-Mozgov rebounds well in traffic without the need to win the position battle. He showed strength on a couple of occasions putting his man under the basket.

-Good natural motion and confidence in his jumper. Horrible touch 5 feet in.

-Runs the floor very naturally and fast. On once occasion he got the DReb, ran the floor and beat his man for a putback.

-AR has great hands for the rebounds, snatching it out of the air instead of waiting for it.

-Good dribbling skills, keeps his head up while dribbling.

-A Fields like knack for rebounds, seems to read bounces well.

-The second quarter lineup looked great rebounding and running the floor. Timo, AR, Gallo, Walker, TD.

-Gallo’s point forward skills can excel in this type of lineup where defenses will key on his shot and trap P&R’s.

I need to see this lineup more. Give STAT and Felton some rest and give these young guys confidence because the way we defend will guarantee that for more than one game STAT and Turiaf will be in foul trouble in a playoff game.

jon abbey: Mozgov has barely played this year, and virtually not at all for the last month. can’t we chalk up the early ineptitude yesterday to rust, call the rest of the game promising, and see what he does going forward?  

A-fuckin’-men…

Mozgov
- seasons at age 24
- TS < 50 (he's at 47)
- rebound rate >12 (he’s at 12.6)
- blocks >1.2 per 40 (he’s at 2.0)
- turnover rate >15 (he’s over 21)

Here’s what popped out:

The best season was Robert Parish, but it’s not as pretty if you draw a line at guys playing less than 1000 minutes (if Mosgov gets 20 a game from here out, he’d be right at 1000).

Randolph at age 21:
- seasons at age 21
- TS < 45 (he's at 32)
- rebound rate >15 (he’s at 18.3)
- blocks >1.8 per 40 (he’s at 2.7)
- turnover rate >13 (he’s @16)

It’s hard to find ANY players with a TS% of 32 (BJ Mullens and Pavel Podkolzin)… so it’s a fluky list.

If you try Randolph at age 20, it’s a better-looking list:
- seasons at age 20
- TS < 54 (AR=52)
- rebound rate >14 (AR=16)
- blocks >1.6 per 40 (AR=2.4)
- turnover rate >10 (AR=10.7)

“Whether or not we get ‘melo we’ll need many lucky breaks in order to be a contender — however many lucky breaks it takes to get chris paul, deron williams, or dwight howard. I see almost no possibility of a championship for the knicks without one of those 3.”

It’s crazy how long the Knicks have gone without featuring one of the top five players in the game. Hasn’t happened in my lifetime. I hope it happens but unless they can shoehorn Paul next to Melo and Stoudemire it may not happen for a very long time. And I agree, even that trio won’t ever be a favorite to win.

Owen:
I hate to be a killjoy but I feel like it’s going to take some seriously lucky breaks for the Knicks to actually cobble together something even remotely resembling a contender if this Carmelo thing comes to fruition.   

it’s going to take Dwight Howard, with or without Carmelo. I don’t even like the chances of a Paul/Amare/Melo nucleus too much, that team would need a Noah-like defender/rebounder.

I don’t think anyone on this blog would disagree with the notion that if you look at best case scenarios 2-3 years down the line for both Mozgov and AR, Mozgov could be an above average center — someone who could maybe make an all star game once in his career. AR, however, has the potential — the physical gifts — to be a legit top 10 player. Obviously, the odds are really really long that that will happen, but if you dream of a knick championship, then IMO you absolutely should be more emotionally invested in AR’s progression than in Mozgov’s.

Owen: I hate to be a killjoy but I feel like it’s going to take some seriously lucky breaks for the Knicks to actually cobble together something even remotely resembling a contender if this Carmelo thing comes to fruition. I am praying that somehow he ends up somewhere else and Chris Paul ends up here and the good times can finally roll….  

Whether or not we get ‘melo we’ll need many lucky breaks in order to be a contender — however many lucky breaks it takes to get chris paul, deron williams, or dwight howard. I see almost no possibility of a championship for the knicks without one of those 3. But with any one of them, I think we would be very very close.

You wrote a post, “The Fourth Winter of our Discontent” back in 07…

http://knickerblogger.net/the-fourth-winter-of-our-discontent/

Well, I’ll be damned. Thanks! Geez, that was over three years ago. Good article, by the way (if I do say so myself… which I just did). ;)

Owen: You wrote a post, “The Fourth Winter of our Discontent” back in 07…http://knickerblogger.net/the-fourth-winter-of-our-discontent/  (Quote)

Wow, reading that thread really took me back…in a bad way. Just brutal, brutal, brutal decade being a fan of this team. But I saw this typically excellent post from Tastycakes:

tastycakes says:
December 25, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Anybody romanticizing the 2003 Knicks needs to get their head checked. That team was awful, worse than the current incarnation by far. Not only were they bad, but they were boring. Harold Eisley had heart? Give me a break, that guy was a bigger loser than Steph. I’d rather watch Nate, Jamal, and Eddy lose games over Eisley, Van Horn, and Mohammed any day of the week.

I’ll give Isiah credit — he has made the Knicks more interesting in 4 years. The sideshows provide non-stop hilarity, and though there isn’t a future all-star in the bunch (except for Lee, maybe) the younger guys are eminently watchable players (Balkman, Lee, Robinson). In 2003, there wasn’t an up-and-comer on the roster worth tuning in to see, just a team of utter mediocrity.

Any honest Knick fan knows that this team is never going to win anything with Isiah running the show, and with Steph and Eddy as the main two guys.

As for Jimmy Dolan…if he ‘accidentally’ hired a good GM, the Knicks could be good again within the next 5 years.