Guest Commentary

by Tommy Dee on March 21st, 2009 at 12:25 pm

The following submission was sent by loyal Gym Rat Jonathan Wasserman. As always, we urge fans to speak their mind and send submissions to theknicksblog@gmail.com.

“…Tommy Dee and the rest of TKB-

Saying this team does not try hard is simply not accurate. Saying they do not have the talent, brains, or experience is.
Wilson Chandler, who has the potential to be a stud, just is not a smart enough individual to be the type of player that talentwise he has the potential to be.  Between his poor handle of the basketball, and reckless control, I see him as a player who will put up a different type of performance everytime he takes the court.
Duhon is a solid BACKUP pg, period.
Lee simply is clueless defensively, and it’s not effort, he simply just doesn’t have the nose for where to position himself, even though hes clearly not there to block shots or be any sort of presence down low.  I understand, and Im sure you do too, that he is playing out of position, but switching off his man and at least forcing a tougher shot for the opponent does not seem to be in his defensive arsenal.  He will help a good team be great, but make a bad team consistently inconsistent.  TRADE HIM TO A NON-CONTENDER.
Nate is a solid bench player in the “barbosa role.”  HE IS NOT A TOP SCORING OPTION. IF NATE ROBINSON (AND AL HARRINGTON) ARE YOUR TOP SCORING OPTIONS YOU HAVE NO SHOT.  Barbosa and the Suns were competitive when barbosa came off the bench as a 3rd option.
Al Harrington’s role also should not be to score 24 points a game.  On a good team, he should come off the bench to add 15.  Once its in his head he is the best player on his team, his team is doomed.
Last night,  Larry Hughes just showed why he never has been regarded as a true threat in this league.  Basically a more under control, poor shot selection type of Jamal Crawford type, who gets hot and gets cold, unfortuantely cold too often where hes SHORT on every single jumper where he hangs in the air for 3 seconds before he decides to release.  (once was solid defensively)
Eddy Curry has no chance at success in this league ( I am a recent Syracuse Graduate and if you can’t face up to the basket aka Arinze Onuaku you can’t be successful)
Any thoughts now on wishing we traded Lee and or Nate for a better shot in two years at two possible superstars?  I wouldn’t mind the lineup being in 2010: Nash, Chandler, Lebron, Bosh, and a shotblocker with Gallo in his 3rd year and this years draft pick off the bench?
I think this team is not guilty of dogging it, but I think you can only sell guys, who probably won’t be here long term, to get energized about a playoff push. To me that’s Walsh’s biggest challenge and that is to create a home for players so that they’ll want to win on the Garden floor. Honestly, what motivates a player who knows he’s not in the future plans. Sure, they are professional, but they are also human. Just a thought.
As far as Lee and Nate, clearly now they are playing their way back to earth. There is a chance they can keep both, if Walsh wants to, but with this season quickly going down the tubes, Walsh will continue to explore deals.
  • EQ1217

    Defense is not just about brains, it’s about putting their heart & effort into defending.

    I’m here watching the 1st half of the ‘Nova v. UCLA game, and ‘Nova is hammering UCLA players everytime they get close to making a basket in the paint. I’ve probably seen more knockdowns in this game then I seen from the Knicks in the past 5 years

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Spot on… You can’t claim that we have plenty of talent when our 2 go-to’s are Nate and Al. Neither of them know what is going on when the ball is out of their hands (including defense). David Lee is clueless on defense as well. Those are our three best players, and that is why we suck. I find comfort in the fact that we still had a much better season than last year.

    Any hard worker who plays defense, understands the game and the system, and is a good decision maker, would be LOADS better than Lee or Harrington are for this team. I have said it before: We could probably get Marion for the same price as Lee, and if Marion took Lee’s spot the team would be twice as good.

    2010 Starting lineup:
    Ricky Rubio (trade up; we MUST trade up)
    Joe Johnson?
    Danillo Galinari
    Sean Marion ;)
    I Don’t know

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Haha i love the automated smiley.

  • italian stallion

    I agree 100%.

    There is no one on this team that is any more than a solid role player. Since several (like Lee and Robinson) are wildly overrated because of the pace of the system, some misunderstandings among stats fans, and the fact that neither can play any defense at all, they would make excellent trade bait right now when their value is high.

    The only players on the team I would keep are Gallo and Chandler and I’m not so sure about Chandler any more for the same reasons as stated above.

    Walsh did a great job to get rid of some overrated players with bad contracts. Let’s just hope he doesn’t replace them by resigning two overrated current players to very big contracts. Neither Lee or Robinson is worth a dime over 5-6 million. They are role players coming off the bench on any really good team.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    “There is no one on this team that is any more than a solid role player.”

    Its even worse than that, because players like Nate and Al don’t even know how to be role-players; they have to dominate the ball and they aren’t good enough to do so. (especially Al)

    Nate is, at times, incredible, but he clearly is not a starting point guard for a D’Antoni system. That being said, if he could contribute consistently off the bench as a combo guard, i would take him for 5 mil over David Lee any day of the week. Lee doesn’t do anything that any decent rebounder couldn’t do given the opportunity to take his spot. Nate, on the other hand, has shown the potential to be a special weapon.

  • ArbeeEye

    Typing in all caps DOES NOT HELP STRESS YOUR POINT!

  • bob knick slave

    nash,bosh and lebron?are you in fantasy land?

  • jcmoney

    I think that this post is a little inaccurate but my main gripe is that just because the team has an underwhelming amount of talent, doesn’t mean you can’t say the team isn’t trying.

    If you watch a team that tries 100% of the time, and watch the Knicks, you can see this team isnt trying all the time. The Knicks started off the season trying, but seemed to stop around that really close loss to the Celtics when Crawford got benched and then traded a few days later.

    The guys dont move without the ball, they arent busting their asses on defense, and they just dont seem to have the concentration or sense of urgency that a team in a playoff race should have. What is D’Antoni saying to these guys?