This is the defining stretch of the season for me, as a poor showing would very probably drop the Knicks out of the top 8.

That anyway (to me) sounds like “he’s not really a smart basketball player but I have to say something nice”.

Yeah. I didn’t hear it that way. I copied the quote but saw the interview. Hornacek was falling over himself with praise for Beasley. Couple that with how he’s been using him, I think he meant it. I have to say that I’ve seen some change in Beasley’s game and I give Jeff credit. He’s passing the ball rather than going ISO 100% of the time. There was one play where I was sure Beasley was going to put it up, but instead he passed to McDermott, who nailed a 3. On defense, he looked like a pest and was giving effort. If Jeff turns Beasley into the player he had the potential to become, that’s a major accomplishment.

Now starts the nail-biting part of the season. The goal should be to win 50% of the games between now and the first home game in February. That’s a TALL order but I think the schedule worked in the Knicks favor and that being home a lot helped the team develop chemistry. Maybe they’ll surprise us?

a little surprised charlotte is favored plus 6…oh well…

not sure why they wouldn’t do an mri on kp’s knee…if nothing else just to give him (and myself) a little piece of mind…

hopefully horny keeps whispering sweet nothings into beasley’s ear: you’re so smart, so very smart, no else realizes just how smart you truly are – now go show them and rebound, defend and pass like the spectacularly smart player you are…

Re: recency bias – we’re literally 35% of the way into the season – this is a relatively large sample, with multiple injuries to boot so far this year (which we did not have last year when we started off better than expected). The optimism has to be tempered by our ridiculously home-heavy schedule, but even with that taken into account, we’ve had a pretty average schedule.

I agree. My point is that if we go on a serious downswing when we start playing tough teams on the road, it won’t necessarily change the underlying realities about the team. It will however change the perceptions about how good we are, how well Hornacek is doing with rotations and adjustments, and what our strategy should be going forward…until we get hot again. 🙂 I feel it within myself.

can’t remember who wrote it, but this team appears to be spectacularly average, which is really quite an accomplishment given most people had us in the worst 5 teams in the league going into the season, and that 2 of our best net-rating guys (KP and THJ) have missed significant time.

That’s the exact quote that shows what I said — Hornacek basically does a double take on his own statement — “he’s a smart basketball player — a smart person anyway”. That anyway (to me) sounds like “he’s not really a smart basketball player but I have to say something nice”.

This is kind of like some really hot women that feels insecure about her intelligence because she wasn’t the best student and can’t understand what TS% is. lol So when she does something smart, you call attention to her intelligence. That has a much bigger positive impact than telling her she’s beautiful like all the other guys. Everyone already knows Beasley has amazing scoring talent. What he wants to hear is that he’s smarter than people think and learning.

One thing I really don’t miss about Phil- The Triangle. I think Hornacek was privately jumping for joy when Phil got shitcanned.

I think the “triangle” was made into a bigger issue than it should have been. We’ll never find out, but I think if you could find some throwback players that wanted to play in it, the team would do just fine. But since most players don’t want to play triangle, you are probably putting yourself at a disadvantage when it comes to finding talent.

The ironic thing is that I recall having those same debates about D’Antoni’s system when he coached NY. One argument against him was that his system absolutely required a high level PG, a PF that could stretch the floor, and other players that could provide spacing. So we were passing up on too many talented players because they didn’t fit his system. Now the whole league is duplicating his system.