Knicks Morning News (Tuesday, Oct 02 2012)
October 2nd, 2012 by Mike Kurylo | @KnickerBlogger | Comments | Permalink |
Jeremy Lin is no longer regarded as a phenomenon around these parts. He’s more like the forgotten point guard, which is exactly how MSG chairman James Dolan wants it.
Pat Riley gets Ray Allen to spot up in the corner and shoot threes down in Miami, while the Knicks are ready to take on another old Celtic, Rasheed Wallace, who last played in an NBA game 28 months ago and struggled mightily that night just to get up and down the Staples Center court.
Jeremy Lin, who was a short-lived sensation with the Knicks, has fit right in on a rookie-rich Rockets team.
Knicks Coach Mike Woodson and General Manager Glen Grunwald defended their off-season moves, including not keeping Jeremy Lin, at a team media event Monday.
At the Nets’ first media day in Brooklyn, Coach Avery Johnson expressed his excitement about the expectations for his squad, which perhaps had the best off-season of any N.B.A. team.
As the first team to play in Barclays Center, the Harlem Globetrotters will mark the occasion by marching into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday.
General Manager Glen Grunwald and Coach Mike Woodson spoke as if Rasheed Wallace would be with the team for training camp, but the player has not signed a contract yet.
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).
“We had a lot of options available to us, and we felt the Raymond Felton option was the best one,” he added.
-Glen Grunwald
THE KNICKS ARE TOO OLD!!!
Really? Check out the current average age of some team’s likely starting lineups — Knicks -27.6, Lakers – 32.6, Celtics – 31.6, Heat – 29.6, Nets – 28.0, Pacers – 27.8, Bulls – 28.2, Clippers – 29.8, Mavericks – 30.0. More lazy reporting. Maybe the Knicks are too young…
Our bench filler, who will never see game action (Shurna, Smith, Sims, Belfield, Thompson), pulls that number down a fair amount.
Our youngest rotation players are Shump (22, injured), JR (27), Brewer (27), Melo (28), Felton (28), Amare (29), Novak (29).
Right but, barring injuries, the only “old guys” who will get any playing time are Kidd and Camby. Only 8-10 guys play in most games so Prigioni, Wallace and Thomas will only play if one of the top 10 guys gets injured or there is a blowout. So the average of age of guys who will actually play in any given game is right around the same as most other good teams (I realize that there are outliers like the Thunder and Sixers but, then again, there are outliers like the Spurs and Lakers in the other direction.)
I love this:
“I think this is Kobe’s team,” Nash said. “For the media’s perspective, this is Kobe’s team. But anyone who’s ever played on a basketball team, it’s also our team. The team needs to share in that responsibility. Kobe can’t do everything. He’s going to be great at what he’s great at, and the rest of us got to pick up the pieces that get to us. This is undoubtedly Kobe’s team. He’s been here his whole career. He’s won championships. And he’s the best player on the team. We got to be there for him every day, so it’s essentially our team as well.”
“Best player on the team.” My god.
To paraphrase Nash: Kobe is right, except he’s not. Hehe, the verbal gymnastics that Nash has to do to acknowledge what Kobe said, namely that the team is Kobe’s, yet totally disagree with it.
Makes me respect Nash more for lying so gracefully. Everyone knows that Dwight Howard is the best player on that team. Like, not even close. And Pau and Nash are better than Kobe, too. Ugh.
Because Steve Nash was really going to show up to media day and say “Kobe? Sure it’s still his team. He’s been here forever and you know, he’s still a top 3-4 player on this roster.”
All I needed to know about our GM’s free agent analysis skills.
Nash just wants to get his ring in peace before retiring. Too bad it probably won’t happen for him.
Won’t get his ring in peace…or won’t get his ring at all?
Nash, Kobe, Artest, Gasol, Howard has to be one of the best starting line ups of all time…even w/ an aging Nash and Kobe. Can’t wait to see Thunder vs Lakers — should be epic!