't play and the Knicks lose game 1 to Chicago in a tense, defensive thriller. In game 2, they get blown out. Back at the Garden down 2-0, The Knicks grind out a win behind Baron Davis' best game as a Knick and Carmelo Anthony's 32 points and 12 rebounds. In game 4, the Knicks fall behind by 18 at the half as Davis re-aggravates his hamstring.. Lin comes out of the locker room and starts the second half in a Reed like moment and leads the Knicks all the way back, and the Knicks win on a Stoudemire 3, his 33rd, 34th, and 35th points, at the buzzer.

Back in Chicago, the Bulls handle the Knicks in game 5 to take a 3-2 lead. For game 6 at the Garden, Baron Davis is able to return and the Knicks take a ten point lead into the final 2 minutes, but Derrick Rose leads a furious rally to put the Bulls up by 2 with 12 seconds left. Lin drives into the lane and gets fouled by Noah, who gets so pissed at the call that he gets a tech. Melo hits the tech and Lin hits the first free throw but misses the second and we go to overtime.

In overtime, Lin takes over, scoring 6 straight points. With a 4 point lead and a minute left in overtime, Lin crosses over Rose and runs him into a Tyson Chandler pick. Rose crumples to the floor and is carried off. The Knicks hold on to tie the series.

Game 7 is an ugly affair. Rose is out, Davis gets hurt again, and neither team scores well. With the Knicks up by 1 with a minute left, Lin fouls out. Boozer hits one to tie it but on the next possession, chaos ensues and the Knicks are forced into a 24 second violation. The Bulls wind the clock down and Deng hits a three, which is turned into a two by the officials upon review. The Knicks call their final time out.

On the inbounds play, Chicago defends well and Deng steals the ball, but Toney pursues him and steals it back without fouling him. He dribbles up the court and passes to Anthony, who drives into the lane but is triple teamed and kicks the ball back out to Toney who drains a three at the buzzer. Knicks advance to the second round.

The Knicks beat the Pacers in round 2, then lose in 5 to the Heat in the eastern conference finals thanks to horrible officiating in game 2. the Heat lose in 7 to Oklahoma City

There's a metaphor in here somewhere....

The Knicks rebounded from that awful stretch before D'antoni resigned, and are now 8-1 under Mike Woodson, despite injuries to Amar'e, Lin, and Melo. Since I love rebounding, and Coach Woodson emphasises it right after 'Defense' (i.e. "Teams that play defense and rebound win championships"), I thought I'd do a little analysis of the Knicks' rebounding trends over the last 18 games.

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The New York papers are all in a twitter (ahem, in my day, that was just a word, not one of these social media contraptions!) about how Woodson's going to bury Jeremy Lin and honestly, I think it's sensationalist reporting, even coming from the Times.

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Well, uh, post-resignem. Mike D'antoni's still alive and no doubt relaxing comfortably in luxury, catching up on his re-runs of Battlestar Galactica or something. 1978 version or 2004 version? That would be speculation.

Speaking of speculation, and such practices, I'm going to encapsulate some of my thoughts on all the goings-on of the last couple of days.

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We've already had it confirmed that Jeffries won't play tomorrow against the Bucks. Chandler is a maybe, but honestly, a hamstring injury is no joke. Got to rest that thing, and rest it good, to be 100% by the end of the season. And since the wrist also badly needs rest, I'd almost be in favor of shutting Tyson down for a few games and making a go of it without him.

Now, I realize, that without Chandler's D anchoring the middle, it puts us in severe danger of losing a bunch of games and heading to lotteryville where we can have the extreme pleasure of watching our pick go to the Rockets. Unless we win the lottery and get the #1 pick, which could happen.

But let's not think about that. Let's talk about what we should do if our two interior defenders miss, say the next 2 games.. or 5 games... or more..

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Howard Beck: Good news for Knicks MT @BigJorts55: Finally back to the court! Doc said I'm good to go! about 52 minutes ago

Read more: http://hoopshype.com/twitter/tag/new_york_knicks#ixzz1nbAA0NFq

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Wow, the fanpost section has gotten crowded. I feel like Deron Williams being overshadowed by Jeremy Lin.. Except not nearly so pissy. What do I care? Lin is awesome and the Flinposts are expected and appreciated, even though I'm kind of saturated myself.

Anyways, I read this article today (click on "this article", silly!) and it suddenly clicked for me: I think the Knicks could go all the way. Now, is it likely in their first season together? Maybe not. But they have all my earmarks of a championship team in place.

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I must admit that I have not seen J.R. Smith play very much. I've heard things about his skills and character, and based on the opinions of several P&T posters, I'm willing to trust that the guy's a very good basketball player that could help us win games, and that his character issues wouldn't be a big problem here.

Any addition to a team is a risk/reward scenario. Even a good player can cause chemistry problems, and not always because they're a bad or evil person.

As a hopeful person, I'm wary but willing to trust that Smith wouldn't create any problems here. But I still think the Knicks shouldn't sign him.

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When the Knicks traded away Felton, Gallo, and Chandler last year, I shed a tear.

Now, I am shedding tears of joy. Our front office is on quite a run. I thought the Melo trade was kind of a blemish on that, but now even that is looking good.

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I had a dream last night..... Seriously - I had a dream about the Knicks. It's gotten to this point.

In my dream, the Knicks signed or somehow acquired a guy named Mann-Mann to play point guard. I don't quite remember if there was a hyphen.. or it was just Mann Mann or maybe even MannMann. The 'M' in the second 'Mann' was capitalized - that much I remember.

Anyway, we were all very excited about it and as the rumors grew throughout the day there was much buzzing. Finally, at night, it was confirmed - the Knicks were acquiring Mann-Mann and placing Jeremy Lin on waivers.

It was assumed that Mann-Mann would be in the rotation immediately. I didn't see Mann-Mann's face in the dream, but somehow a certain food was associated with him - something savory, halfway between a cheeseburger with lots of grilled onions and a very large and dense quiche.

I don't really know how to feel about this, because I went to sleep thinking that the Knicks would have won that game last night with Lin playing Douglas' minutes and Douglas playing Bully's minutes.

But anyway, there you have it. This morning, I woke up thinking we had a point guard who played like a man, rather than one who played like a mouse. In fact, this mythical point guard played like two Manns.

Damn!

Amateur and professional dream analyzers out there, have at it!

We are all anxiously awaiting the return of Baron Davis, and hoping that this 32 year old former all-star with a questionable back and a questionable attitude can turn this offense around.

Paul Silas, was once a Knicks assistant coach, was Baron Davis' first NBA coach, and also played pickup basketball with my dad on a few occasions. Silas was a great player, has been at least a decent coach in the NBA, and I've always thought he says intelligent stuff, both in print and to my dad in person. Here's what Silas has to say about Davis (this is from Newsday):

"He's a very smart guy," Silas said. "You have to come at him straight. You can't come at him with a lot of nonsense -- he's not going to deal with it. If you come at him and have him understand what you want and it's what the team needs, he's all for it."

I think this illustrates why Davis will do well here. If you read this quote closely, you'll see that what Silas is saying is that if what the coach is saying is, in Baron's estimation, what the team needs, Baron will be enthusiastic. D'antoni won't give him a lot of specific instruction, and will let him run the show on the court. That's the way D'antoni likes to do it. That's going to make Davis be very enthusiastic. And also, I think Davis is intellligent enough and experienced enough to know well enough what to do out there. So I think even a diminished Davis will improve this team significantly on the offensive end, especially with their consistency. But every team needs two point guards. You just can't afford to play 8-10 minutes of the game in disarray. No starter is going to play 48 minutes, and Davis certainly won't be able to approach that, especially at first. So who then, takes the bulk of the point guard minutes when Baron's getting his feet wet, and then takes the very important position of backup point guard?

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We've reached the point again in the season - it comes at least twice a year - where we are exasperatingly pulling our hair out, whether that hair be on our heads (for the non-bald among us) or somewhere else on our body. In either case, it's painful, and an alternative is recommended.

That alternative? Radical solutions time! When the Knicks play becomes so awful at one or both ends of the floor that we take Spock's words to heart, "If all possible outcomes are eliminated, the impossible must be true" or something like that. For a brief period last year, it seemed like we could suspend the R.S. series, but then the trade happened and we lost to Cleveland, like, 7 times or something.

An example of a radical solution would be: "Playing Tyson Chandler at point guard", or "Activate Herb Williams". I'll leave suggestions up to you in the comments, but I will get you started with one - it's really the granddaddy of all solutions:

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Today, over at theknicksblog.com, Tommy Dee posted a link to a zagsblog article regarding the possibility of Iman Shumpert moving to the starting lineup. Some people here don't like Tommy Dee - I happen to like him, but that's not what the post is about.

The post is about the reason my heart was filled this morning with a sudden influx of quasi-embarassing yet genuine love and appreciation not only for Seth and Osborn and Gian but for the crew of thoughtful and amusing regular comment and fanpost contributors here at Posting and Toasting. And the reason my heart was filled with syrupy goo is that in response to Tommy's perfectly reasonable and informative post about Shumpert starting, the very first comment posted in response was this gem:

FRANKGIFFORDFAN Top executives with the shoe company have made no secret of the fact that they'd like nothing more than to see Howard in either New York or Los Angeles. With fellow client Derrick Rose in Chicago, Howard would give Adidas a stronghold in two of the country's three biggest markets and the wherewithal to challenge Nike. "They'd love to corner those two markets," said a person connected to the sneaker industry. "They'd be in heaven, I can tell you that." CBSSports.com

Frankgifford fan, If you're on here, I apologize - I'm sure you're a nice person. I just don't want to talk sports with you.

Trying to work together as a team to produce success is a perplexing yet beautiful riddle. It is a quintessentially human endeavor. As human beings, we struggle to balance the individual with the group and to succeed in our endeavors. As spectators and supporters of the Knicks' attempts, we gain insight into what it means to live and be human. We learn, not just about the fascinating game of basketball, but about our fellow humans, what makes them tick, and how we can be part of a successful team in our lives. It's not just about wearing certain colors and drinking beer and getting the best, most famous players and turning over cars and lighting them on fire if and when a championship is won. It's about the journey.

Let me reitierate: I ♥ P & T.

I hope I haven't embarassed anyone.

I'm officially on this bandwagon and here is my reasoning:

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Well, this is not exactly according to plan.

Having watched the first two games in their entirety (a rare occurrence for me, but possible thanks to being on vacation at my folks' house), I have some observations.

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The loss of Shawne hurts a bit. I like continuity. And I'm sure the Knicks will add some sort of player in the next few days. But I think we're good to go.

You need a variety of skills to compete, minute to minute, in an NBA basketball game. You need the ability to ballhandle, pass, and break pressure, you need to be able to rebound the ball, you need to be able to defend big guys and little guys and slow other teams down. And you need the ability to put the ball in the basket from many angles and distances.

Many teams, including the Knicks of recent vintage, struggle not because they don't have good talent, but because they have glaring holes in their skill set. Each team has some difficulties and deficiencies that they must overcome. That's where team chemistry and camraderie comes in. I think the Knicks have it. It just feels right. And that's very important.

So, position by position:

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When the Knicks pulled the trigger on that Melo trade, the inclusion of Felton for Chauncey really spun me out. I love Chauncey, but I have this thing about acquring point guards on the downside of their career to be the starter. I just don't think it works.

Now, Jason Kidd proved me wrong last year by winning with Dallas. But it took him several years, the unlikely ability to still play at 38, and JJ Barea and Jason Terry having his back. I wasn't sure if Chauncey could do that.

Plus, I felt that with Melo arriving along with his point guard, there was a strange split in the team and an ambiguous power structure. The point guard, a veteran with a ring, has the ball in his hands and familiarity with only one player - Carmelo. I felt very good about Amar'e's leadership up to the trade, and I felt that the inclusion of Chauncey undermined that a bit. I just felt bad about it, and the Knicks 12 losses to the Cavaliers last year just reinforced it. I suggested at the time that they cut Chauncey and just go with TD, but when Chauncey got hurt, TD didn't seem to step up and shine enough. By the end of the season my dreams of TD being the starting point guard for us had faded.

Felton wasn't perfect by any means. But he was the right age and had a good attitude and leadership and I thought he and the team would continue to grow together and get better. I felt he was the most unambiguously good point guard we had around here since we traded Mark Jackson. Seriously.

But he was gone, and I've felt out of balance ever since. The team seems to be a hodgepodge of Amar'e and the trade leftovers on one side, and Billups and Melo and She-Will on the other side. It just felt like a chemistry fail to me, despite the fact that I like both those guys a lot.

Add in the exit of Donnie Walsh, and the uneasiness was mega'd.

Rumors of Paul coming here didn't make me feel good. More of our young favorites in exchange for Melo's good buddy, the wedding toaster? I just didn't like it - despite the hard-to-dispute fact that Paul is a beast of a player.

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It's about time we heard from the heart and soul of the New Knicks!

Check it out:

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