ruruland: The Knicks have probably the worst supporting cast offensively I’ve seen in a long time…..

Turn on the YES network.

Outside of Amare and Chandler, this team is really bad on that end.

Chandler can set screens, dunk and make fts — but everything he does is a bypoduct of teams trapping the PNR. He is liability trying to create his own offense.

Shumpert shows flashes at times of what he will become on offense, but would be considered an offensive liability on most teams because his man can play off the ball quite a bit due to his lack of range.

Jorts, Fields, Walker, Douglas… these guys are simply well below average offensive players.

Until the bench is enhanced with talent it’s going to be the Melo and Amare show…. and winning with defense.

Frankly, I think it serves the core of this team much better to build the defensive foundation now and imprint the muscle memory for a run when the roster becomes somewhat balanced.

xcat01: @24I don’t think the Knicks want JR Smith anywhere near MSG, unless they can get a restraining order against his sister. She choked a b*tch in China last night. Doesn’t she know that you can be killed in China for that!! The player that I want the Knicks to add is probably not going to be available to us, that person is Wilson Chandler. Sure wish he wasn’t a RFA. Hey, maybe the Knuggets will take Billy Walker for the rights to Ill Will? No, probably not but we can dream though.

Chandler would be a good fit…. But he will be asking for 8-10 mil next year.

JR isn’t going to have as many suitors because of the long list of “incidents” and reputation.

But, he’s clearly a better player than Chandler and can be had for small MLE this year, until he proves to the league he is sane enough to play in the… well, league.

he is, of course. And he’d be an unbelievably good fit in NY.

He would elevate the Knicks into the elite group of teams….. And he’s carrried the Nuggets to playoff victories before.

johnno: And STOP trashing ‘Melo!! The guy is averaging a career high in assists and the only three non-point guards in the whole league who average more assists are LeBron, Kobe and Boris Diaw! Take a deep breath.

I think most posters here agree that Melo is looking to pass more and doing better at it. His assist numbers are up and it’s right on the stat sheet. The problem is that, especially down the stretch of games, the offense can become one dimensional. Roll players are getting the ball and deferring. After the team got the lead, early in the second quarter, the play where Chandler got his shot blocked was emblematic. Melo finds Ball Wilker in the corner, who should have shot it but instead threw it around the perimeter until it ended up with Melo again who, against the clock, got it to Chandler and too late.
It’s good to have a player like Melo, who believes every shot he takes will go in. The Knicks (especially Fields!) are not a very confident group on offense right now. Sometimes Melo’s confidence causes him to take a long shot with lots of clock left. Sometimes it means that teammates won’t launch and will rely on him too much.

And here’s to 35 mins MAX for the big 3. You’re seat cooled down, MDA, time to act like a real coach now

slovene knick:
Don’t know if someone mentioned it before; but 8 man rotation is playoff-time. He(D’A) has to win now to cool the seat under his ass and he feels there is no time to try different rotations.
Baron is a must now…and balkman bibby too. Chandler must be out for at least 15 min a game(Jordan).
Hope it was one game thing.

i could be wrong, but i feel like Mike D did this last year, then after the team settled in opened up his rotation a bit.

I also think that getting JJ back soon will help take some min away from chandler. I think Mike D is scared to leave the team with nobody who can dictate the defense, and for all his faults, JJ understands team defense.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
A six-point win over maybe the league’s best team without its best player… doesn’t bode well, even if it’s a W.

Hawes? We’re talking about Spencer Hawes????
He’s their best player now???
The Spencer Hawes whose getting 12 points and 9 boards????
The Spencer Hawes whose numbers, who while more efficient, doesn’t approach David Lee’s output?
The Spencer Hawes, who in a short season shows stats that are more than .200 % over his TS and eFG norms because of three good games, but is in no way going to sustain that?
The Spencer Hawes, who in no way even comes close to being a better player than Andre Igoudala???
But he’s their best player now….?
And do the Knicks get any credit for the fact that the guy who would be their starting PG is injured? I mean, the Knicks are limping around without a true point guard right now. Their current starting point is barely recovered from a sprained knee. Their best scorer is playing with an injured back. Their back up point has a damaged shoulder and isn’t remotely the same player he normally is. So, if one were being fair, one would think in the stat sheet of life, these things would come into account in some way…
And yet, it “doesn’t bode well” that they didn’t just get a W, they got FOUR Ws in a row, and their defense is rated now 7th in the NBA…?
How about trying this: It bodes well, that at no time since the first period did the Knicks relinquish the lead to one of the best teams in the NBA right now, a time that had won six straight to that point.
It bodes well, that despite have seven of 13 entirely new players on the team, one of the hardest aspects of basketball, team defense, is one of the team’s strongest traits.
It bodes well, that this team is gutting out wins that aren’t pretty, but effective, without a true point guard.
It bodes well, indeed…