The streak was nice, but to put up your best record on a sustained basis it’s generally suggestable to play your best talent. D’Antoni’s inconsistency in terms of the lengths of the leashed he had on players–super short for some and super long for others–was frustrating. Nate was one blatant example of that, counter-balanced by Duhon’s abysmal play. Another example would be the Knicks getting killed inside all year, but D’Antoni staying away from 2 bigman line-ups at all costs (what would be conventional line-ups to every other team besides GS). As much as I don’t mind Darko not having played for his attitude, at some point shouldn’t D’Antoni have thrown Lee at PF and Darko or Hill at C to see what happened? Outside the box thinking can be great, but there’s a reason 90% of NBA teams play both a PF and a C.

If the Knicks had been able to sustain a high level of play (maybe not as high as that stretch, but .500 ball or something), the voices for Nate would have died down hard. It was equally frustrating for me to read “Nate got benched, Knicks are winning, correlation = causation AND this streak can be sustained.” The streak was unsustainable, but a nice reversion after the terrible start.

The only reason it was truly annoying was because the Knicks actually played decent at the time and while admittedly it probably didnt have that much to do with Nate’s benching we couldnt even enjoy the nice streak the Knicks were on because the Nate fans were still complaining the whole time about his benching. Even during game threads any time the Knicks struggle for a 2 minute stretch there was always some stupid this wouldnt be happening if Nate was playing crap. Maybe it was mostly tongue in cheek but again it was so damn annoying that during the best Knicks stretch in a long time the focus was more on Nate not playing than on the Knicks winning.

The Celtics are a throroughly average offense: 15th in the NBA. The Knicks are only 18th. His new teammates are not any better offensively than his old ones. If anything, playing with better teammates and being forced to take better shots would only help his scoring efficiency. Call it the Jamal Crawford effect: Crawford could score whenever he wanted on the Knicks and stunk, now that he’s in a more defined role with much better teammates he’s taken off.
Nate’s TS% has been .550 for 3 of the past 4 seasons, under two different coaches with almost entirely different teammates, so a TS% of .510 is just not what you’d expect all personal opinions aside. As much as I hate Duhon right now, there was no reason before the season to think he’d revert to the worst TS% he’s had since his rookie year. Whether Doc Rivers knows what TS% is or not, if Nate was at .550 he’d be a better offensive sparkplug and it would be noticeable to Rivers and the naked eye. Nate would be playing in the Eddie House role. In case you didn’t notice House is also not a PG and is even worse on D than Nate.

“doesnt ask/allow Nate to just dominate the ball on offense and try to score almost whenever he wants.” He still has a usage rate of 21.5 for Boston and he’s taking over for Eddie House who shot the ball whenever he wanted… that’s not it.

You really needed D’Antoni to tell you Nate’s more of a SG than a PG on offense?

Larry Brown played him over 20 mpg for 72 games as a rookie, so don’t give me that bullshit. He’s known for not playing rookies much and he’s known for bitching about all his players.
D’Antoni played him too, besides one 14 game stretch. D’Antoni played him 30 mpg last season. You can’t just bend facts to support your personal opinions.

“Doc isnt even willing to go 10 minutes with Nate as the backup PG even now.” First you say he’s a SG, then you knock him because Rivers won’t play him at PG???? Anyway, as I went to great lengths to point out in a previous thread, Doc Rivers isn’t a good offensive coach and doesn’t necessarily make good personnel decisions. This is a guy whose “scoring punch” off the bench comes in the form at a 6-5, 330 lb lineman with a .490 TS%. He played Bill Walker a total of 29 minutes all season, most of those coming in 2 games against the Nets. The same Bill Walker who is playing well for the Knicks.

When you mix in blatant misinformation and irrelevant points it kills your case.

I wonder if the Knick writers will bombard Doc Rivers on Tuesday with questions about why Nate isnt playing now the way they did D’Antoni….

Now with the Celtics he has to play a disciplined game on offense since he has teammates who are actually alot better than him for the most part and not go 10 feet under every screen on defense w/o being called up on it. D’Antoni has always said Nate is more of a SG than a PG on offense but the Celtics have Tony Allen and now Finley as backup SG’s, not to mention Daniels who apparently has fallen out of favor too since he was the only other DNP-CD today along with Nate. Doc Rivers obviously wants no part of Nate as the backup PG even though Rondo plays a boatload of minutes anyway so hell it looks like Doc isnt even willing to go 10 minutes with Nate as the backup PG even now.

Im sure he will play vs the Knicks on Tuesday and I wouldnt be surprised if he lights them up a bit but you cant tell me you are surprised that Nate is not fitting in with a team that preaches Defense and doesnt ask/allow Nate to just dominate the ball on offense and try to score almost whenever he wants.

Look Im sorry I brought his name up again but obviously no matter what stats you throw at me, D’Antoni, Larry Brown and apparently now Doc Rivers, I will never like him as a player that much, certainly not as a player on a championship caliber team. But who knows as I mentioned last night he might do well in the playoffs if given the chance and prove me wrong but I am not counting on it.

Whatever you think of Nate, how can you not be surprised that a guy with a career PER of 16 is playing at a PER of 12.6?