Monthly Archives: December 2009
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This game, for me, is a very intriguing one. The Pistons are sputtering having lost 7 games in a row.
But the Knicks have a way to bring out the best in the worst teams, and if they are serious about making the playoffs, a road win against a struggling team will go a long way in making fans feel that this is possible.
The Pistons, who jumped on their cap space this summer, aggressively spent on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, and the latter has been miserable over his last 4 averaging just a shade over 4 ppg.
The Pistons benefitted from a great system that culminated with a championship under Larry Brown. Now they are a roster that is, it would seem, clogged with bad contracts. But the team does have great talent and are really one game away from going on a run. The Knicks need to understand that they can’t let the Pistons get into a rhythm, or else it will be a miserable night in Mo Town.
Listen to Rice Balls chat with Natalie Sitto of need4sheed.com last night on TKB Radio.
“…D’Antoni gave his sturdiest defense on why he has given up on Curry, who the coach believes more firmly than ever doesn’t fit his style. Curry has been a DNP for five straight games and appears as out of the picture as Nate Robinson and Darko Milicic.
As reported last week in The Post, Curry said he hopes the Knicks buy him out after the season.
The Knicks could open another $2 million in extra cap room in 2010 — which is crucial — if Curry agrees to take $9.3 million of the $11.3 million he has left in the final year of his contract. Curry figures to make up the money by signing elsewhere for the veteran’s minimum ($1.9M).
A buyout is virtually impossible this season since Curry’s final year is a player option and not guaranteed. Hence, a current buyout would not factor in next season’s salary, and Curry would never do it…”
We were off a little on the veteran minimum, but it makes sense that Curry would try and latch on with a team with the hopes of supplementing the rest of his salary next season. There is zero reason to believe that either he or his representation would do anyone any favors by taking less money than he is owed.
At this point you have to figure that an additional $2 million dollars is well-worth sending Curry on his way, but should he manage to stay healthy for the rest of the season, couldn’t he be of some use next year, especially when there are sure to be vacant roster spots to fill?
Yeah, on second thought, I’ll take the $2 million in cap space.
Then the focus would have to be dealing Jared Jeffries.
The following was submitted by “Troubled Knick Fan” Michael Fidler, as always we encourage 
fans to put pen to paper and submit your thoughts to theknicksblog@gmail.com.
I have been reading this blog since its inception. I have been reading a lot of the posts recently about Nate not getting any time. Every e-mail that has been posted advocates the position of the website that Nate should not play. I would argue that you can spit out stats and other figures that will show why this is right; however, the past few games seem to show otherwise. Against the Spurs and the Heat, the Knicks were constantly down and were not able to, when staked to a 10 point or more deficit, climb out of that hole. To me, D’antoni playing the same players in these games, getting the same result is somewhat counter-intuitive. To best describe what is meant by this I will use a baseball analogy. When a closer is not getting the job done over many games, unless his name is rivera, nathan or a closer of that caliber, they will usually be removed. Since the Knicks do not have a Rivera, or a Nathan, or anyone who is successful every time they touch the court, how can D’antoni possibly stick with an 8 man rotation. Some nights it will work, as we have seen over a few games, but on nights when its not working, shouldn’t he look to play someone else?
In the Spurs game, Jeffries made 20% of his shots while playing 35 minutes. Larry Hughes made 1 shot and played 15 mins. Bender played 11 mins and made no shots. How do you win games when one of your starters plays 35 minutes and makes 2 shots? Those same 3 players played 51 minutes against the heat and made 2 shots on 9 attempts. I am not taking anything away from these players; however, I feel like their playing time is not being used to the most important resource. Give other guys a chance. There are pieces like Curry they want to move, and they can’t move him if he sits on the bench. What expectations are we supposed to have? (more…)
Tune in to TKB Radio, one of the top sports radio shows on BTR, tonight at 9 PM with Anthony “Rice Balls” Donahue and Tommy Dee.
We will be talking Pistons hoops with the very entertaining Natalie Sitto from need4sheed.com.
Plenty to talk about including the Nate fine; Toney Douglas in the rotation and the Myles Mills 
Minute.
Twitter:
AnthonyMSG
TommyDeeTKB
MMillsTKB
Sifting through some of today’s Knicks articles, I came across an interesting quote from Coach D’Antoni in a Marc Berman piece. According to Berman, the Knicks’ coach had the following to say regarding his hopes to get Toney 
Douglas more court action:
“There’s certain guys in this league – Toney, Marcus Landry – you can play for one minute and they’re fine. They’ll give you everything for one minute and be over there cheering. There are other guys who need roles and need them defined. Nate Robinson. Al (Harrington) Eddy (Curry), Will (Wilson Chandler). If you don’t have that bulk of minutes, you can’t just throw them out. There’s a disrespect there. You have to respect what they’ve done. I don’t have a role for those guys.”
Before I get too deep into this, let me first say that Mike D’Antoni has a better feel for his players than I ever could. Mike D’Antoni has been a part of the game for a long time and has interacted with a large number of players. The current Knicks are a part of his basketball family. Me…. well I have never been in an NBA locker room. I have never even chatted with a Knick player. The closest I have come to having a full blown conversation with an NBA player was back in college when I talked a lot with Ty Rice (playing in Greece) and with Jared Dudley once.
With that said, I have played basketball my entire life. In college, I practiced with the BC women’s hoops team and I was friends with some other athletes. The impression I always got from them was a strong hunger to play, regardless of the role. During practices and during games, I never saw a girl dog it because she was not receiving the playing time that she felt she earned.
So when I read that quote from D’Antoni, I have to pose the question, is it more of a slap in the face to a player like Nate Robinson to simply not play him or to play him in a very reduced role? How about Eddy Curry? Are those players worse off by playing sparingly, or not playing at all?
I remember during the Marbury saga last season, D’Antoni used the same logic in keeping the beleaguered guard strapped to the pine. Once D’Antoni needed Marbury to play and his number was called, #3 never responded. At that point, the disrespect already existed (***I am not trying to defend Marbury in the least. I am simply using him as an example***).
As far as I am concerned, a true athlete and a true competitor will play whenever his number is called, no matter the situation and no matter the disrespect or animosity that exists with a coach. A true competitor let’s his/her game do all of the talking, whether it is garbage time or crunch time. Like I said above, I do not know any of the Knicks players personally. Perhaps D’Antoni is right is dismissing his veteran players to the end of the bench. Perhaps he is right in thinking that it is better for them to not play than to play sparingly.
If you ask me, I do not think that is the case. For guys like Nate and Eddy, they cannot prove themselves without the opportunity to do so. Look at Larry Hughes. He was in the same position at the beginning of the season, but he was given the opportunity to prove his worth.
Do not get me wrong. I would like to see Toney Douglas get more time. I think that he can help this team win ball games. Also, I understand D’Antoni’s benching if he feels a certain player doesn’t fit. But if the reason to keep guys glued to the bench is to keep from disrespecting them, I am a bit confused.
Thoughts?
…well worth it…courtesy of Hot Clicks
The Knicks had a chance to win this game considering the Spurs were on the back end of a back-to-back road situation and it was a two possession game, pretty much, throughout. But the offense continued to sputter and the team lost his second consecutive home game.
Tony Parker is the best point guard in the NBA off the dribble. Period. He can’t really shoot past 15 feet, but he makes ridiculous shots and gives the ball a headache, so much so that he’s able to make tough shots around the basket at a small size with decent hops. In other words, his ability to get to the basket and finish in the half court is nothing less than astonishing. I talk a ton about Monta Ellis possibly being a Parker-type, but every time I watch Tony, I realize his skills are separate from any guard in the NBA.
He’s just flat smarter than the defender, but the word that best suits him is “crafty.”
Manu Ginobili, a free agent in July, made plays when it counted as well, as he’s done his entire career.
But the bottom line is that the Knicks aren’t scoring. The coach has slowed the pace down and games are competitive so, I guess, fans should be relatively happy.
Right?
The Knicks finished their 5-game home stand 3-2.
The Spurs have not been quite as good as I thought they would be this year, most likely because Richard Jefferson has not lived up to his bill. That said, I still consider the Spurs a contender out West.
Young players like George Hill and Dajuan Blair are helping this team win, but the fate of that franchise rests in the same place it has for the better part of this decade. That would be in the hands of their big three, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobli.
Just as an aside, I always thought that Eddy Curry would be a good fit on this Spurs team from an offensive standpoint. A deal between the two teams is unlikely as the Spurs do not have pieces to match up with Curry’s contract. Just a thought…
Enjoy the game. Let’s go Knicks!
As the Eddy Curry situation escalates, two people with solid knowledge of the situation have 
told me that there isn’t a single person within the locker room who actually minds that Curry isn’t on the court.
Let’s face it. Just like July 2010 hovers over the players not guaranteed for next year, Curry’s looming presence is an added distraction to a team that is trying to play with blinders on in its attempt to make the playoffs.
When Curry, who has played a total of 62 minutes in 7 games (the Knicks are 3-4), enters the game the ball movement stops. It seems the players understand that the organization is trying to show the league that Curry can still play, but in terms of successful basketball Curry doesn’t help all that much if he isn’t getting strong post position. In his last game against the Bulls, Curry took the Knicks completely out of their rhythm and the Knicks went on to lose the game. That is not to place all the blame on the big man for them settling for over 40 three pointers, it’s to say that whatever rhythm they had in the first half vanished.
There has been talk of a buyout with Curry for next year, which would be ideal as it would create more cap space for the summer. But Curry must have an opt-out in his contract and remember who did the deal. Isiah Thomas never seemed as if he was real strong in negotiations, but we will have to see if, in fact, the last year of his deal can be tweaked. In fairness, Curry’s financial woes have been very public and to think that he’s just going to do the Knicks a favor and walk away from $5.5 million dollars guaranteed is a long shot. If he gets “cut loose” and wants to continue his career elsewhere, he’ll most likely sign with a team for the league minimum ($1.2 million) prorated, with essentially a tryout for the rest of the year.
In essence, as fans, the hopes of ridding Curry’s contract rests on the confidence that Curry can make money and produce for another team.
Curry does deserve some praise for getting himself back in great basketball shape. He’s done it for his career and for his overall health. But from day 1 it was obvious that he’d be a square peg in this system, even one that has been changed to suit the need of the players on the roster. When you are used to pick and rolls and driving and kicking, it’s a major shift to turn into a dump-down post team, which is what they become when Curry enters the game. The result can be force feeding, and a lack of ball movement leading to open shots.
And from what I’m hearing, the players know it too.
Marc Berman wrote a piece this morning chronicling Eddy Curry‘s growing frustration sitting at the end of Coach D’Antoni’s bench. In
the article, Curry seems adamant about the fact that he is not going to opt out his contract for next season.
I feel bad for Curry, not necessarily because he worked so hard to get back onto the court (let’s face it, that is his job as an extremely well paid professional athlete), but more because he is clearly hungry to play. Since Curry has returned, he has not had much of a chance to prove himself to the coaches and to the fans. Citing a game where Curry threw the team out of sync, D’Antoni appears to have cleared a spot on the pine next to Nate Robinson and Darko Milicic.
When I saw Curry play in his limited minutes, I saw a guy that was ready to play again. He seems quicker and in pretty good shape. However, his style does not fit what the Knicks are trying to accomplish. At times, transitioning Curry into this rotation is like putting a square peg in a round hole. Curry is not going to change his game. He has made a career of being a strong low post scorer. He does not belong out near the three point line or running the high pick and roll. That is not his game, and it never will be.
As for Tracy McGrady, ESPN is reporting that the fallen Rockets star will not play in the next two games while the team tries to figure out how McGrady fits into the rotation (if at all).
We have talked about this a lot, and truthfully, there is not much to say. I am sure Walsh would love to shed Curry on the Rockets, but I am sure that the Rockets might be able to get a better player if they are willing to accept contracts that extend beyond the season. At this point, I almost wonder if the Rockets would consider buying out the remainder of McGrady’s contract if they do not have him in their plans.
The Knicks have the potential pieces to make a deal happen in my opinion. However, I do not see the point in dealing away Larry Hughes or Al Harrington considering how well each has played this season. A deal of Darko / Mobley / Nate for T Mac works accoridng to the ESPN trade machine, but I honestly do not know how trading Mobley’s contract would work under the NBA’s rules. If the Rockets plan to keep McGrady in the dark, then I can see how Darko and Nate would help them out. Time will tell, I guess.
