iserp: deciding to bring a new center.

I would call Thompson a PF…

iserp: i am more worried about outside shooting than rebounding right now.  

Randolph is a better rebounder than Thompson… But I wouldn’t put too much into such a small sample of outside shooting. The Knicks have guys who can shoot the ball from outside. Douglas and Danilo are not going to shoot a combined 22% from 3 for the whole season. Those guys and Walker are not going to combine for 26%. Those are probably the Knicks 3 best outside shooters. They’ll get it together.

I do think running an offense rather than letting Amare and WC do whatever they want in isolation would also probably help the 3-pt shooting.

Ben R: As for Amare, teams have decided they are not going to be beat by Amare on the pick and roll.

I don’t know that the Knicks are making any effort to pick-and-roll with him. He sets a pick and stands there, Felton hands him the ball, Amare drives towards the basket. That’s almost the default offense at this point… Maybe teams are taking it away, but so far I have seen little effort to “roll” by either one of them. It doesn’t look anything like a pnr to me, just a hand-off iso thing.

Ben R: Why did we give the ball to amare 25 feet from the basket on an iso when we’re looking for the gametying shot. He’s our star but you would not give the ball to Ewing, Howard, Shaq, etc 25 feet from the basket just becasue teams are packing the paint. You would just find other ways to score.

Great point.

My feeling is also that if there were a little more motion teams would have a harder time defending the Knicks and they would be able to find more open men (including Amare in better spots probably). The offense is so stagnant. Everyone stands around. One guy has the ball and dribbles around, 4 guys stand around and watch him. That’s what I expect from a Larry Brown or JVG, I thought D’Antoni was a better offensive coach than that. Sure you can kick the ball around and find an open man (which I also would say the Knicks aren’t doing enough), but you can also get open by you know… moving yourself. Force guys to chase you, force defenses to switch or lose a step on their man, move the ball. I guess maybe it’s the whole 7 Seconds or Less thing, but the half-court offense is usually one pass and shoot. Make that extra pass and you’ll often find an open man.

Ben R: but instead of rolling anyway and getting someone else an open look he stops and gets the ball 25 feet from the basket.

I think it’s got to be by design: D’Atoni’s call. Maybe not, but at some point if you’re the coach and your best dive man hasn’t run pnr for the entire pre-season and 3 games in the regular season… that’s on you. I don’t know if D’Antoni doesn’t want him pnring, he can’t manage Amare, or what…

SeeWhyDee77: Is it 2 early to give up on AR at this point? If he were healthy, would he have made much of a difference in the 1st 3 games? More than Jason Thompson would?

Yeah, I would say it’s too early. I’m more worried about the future than these 3 games. The Knicks are not one 8th man away from anything. And of course it’s impossible to say what he would or would not have done in the 3 games.

Thompson, by the way, is not necessarily a better scorer than AR. Last season he had about 14 pts/36 (usage of 19.6) on a .518 TS%, while AR had over 18 pts/36 (usage of 24) on a .521 TS%. Where I think AR can differentiate himself from Thompson, though, is defense. Defense is about a lot more than blocked shots. AR is not there yet, but besides cleaning up with blocks and rebounds he has the potential to be a versatile lock-down defender with his length and athleticism.

SeeWhyDee77: unless AR plays the 5, then I think we can afford to move him. What do you guys think?  

I also think the Knicks can afford to move him, but I don’t think Jason Thompson is the guy to move him for. Thompson is a marginal improvement at best (one could argue he’s actually worse) and already 24. Move him for a pick come draft time (arguably more upside) or an established veteran who is clearly better (more certainty).

I also think the Knicks exact rotation today is not necessarily their long-term rotation. Anthony Randolph can be a valuable piece going forward, even if he doesn’t end up being one this season.

Thought Felton played great, his last shot which got blocked notwithstanding. No one else seemed to be particularly engaged at the offensive end in the 4th quarter.

Few wishes:
- Chandler – you’re playing great, but STOP SHOOTING 3s.
- Gallo – sit for a week until your wrist is better, or just the drive the ball every single time instead.
- Amare – if we wanted a big man to iso 1-on-1 and have 6 TOs and 6 rebounds, we already have an $11M black hole on the inactive list. Someone has got to figure out how to get him the ball on the move to the basket. I can’t believe for a minute that they can’t run the pick and roll because of the defense. They ran it every play in Phoenix and teams couldn’t stop it even though they knew it was coming. I’m no basketball coach but that would be priority #1 for me if I was D’Antoni.
- FREE THROWS!!!!!!!

My grumpy comment: We talked about this team all summer long, turning over each possible move with thread after thread. Why is it so hard to get fresh game threads for each game? This one is called “Celtics 105, Knicks 101.” That’s odd. (Sorry, just feeling bitchy after that game.)

Nah, it’s a fair enough point. Let me assure you – we’ll have game threads up for the next 78 games, I’ll make a point of it (if no one else beats me to posting them, of course).

All it does it put the Knicks at a disadvantage since Gallo can’t hit outside shots and that frustration looks like it is affecting the rest of his game. Just start Walker next game (which would allow Chandler to play the same role he has gotten quite used to).

Also, I think Fields should be involved in the offense more – for a little while there he and Chandler really had something going on. It was nice to see. I was pleased to see very little of Mason, by the way. I can’t wait until Azubuike makes him completely useless.

What I wouldn’t do is start Chandler in his place. The nice thing about his game so far is that he’s been, in Clyde’s words, ubiquitous. And I think much of that has been because he hasn’t been labeled to a specific position, where he might feel he has to play within a job description. He’s just been filling in where there’s a need, and it’s freed him up to just play.

to spin it in a good way, how cool would it be if that deal went down with Chandler instead of Gallo because of how they’re playing now, and then Gallo turned it back on once Carmelo got here? anyway, that’s my hope…