Great post from Big C -
“…If the Suns game is any indication of what Larry Hughes can do once he gets minutes then give this man some minutes at point. Right now at the point guard Chris Duhon has not been getting it done. Larry Hughes seems to be a better fit to be the Knicks starting point guard. Mike D’Antoni wants his team to play defense this year. What better way to show that he is really serious about the Knicks playing defense than to let Larry Hughes start in the backcourt with Douglas or at least hand over the bulk of Duhon’s minutes. Too often we have seen Duhon get beat by his man or be a liability on the offense by not penetrating to the hole. Hughes not only can play one-on-one defense but he is one of the best at playing the passing lanes. Without a doubt I feel that Hughes can run the pick and roll play with David Lee and Danilo Gallinari. Hughes can be a good distributor as well as a guy that knows when to step up the defensive pressure that this Knicks team is missing…more“
I think a Hughes/ Douglas backcourt could make some sense in the rotation, but I’d like to see Douglas learn the one position. But if there are games, like against New Jersey, when the coach doesn’t feel like Douglas is bringing it, then Hughes should see reps at the one…
I think Hughes is by far the best playmaker on the roster. I’d love to see him start over Duhon.
I have seen Hughes run hot and cold. I have seen him do some dumb things on the court in the way of bad passes and penalties.
Would I start him at the 1, no but he would get minutes there especially if Duhon is having matchup issues.
3 guard rotation of Duhon, Hughes and Douglas with Chandler in there too. Enough minutes to go around since Chandler also plays the 3. Sorry but Nate is the odd man out of the rotation, he just does not play defense at all and cannot play the 1 effectively.
I have been the biggest Duhon detractor in all of blog land since the day that we signed him. However, Larry Hughes is not a PG. Putting Hughes at the PG full time would be an unmitigated disaster. Honestly as sad as it is to say this, right now Duhon is the only one that can run the offense for 30+ minutes and set his teamates up effectively. I don’t know how many other ways to say this but this team still desperately needs another PG on the roster. Despite the winning streak and improved defense this roster is still seriously flawed. Still no shotblocking and no starting PG.
And Hughes is still taking bad shots, they are just going in now. His mentality is to shoot first. So is Douglas. I’ve always thought Hughes should start, but at SG because of his defensive ability and ability to be a combo gaurd who can keep the ball out of Duhon’s hands. Just signing another PG, Daniels, Lue, anybody, would improve this team dramatically.
I know people here have hissy fits if anyone second guesses Walsh but how good would this team look with Jason Williams or Carlos Arroyo? Cheap, one year deal, and would have relegated Duhon to the bench where he belongs.
It’s no secret the Knicks need an upgrade at PG. We’ve discussed that for a while back at Hahn’s blog. The issue now is who would you yank from the rotation? D’Antoni does not like to play to many guys.
If you read Tommy’s thoughts on this I agree that hughes isnt a pg but putting douglas/hughes(PG/SG) backcourt would work well and if you want you can have hughes run the offence and have douglas as a SG
and defense would be alot better and we would probably win more close games and sadly duhon is a career back up PG.
If we had a real size 2G like Budinger i would say yes but we dont Douglas is undersized.
Hughues is not a PG. He’s a shooter.
Duhon is playing well and is D’A's man for this year. I hope he’s gone next year.
He’s def isn’t a shooter. You’d have to be high percentage to be considered a shooter. Think Gallo. But he is a scorer who takes horrible shots and is not a PG. I’m still not sold on Larry Hughes. Is he playing well right now? Absolutely. However, he is know for getting extremely cold. Even though they are falling now his selection is still poor. The shots that look so good right now in a week or 2 you will be cursing at your tv screen about.
bartnyk…… I look at Tony Douglas as a Joe Dumars type. NO I AM NOT SAYING HE IS JOE DUMARS!!!! just saying that he reminds me of him. Even Dumars said as much!!. He can come in play some point and play some 2 guard Also to Tommy Dee….. this post would’ve been better written lastweek when Duhon was stinking up the joint. But he’s playing better now. Leave the rotation the way it is.
Trolling cost security changes at Berman’s and Hahn’s. It didn’t stop it. The best medicine is to ignore it. Everyone ignore it.
We’ve been calling for Hughes or any ones mother to be the point guard around here for a long time now.
Douglas and Hughes would be steady defense and youth development, but D see it different. He’s doing a decent job, but some things you can’t help but to question.
The thing D likes most about Duhon is his passing and non shooting, but his passing doesn’t lead to enough assists.
HERI,why dont you sacrifice for the good of this blog,and not post on here!This blog is gonna turn to mush because of you and your “TRINITY”
History will also repeat itself. He will only get worst and not better as the season progresses.
Nate should get an opportunity if he’s doing so good in practice. Coach Jackson would know how to get the best out of Nate, and D must do the same. Keeping him completely on the bench is a player D is giving up on that will go elsewhere in a trade and do decent.
I rather ignore it, are you not capable?
Tommy, I hope you are paying attention.
What a time for Tommy to take his self-imposed exile from the blog.
Heri has destroyed every Knick blog and will do the same to this one.
Tommy, where are you man?
Replacing Duhon with Hughes is not the answer. The answer is for DW to get a PG for the present and the future. Raymond Felton works. Jerryd Bayless is more a shoot first but could learn to distribute. Same goes for Toney Douglas who could learn to distribute. Acie Law is gathering dust in Charlotte. I think the answer here is more long term. Meanwhile Coach is doing the best he can with the current roster. Your thoughts
A different subject, but interesting comment from David Thorpe of Scouts Inc. on Gallinari
Re: The top twenty sophmores
8. Danilo Gallinari, Knicks | Previous rank: 13
The Knicks are on the upswing, and Gallo is part of the reason why. He continues to be a shooting threat and has scored in double figures in three of their recent wins. He’s also making defensive contributions, adding 1.8 steals and 1.3 blocks so far in December.
Knicks fans are surely envisioning his skills meshing well with a certain MVP-caliber 3-man. I’ll put it another way: If Gallo was a Cav, Cleveland would be the best team in basketball
good find scott…if gallo had a superstar playing next to him, that would be crazy.
I agree with Knicks4life…Arroyo would’ve been nice….I don’t think Du-Du is what’s needed to take us to the promise land but when he is doing what is required for him to do in this system he’s been good. I agree Du-Du is the only one so far that can run this system on the roster but T-Doug can learn and grow with his minutes….
I’ve been watching Douglas closely, I’m not convinced he can be the full time PG for this system. Don’t get me wrong, he is quickly becoming my favorite Knick (I’m warming up to Gallo too if he’ll rebound and take it strong to the hoop more often) but he just doesn’t show PG insticts. I’m hope I’m wrong though because he is our only hope at PG for the next two years.
Yeah Arroyo is so good he’s about to get cut from the Heat LMAO.
Yeah Arroyo is so good he’s about to get cut from the Heat LMAO.
Way to go Donnie by not signing him. Another example of how he knows more about basketball than anybody on here that was calling for us to sign Arroyo.
Um two words: Brandon Jennings. I think even Donnie will admit that he needs a GM. By the way I don’t blame Donnie for not going to Italy to scout Jennings, he had enough to deal with here at home with rebuilding a pitful organization. But he did miss the boat on signing a PG this summer. And if he really “he knows more about basketball than anybody on here that was calling for us to sign Arroyo” how do you explain signing Duhon to the full mid-level?
Anyway if you are right about Arroyo being released that is great news, maybe we can pick him up.
Larry Hughes is more of a point guard than Toney Douglas.
Nate Robinson is more of a point guard than Toney Douglas.
I like the kid for his defense and his ability to score, but his career stats in college would suggest that he will not be a starting caliber point guard in the NBA. His numbers so far in his rookie campaign do nothing to dispel that.
Could that change? It may or it may not. Someone compared him to Joe Dumars, I think he may be a lot closer to Lindsey Hunter and that’s not a bad thing, he’s had a 16 year career.
Nate Robinson is not more of a point guard than Toney Douglas. Not to say Toney is a great point guard at this point, but at least he has the demeanor for it. He was a respected leader on his college team. He’s demonstrated committment and skill on defense. It’s not all about assists and dribbling and scoring. It’s about leadership. I mean, I really like Robinson in a lot of ways, but I’d pick Douglas over him right now to run the point.
HUGES had some nice passes over the past 3 or 4 games,at least give him a try at the point,how much worse can he be than DUHON? if it doesnt work out go back to what it was but……….GET A FRIGGN POINT GUARD IN HERE!!!!
Yeah I pretty much agree Has. I would like to see Doug get a chance at pg anyway, but so far throughout college and his short career he does not really seem to have pg ability. As Has also said, he has other good skills that can probably help him be a pretty good player, but he might need to be in a situation where the sg or sf is the real playmaker, which hopefully will be the situation of the knicks after next year.
Chris Duhon is the best point guard on the roster, which is a joke but it is what it is.
I think Hughes has the ability to run the offense when the team needs some kind of spark in particular, but he can’t do it on a consistent basis. That being said, I love to see Hughes, Lee and Gallinari play together and Hughes is a hundred times better than Du-Du obviously.
I love the chemistry between those 3 too Mucha. Those seem to be the only players along with the 2some of Lee and Duhon on the pick and roll, that really help each other out a lot and make each other much better players. At times I can see some of that from Harrington, but Hughes specifically seems to really understand the offense and that screen/backdoor cut that Gallo and Chandler run often almost always results in a good pass from Hughes fro the basket. Lee and Gallo jsut play really well together, and it is just one of several reasons why personally I would love to have Lee back, especially at the price of 8 million instead of getting Bosh or Amare for twice as much at 16 million.
I think Hughes is an intelligent player. I’ve noticed he’s learned to work with Lee and Gallo. That’s to be commended. He’s not that great as a shooting guard because his shooting percentage is too low. But he has a lot more playmaking ability than most shooting guards. Factor in his defense, and I think he’s a pretty good player if he is looking to pass and involve other guys.
The other time in his career when he had success was in the same backcourt as Gilbert Arenas, another guy who’s kind of a point guard but kind of a shooting guard. This team seems to be the right kind of team for Hughes to be of value, and I think his play is a factor in their recent success.
The truth is that basketball players don’t necessarily fit into the 5 neat categories we’ve created for them. I’m learning that certain types of point guards will penetrate and dish and pile up a lot of assists, but some guys can play the point and help the team win but not necessarily pile up assists. Defensive leadership is a very underrated aspect of point guard play, and I think Hughes and Douglas both show it.
Hughes defense has improved immensely this year. Last year, I thought he gambled way too much and cost the team a lot of easy baskets but thsi year he seems to be picking his spots much better. Honestly, I am fine with anyone playing point other than Duhon. I understand he is actually a good game manager or whatever anyone wants to call it, but he is just not productive enough and to top it all off he is a horrible defender who is too slow to guard people. I like him off the bench for 15-20 minutes a game, but anything more than that is just too much. I would like to see Doug and Hughes get more pt at the point, but I do understand the riskiness of that. As crazy as this may be to say, the guy who has the most potential I think as a point-forward is Buckets. Of course that would involve him lifting his head up whenever he drives into the middle, but him and Hughes are really the only guys on the Knicks who can consistently get into the paint and draw defenders, although Gallo shows flashes of that a lot but does not do it consistently enough. I think Buckets could easily have 4-5 assists or more per game if he just looked up once in a while.
Hughes has always been known for his defense,its just that when the knicks obtained him last year,he hadnt played in months
Stop calling for Arroyos he was cut because he sucks . If he was good why would they cut him . Knicks fans always want other teams garbage. think bigger , think felton , bayless ,or ridnour, pg that will actually have an impact on the team.