Ted Nelson:
Why is that a surprise?
  

I’ve always known he had those abilities in spurts..but to see him do it every minute he’s on the court is suprising. Actually, he’s a better defender than I thought he was. Maybe I just hadn’t seen him enough until now.

SeeWhyDee77: And not to mention a pleasant surprise in Turiaf’s passing, defense and energy.

Why is that a surprise?

nicos: no passes that made me think he had great court vision but made decent passes out of the double team.

He made one nice pass from the free throw line to Gordon under the basket for a lay-up.

latke: His body type is more along the lines of Dwight Howard’s though.

Blake’s Amare’s height (6’8.5″) but with shorter arms and more bulk. Dwight Howard has freakishly long arms. At both of their pre-draft combines he had 5.25 inches in wingspan over Griffin. And I’ve read Howard’s grown a couple inches since entering the league out of high school.

Having read the recap, one thing I think is funny is how seriously Gallinari seems to take D’Antoni’s words. NY press picked up on the him saying that stuff about how he’s not lebron; he’s just a good player for the knicks. To me, it sounded just like what D’Antoni probably kept saying to him early on when he was struggling. Tonight’s recap offers this gem: “I was just trying to help the team at a moment where the team needed me to help them,” Gallinari said. “The fourth quarter is the most important part of the game, especially when you’re playing a tight game. I was trying to read the defense and their defense was giving me that shot, so I was taking it.”

I can just hear D’Antoni telling Gallo during a timeout — “they’re giving you that shot. You have to read the defense. If they keep giving it to you, keep taking it.”

It’s not that other players don’t rehash the coach’s bullets, but when they do it it often seems very PR oriented — saying “the right thing.” For some reason, I think because of the level of specificity he offers, Gallo seems so sincere when he says stuff like this.

nicos:
And he’s bigger- pretty scary.I don’t think he’s as quick a jumper as Amar’e was pre-knee issues but he gets up higher and is just as strong if not stronger.Amar’e had a couple of big dunks of his own but they were pretty ho-hum compared to Griffin’s.

His body type is more along the lines of Dwight Howard’s though. Having had him on my fantasy team (and sadly, at least tonight, having traded him), he gets inordinately few blocks (.3/game). Seems that someone with those hops and that size should average more blocks than zach randolph.

I didn’t get to watch the game, so I’m curious. People say his offense is like a young Amare’s. How was his defense? How did his basketball IQ look? He had those 7 assists tonight, but he’s averaging under two on the season. Was he just in the right place at the right time or what?

Ben R: Griffin actually reminds me a a bit of a young Amare with his athleticism. He is actually more athletic though.

And he’s bigger- pretty scary. I don’t think he’s as quick a jumper as Amar’e was pre-knee issues but he gets up higher and is just as strong if not stronger. Amar’e had a couple of big dunks of his own but they were pretty ho-hum compared to Griffin’s.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Knicks adjust to playing Charlotte after three straight games against poor defensive teams.

Ben R: Griffin actually reminds me a a bit of a young Amare with his athleticism. He is actually more athletic though.Players keep getting more athletic, Jordan and Dominique, then Vince and McGrady, LeBron and Howard and now Griffin. There’s got to be a ceiling. I mean whats next, are players going to simply jump from the three point line and fly towards the basket. How athletic can a person get. He was actually looking down at the rim on a number of those dunks.  

Scary part is Griffin missed all of last season with a knee injury if Im not mistaken.