I think in the future AR will get better with his jump shot and we will see him in a role similar to Chandler’s but that will probably be next season more than this season.

As for rotation I actually prefer a short rotation as well but not by playing the starters into the ground but instead by giving your top 2 or 3 reserves major minutes.

I agree with you on Turiaf, although IMO his total failure to clean the glass leaves him more in the “good” category than “very good.” But AR does not play the same position, and he can guard players Turiaf can’t. For spacing reasons I would generally avoid putting them on the floor at the same time, anyway. To give AR minutes I’d shift them from Williams & Walker, and maybe lighten the minutes load slightly on Chandler and Gallinari.

I don’t expect that to happen because D’Antoni simply prefers a short rotation – he always votes for continuity, over matchups. (Popovich is an example of the opposite approach). There’s something to be said for both.

Turiaf gets play because he is a very good defender and his passing ability limits the damage he does to spacing. He is also a weapon on the pnr. I think Randolph has to be able to either score consistantly on the pnr or hit outside shots, otherwise he does too much damage to the offense.

But I’ll add a few thoughts… one is that AR’s mistakes are basically on one thing: shot selection. Which, as you say, is bad. But not as bad as many people seem to think. As a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old, he had TS% of 50.6 and 52.1.. Not good, but respectable. Wilson Chandler didn’t break 52 until his 3rd season.

He did it over nearly 2,000 minutes, so I’m pretty confident that’s more his true efficiency, as opposed to the grotesque misfire rate he’s shown in his 104 New York minutes.

The rest of his game is fine. He makes some head-shakers, like that pass to no one that pretty much got him benched. But his TO rates in Oakland were 12.9 and 10.7. (Bill Walker’s rates have been 18.2, 8.7 and 13.5; Shawne Williams’ are 11.2, 10.8 and 7.4. Our buddy Mozgov has a TO rate over 25). With a little court time I don’t think his decision-making (other than shot selection) is really an issue.

I can live with the head-shakers (in limited minutes, of course) since he also brings a lot of good things to the table. You don’t get those 1-2-0-0-1-0 lines you get from Bill Walker. AR is one of the best per-minute shot-blockers in the league and he’s by far the best rebounder on the Knicks.

So…. as long as Shawne Williams hits 65 percent of his 3s, sure, make him the first option. And Walker is ok. But there are plenty of times when the Knicks are getting reamed on the boards, or could use a long defender (like when Turkoglu and Ryan Anderson smoked them the other night). On those nights AR could push the team into the win column.

The problem is AR has great potential and he can see that, and he isn’t willing to relegate his actions to a limited role.
He could be one of the guys on Minnesota because they sucked. On and old Knicks team, he also could have been an al harrington type.
But on this team, he’s barely an eighth man.

I don’t think he is as good as those guys for the Knicks right now but long term he’s a Knicks BFF. :)

I’m not shocked to see the Knicks win – they’re a good team, playing at home, with some ok matchups – but I am shocked they won while shooting 8 for 27 on 3s. They made up for it by outrebounding the Spurs – which is pretty surprising – and only turning it over 6 times. If I’m Popovich, I’m pissed – those numbers show a lack of energy or effort, IMO.

Pulling the starters? That’s just thinking long-term – he’s always limited their minutes, in-season. Why burn your guys out and risk injury for maybe a 5 percent chance of winning? Especially when your key guys are old an injury-prone.

@198-199
I agree that the Knicks should stay in win-now mode, not player development. And the way it shakes out, the best players (save Felton) are all forwards. Stoudemire, Chandler, Gallo and probably fields are better than Randolph right now.

But… hard as it is to argue against a guy with a 70+ TS%, Randolph now is probably as good or better than Shawne Williams (not talking potential, I mean now). He’s a lot better at some things. he’s also better than Bill Walker. There are times when it’s best to have the shooters on the floor, and times when the smart move is put Randolph out there. He’s miles better than Timo, although not as thick when we just need a big body.

All in all I think Randolph should probably see minutes even in an 8-man rotation, especially when Gallo is down. Definitely in a 9-man, and definitely when Turiaf is out or limited.

Frank O.: @198
Yeah, Frank, I don’t see any time for AR. We are no longer a team focused on player development. Good teams in the thick of a playoff hunt don’t spent a lot of time fretting about developing players. Those guys get shots when players go down. Otherwise they sit in a row in little plastic seats and cheer.
AR had a shot at making the lineup earlier and he was unable to sort out his game enough to beat out any of the bigs.

If AR is going to develop, it looks like it will have to be in practice. I know Andy Rautins is being groomed to be the backup point of the future in this manner. I really, really hope that Randolph’s attitude towards his current status is more like Mozgov and Rautin’s.

http://celticshub.com/2011/01/05/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-nate-robinson/