In a nice piece in today’s NY Times, Howard Beck muses that the writing may have been on the wall for Larry Hughes‘ reappearing act last night:
“Hughes went from nonentity to starting guard on Monday and helped lead the Knicks to their first victory of the season, 117-111 over the Hornets. His 20 points were critical, but so too was his demeanor.
“Left out of the Knicks’ rotation on opening night, Hughes diplomatically accepted his fate, biding his time until circumstances changed. It was a lesson he learned the hard way last season in Chicago.
“Hughes publicly railed against his shrinking role with the Bulls last December and soon found himself on the inactive list and finally traded. Hughes said the Knicks did a better job of communicating with him. He also drew on his Bulls experience.
“I never had it happen to me before Chicago,’’ Hughes said. “When it came around this time, I had something to look back on.”
Hughes could be an interesting piece to this team as they move forward during the season.
He has clearly learned and matured from his issues in Chicago and might even be demonstrating (you know things are bad when I’m typing this 4 games into the year) some leadership type qualities that could help bring this team together.
Forget his efficient night shooting the ball; his defensive effort seemed to fuel the team last night from the get go. If this team is able to feed off his defensive effort, his value jumps ten-fold. And I think we can all agree that anybody who can get the other guys in the lineup to buckle down on the defensive end is a-okay.
That said, I still think it is important for a guy like Toney Douglas to see more minutes in Nate’s absence. So I am fine with Hughed starting and finishing the game, but unless Hughes is lighting it up night in and night out, I think TD should get some consistent burn somewhere in between as well…
last night ZACH RANDOLPH 30 pts-16 rebs
That contract is just way too fat. I liked Z-Bo, but $17.3M next year? 21.5/9.5 through 4 games – good for him. But there’s still no way I wanna take that contract into ’10-’11.
Yea Bob you’re right great performance by Z-BO BUT MEMPHIS LOST!!! He’s a Stat Stuffer not a winner…good ridance
you could say the same thing about every knick
Yea but we’re tryin to eliminate the culture of overpaying Stat Stuffing players who can’t win games…ZBO is solid no one is denyin that but he’s not a winner…Besides we already tried that experiment, are you implying that we made a mistake by tradin him away??? C’mon BOB give me a break
Buh-Bye Lee.
no .not at all
there are ,maybe 2 players in the whole league that could turn losers into winners.even the great kobe bryant’s lakers team wasnt doin all that well until they made that trade for gasol.i always liked Z-BO and he keeps goin from 1 shitty team to another.im not sayin the KNICKS shouldnt have gotten rid of him(his contract demanded it)i would just like to see him on a good team
in a loss.
I like Hughes in the starting lineup
Duhon
Hughes
Chandler
Gallo
Lee
2nd Team
Douglas
Nate
Harrington
Jeffries
Milicic
I think that’s a nice mix of defense and scoring on both teams
Against smaller teams
Duhon – PG
Hughes – SG
Gallo – SF
Chandler or Harrington – PF
Lee – C
Against bigger teams
Duhon – PG
Hughes – SG
Gallo – SF
Lee – PF
Milicic – C
sounds good
Hughes has impressed me greatly (and did so in CLE), even as I prefer someone who pushes the tempo more as a 1. If he didn’t command so much money (perhaps he won’t next year?), I’d be pleased to have him be this team’s starting 1 for the future. I hope he plays well and gets a nice contract somewhere next year or can come back to us at a discount with a top-notch roster. Either way, keep ballin LH
Toney Douglas isn’t good enough right now, he’s a non-factor offensively and his defense is underwhelming.
Hughes is a great asset, if he doesn’t start chucking contested jumpers then he’ll be fine.
Like DaGawd said, he might be the key.
im curious if any of the vaunted NY media will have the balls to ask D’Antoni why Hughes was banished to the bench for the first three games when he so clearly fits a need and has plenty in the tank.
Howard Beck completely looked over it in the Times piece.
No balls necessary. I believe Hughes was 2 for 28 in the preseason after shooting field goals at under 40% last season. D’Antoni is looking for high percentage scorers for his seven seconds or less. Now it looks like Hughes is our secret weapon. Let us see how long this lasts.
if that is D’Antoni’s reasoning he is a worse coach than I imagined.
Besides, Hughes shot 38% from 3 last year..
Doesn’t matter what he shot in presason, Danilo shot bad for a few games in preseason too. The coach should have confidence in his players and Hughes’ resume speaks for itself. He obviously wasn’t worried about his shooting because he knew what he had done throughout his career as a veteran.
Aside from that, HE”S THE ONLY SHOOTING GUARD ON THE ROSTER!!! LOL I feel like Bob! No shots.
Hughes hasn’t forgotten how to play defense (to me there is no clearer indictment imo of _’antoni’s reluctance to admit defense is more important than offense than having this guy sitting on the bench) and he has more experience at point guard than anyone not named Duhon, which probably makes him their best backup point guard option. Obviously Douglas is not the steal everyone thought he was at this point.
Amazing how Galinari is a better passer than Duhon. I still can’t believe this is the guy they hand-picked for 6 mil per to run a team, let alone some semblance of the 7SOL offense.
danni boy has little confidence in his team
i thought people should know this by now
Well he was REALLY turrible.
MUCHA ,,ITS TERRIBLE,,,……NOT TURRIBLE
I wanna give a huge shoutout to LARRY HUGHES!!! I have talked so much sh*t about this guy and he came through… I am thoroughly impressed by his professionalism, his intensity, his defense, and his leadership…WOW where did this Hughes come from…i love the fact that he can come in and provide a true SG and gives Chandler a chance to play his more natural position…
i would like to comment on a post from earlier today basically blamin NATE for our dreadful start…Nate has his issues and i admit he has a lot of growin up to do and obviously hasn’t learned his lesson from his ZERO offer summer BUT he can ball AND THE REASON WE STARTED SO DREADFUL WAS DUE TO…
WAY TOO MANY 3′S
PATHETIC DEFENSE
ILL DEFINED ROTATION
NO LEADERSHIP
NO MOVEMENT OR DRIVES TO THE BASKET
NO INTENSITY, URGENCY, OR CONFIDENCE
All of which we had last night. What a great game and it’s encouraging to know that this team DOES HAVE POTENTIAL & the worst team in the NBA is the NETS (not the Knicks)…
My only complaint is that even though Duhon had a good game he’s still a bad pg who hesitates frequently on P&R (we’re lucky the Hornets are terrible @ defending the P&R), Duhon is dreadful at fast breaks, and he missed @ least another 2 alley oops last night…Like i said he had a good game but he has mang flaws and even though Douglas wasn’t impressive last night he needs more min (esp. w/ Nate out) plus you can tell that his bad play is due too NBA jitters…Mike D is overusing Duhon AGAIN and its gonna wind up killin us AGAIN…
GREAT GAME THOUGH…GO KNICKS!!!
Yea I dont understand Mike’s reasoning to it either, wouldn’t you want your rookie PG to get some minutes and get through some rookie mistakes and jitters now rather than around the All Star break?
DTR–
I agree Al can have the Garden ROCKING its crazy. I really wish Al is one of the players here when we start winning.
For my dreams sake what would you guys give up for Chris Paul.
Sooner or Later (hopefully sooner) the Hornets are going to hit a point where we were at barely getting into the playoffs and had a roster full of bloated contracts.
The KG trade would be a base to look at
2 first rounders (012,013), Wilson, Duhon, Lee for Chris Paul?
That doesn’t seem fair for New Orleans to me.
Chandler, Douglas, Harrington, Lee and Hill and a 1st.
They may be afraid Lee won’t resign there so they’d have to get some players who will be definitely there past this year (Toney, Wilson and Jordan) Harrington makes room for Galinari to step up, maybe call Ewing Jr. up to back him up defense and athleticism off the bench, (a poor man’s Chandler)?
Too lazy to look up salaries tonight, so excuse me in advance.
Oh and of course we’d have to take some of their filler, hopefully stuff we could make use of, buy out or waive.
Exactly Big, that was my thinking when including Chandler, Hill (8th pick this year) plus a 1st rounder.
Remember you’re potentially getting the number one (def top 3) point guard in the league.
id give up anyone on the roster … anyone for Chris Paul.
including the Italian… and the coach can go too.
useless if Paul doesn’t get more than one side-kick in NY.
So I’d keep Gallo – dump everybody else.
see James, Lebron
u think Lebron wouldnt rush here if CP3 was in the back court?
Pure speculation.
And I agree with the fact that he’d be more enticing than Gallo, Hill and Wilson (obviously) but you’d need to trade Jeffries to have enough capspace in order to land both Paul and LeBron (correct me if I’m wrong).
its all speculation obviously..
but assuming you include Gallo, Hill and Chandler that is 8 mil in 2010 money and Paul makes 14 mil so you’d be adding 6 net to the 2010 cap.. if we have 22 plus free we would have enough room.
I would take Chris Paul, Lebron James and 7 scrubs in Orange and Blue any day of the week..
More so than Gallo as they are both front court players.
Yeah you’re right but you know it is all speculation regarding LeBron James – so I don’t think it would be a wise decision. I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.
The KG trade isnt a fair comparison — although it is probably the closest you’ll get.
KG was 30 years old and just completed his 12th season when he got traded. Paul is 24 and is just entering his prime years.
WISON CHANDLER,TONEY DOUGLAS, JORDAN HILLFOR CHRIS PAUL AND DRAFT PICK
Hughes’ defense is great. He disrupts plays left and right and he is very active on offense. As long as his shooting is over 40% he is an asset and should start. But dump him at the end of the year.
Harrington is the only energy guy. He is not that good but he wants to lead. He needs to start. Knix must avoid those zombie 1st quarters.
DTR
Hughes’s expiring is $13,655,268; it would take a pay cut and two miracle trades to keep him here next year, but I’d like to see it happen. It won’t, and that’s okay, but Duhon gets $6,031,800 this year and Hughes IS debatably worth double that. He’ll get paid, I’m sure.
Hughes is worth double the quality of duhon’s play or are you saying that hughes is worth $12 mil/year? Either way, the sample size is too small, Hughes is one of those streaky guys who gets hot and cold. We have to just ride this out while it lasts.
My bad – Hughes is worth double the quality of Duhon’s play, not $13M (but if Rudy Gay ends up getting that much – what he wants – next year, maybe Hughes is).
Hughes gives us great energy on defense which is what we desperately need and why we didn’t fall behind by 20 early…what we learned in preseason and last night is that this team feeds off defensive intensity which Hughes provides…I agree AL is an energy guy but his role is PEEFECT off the bench…he doesn’t provide defensive intensity which i believe is the only way for us to avoid 1st qtr ass whoopings…I’m impressed w/ AL but at the end of the day he’s still tryin to get his so comin off the bench and providing an offensive spark after we establish our D and get into a good groove is ideal…PLUS he still gets 30 min so it’s not like comin off the bench will affect his PT…last night was a great template for how we need to play this season
It’s great that Hughes is getting a chance to utilize skills that, as Biggie & HaS pointed out, are actually NEEDED by this team. I really wonder how different things would have been last year if D’Antoni “communicated” as well with Steph or, heaven forbid, actually played him as the back-up PG this early in the season. As we all recall, Steph had a decent pre-season (much better that Hughes did this year) but was not TOLD he wouldn’t leave the pine (that was communicated to the “unofficial captain” Q-Rich) when the games counted. We know that Steph continues to certify himself as someone who’s elevator does not always reach the top floor, but last year at this time, he was not disruptive but D’Antonio was insisting on tearing him down (“not one of my guys”) while playing N8 as the back-up point. So kudos to Hughes for “learning” how to act when not playing in Chicago … maybe he learned from the Steph debacle to not challange the 7 secs or less mastermind or your playing time will be just that, 7 seconds or less !
PS, nice debates about trade & free agency scenarios to get CP3 … I’m about to watch the Bucks game via NBA free pass to see what would have made the Chris Paul discussions moot … BJ3 (Brandon Jennings) … so far his stats are 20 ppg, 5.5 boards, 6 assists. Sounds like the beginning of rookie of the tear #s for the guy picked 2 slots AFTER J-Hill !
“so far his stats are 20 ppg, 5.5 boards, 6 assists.”
That’s amazing. Meanwhile Jordan Hill stats are 0 ppg, 0 boards, 0 assists, 0 minutes.
What? Does Knicks scouts can’t do their job? Couldn’t they see the kid skills? Or is just a matter of character issues?
And why oh why did we need another forward (Jordan Hill) on this squad?
there isn’t any scouts
they pick what the media an analyse say
to be a winner u gotta play with a good team
other wise they they your a loser when u put up big numbers for losing teams
he is just a stat collector.lol.
it is what it is zach isn’t no loser he just been on bad teams..
alot of good players are just unfortunate to be in a good situation sometimes..
so they call them losers
remember a team is losers in a team sport not 1 player..
i have a man crush on Galo
that being said … cp3? … buh bye rooster
hahaha but I don’t see why people are acting crazy about this, BJ is doing good OK that was expected and so is Eric Gordon and Brook Lopez…
You see where I am going with this?
the #8 pick of the NBA draft should be able to log minutes for a team that finished with our record last year ….
watching brandon jennings and ty lawson right now is breaking my heart ..
i can understand not risking an early pick on Jennings .. but the whole draft as it got later and later i really thought DW was gonna try to swing a deal to move up to pick Lawson ..
for real, why couldn’t we be the team that had lawson instead of denver? i don’t understand that.
There’s no doubt that Jennings can ball but just because a rookie goes onto a team and gets to control the entire offense from day one doesn’t mean he is automatically better than any pick who went before him who doesn’t have that privelage.
Clearly we picked Hill for his future value, not for his ability to contribute immediately; therefore, “the jury is still out” and will be for a while. Even if he could help a lot right now, we would still be a pretty sucky team.
Roy and Aldridge just both got signed to healthy extensions and an article came out declaring the blazers the winners of the 2006 draft: that was 4 years ago. Stop trying to draw conclusions 3 games into the season just because you get off on the knicks f-ing up.
Careful: I’m not attempting to predict anything; maybe you’re right and hill ends up being a bust, but stop pointing to the fact that he isn’t playing in the first 3 games of his rookie season as proof of that… it doesn’t mean anything.
I guess the kings, wolves, grizzlies, warriors, and whoever else, f-ed up majorly as well, right? no
Find me a team that let’s its rookie take 23 shots in a game, even after starting off 4 for 13.
There’s only one. I’d still take any of earlier PGs over jennings without question. Hill, unfortunately, i have no idea where he;s going and can only wait and see.
Is Chris Paul the plan B Donnie Walsh was talking about?
Think about it, he has no future whatsoever in NO but he’s a winner, and DW will have enough capspace to trade a bunch of rookie contracts for him (correct me if I’m wrong).
I think Paul IS his plan B.