Comments on: Tonight’s 4 Factors (@ NJN, 12/5/07)

By: mc knickkack

mc knickkack — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:42:10 +0000

hey trade curry and starbury for E. Brand LA Clippers get a shot blocker and rebounder here soon !! he be our new 10 million dollar man

By: T-Mart

T-Mart — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 17:58:45 +0000

Good point, they show shots of that often on the bench. Ive definitely wanted to be a fly on the wall of Curry and Randolph’s mind while this is going on.

I wonder if the old lady jive-translator chick from Airplane would even be able to figure out what dialect of coneyislandese Marbury speaks. Oh stewardess! I speak jive. Jus’ hang loose, blood. She gonna catch ya up on da’ rebound on da’ med side.

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 17:11:11 +0000

another thing I was thinking last night, they showed a shot of Steph on the bench chattering away to Curry and Zach. now we’ve all heard Marbury talk, and we know how insane/incoherent he comes off as, so I wonder if him just sitting on the bench and talking is an unnecessary distraction for the rest of the team.

By: T-Mart

T-Mart — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 17:05:24 +0000

His impact on the team’s play is also still undeniable. When he wasn’t in the game last night and we had our **cough venerable cough cough BS cough** twin towers in the game, the team was not competitive. They were within 5 at the end of the 3rd quarter with Lee having played most of the big minutes. Then Isiah inexplicably took him out at the start of the 4th quarte. And the team proceeded to be down by 10 within 4 minutes of his not being in the game. Ok I guess Im splitting hairs with a small point differential like that, but Im sure everyone agrees that over the last 2 years if we all got a $1 for everytime a noticeable difference in team play because of Lee was cancelled by Isiah taking him out of the game and causing you to want to pull your hairs out one by one, none of us would have have any financial problems.

By: caleb

caleb — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:36:23 +0000

DL wasn’t back on the court until August, or close to it… so probably still working his way back to shape. I guess we’ll see if it comes back.. hope it’s not one of those Starks injuries that didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but really changed the guy’s career.

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 09:20:02 +0000

yeah, I think you’re right, no surgery.

Bulls sign Demetris Nichols.

By: Z

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 08:31:48 +0000

“I wonder if he lost just a tiny bit of athleticism from the surgery”

Did Lee have surgery or did he rehab the ankle injury without the knife. I thought he rested it, the strengthened it. Either way, you are right jon– Lee does seem a half a quarter steo slower than he did last year. Still putting up good numbers though– good enough for Owen to not dump his mancrush in favor of Sam Dalembert full time…

By: Owen

Owen — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 07:13:45 +0000

“So, I think I am back to home plate. Lee is the only really good basketball player on the Knicks….” other than maybe Balkmam, who hasn’t been quite his old self, though its bizarre he has not broken 30 minutes…

By: Owen

Owen — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 06:56:57 +0000

Jon – Dangerous thing to do, asking me what I thought of Lee when I have a few drinks in me…

I only saw the first 20 minutes tonight. Right at the beginning, I was thinking that exact thing. Last year, he had superglue on his hands. He almost couldn’t do wrong it seemed. This year it hasn’t quite seemed the same. Out of the blocks in Philly, he was flailing, having to tip balls to teammates, getting blocked, etc…

But then suddenly he was 3-5 with 5 rebounds, or something like that.

I think for me its a perception thing. Last year I was deep in the throes of a major league mancrush. Sudden, surging infatuation. I had no preconception of him, and he came out of nowhere, doing all the things we now know he can do, but without me expecting them. It was all upside, I didn’t really notice when he didn’t do those things, and celebrated when he did. (you guys getting a Harlequin feel to that paragraph?)

This year, I find myself noticing when he doesn’t do what I now know he is capable of. I am literally sweating at the beginning of games, gotten very critical…

But really, the numbers are there on him. His performance is coming closer and closer to projections. Not there yet. But honestly, when you factor in a bit of rust, the fact he has played out of position at both center and small forward quite a bit, the fact he has had to adjust to Randolph, it’s very difficult to find fault with his play.

At the end of the night, he ended up having a truly vintage Lee game. 7-10 shooting, 11 rebounds, 3 steals, two turnovers, one assist, for a superb winscore of 16.5 in 32 minutes. He had two shots blocked, so he only actually missed one shot all game, a perimeter jumper right at the beginning. (cough up two more imaginary units btw Senor Black.) And most tellingly In a game the Knicks lost by 11 he posted a -1 in 32 minutes. Randolph was -18 in 27. This is pretty consistent with the Lee from last year. When Lee was on the court the Knicks broke even. He had a 50% win %. They were an average NBA team. Without him, they were much worse.

Really, looking at every line, Lee has basically had one really bad game, against Phoenix, in which he posted his only negative winscore of the season, -1.5 in 26 minutes. (Randolph -3 tonight). But he has been positive every other game.

So, I think I am back to home plate. Lee is the only really good basketball player on the Knicks.

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:58:57 +0000

Lee looked good tonight, but I think I figured out the difference from last season. last year, pretty much any ball he got his fingers on, he inhaled, and this year, he has a ton that he gets his fingertips on and ends up losing. I wonder if he lost just a tiny bit of athleticism from the surgery, but that tiny bit was what was making the difference in a fair amount of cases. what do you think?