It’s incredible how much TD appears to have been limiting this frontline.

Broadway bigs in the first half:

29 points, .630 TS%, 12 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks

STAT and Melo both under 10 shots, over 3 assists

BigBlueAL: Of course not but the fact is if we keep waiting for players like TD and Fields to start playing better and keep there will be no playoffs.There is a reason D’Antoni basically benched TD the entire 2nd half last night.

Thats the problem with your theory.The Knicks need to win as many games as possible right now however they can period.Ask D’Antoni if he doesnt mind losing games right now rather than win ugly.

So if I may give your post the same treatment you gave mine:

You would rather the Knicks win regular season games than playoff games.

See how annoying it is to have someone strip away context like that?

So here is another question, point blank: IF going into the playoffs firing on all cylinders as a team requires some growing pains and maybe a couple of extra losses in the early going of the season do you feel it’s worth it?

If so, then our disagreement comes down to whether you believe the Knicks can win as a one man show or not. I don’t think they can. If you don’t disagree with that, then you never really disagreed with my point in the first place.

http://knickerblogger.net/game-thread-knicks-pistons-2/

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/sam_amick/01/06/baron.davis/index.html

ruruland: I’m really surprised how truncated this discussion is on what’s supposed to be a high-brow board. Denver’s winning percentage from 2008 (post-Billups trade) through 2010 was close to 70 percent with Melo and Billups in line-up.

Now, the dynamics of last season for Denver, with the distractions of the trade, lowered that win percentage some.

Denver is not, however, better than they were with Melo and Billups– they are worse.

Denver got on an incredible roll after the trade, using all of the pent up energy from the previous 6 months.

They have a perfect George Karl team — deep, fast, up-tempo, aggressive in trapping defense, with multiple ball-handlers and offensive intitiators– no stars, no great players.

They are better defensively, which is more of an indictment on Chauncey Billups then Melo, as Billups was clearly the biggest issue with Denver’s defense before.

But, they aren’t any better offensively, despite being much better in transition (more Lawson, Felton and Andre Miller, all superior up-tempo players).

Given the altitude, roster and coaching philosophies, there is fantastic congruency between personnel attributes and style of play…

But you might want to go back and look at how they’ve played in 4th quarters….. they don’ have anyone who can create his own shot against a set defense…. that is always going to be their downfall— something they were great at with Melo and Chauncey.

I have to break it to you, man. When you talk about stats in this post, you’re wrong. When you conjecture, you’re not “wrong,” per se, but you sure as hell aren’t right. Let’s start with the first assertion.

Sure, the Nuggets had close to a 70% win percentage with Melo and Billups in the lineup. And Nene. And Affalo. Lawson. Miller. Birdman. Do you see where I’m going, here? If you want to assign responsibility to…

xduckshoex: Okay then, point blank:do you honestly see the Knicks winning in the playoffs the way they are playing right now?

Of course not but the fact is if we keep waiting for players like TD and Fields to start playing better and keep there will be no playoffs. There is a reason D’Antoni basically benched TD the entire 2nd half last night.

Thats the problem with your theory. The Knicks need to win as many games as possible right now however they can period. Ask D’Antoni if he doesnt mind losing games right now rather than win ugly.