Comments on: Hawks 100, Knicks 90

By: TelegraphedPass

TelegraphedPass — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:31:32 +0000

Of course Baron won’t be his old self. He’s approaching his mid-30s.
He looks pretty terrible out there, but he was never supposed to play this many minutes once we realized we had a starting PG in Jeremy Lin.
Baron’s a better defender than he’s recognized for. He plays the passing lanes and hounds the ball handler better than most players in NBA history. He generates tons of turnovers with his quick hands, and he has a big body which makes it tough for his opponents to get where they want on the floor. He’s a step slower now that he’s getting older, but I wouldn’t say he’s a particularly bad defender.
Ruru’s take on Baron sounds pretty accurate. He doesn’t need to be his old self, really, but his turnover issue is devastating the team right now. As freewheeling as his play style is, his career turnover rate of 14.6% isn’t that bad at all. Hopefully he gets back to that at least.

By: Will the Thrill

Will the Thrill — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:11:49 +0000

There have been probably 1 or 2 games where Baron has even played close to as well as Lin, and most games he is really, really bad. He is slow on defense, slow on offense, and makes all the mistakes that Lin does with turnovers. I realize that Lin can't play the entire game, but I was just wondering how people can think that Baron should play over Lin because to me: I agree with JR Sec 112 in saying that he is already half-washed up and some games he hurts the team more than he helps it. Maybe its the injury? I'm not sure but I haven't seen much to impress me with Baron this season and I think he is barely hanging on to his back-up point guard position.

Brian Cronin: One thing I didn’t like, though, from the comments is this reductive idea of judging players based on tonight’s game. You know, stuff like “Look, Baron Davis sucked tonight, so saying he should play over Lin is obviously wrong.” But when he kicked ass the other night, was that proof that he should play over Lin? Making decisions about players game-by-game is just silly. Things even out over time and that’s when you judge them.

By: daJudge

daJudge — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:23:56 +0000

Tough game to watch last night. Really though, Atlanta is a very good team and of course they were home. If you look at the game, we hit 5 more free throws and JR hits one or two more shots, maybe we steal the game. Chandler had the rarest of rare off game. I think we missed Lin a great deal and BD was not playing the best. Melo and Shump played their asses off and we could have stole this game even when the rest were playing poorly on offense. I think the defensive effort was still there. If we can keep the defensive effort up, we win by playing decent offense and minimizing turnovers. As someone said, we can’t win all of the games, but we need to win the ones we should, like tonight.

By: Spree8

Spree8 — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:08:03 +0000

If we’re going to use Lin like he’s ___, who’s primary job is to feed Melo the ball for ISO, then why not just start “the man” himself? I’m sure ___ can handle the “task”. We all know why Lin has better success running the point vs ___. Yesterday’s game vs Hawks where Novak and Tyson pretty much become useless and “offense ineffective” shows what we missed from Lin.

Melo is our “best scorer” so he should get his shots, but when it comes to “creating for others” Lin should be our guy. Melo does not make teammates around him “better” like Lin does, not even close.

By: JR Sec 112

JR Sec 112 — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 09:22:06 +0000

On Lin, he is passing the ball more- shots way down since linsanity. And let’s remember they’ve played what, 15 games with their starting lineup intact? Maybe even less. They were starting to get it, with the exception that Melo’s jumper was off. Now its back on. That’s why I think the potential is so great, if they can grit it through this stretch and make the playoffs and get amare back.

On BD, when are we going to admit that he’s half washed up already? Injured or not, we’re not getting the old Baron back. FWIW, there’s not a single game after which I would have argued BD should start over lin. Its ludicrous that after he has a good 5 min run, people here debate having Lin come off the bench. He’s just not a consistent playerright now and even worse, he doesn’t know his own limitations. Neither does JR smith. Which is why, on balance, neither are helping this team more than they are hurting it.

Re Celtics analogy, Cs never had ball stopper like shump. I’d argue knicks are potentially better. What Cs did have was lots of games together to gel and develop chemistry. And they were tough as nails. Interesting to watch knicks and see if they can develop that swagger with a few more reps.

By: limpidgimp

limpidgimp — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:55:22 +0000

@ 13
Thanks for your well thought out response. I will have to find the game video to rewatch to see what you are talking about as far as his not getting to the right spot fast enough to execute the pass.

As for BD’s “free styling,” that got me thinking about the generally unstructured play of the second unit. Like when BD is out there with Smith and Novak. Smith shoots many contested perimeter shots, but if Novak isn’t getting looks and BD’s free styling isn’t successful, then what offense do they have except Smith chucking? I’m not defending Smith’s capacity to shoot without conscience even during cold streaks, just saying isn’t that to be expected from the unstructured play of that group? Novak sure isn’t getting many shot opportunities from this free styling, especially since Novak doesn’t move well (or barely moves) without the ball.

By: Tony Pena

Tony Pena — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:28:31 +0000

2FOR18: Boson is bad comparison. KG is all about D and doesn’t need to be fed; he is the anti-Amare.Rondo is a pass first pg. Pierce = Melo. Allen is the sniper the Knicks don’t really have.

Very true. But being that the rest of the guys on the team don't really need the ball I think there's a good chance it can work. I had mentioned before that if Melo learns how to turn it on and off within lets say a quarter that will take him and this team to the next level. Tough to ask that in this crazy season. And yeah as ruru mentioned if Lin took that mentality to pass first more. He's a smart kid though I think he'll get it. Amare is just gonna have to live with scoring 20+ one night and 12 the other. I think he has the mental makeup though.

By: 2FOR18

2FOR18 — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:13:55 +0000

Tony Pena: @15 – Boston? You know, the players wont bitch about it but how quickly the schedule was set up was very strange. It was like ‘negotiations are going bad, really bad, lets start thinking about next season… We got an agreement!! Ok games start next week and there’s gonna be 70 games in 90 days…” Whoever takes it all this season is going to have a big asterisk engraved in that trophy. Wouldn’t a 50-game season with regular rest between games have had better quality? Two days oof this year is good “off time”. $$$….

Boson is bad comparison. KG is all about D and doesn't need to be fed; he is the anti-Amare. Rondo is a pass first pg. Pierce = Melo. Allen is the sniper the Knicks don't really have.

By: ruruland

ruruland — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:13:37 +0000

Tony Pena: Agree. Amare is a soldier, he won’t have a problem with adapting his game whatsoever. If I’m not mistaken we saw some of that last year. Guys (in particular Fields and Lin) thinking twice about feeding Melo was a direct result of MDA. In that way HE was dividing the team.

agreed... I saw Amar'e finally figuring how to play off the Melo post-ups/ isos in the last few weeks.. he can take advantage of slanted defenses and defenders taking their eyes off him.. that quick cut from the wing to the elbow behind the defense results in a lot of foul shots.

By: Tony Pena

Tony Pena — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:10:58 +0000

ruruland: Lin needs to embrace the idea that he can be a great distributor first, anda very effective slasher, playmaker and shooter off of Melo post-ups…..There’s nothing wrong with diversity in the offense, quite the contrary, and there were a lot of scenarios tonight where Lin pick and roll and Amar’e side pnr would have made the difference… The more Lin looks to get Melo and Amar’e going, the easier his scoring will be later. MDA ostensibly brainwashed Lin into thinking he was THE MAN on the team. All 3 guys will need to sacrifice. But the synergy is potential if they make up their minds that it’s not just about getting out of the other guys way, it’s about playing with them and off of them….. That means Melo kicking it out to Lin, and Lin looking for Melo and Amar’e when he drives. Amar’e also needs to embrace playing off Melo post-ups—- he can be more effective than Nene was in Denver.

Agree. Amare is a soldier, he won't have a problem with adapting his game whatsoever. If I'm not mistaken we saw some of that last year. Guys (in particular Fields and Lin) thinking twice about feeding Melo was a direct result of MDA. In that way HE was dividing the team.