I agree JJ is not the answer alone, but he’s a good start. If you’ve seen JJ play you know he’s also a off the ball defender like Marcus Camby was. And Camby was our center, but couldn’t stop anyone one on one.

With JJ in the line up we become very athletic and defensively stronger. I mentioned Camby because JJ and Camby are similar. They score by being active and aggressive on the board. Camby is capable of putting up bigger numbers, but JJ can ignite the fast break and guard atleast 3 positions. I’ve looked and looked butI don’t anyone on the Knicks able to do that.

We’ll see what he’s capable of when he plays next week. I think once he get’s his legs under him he will make the Knick a more dangerous team. And this team was put togther with what was available under the circumstances.

Laden left the org. with the likes of Howard Eisley, Shandon Anderson, traded Camby for McDyess, Tim Thomas and that group of overpaid underacheivers. No one believed that they could be traded for anyone of value. We may not be happy with the trade of overpaid player today, but when it was done Zeke was a genuis. Do I like all of his decision ofcourse not, but with what he had to work with, we upgraded at every position. I don’t think all of the players assembled can play togther and more trades have to be made, I think we have done well.

And until we get that “night-after-night zero head-trip all-star”, which I don’t want to trade for, he should be developed this is the best as it get’s.

Ok Kb know slam me for continuing the make reference to the Layden era.

Jeff Van Gundy put Thomas in his place two weeks ago when he said he liked when the fans booed early because it motivated the team and made his job easier.

Plus, there is no other arena louder than the Garden when the Knicks are staging a comeback ? this season or any season. If the Knicks cut the deficit from 20 to 10, it feels like a playoff game. And that?s not the case in most arenas.

Because of the competition, the Knicks can run the table on this homestand and get to .500. Of course that won?t happen and when they go a mediocre 3-3, Thomas will surely find some other excuse as to why. Jared Jeffries should be back on this homestand, so I can already hear Isiah talk about the adjustment period needed.

12/2/06
nypost.com

But yes, Amen to the problem being bigger than Isiah, and Amen to it starting with Dolan. But sitting right next to Dolan on the list of people to blame should be Isiah.

Enough said.

I think HBez’s comment on nervousness based on experience is quite valid. There is plenty of psycholigical research to suggest that this occurrs. The problem here is that it can’t be measured, or it would at least be VERY difficult to do so, and reasons to question the value of such information (like from say a survey of Knick players).

The point HBez made about how NOTHING may be able to improve this confidence level, if the team does not suddely start winning, which may also be being interfered with by their own possible psycholigical problems as a team developed over the past few years, that many players may need to be off the team, especially the usual suspects like Isiah, Marbury & Francis (maybe) before we see changes.

Then the argument for more easily observed problems on the court like the poor team defensive play from many players who the Knicks are relying upon to win games (Curry, Frye, Marbury, Crawford, Francis) causes even more problems, and then add in the lack of focus on the game plan where we see most of our guards rely one on one moves out of sync with the offense, or Curry seem to just flip the ball at the rim (although his FG % is still high and he’s since played better). How can we not, as Knick fans, be going crazy trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Hence the other connection to not just Layden, but Dolan and his policies. Knickerblogger, I find your blog to be a very interesting read and respect your insight, but I think that we cannot ignore the long term historical factors that have resulted in the current team. Sure, no players remain from Layden’s regieme, yet we need to ask the question, “Why was Isiah hired and what was the mandate from Dolan, regarding Isiah’s acceptance of the job as GM/Team President?” Isiah is to blame as well for the roster since he made it, yet why did we not “blow it up” or wait for the “dreck’s” contracts to just expire? Is that coming from a Dolan mandate to win and get playoff games at MSG and other forms of financial benefit that come with that? Isiah might have sold Dolan on remaking the team through trades and not having to get under the cap (although I don’t know if this is the case), but if this were the case then maybe Dolan was a little too eager to accept this as plausible. In fairness, some of the teams who had used the strategy of getting under the cap did not get the desired results at that time or for years (Bulls, Orlando) so maybe Dolan and Isiah weren’t wrong at the time either, as much as I cringe to say that.

Isiah is certainly responsible for the roster, but not without the consent of Dolan who I believe has been the bigger problem as may have been Checketts and his trade of Ewing which started the Knicks downward spiral into cap hell, and possibly even Van Gundy for jumping ship after the first month (as some would argue). This problem is bigger than just Isiah, and history can demonstrate that this has been in development for years before Isiah showed up. If the Knicks had a different owner maybe things would be different. They don’t, so here we are, sadly enough.

And you have to blame Isiah because he didn’t just let those “old eggs” fry up and be gone. He tried to go for the quick fix of just “cracking new eggs” and throwing them in there. It didn’t work, and now we have every right to blame him for this mess. (And yes, we all know how bad the situation he took over was, but that doesn’t exempt him from having to make it any better.)