bibby fields balkman amare and Jerome Jordan ok you might lose melo but you can run the pic n roll or pop with bibby and amare you gain speed hustle and don’t lose rebounding or size while adding some deeper shots from the center position and you have fields and balkman who are both hustlers so they can compensate for the loss of scoring with some rebounding without losing some defense

td walker melo amare n Jordan now this is perfect when you need turnovers and speed on your floor all are tall except your point but are very quick on the feet they are slashers make sure they go to the basket and attack with this squad cause foul trouble leave amare ten to fifteen feet away to shoot or blow past the defender have Jordan hover in the 12 feet and under range opposite amare whoever slashes either shoots or passes if shot Jordan and amare crash the boards the other two go back on d this will work best with teams that have quick guards and good rebounders like the Celtics

if you want defense you get td fields walker/balkman amare and chandler you put walker on the slow sf and balkman on the tall sm like gallo you have your pickpockets in td and fields and walker you have your rebounding and inside grit in chandler amare and balkman this would be the perfect time when you need to sit melo in the third and rest your other players by playing zone you can play a 2 3 zone with balkman and a 3 2 zone with walker with walker as your middle defending guard these are great ideas if you ask me and all plausible in a long season

Hopefully they can fight thru this early stretch while playing badly yet being able to win enough games to stay above .500 while waiting for Davis to get healthy along with Shump and of course Jeffries lol

KnickfaninNJ:
This was the first game this season I was free to watch.I agree with Tastycakes, the Knicks played boring basketball, and mostly, though not always, poor basketball.There just wasn’t much ball movement or motion off of the ball.

What I didn’t understand about the game was the difference between the first and second halves.In the first half, they just let LA have too many easy baskets and the score reflected that.LA had 63 points to NY’s 51. The 63 was way too many to give up, while the 51 actually wasn’t so bad for the half. I felt like they actually needed Jeffries rather than a point guard. But in the second half they held LA to 36 points total, which is a good number.The trouble was, they only scored 31 themselves.Then it was like they needed better guard play. I couldn’t figure out why the halves were so different (except that the Knicks missed a lot of threes in the second half).Can anyone comment?

yeah thats when they were playting the most iso and the most clock management but there defense was putrid look at the stats in the second the lakers scored 81 percent of there shots and were 71 percent at the half in the third they slowed them down but they ended up wioth a little over 50 percent in the game honestly they had more turnovers in the second half and slowed the ball down

If Knicks win tonight they will enter the new year in 1st place in the Atlantic Division. I will take it lol

Ha! Agreed. That definitely is nice. The teams that are doing well in the East are not in the Knicks’ division.

hoolahoop:
It’s time for a name change – “The NY Excuses”.

I can’t believe we don’t pay you for this level of literary humor.

So, with that disclaimer, I think…

One problem is that Stat practiced three pointers all summer (and fall) and it’s thrown off his mid range game. No reason to think he won’t get that back. If he shoots well, which I think he will, we will be better, which I think we will.

I really think that throwing the ball to our new center in the post would be a good idea. Just to keep the defense honest and him happy. I know it’s not “his game” (not actually quoting anyone there)

I think, as I recall, last year, the K’s reached their early season nadir right before a good win against “Sacratomato” (Steve Summers). Maybe history repeats.

On the whole, “no time to install a zone” comment. Coach D is very candid and says things like ” I think I can figure it out…” He’s no Rex Ryan, as far as bravado goes. When it works it’s really fun to watch his teams, though, and that includes last years Knicks. And not just pre trade. 14 and 14 with Melo and Shelden Williams isn’t bad either when you think about that roster.

Carmelo is the only player on the team who’s playing well right now. I think there’s nothing to complain about with him at this juncture. 3-13 against GSW was bad, but that’s not that many shots.