Breen is excellent as a play-by-play man, I actually think he should give less analysis since at times he can be annoying with the lack of effort stuff.

Yeah, agreed. He has a million dollar voice but his “analysis” is all just basically biased views based on what style he personally likes to see played. If you don’t fit into his mold of what an NBA player should be, he will cut you absolutely no slack if you struggle at all. For whatever reason, Melo does not fit into his mold of what an NBA player should be (and yet Derrick Rose does, which is weird to me as Rose and Melo seem pretty similar to me).

jon abbey: ruru, you’re definitely right about the Bulls playing consistently harder than anyone in the regular season but you leave out how many minutes Tibs plays his main guys, it seems pretty crazy and is not unconnected to their early playoff exits the last two years

It is crazy how Deng was still on the floor with the Bulls up 25 after messing up his shoulder.

ruruland: Also, I stand by my statement on Frazier. No disrespect to his legacy or what he means to Knicks fans, he seems like a great guy, but I can’t stand his announcing.

I enjoy Clyde for his enthusiasm, relative impartiality, and weird love of wordplay. (And also his incredibly daring fashion sense.) He doesn’t break down the game like JVG or Hubie Brown, and that’s OK with me. He truly is the “color” in “color commentator”, not so much an analyst.

BigBlueAL:
Who will start for the Knicks on Sunday vs the Wolves??We know for sure Kirilenko will be guarding Melo and I cant imagine the Knicks will allow Melo to cover Love so I would have to think Kurt Thomas will get the start no??I guess they could start Novak but again who covers Love, Novak or Melo??

they really need one or more of their big men back, Amar’e, Sheed, Camby, anyone would help against these big teams.

ruru, you’re definitely right about the Bulls playing consistently harder than anyone in the regular season but you leave out how many minutes Tibs plays his main guys, it seems pretty crazy and is not unconnected to their early playoff exits the last two years.

Basketball is not like baseball where the play-by-play guy should be able to give decent analysis because quite frankly the need for a play-by-play guy in baseball is really not that necessary since its a slow paced game and there is alot of dead time in between plays. There are many local broadcast teams who use ex players as the play-by-play guy and not just to do color and you cant even notice the difference. In basketball its the opposite since their is constant action going on and no real breaks, the need for a play-by-play guy is much more important.

At least thats the way I see it.

Breen makes me think of a suburban dad on a 1950s era TV show. he’s so nice and pleasant to listen to that he’s hard to dislike, but he’s also just bland. He’s a better speaker, so it won’t strike you as often that he’s saying the same things over and over just in different ways, but it’s what he does, and I can’t recall him ever saying much insightful.

This is closer to the Knicks I expected in that they have some serious weaknesses due to their slowness and very systematic style of play. They can’t defend great attacking guards at all, and they struggle against smarter defenses that know how to properly double team Anthony and how to closeout against the Knicks’ shooters — Kidd, Brewer and Novak’s limited offense especially are vulnerable because Kidd and Novak allow you to closeout hard (they struggle to score off the dribble) and Brewer is just a bad shooter.

Fortunately for New York, the east is just terrible. Howard, Bynum, Granger and Rose out/gone, Miami playing at 60% effort, Boston doing their typical, “How many months until the playoffs?” act. By my estimation, all seven of last year’s other playoff teams are worse, with Brooklyn being the only dramatically improved team.

It’s also amazing to me how much Melo’s game is transformed when he hits the 3. When he’s on from the perimeter, especially at the 4, he becomes completely unstoppable and is undoubtedly a top 10 franchise player. I hope the hot shooting continues. Looking forward to the inevitable Stoudemire drama as well.