It’s entirely likely that he made the calculation that over the next 2-3 years, he thought Kidd + Felton + Prigs > Lin + Felton from $, team chemistry, and NYC media drama perspectives.

I will certainly concede that that is “possible,” but I don’t agree with “likely.” I think “likely” still points toward Grunwald being overruled by Dolan. There is no realistic way Woodson and Kidd say the things they said if Grunwald was not planning on bringing Lin back.

And I know it sounds like I’m taking the piss here, but seriously, “Grunwald must have some magic hidden formula that says it was a bad idea to bring Lin back” is something I would accept. I agree that I trust Grunwald’s instincts a lot. I just don’t believe he did have said magic hidden formula that says it was a bad idea to bring Lin back. The day we learn that Grunwald was behind this move is the day I will concede, as yes, I do trust him enough to trust his judgment on the decision.

Brian Cronin:
The Knicks could have had both. That’s one of the reasons why I’m still in “it was a no brainer” territory.

The big issue with the “both” side of things is the media circus if J-Lin gets benched or doesn’t play much because he’s not playing that well. This team has enough drama, doesn’t need more of it for a guy who will likely be a middle-of-the-pack PG.

Honestly – ignoring the fact that Felton got hurt, since one can never predict injuries (and Felton has historically been very durable), which one of these two players would you rather have — all things considered, including salary and drama potential?

http://bkref.com/tiny/aVOZS

It’s really not a no-brainer. If anything can be said about Grunwald at this point in his Knicks career, it’s that he is a very shrewd evaluator of cheap under-the-radar talent- and you have to think that NO ONE knew his game better than the Knicks did. It’s entirely likely that he made the calculation that over the next 2-3 years, he thought Kidd + Felton + Prigs > Lin + Felton from $, team chemistry, and NYC media drama perspectives.

I also think, given that we know that SportVu is in MSG, and how the team’s shot distribution has changed markedly to favor more efficient shots, that there were a fair amount of analytics involved in these decisions. Just because Woody/Grunwald et al. don’t talk about analytics doesn’t mean they don’t see and use lots of them.

His defense? It’ll obviously never be good, but if protected by playing with Tyson or Rasheed, it’ll be fine. He should still probably come out for defensive purposes when possible at end of games (eventually Camby/Tyson is probably our best defensive frontcourt), but I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve seen from Amare.

Meanwhile, I am quite surprised by how much we’ve missed Rasheed Wallace. Having Amare as the primary C on the 2nd unit (albeit with Novak etc. as the PF) has made that unit horrible on D.

But yeah, with Girardi I was thinking about his managing job. A weird time by him. It still kills me that Hughes was the guy who gave up the game-losing runs.

BTW Torre actually never lost an All-Star Game, he was 5-0 plus the infamous tie in 2002. Girardi was criticized pretty heavily actually for the way he seemingly mismanaged the later innings of the 2010 All-Star Game which the AL lost 3-1. It was the first win by the NL since 1996 lol.

Off the top of your head, if Riley had not coached the 1993 All-Star Game, would he have been the coach for 1994? I know I could just look it up, but I figure if you know it off the top of your head, it’ll save me some effort. ;)

Brian Cronin:
Annoyingly, since the Bulls had the best record at the break last season, Spoelstra is eligible to coach this year’s All Star Game so the Knicks would have to pass the Heat for Woody to get the gig. That’d be really awesome if it happened (sorry, me mentioning JVG made me recall the last time that the Knicks had a team where having their coach coach in the All Star Game was a yearly possibility).

JVG did coach the 2000 East All-Star team although it was due to Bird having coached the team in 1998 (no All-Star Game in 1999). I remember the Knicks won on the final day before the records were used to choose the All-Star coaches and that win put them a game ahead of the Heat at the time for 2nd best record in the conference (Pacers obviously had best record). Riley as Knicks coach also coached the East in the 1993 All-Star Game.

Also yeah I wasnt exactly bragging about the Knicks being #1 on the Forbes list. I could give a rat’s ass about that lol.