Training Camp: Thursday Evening

We haven’t heard much about Chandler.

I know he missed the whole summer. That will probably limit his improvement, but what are you seeing so far?

I think Milicic will be a rotation player.

As for Crawford, I was not all that thrilled with him during his brief stint with us during the end of last season. Nor was I impressed with him during the summer league. But he worked hard from what I remember. That is a plus. Good to hear that he as impressive during training camp today.

I can see Duhon on my Dunne’s softball team…

Good update TD…

Tommy, thanks for the write up. I was reloading twitter a lot looking for updates from you and Hahn.

Was Lee using his jumper with any sort of frequency? Did any of them fall? If Lee finds that pesky jumper, his value in our system goes up exponentially.

How was Sun used? Was he playing the 1 or 2? How was he at facilitating?

How vocal was Al? Is he becoming a leader?

Was Warren Carter a factor at all?

Was Hughes passing?

A lot of questions, I know. You should do a chat soon. This pre-season can’t come soon enough.

For the outside-looking-in guys

Who would YOU like to see become a Knick?

and who do you think actually will be a Knick when its said and done?

And besides locking down the born-soft Sun Yue, who else did Toney Douglas defend, and how well did he do it?

Good to see T Douglas neutralize somebody that has NBA minutes (probably 10 or 15, tops). In 3 short days we heard wonders about Gallo, Nate’s intact “presence”, and Milicic’s Inititative. I agree that Chandler’s been absent from comments. I don’t think his injury will have a huge impact on his game. Once the season begins, he’ll be ready to go.
I agree Darko is gonna be a rotation. That guy’s problems are in his head, and once he gains confidence, he’ll do some positive things for the team.
A lot of people here keep sayaing that it’s really hard for this team to actually do something this season according to what other team’s on the East have done. I agree, many teams got stronger. But I think many of us are overlooking the influence of chemistry in a team. No big additions were made, besides a silent center that can help, and two young rooks that will have a hard time cracking the rotation (I foresee Douglas actually getting more than decent minutes. For Hill seems a bit difficult for now). That chemistry can make a big difference this year. There are no negative influences, second year to get used to a system. You can be a thorough professional in your field, but anyone will tell you that transition is not simple.
The fact that Gallo is healthy (let’s hope it stays that way), that Will can get better, that Duhon will actually have someone to relieve him after 30 minutes is definitely gonna make a difference. Sure, on paper this team doesn’t look like much, but there is potential, and as long as they give it all, and actually practice some of that defense Mike D wants, things just might go on a different direction.

good post

Actually, i disagree with you guys on one thing.

Jordan Hill was our 8th pick; that is pretty high. Not to mention, we are a young, inexperienced, losing team. So my point is, it would make sense for us to try to get him some playing time. Darko just isn’t that good, and it’s not like we really need to showcase him. Hill, on the other hand, has a huge upside, and what better time to experiment with giving him minutes than in a season like this? If he does start to show some potential and get into a solid rythm by new year, we will all of a u sudden have a cheap, athletic, rookie big man with tons of potential. That will make david lee expendable, which will really open things up for us next year.

Hill has the chance to be an impact player in this league and talented athletic big men are rare, and since this season is not one of significant importance, i don’t see why we wouldn’t see what he could do. I definitely see him in the rotation for sure.

Didn’t see Lee make a jumper…not the best forum to judge tho.

Al is becoming the team leader…Sun was invisible.

I like Joe Crawford…gabe pruitt hasn’t had much of a look…

Thanks Tommy! Please ask your video guy to do some play by play sound, at least say who scored.

DTR

Does _’antoni truly believe that the Knicks can hover around the middle of the league defensively with _avi_ Lee starting at center?

Was there a focus on defense again today and how did Lee look?

You mentioned Toney Douglas played lockdown (on Sun Yue though? Lee could probably lock him up.) how did his help defense look?

Nate Robinson looked “impressive”, how was his shot selection?

You said there were a lot of turnovers and missed shots was any of it due to the defense or was it just fatigue and ineptitude?

At 6’10 does it look like Galinari will be able to bother on defense could he block half a shot a game maybe?

If they’re gonna start Lee at center and go with the tiny tim lineup then EVERYONE needs to TRY to block shots… or at least challenge layup attempts. There are more than enough posters with Knicks players in the background looking up at players flying through the air from every angle.

Yout got a solid point in Hill. I was actually one of those happy fans with the choice, thinking along the lines of “this team can use a big man that can run the court and bring size and strength into the defense”. So in that case, yeah, what better time to play him than this season? That’s actually pretty clear to me. What concerns me is D’antoni. I was reading an interview today (I think it was on the espn site) where the theme was “we gotta be patient” (in terms of “if winning doesn’t come quick we gotta wait”), and his brother Dan said -or actually hinted- that he didn’t know how much losing his brother was gonna be able to withstand. Let’s not forget, before NY, D’anotni had made a name of himself for being a winning coach (besides a ring of course). So, if he remains with his “I’m gonna play my best five always”, it’s kinda hard seeing Hill cracking that tight rotation with all the big guys available (Milicic, Lee, Harrington, and Hill of course). He could definitely use the minutes, that’s clear. Will he get them as necessary in order for him to develop? It’s really up to him and D’antoni. But if there’s something clear, not only as a fan, but from the interview, is that D’antoni wants more wins, and I think if Hill can actually be a factor in that, he’ll play. If not, it’ll depend on how the season rolls. Anything can happen with him, I tihnk.

I don’t know guys. I think it’s very important to develop our rookies this season. But I think getting some playoff experience is just as important. Very few teams go all the way without having a couple of years of experience under fire. So assuming we sign a star or two next year and a few of out prospects develop, I’d hate to waste the first season or two of our run getting experience for guys like Lee, Gallo, Chandler, etc…

I think HIll is going to have earn his minutes. Perhaps he can get junk minutes early in the season and then if he’s ready get more time in the second half. I’d hate to throw away games just trying to give him more time.

Good point with Lee, and it’s more of the same discussion, how can you actually have presence when your “strongest” guy is Lee, and playing at the 5. D’antoni keeps mentioning that he wants to have a tall lineup, yet putting Lee at the center sort of contradicts that point. So the question is: is Lee a good enogh 4 to play him over Harrington and do you trust in Milicic to play at center? If you consider Hill in this whole equation (I do if he proves it), would you have him play at the center? (I’m not even gonna bring up Curry as a possibility until he proves that he can actually drag himself through an entire game with pulling something).
From that standpoint, in terms of line up size, would you go for Milicic?

Let’s not forget, we only have three days of camp so far, anything can happen and it can still go in many different ways.

jeffries got work as the 5. Interested to see if that changes tomorrow.

first unit looked like Duhon, Will, Lee, Al and Jeffries.

defense was stressed and Lee’s jumper wasn’t tight. I’m not worried about shots bc it’s day three of a strenuous camp. Lee is leading by example and work ethic.

gallinari, defensively, talks and talks, which I love. Communication is key on D. he switches a ton and that’s okay at the 3-4.

Video footage is HD. you’ll see for yourself.

head to P&T for the jersey numbers

http://www.postingandtoasting.com/2009/9/30/1063021/video-knicks-evening-scrimmages-9

That’s the point. I think D’antoni’s mind is in playoffs (whether it can be done or not is a big question mark for now) until the end. But I do think it’s important for this team to at least try to make a strong run at playoffs, or at least making an honorable appearance at first round in order to have some substance besides the attraction of “the big city lights” for the FAs next summer. So I think Hill will play as much as he deserves it and Douglas, again, will get more minutes than expected because Duhon needs someone to give him time to rest.
It’ll be a dilemma: your rooks gotta get some experience minutes; but on the other hand, this team needs to make a strong run.

Great update TD.
Per Hahn…Curry is back at camp and he’s on pace to go next week which I may add is within the original 3-5 day period the team Dr’s said he would miss.
Besides the obvious Gallinari…Curry is the player I’m most excited to see.
Maybe with the exception of the Rooster….no other player on our roster is more talented on the offensive end than Curry. I just hope he can keep up the pace and if he can’t than it’s up to Dantoni to use him correctly to get the most out of him.
Good to hear that Gallinari can pass the rock so well.
Seems people forget how as a teenager this kid was the man in the top Italian league averaging almost 18 and 6…then I think his averages went up in the playoffs.
If I had to choose between Gallo and Rubio…I would have to take Gallo.
Somehow..I think they’ll be playing together one day here in NY but that convo is for another time.

Excellent point. David Lee is NOT a center and handicaps this young, fragile defense. If Darko shows any fire and willingness to play ‘D’, start him at center and let Lee play the 4.

Good video!

I know it’s early, but Darko plays like he’s not into it. His body language and lack of hustle and muscle are depressing. And he has no shooting touch. I can see why he hasn’t gotten minutes on his previous teams.

Hill looks like a project. Terrible shooter and no post game. I hope he focuses on rebounding. He’ll need to if he wants minutes this year.

Another year of small ball coming our way……

DTR

Hill seems as though as he looks for his outside shot a bit too much. I’ll give you that. I think he will be able to hit a bunch of them though. He has a nice step-back move to create separation.

This is the point I made about Milicic right from the start.

I’m not even that negative about him, but I can’t see how he can possibly make the Knicks better because of the makeup of the current team. Arguably, Lee is our most productive player. So you want him on the court as much as possible. If you play Milicic at center, then you have to slide Lee over to PF. If you do that, you lose Harrington. To me, however flawed Lee and Harrington are as a combo because of size, I’d rather have that tandem out there than either Milicic/Lee or Milicic/Harrington.

Now you could slide Harrington over to the SF (and I really don’t have a problem with that), but then you lose either Chandler or Gallo. Out of the two, I would WAY rather have Gallo out there, but can he play SG?

I think Milicic CAN’T play a major role at center without hurting this team even if he’s a little better for us than he was elsewhere. I see him as spelling tired players here or there, but that’s it.

_’antoni only knows how to coach one way. It would be nice if he could coach 2 different styles and/or incorporate a half-court game within his philosophy (14SOL?) but until he proves he can coach anything but a 7SOL offense (even at the expense of the defense) then he will always be an incomplete coach. If he hires a defensive coordinator type he will hide this flaw and once again become a genius in everyone’s eyes. I think at this point he’s to stubborn to do that unfortunately. Maybe one more losing season will humble him.

Curry IF motivated, IF in shape and IF in a half-court offense could be a top 5 center and a top 10-15 front-court player in this league. Those first two are very big IFs however. If he had gone to a team with a big man coach like Kareem or McHale… ahhh who am I kidding. I just don’t know if he has the fire, there have been plenty of players that have come and gone in the NBA that had all the talent in the world and just never had the motivation to put it all together (the list is endless). I hope he proves me wrong, I hope _avi_ proves me wrong too.

I love to hear that Galinari is talking on defense that’s an excellent quality to have and harder to teach than you would think. Let’s hope Chandler picks up that habit too. It really can help your team defense and compensate for any individual deficiencies.

Curry will remain a question mark. Though I don’t question his ability to score, I question his desire to make a strong comeback. Not only does it benefit him, but the team (a guy with his presence is always welcome) and the fans (we all want him gone) as well.
I’d rather give D’antoni the benefit of the doubt till a see this team playing serious D. This team didn’t do squat in defense last season, and he understands that, and it seems he really wants to make defense a focus during this preseason to mprove. So I’ll give him a couple of weeks, or till the season starts at least, for him to prove if he can really show his players how to be an organized defensive team.
If not, I really have nothing no argument if somebody says “this guy has no idea how to play D”, because know we know we know he’s stressing the point and just can’t get his players to understand him. While his offensive style is attractive, you’re always gonna need to keep you’re enemy at a distance, and last season just wasn’t that at all.

It’s all a matter of confidence. The guy can get to the hoop if he wants. It’s pretty clear that if he doesn’t show similar growth in the NBA as he did in college (check his stats, from one year to the next it was pretty impressive) the guy will remain a “project” for quite some time. I do have hope for him, but as of now, he’s doing a great job of putting down that hope.
Toney D however, is a different story. I really see him playing some strong minutes this season. I don’t think D’antoni wants Nate at the point again, I think he just wants him to get the ball and score. At the same time, I don’t think he wants Duhon to play 48 minutes for 82 games, and he seems to have changed his view on Douglas, for however short it has been since camp started, at least to give him the chance. We’ll see. And Douglas, as opposed to Hill, seems more relaxed, pumped and confident. Jordan could use a bit of that now for his game.

I just think Darko needs time, he’s been home all summer, new wife, new child etc and now NEW team. I just think he has upside and Im rooting for him.

Concerning TD, the preseason games will tell if we have a legit backup/successor point guard. Im disappointed at Hill, he seems not readu emotionally and now he has a hurt foot. After hearing about Tim Groves I want all players to spend time with him to get their games in gear.

Also I think I read where TD worked on things after a subpar summer league.

Depending on what JJ did over the summer to improve his game, he can be an asset I liked when we initially picked him up. Since he has made me peeved because he is too big not to be able to finish around the basket. I hear he is actually finishing with 2 hands in camp.

The guy should have shot many jumpers over the summer and worked on his handle and more IMPORTANT lift weights and worked with a strength coach, I always felt he was too light in the ….. to battle down low.

Sounds like Duhon is not really giving any indications of improvement over the summer. Im sure trades will be made prior to the deadline and hey Marco Jaric we can grab him after he is bought out lol