Knicks Morning News (Tuesday, Jan 15 2013)
January 15th, 2013 by Mike Kurylo | @KnickerBlogger | Comments | Permalink |
After finally completing the long, arduous road back from a left knee injury, Iman Shumpert laid down on the court after Knicks practice and reflected on his comeback. It’s been a long wait for the young guard, who is slated to make his season debut in Thursday’s game…
Big Brother is watching.
And in the Knicks’ case, he is listening, too.
League sources have confirmed Knicks owner James Dolan, in the wake of the highly volatile trash-talking war between star Carmelo Anthony and the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett last week, ordered two technicians to hold high-tech, sensitive microphones at…
A fasting Carmelo Anthony is still better than virtually everybody else out there. So Knicks coach Mike Woodson said yesterday he has no problem with his All-Star forward opting for a fast that would make most laymen cringe.
“We have medical doctors and nutritionists who handle all of that. I…
The Miami Heat were unable to complete a furious second half fightback as the defending NBA champions continued to struggle on the road, falling to a 104-97 loss to the Jazz in Utah on Monday.
DeMarcus Cousins had 26 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, and the Sacramento Kings snapped a four-game losing streak with a 124-118 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.
When Kevin Durant takes over a game, it’s quite a show.
Carlos Boozer scored 20 points, Luol Deng added 18 and the host Chicago Bulls held Atlanta to a franchise-low 20 points in the first half of a 97-58 victory.
Al Jefferson scored 23 points, Gordon Hayward added 22 â?? including a jumper with 40 seconds remaining â?? and the Utah Jazz held on to beat the Miami Heat 104-97 on Monday night.
Darren Collison led six players in double figures with 23 points and the Dallas Mavericks matched their season high with a third straight win in a 113-98 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
The reserves Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes each scored 16 points, and the visiting Los Angeles Clippers easily routed the Memphis Grizzlies, 99-73, despite Chris Paul’s missing his first game this season because of a bruised right kneecap.
Rajon Rondo scored 17 points with 12 assists and 10 rebounds on Monday night to lead the Boston Celtics to a 100-89 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.
Emeka Okafor had 19 points and 11 rebounds, leading six players in double figures for Washington in a 120-91 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday night for the Wizards’ third straight win.
Amid disclosures of a restricted diet and recorded court conversations involving Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks flew to London to play the Detroit Pistons.
With Garden boss James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan lurking around every corner, the potential for a Knicks soap opera, and a walk on the dysfunctional side, is just a moment away.
NBA players be warned â?? if you say something mean to Carmelo Anthony, James Dolan will hear it. The Knicks owner reportedly tasked two MSG Network employees with recording every sound uttered in Anthony’s direction on Friday night.
Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony was so hungry from his annual 15-day fast that he would even eat a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.
Mike Kurylo is the founder and editor of KnickerBlogger.net. His book on the 2012 Knicks, "We’ll Always Have Linsanity," is on sale now. Follow him on twitter (@KnickerBlogger).
According to the newspapers, Melo does a fast every year at this time. That might actually show in his statistics, but I don’t know how to check? Does anyone have any suggestions?
Has anyone else noticed that the Pistons are 8-3 over their last 11 games? Or that the Hornets were 6-3 over their last 9 when they played the Knicks? In other words, both teams have been better than the Knicks lately. The Hornets win was a better win than most people are giving the Knicks credit for, and the Pistons are not going to be pushovers on Thursday.
I am thoroughly excited for Iman Shumpert. Good offensive player with a host of likely improvable skills. Great defensive player with a swagger that reminds me of a young Gary Payton. He is better than Avery Bradley and on this team he plugs the largest weaknesses we have.
I salivate when I remember his defense against Dwayne Wade before he got hurt. Welcome back Mr. Hightop, we missed you.
For some reason, the hornets have always been trouble for the Knicks. I never expect an easy game from them. The Pistons not so much, but they are definitely a young team that’s getting better.
Really important that we get that win Thursday, with 2 “measuring stick” games to follow against Brooklyn and Boston. And with the possibility of having Felton back (and Shump of course) for both, and with tons of rest in between each game, there will be no more excuses.
Deadspin noticed a similar 2-week dip in his numbers one season in Denver the last time he was on record as fasting.
I would definitely not call him a good offensive player. Last year he was a horrible offensive player. He definitely has potential on that side of the ball but he has to actual make good on it. With that being said, he’ll be taking minutes from Ronnie Brewer so it would be hard to do a lot worse.
Good offense is about more than making shots..
He is a plus ball handler, finisher, spot up shooter and slasher. He also pushes the pace with his speed and quickness, leading to more transition opportunities for himself and other players. He isn’t JR, but he is similar when it comes to the skills I mentioned above; our offense will be better with him than it is without him.
Ronny Brewer is a horrible offensive player. Iman Shumpert is not.
All things we need
he’s a much better offensive player than his overall numbers showed last year, he was forced into a PG role for a good chunk of the season for the good of the team but he really is a SG. ruru has posted the splits here many times, he got better and better as the season went on.
Right, but that’s because of who he is replacing, not because Shumpert is some kind of offensive stud. Hopefully he has learned to never shoot off the bounce and can improve at converting lay-ups (though that one is a lot to ask of someone coming off a serious knee injury).
I also hope his PnR coverage improves so that he can become the elite all-around defender that he has shown the potential to be (and that a lot of people seem to already think he is). That one is more reasonable to expect of a 2nd year player IMO.
Based on what his body looked like, I have a hard time believing that there was any time last season when Melo was fasting…
Hakeem used to fast for a few months every season for Ramadan, I don’t think it affected his game too much.
yeah, my memory seems to be accurate there, here is a piece on it (although the numbers have disappeared in the time since the original post, the conclusions are still there):
http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2010/10/dream-week-fast-is-feast.html
I know what you mean, but it is what the paper said he said.
Fasting for Ramadan may be different than what Carmelo does. In Ramadan you fast during the day but you can eat after dark. So Olajuwan could observe Ramadan and still eat a full meal before a night game and a full meal afterwards.
I honestly find it hard to believe Carmelo didn’t eat any calories at all during two weeks, but I am sure he cut back substantially. And his play definitely seemed worse.
Ruru, this is why we pay you the big bucks. What’s the deal with the Melo fast? His quotes reference no meat, and I forget if no carbs and bread, cleanse out toxins. It sounds like a diet strategy or green tea fast or something along those lines.
It’s hard to nail down exactly why Melo feels this is important for him. He’s not Christian. He has a personal nutritionist and I’m quite sure he wasn’t completely fasting. Hes done this four times to my knowledge, starting in 2008. Only Melo really knows why he chose to do it again this year. If he feels it’s important to him spiritually, now that he’s through it, maybe it has a positive effect.
2008 he kind of had a personal transformation and I think he tries to stick with it.
But I think if people knew the eating habits of some guys around the league, fasting doesn’t seem all that bad. Melo used to be a poor eater. A lots changed. My guess is this is somehow related to his eating discipline whether he admits it or not.
http://mobile.newsday.com/inf/infomo;JSESSIONID=C7BFB1F5DF67CA0E5CFE.3276?site=newsday&view=sports_item&feed:a=newsday_5min&feed:c=sports&feed:i=1.4447314&nopaging=1
For all the talk of JR maturing and having a great relationship with Woodson etc. (which seems to be true), he seems to having a totally run of the mill (or maybe even below average) season by his statistical standards.
I guess he’s playing well enough to play more minutes per game than ever and boost his per-game stats through sheer volume, but aside from minutes per game and FGA per game it seems like the same old JR (or even a worse shooting version). Hell, I’d drive him to the club myself if it meant a return to .570 TS% JR Smith.
If you are not a professional biographer, this post is extremely fucking creepy.
Totally off topic of course, but this whole Sacramento / Seattle thing makes me sick as a fan. Sac was one of the best arenas for pro basketball back when Bibby wasn’t a mummy. The team sucks because the Maloofs have no money and no ability to pay for good executive or player talent. The resulting horrible management (trading DOWN in the draft to get John Salmons and his horrible contract/skills?!?!?!?!??) has left that team with very little talent despite always picking in the lottery. They had a deal with Sac to get an arena, then reneged on it. It’s just unconscionable that the Maloofs are going to be able to eke out some profit on this despite basically being the worst businessmen in the world, and that to do so, they’re taking a team away from a city that really loves their Kings.
Just horrible. I guess anytime we feel bad about Dolan, we should take solace in the fact that at least he’s not a Maloof.
Look at the difference in assisted basket %
What is the difference?
If that was true, I’d feel more confident, but he did not get better and better as the season went on. He got better and better and then had a big regression in the last month of the season. That said, I am pretty confident that he’ll be better, simply since he won’t be running the point anymore. That alone should make him an improved offensive player (his best stretch on offense seemed to coincide with the Knicks actually getting a good point guard last season). I just don’t know if will result in an actual good offensive season yet or not. I’d love it he did show up with a good offensive season. That’d be awesome.
Re: Shump, I have a feeling that his jumper will be much improved this year. From all reports, he worked a ton with Hopla even during his rehab, and did tons of spot-up shooting before he was cleared for more active stuff.
If he can even shoot 35% from 3 point range, and attack closeouts at times, he will be huge for this offense. He’s not a true point guard, but he has really good vision – had lots of nice assists off drives last year. He did average 5-6 assists/40 for his college career. His ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim makes him far more than a 3-and-D kind of guy.
I understand where are coming from with the Maloofs and the team leaving, but I think it would have been a worse tragedy for the team to continue sacrificing for the Maloofs. The Maloofs already owe Sac 67 million and didn’t want to put in any collateral for the building of the new stadium. Seattle’s stadium is aided by public financing, but the principal owner is on the hook for anything not paid back. And seattle actually has a chance to get that money back because of the location.
For Kings fans it may suck, but I bet quite a few will jump on the GSW in time. there are probably almost as many warrior fans in Sacramento as Kings fans now…
Look at the strength of the correlation:
http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=J.R.%20Smith
’07 – 58.6 ts/ 76.4 assisted
’08- 60.3 ts/ 64.6 assisted
’09- 57.6ts/ 53 assisted
’10- 51.5/51.6
’11- 55/51
’12- 50.8/52
’13- 50/32.9
Obviously, these are assisted makes, not assisted attempts. These numbers don’t capture unassisted attempts, so the correlation is probably a lot stronger.
Shumpert at pg: 428 efg%/ 4.8 turnovers
Shumpert at sg: 454 efg%/ 2.2 turnovers
Shumpert at sf: 550 efg%/ 4.7 turnovers
http://www.82games.com/1112/11NYK5.HTM
I’ve always seen Shump’s potential as Tony Allen with a jumper, and I think that would make him a pretty special player to have. Of course he has a ways to go before he can get there, but so did Tony Allen. Shump definitely has all the tools to be a good 2 way player (amazing on defense, above average on offense) it’s going to be fun to see his career unfold.
Better handle than Allen, higher ceiling as playmaker/ shot creator.
Also jumps 6 inches higher, allowing him to get about 3 inches higher on his peak jump.
Needs to clean up shot selection.
Am I crazy, or was there discussion last year of Shump, with everything breaking the right way and putting in a ton of work on his offensive game, having a ceiling of a poor-man’s Dwayne Wade? I mean, I know the suggestion seems crazy, but am I remembering that correctly?
That’s what I said last year. He showed a version of Wade’s incredible euro step (that sort of made his career what it was).. I don’t think he’ll ever have that kind of explosion off one foot, nor Wades creativity, but certainly very comparable in athletic measurable and build.
Wade made two big jumps from rookie to second year and second year to third.
Might take Shumpert longer.
Eddie Jones is best comp. I can think
Why can’t the Knicks get JR anything close to the level of assisted attempts he got in Denver? It can’t just be Felton’s absence, he’s only been out a handful of games. I don’t mean to rag on JR, he’s been a huge piece of the puzzle this year for someone whose efficiency is in the toilet, but it doesn’t seem sustainable to have him and Felton throwing up like 30+ combined FGA/36 with awful efficiency.
Because Woodson is asking JR to do what GK started demanding in 2009 — play point guard.
New Orleans smoking Philly in Philly. Their last 6 games look like this:
@Dallas win
San Antonio win
Houston win
Minnesota win
New York loss
@Philly win
New Orleans is starting to look like a good team, Eric Gordon and Vasquez are a pretty good backcourt. Davis has been solid, I like Drummond a little more so far, although Davis has some pretty incredible potential on defense.
Davis is slightly over-hyped to me as well. Lopez is pretty underrated. They’re one player away.
Nets broadcast just showed a stat saying Nets are 14-0 vs sub-.500 teams (stat based on record of opponent at time of game not their current record).
Yeah, exactly. Just moving him off the point should definitely help. I just don’t know if it will help enough. If his jump shot has improved, then yes, obviously he will improve, but we don’t know if it has yet. But man, if his jumper has actually improved, what a great addition he will be. He’s already going to be a great addition because of his defense, but if his offense is not bad…wow.
I am excited about Shump’s return but I am expecting much much less than most on this board it would seem. I see him being a nice average-ish player at best, which is a good thing to have, but it’s going to take a lot to convince me there is any kind of star potential there. The offensive skills are so raw….
I think he’s a gamechanger on defense just because he’s big, long-armed, and so quick. He gets steals without overgambling (although he did foul too much last year). And I think without a doubt our defense’s biggest problem has been the complete inability to contain dribble penetration- and Shumpification should definitely help that.
Re: his offense? I would be perfectly content with:
TS 52
12points/36
33% on 3P
4 rebounds and assists per 36
TOV% <14
These are all basically just mild improvements from his rookie year during which there was no training camp or practice time, and he was playing PG for much of it.
If we get the old Shump back on defense and these limited offensive contributions, I think he will be perfect for this team.
Re: "star potential" – I think there is plenty of star potential there. If I had to guess on his career, I'd say he's a fringe all-star eventually. Of course, this is all based on him being physically what he was prior to his injury.