David Lee has logged an average of 40 minutes over his last three games, much of that could have been 
contributed to extra effort defensively or the fact that the team was preparing for 3 days off.
As we know the tighter rotation has seemed to benefit the Knicks who need consistent minutes, so when re-introducing Eddy Curry into the mix, if I were Mike D’Antoni, I’d get him in the the 1st quarter.
The Knicks could come out flat tonight. Hopefully not, but it’s human nature to think that jump shots may not fall. With Curry, they have a guy who can slow down the game and create foul situations. When the Knicks miss jumpers early they lead to run outs and no one in the league is as capable of capitalizing on them more so than Chris Paul.
In other words if the Knicks are not swishing and dishing, then they may get blown out in the first quarter.
Use Curry in the 1st quarter with a shooter at the 4, while giving David Lee early rest so he can finish strong in a close game…
I’d also utilize Toney Douglas on CP3 as much as possible as well. TD can somewhat stay in front of him 3/4 court…
I’m interested to see how Gallo responds from the layoff. He was VERY active the other night. I hope that’s him getting his legs under him combined with confidence. He really does have the ability to be a complete player.
I think its an unnecessarily risky move for Dantoni to put Curry back in now with the team playing the way it has been. I hope he waits until at least the 2nd quarter to do it. I do not really expect Gallo to play that well tonight, as Im not sure what his home/road splits are but it seems like he plays much better at msg then anywhere else. Hopefully I’m wrong though.
Curry could go to work on NO. They are using Okafur at Center but to me he his more of a PF. If he could get either Okafur or West in foul trouble that would be a major plus and allow David Lee more room to grab rebounds in the paint.
The refs don’t give TD a break. If he has to guard Paul he may get 5 fouls in 10 minutes. But he probably is the best option. I wonder if they may try to put Jeffries on him like they did against Boston and Rondo. I’m actually more worried about Collison in transition off the bench against our soft interior defense.
NO face gaurds Gallo. May be tough for him to go off unless we get contributions out of other places so his defender has to at least consider helping. That means Duhon has to actually attempt a layup when he drives to the hoop.
Tommy,
I posted some comments regarding Gallinari which I found on ESPN, and which were made by David Thorpe of Scouts Inc.
I thought that you and some of your readers might enjoy them.
He was doing a piece on the top 20 sophmores in the NBA.
I will say that he had Brook Lopez listed at # 1 this week, but I love what he said about Danilo.
Sorry,
I meant to say that I posted them on your previous, “Move Hughes to the one” post.
But for those who missed them, here they are again.
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
re again for those who may not have seen them.
Well, who doesnt like to hear that!
I agree, long shots and misses result in fast breaks with CP3, Attack the rim to counter attack the brilliance of CP3. Curry is the best paint player and rim attacker on this team by far.
What are we trying to do? Are we trying to win or are we trying to trade Eddy? Let’s be serious no one is taking a player that:
1 – Was grossly out of shape coming into camp, even after they got him a personal trainer.
2 – Is now hurt all the time.
3 – Over paid.
4 – Heart condition.
5 – Is trying to fool other now by all of a sudden caring about basketball when he realized his career will be over after next season and he’s broke. No one is going to take a chance on a guy who doesn’t care about anything but eating and playing video games. Jerome James 2 the squeal.
After the trade deadline passes I don’t want to hear about Eddy. We have him by the you know what, make him lose more weight and get in the weight room and turn that fat into muscle. Do some sit ups and push up man. Lazy fat f*@# waste of talent.
Situps and pushups……LMAO….when was the last time you were in the gym!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are so many new ways to get into shape nobody does situps anymore they are not good for your back. There are machines now that will work your abs and lower back muscles, commonly known as the core.
Maybe Curry does have a heart condition and that is what’s holding him back, he doesn’t get enough oxygen to his brain. He’s not very smart that’s for sure. With his physical abilities he could have been a great player but he’s too stupid to understand that you cannot just live by athletic ability. Didn’t Isiah even talk with this guy before he gave him a contract?
I hate to say it too but it seems Wilson Chandler is pretty dumb also. Stupid players are not going to be able to play D’Antoni’s style of basketball. You first need a high BBall IQ which is more important than just being smart. But dumb will never work in his system.
Also heart problems are common in very tall people it’s called Marfan’s syndrome. It can be to varying degrees with tall people. It’s thought even Abe Lincoln had it who was 6’4″.
I have to agree on that one. Wilson Chandler is pretty dumb. He just makes the same dumb mistakes. Every game i always see him give a soft foul at the basket giving the opponent a potential 3 point play. He just seems so lost on offense and defense sometimes.
I just want to see Tony Douglas guard the best point guard in the NBA. I love the way Tony D guards players. He was agrevating Mike Bibby Chris Paul is going to be looking for revenge from the last game. take notice how Tyson Chandler is playing below average since he left the Hornets. When he played with Chris Paul he was on ESPN with a spectacular dunk in the top ten plays. I just hope we are able to sign Chris Paul in 2011. I have my doubts about 2010.
When sub-par teams go on streaks, and then have a bunch of days off, it is really hard to stay hot. this win would be huge.
Don’t be so sure about Hughes at the one. he is showing he can make plays and has a good passing arsenal, but don’t kid yourselves; he’s not capable of playing PG full time. It’s nice to have extra playmaking in the backcourt and he can play some portion of his minutes at that spot, but (and i hate to say it) we need duhon setting up the halfcourt offense. he has proven he can do that, at least. He is the only real PG.
Co-sign
I agree that Toney should see more minutes tonight to guard chris paul. Tony is our best on ball defender, even before he develops the rest of his game offensively (which is coming along nicely) he still has all the makings of a “defensive specialist” like dahnte jones. He just needs to learn how to keep his hands off his man and avoid those nit-picky fouls… he also needs to get the benefit of the doubt from the refs, which is probably the hardest part for a young defensive minded player.
I’d like to see him picking up CP3 before halfcourt every time he can… it’s ok to waist his energy on that because A. he won’t play that much anyway and B. That might be the difference in the game.
Also, expect to see a zone in the second half when duhon is in. When everyone is communicating and hustling on defense, we actually execute it very well, and if any player can force us into a zone, its CP3.
CP3 would be my second choice for this team under lebron.
Dougals will not slow up CP3 he picks up dumb fouls 28 feet away from the basket, I like Hughes picking up Paul and doing his best to stop him Douglas can bring energy off the bench but Hughes is taller and a better defender I much rather him on CP3.
You have to play Curry and put him in spots to be effective, I really hope Mike worked on entry passes into the post because these guys couldn’t hit Eddy with a sense-able entry pass to save there life and I hope Eddy understands that he can pass out of the post when hes double teamed, pass the ball win the game.
Gallo has to understand whats going on in the game and adjust, i.e. 3 missed 3s drive to the basket STOP shooting, small guy is guarding him post up and score, and setup Eddy for easy buckets just like what he does with Lee.
“I hope Eddy understands that he can pass out of the post when hes double teamed”
Exactly. When he played a couple weeks ago he put his head down when he got the ball, and no matter how many players converged on him you knew for a fact he was chucking it up, no matter what. He needs to realize that he can pass the ball back out after he gets it.
He’s in the league how many years and people are still waiting for him to learn to pass.
learn to rebound
learn to play defense
learn help defense
learn to block shots
learn spacing on breaks
learn to make free throws
learn to keep in shape
sadly, true…and with a frame and athleticism that could do all those things exceptionally well…he just doesn’t have a motor.
Nor a heart
He was never a good passer out of the double team, but he also never had anyone that could shoot well to pass it out to like Gallo.
At the same time Douglas has got to learn. He has the ability to be better than Hughes at guarding this NBA league that is full of talented Point guards. So let the kid learn.
It’s so annoying how ESPN keeps reporting that nate is sitting purely because he joked around with howard before the magic game. That is ridiculous. that was just one little thing out of a plethora of instances where nate pissed off his teamates and the coach. That probably wasn’t even an issue.
At this point though, it’s not a punishment any more, its just that this short rotation is working and the team would rather play douglas, who is part of the future. You all want to develop the youth right? Well here’s where it starts. Once we ship out a forward, it will be hill’s turn.
Who cares what ESPN reports if they watched the Knicks closely they would know its been more than just one thing.
Ship out a forward. Like who? As long as Lee, Harrington, Chandler, Gallo and Jeffries are here, Hill is not playing. Maybe if we get some sucker to take Jeffries but I don’t know who is going to do that.
It won’t take a sucker to take jeffries. he is playing well, for what his role is. He is actually an important piece to our current streak, and i bet you Donnie could trade him for trash expirings now if he wanted to, but doesn’t want to do it too early because he thinks we need him. And we do.
where is news on the 8th pick
come on now
he was the 8th pick..
Can you name a rookie big man who is having an impact? Blair? ok.. should we have taken him? Thabeet? Anyone. Unless we’re talking about a phenom, athletic big men don’t have impacts right away. i know you want hill to suck so you can be right, but unfortunately you’re going to have to wait a year to claim that.
curry is what he is
an ok post player
a turnover machine
an can’t play D for his life..
Absolutely not — Curry should not play at all, except in garbage time. The Knicks are going well — no need to introduce someone who will only mess it up.
I know others have already said these things, but the reasons the team is playing well is that they have finally decided to play some team defense and move the ball around on offense — exactly the two things Eddy Curry is worst at. He can’t even defend on the ball, much less rotate. And the reason the Knicks are doing so well from three-point range isn’t that they are just shooting better, but that they are shooting open threes — from the ball being moved around. When Curry gets the ball in the post, the rest of the team becomes irrelevant.
In my opinion, today is the game to start Hughes at the 1 (guarding Paul), Chandler at the 2, and Gallo at the 3, where he can light up Peja. Move Harrington to the 4 (to guard West) and keep Lee at the 5.
Can’t control who guards you and no way NO puts Peja on Gallo.
Yeah I too love how ESPN has turned Nate into some kind of victim. I will accept arguments of people saying Dantoni has a doublestandard with him and things along those lines, but it seems especially ridiculous to keep up this charade that this is a personal vendetta against Nate by Dantoni. There was a number of really bad things Nate did this year, but most disappointing of all has been his complete ineffectiveness in playing winning-type basketball. His defense is atrocious and the 0-8 record in games he played more than 18 minutes and his grand total of 2 points in the Knicks 7 wins speaks for itself. Its absurd to say that he is sitting because he was joking around before the game with Dwight Howard. There were so many other factors, and most of them were simply basketball related and had nothing to do with his embarrasing behavior.
ESPN is well documented to be Knick – haters
Yes they are.
I think Oakley and Mason traumatized them.
Good strategy by Tommy ! If you goin 2 display Curry do it early to see where he is at with his game. He has to eb on show case to increase his value and he doesnt have to be great to trade him , just playable and healthy. knick fans cant forget that he that this is the same guy who punished D Howard after being snubbed out the all-star game . If Grant Hill made a successful come back so can Curry and if james was traded from the knicks why not Curry?
Wow. Grant Hill and Eddie Curry in the same sentence regarding work ethic and ability to come back from injury. I’m wondering if this is the worst comparision from a delusional Knick fan of their player to a superstar player. Here is where I rank those comments from the past two weeks.
Wilson Chandler = James Worthy
Curry = Grant Hill
Tony Douglas = Joe Dumars
Gallo = Dirk
this blog got alot of krazy stuff.
it is what it is.
lmao..
Nobody compared curry to grant hill, you guys read what you want to read so you can come up with something to hate on.
His point was that Hill was able to come back fully from a similar chronic knee problem, so rehabbing that type of injury should be possible.
he doesn’t claim curry is like hill, or anything like that. And the galo-dirk comparison isn’t even outlandish. Galo is the best 3 point shooter in the league, he’s 6-10, and he has a really good handle for his size, and most importantly he is a great passer. He has all the tools to be an incredible player in this league, and if you can’t accept that then just stop reaading about the knicks.
bad comparison.
Curry has displayed very little work ethic. Grant Hill has always been a highly conditioned athlete. If anyone could come back from a “condition” it is HIll..
Curry’s “condition” was and is his Sloth
an it’s not like curry went thru what hill has an hill’s still balling an pretty good for a player that been thru so much.
what has curry been thru
but some mental stuff.
curry is what he is
a big doofy goofy guy that can’t play basketball
“Nobody compared curry to grant hill, you guys read what you want to read so you can come up with something to hate on.”
exactly right
I remember off the top of my head whoever did the TD Dumars “comparison” specifically said he IS NOT DUMARS, but has a similar style of play.
WHo is reading what they want to read. I specifically said comparing Curry’s WORK ETHIC AND ABILITY TO COME BACK FROM INJURY to Hill is delusional. Not them as players.
And the person who compared Dumars to Douglas said he wasn’t comparing them and then specifically did.
You get real sensitive about Knick criticism huh. If you think Gallo is Dirk well I just don’t know what to say. And I like Gallo.
“If Gallo was a Cav, Cleveland would be the best team in basketball”
-From a TKB’ers excerpt of the ESPN piece – put a huge smile on my face.
If Curry is healthy enough to play, I think it’s best to hold off on throwing him in unless the shots stop falling. Say, half way through the quarter, we are missing a lot of jumpers. You throw Curry in a few minutes at a time, dump it into him, let him pick up some fouls, take some free throws, and then take him out.
I would treat him as kind of a change of pace running back, except, well, the opposite since he would slow down a fast pace team. Thunder Curry. Even if he doesnt make his FT, or bobbles the ball, it jsut throws off the defense for when we sub back.
That’s right JC Money, and it put a HUGE smile on my face too, and that is why I wanted to share it with other TKB’ers.
I think that when paired with better players, Gallinari’s upside is huge!
“If Gallo was a Cav, Cleveland would be the best team in basketball”
Therefore I’m confident that id lbj is on the knicks, they will be a top-3 east team.
Anyone think the bulls would do J.J+Nate for Jerome James+Tyrus Thomas
yea zeke
just replaced paxson..
but the bulls get the better end of that deal on a talent level
not a bad trade at all especially for the bulls
The Bulls want to have enough capspace to offer Dwyane Wade a max contract. They would never take JJ’s contract, forget about it.
your rite about that
they have a very good chance of signing there product
i know every team has fantasy’s about which superstar legend they are going to sign, but when you think about it from a basketball standpoint, i don’t see a Rose Wade backcourt working at all. 2 highly athletic super fast guys who love to drive to the whole and don’t have much range? Players like wade, lebron, and kobe need to have shooting PGs IMO. I think that would be a disaster.
In a heart beat I would do that. Get rid of Jeffries contract and somehow manage a rotation player in return….
Wait, so what is our current starting lineup right now? all the changes have me confused. Duhon Chandler Harrington Jeffries Lee?
NBA.com seems to think it is hughes is starting over jeffries.
Simple solution = Ban Heri!
I hope that Coach D doesn’t wear out DLee the way he wore out Duhon last season.