Knicks 128 Mavs 94

I still can’t believe that it happened lol

I have watched Tony Douglas all year and he is playing better but even as he was still learning I believe he was a better player than Duhon. His defense was always there and it seems like the coach does not reward defensive players with any PT. People say that Douglas looked hesitant when he played in a few games. I agree, like any rookie should be but the more PT a rookie gets the more he learns and he becomes comfortable and confident. I watched every game this year and it is always the same problem. D’Antoni attempts to out score teams instead of playing some hard nosed defense. It is a known fact around the league that defense is your best offense. D’Antoni never got the memo. Douglas has 26 DNP’s and 13 games when he played less than 10 minutes. HE WAS NEVER GIVEN A CHANCE. Players like Hughes and Douglas may have struggled on the offensive end but they will play hard defense. With David Lee as your last line of defense you need the best perimeter players that you have on the floor to prevent penetration into the paint. D’Antoni insisted on going with Duhon who gave you no offense and absolutely no defensive effort. Duhon and Lee on the floor is a horrible defensive line up. Douglas always played hard defense and the more experience he has with the PGs like Rose, Rondo, Stuckey, Felton and so on, the more he will know there habits and playing style. Douglas we know will be here next year. This was only one game but if he would have had some playing time early in the season He would have been better much sooner.

As I watched last nights game I noticed that the seven second or less offense was no where in sight. I watched them attack the basket and go inside to the post. This offense will not leave our poor defense vulnerable to fast breaks. The seven second chuck system should have been removed from the offense months ago.

remember the coach had to ensure that “his guys” had the chance to earn a contract for next year..

While the fans got to watch the wheels come off another season..

Thanks Coach.

“As I watched last nights game I noticed that the seven second or less offense was no where in sight. I watched them attack the basket and go inside to the post. This offense will not leave our poor defense vulnerable to fast breaks.”

The SSOL is designed to push the pace and get good shots before the defense is set. It’s as simple as that. The Suns weren’t a team of chuckers — they were a very efficient team. That SSOL system averaged 58 wins over 4 years — it’s proven to work.

That SSOL system averaged 58 wins over 4 years — it’s proven to work with Steve Nash running the show.

there.. fixed… must have gotten cut off.

Well I was replying to the notion that we have to scrap the system since it leaves us vulnerable to fast breaks. That’s laughable. It’s worked before — no reason why it can’t work again.

About the Nash comment. Yea that’s the automated response but how has Nash done since Dantoni left. Missed the playoffs last year and the 7th seed this year. I don’t think that’s a coincidence…do you?

I’m pretty sure that Nash made his first big coaching strives as a coach during that period

Lebris, you can’t be that slow. I already see that Biggie got at you so i won’t be harsh. Show me where the SSOL system worked without STEVE NASH and then you have a point. When Nash was hurt during the season the team struggled and thats why Nash won MVP that year. You can be fooled if you want but it is clear to me that STEVE NASH is and was the player/coach of that team.

Wow, what a great win,
reminded me of the Knicks-Nets game where the Nets killed the Knicks
and everyone said “gee, why don’t they play like that every night?” about the Nets.

Well last night we watched, scratched our heads and asked
“why don’t the Knicks play like that every night?” or at least more often

I think it was a combo of the Mavs not being up for the game, thinking the Knicks would be easy , like last time and the Knicks just being ON!

Tony Douglas and Bill Walker were sparks for sure.
Good team effort, now if only they could have put on that show in Cleveland..grrr

you think shooting 16-30 from 3 had anything to do with it?

look ing at the numbers Nash was 15 pts 9 assists his last year in Dallas and was about 18.5 and 11 in PHX.

“D’antoni became my first mentor”
– Steve Nash, when accepting his first coaching job

Comment by Lebris Jamosh aka ridiculous upside
About the Nash comment. Yea that’s the automated response but how has Nash done since Dantoni left. Missed the playoffs last year and the 7th seed this year. I don’t think that’s a coincidence…do you?

I got a couple of words for you… Kevin Durant. The teams on the west that were horrible in the past are getting better. The suns are not surprising anybody anymore. Teams have adjusted and Steve Nash is getting older at 36. Also seeds 4-8 are separated by 1 or 2 games. If the suns win 2 games in a row they can move from the 7th seed to 4th seed. If they win 4 in a row they can easily be the 3rd seed. You make little sense.

I’m really hoping TD turn out to be a good PG. He has good size, plays good D and can shoot.. and, mainly, he’s already here and is relatively cheap.

I was glad to see his 20 pts, but especially happy with the 8 asts.

Chris Paul and the NoLa flash in the pan too.

I’d like to see TDoug go left a few times.

i suspect he has snuck up on a few teams.. He has potential but lets nor make Tney Douglas and Bill Walker out to be the next great back court…Or a satisfactory solution for two starting spots in 2010.

Good to know every once in a while Walker could hit that outside shot. If it was something more consistent it’d be definitely something to consider for next season.
For the mere energy he’s shown I see him as a niece cheap alternative off the bench

To say they’re starting it’s a bit too hasty, but if they give me more consistent performances it can demonstrate that they’re more than valid options off the bench. I hope TD keeps developing, to see that kind of intensity on D isn’t something you see everyday on this team.

I agree.

And I do remember everyone pleading for Rodriguez to be our #1, only to be pissed off at him a couple of games later.

Just saying I wish he turns out to be good, not saying he will.

Comment by Lebris Jamosh aka ridiculous upside
Well I was replying to the notion that we have to scrap the system since it leaves us vulnerable to fast breaks. That’s laughable. It’s worked before — no reason why it can’t work again.

The SSOL has worked for Steve Nash and during the regular season only. In the playoffs it did NOT work. The system for the Suns would blow an average team out and at the same time it always gave the same average team a chance to get back in the game. If you take the same system without Steve Nash you break records like a 50 point lost at MSG. The worst lost in franchise history. ARE YOU BLIND? How many times this year that you have seen Al chucketts shoot the ball behind the arc early in the shot clock leaving the offense not knowing the shot is coming and unprepared to get back on defense resulting in a FAST BREAK and a easy buckets. Now think back and you will remember that the whole team became Al Chucketts from Duhon to Chandler and Gallo.

Now read the next sentence very carefully. The shots the KNICKS were coached into taking early in the shot clock are the same shots that the opposing coach would want to force them to take. HELLLLOOOOOO! D’Antoni already coached the team to a lost before the team even stepped on the court. How many times have you heard the announcers say that was a bad shot?

TD is so Vinnie Johnson. Heating it up!

I’m really learning to love this kid’s game. He still has a lot to learn, but he’s a winner. That’s something you can’t always teach. And that’s why his ceiling as a basketball player is so much higher than Nate’s.

Come on Freddy… No shots but let’s not annout TD the next great PG yet..

Nice player.. Good contract.. Will be a piece

but A winner? what has he won?? Exactly? Besides a road game when we shot 16/30 from three

I’m probably way late with this response. But the west has been stacked for a decade. Yes OKC is good but there are also other teams that have fallen off. Sacramento, Houston, San Antonio were really good when Dantoni was there.

Blaming the competition is a lame excuse. The Suns aren’t even close to the level they played from 05-07. They won 46 games last year and on pace for 49 this year. The fact that they’re separated by couple games means nothing. They’re not a 60 win championship contender since the coach left. There is no arguing that.

When you say, ‘Nash coached that team’, might also want to mention that Phoenix is a middling playoff team now. I mean it is blatantly obvious — the elephant in the arguement that everyone avoids ’cause that goes against their talking points.

Well I did predict a slaughter, just no in our favor. What a refreshing game.

Douglas and Walker will be nice young bench players to surround our summer FA moves. They might end up being serious options if the past few games aren’t a mirage. But damn I wish we had Nash or Kidd to mentor Douglas. He’s got the motor, the defense, the ability to get to the rim and the outside shot has been falling lately, now he just needs to apply that PG mentality he displayed last night (and in summer league too) consistently. Keeping my fingers crossed.

When the suns won 61 they weren’t the best team on the west.. Dallas won 67 and the warriorsgit in the playoffs with 42 wins

08-09 (the year d’antoni left) wasthe year it took 49 wins to get in. The westplayoff convo

The year the won 62 was the year the lakers won 34 and re celtics werethe third best team in theeast with 45 wins

Agree .. Hopefully TD learn to use the left hand and attack the left side ofthe basket..he goes right 100%

Teams will figure that out in short order

I’m not sure what this all means though. Blaming the competition seems like a convenient excuse. I presented the facts — saying the west teams were better is debatable and a rather dubious arguement. It’s just throwing out these wishy-washy statements and hoping they stick. As Parcells used to say: You are what your record says you are.

If you watch the Suns now, it’s pretty obvious they don’t play at the same level. Teams used to be afraid of playing the suns. They just don’t have the same pace and transition game. Nobody even talks about the suns anymore — they’re just another team.

Yes, good observation, I noticed that too. He relies on his speed a bit too much, he needs to get creative with it.

The SSOL didn’t work in the playoffs? This is another one of the tv talking heads wishy-washy arguements. They got to 2 conference finals — that is the facts.

And saying Dantoni wasn’t successful without Nash. Well duh!! No coach is successful without the players. You could say the same about Phil Jackson or Pat Riley.

How many times do they take bad shots? Pretty often but Buckets and House have been chuckers their entire career. Look at his Suns team — they were a highly efficient team. I wouldn’t get too caught up analyzing this team of misfits. None of these scrubs are going to be here.

Im not blaming the competition but recognizing it

the east was horrid and easy 2 beat up on..

Plus the coach never won anything

I agree with many of the opinions here, but why is everyone talking about somebody coming in to mentor Douglass or we shouldn’t anoint him? I just don’t get it. Yes, he is a rookie and yes this only his first game where he started, but it seems like people are just making excuses or just over analyzing things.

You would think this guy is a eighteen year old guard who just moved to the states, can’t speak a lick of english and made turnovers every time he touched the rock. He is not eighteen, he is a defensive player of the year in the ACC and helped the noles defeat duke and the last time I checked his turnover ls lower than all those who played pg for the knicks this year. No one is anointing him, it’s just that there’s people trying to make so many excuses for him that when someone here says he should be looked at as starter in the future it looks as though we are annointing him. From Summer league, to preseason to now the kid has never wavered. Tentative? wouldn’t you be tentative if you sat out fifteen games for no reason? C’mon, the guy scored 20, 21, 14 in three straight games. He did that beside Lee, Chandler or Walker? And that was before came to the knicks.

It’s just excuses. “I don’t blame DA for playing Duhon more than Doulgas”? Why? If it was a 20 game season I would understand, but there are a hundred plus games, letting Doug start after he scored in double figures in three straight games would have hurt? C’mon. All i’ve seen from douglas is a dude who works extremely hard and never played scared, always keeping his dribble and can light up the rim, but instead you barrea and CJ Watson?

Let’s not make it sound like Douglas should be treated with kid gloves. Like for instance Douglas ahelped bring the knicks back against the Grizzys. Now with the lead at ten, he drives and tries a J williams fake pass and misses the layup. All of sudden now Lee and DA is getting upset and . mother#&^#$@ if wasn’t for him that game wouldn’t have been cut down to ten, they would have blown out by forty. And what about Gallo getting mad at Douglass when it was HIM who made the bad pass. He needs to look where he is passing. People saying oh, toney didn’t do much because from Harrington, to Lee, to Hughes, the dude never had the opportunity to bring up the ball…all could do is stand in the corner or set a pick or something and get subed out. You want to talk about Gallo not getting a fair shake NO, Douglas is one hasn’t gotten the fair shake. Gallo has the opportunity to command the ball, but toney did not.

First it was toney can’t score he did when he got the opportunity, then it was “he can’t dribble”, c’mon be serious. Then “he can’t run this team” and he did against the hottest team ins the west with Butler, marion, Kiid, Dirk, Haywood. Think about that. It’s not that everyone is making him be great, but when a guy is as cool, hardworking and unwavered as Douglas you have to feel confident for him. He has proved it. Yeah, he will go through stretches, I mean look at the rest of knicks, but if continues with the same hardwork and perserverance as he did all year, I rather have that in the future with the 2010, 11 FA ganet class than anyone else. Stopping treating him like he’s a pet gerbil. The guy is 23 years old. Calm down.

we could have shot 9/30 from three and still would have won easily

EAsily?? Doubt it

how about 6 of 30?

we still win by 4

Any ball player will get better with minutes played. It’s call confidence building. Sitting and learning from the bench is not the same when it comes to playing. So stop drooling at other point guards who had time to play significant minutes to be at the top of their games.

TD will continue to get better with playing time and with that time he will build confidence to be a major factor in the Knicks future. I played point and shooting guard for my entire life, so I know what it takes to be at the top of your game. I had that NY street game that had to be molded according to the system that I was in. I was a shooting guard in a point guard’s body and I hated to play the point because I had to run the offense and learn where everybody had to be and get them to perform in a team concept. What’s difficult when you have play with players with small basketball IQ. When I played shooting guard, I didn’t have the responsibility for the other 4 players on the court, BUT SHOOT! Love it!

So, small shooting guards have to learn to play point first and accept getting knuckleheads to play together in a team concept. Street ball and organize ball are totally different systems. I have confident that TD will continue to get better with more playing time. So if you guys want to continue to think TD is not ready to be the starting point don’t know BALL! TD has shown flashes that he can be a great point guard, and the defense is there, so it is time to start giving him significant minutes to DEVELOP YOUR OWN POINT GUARD for the FUTURE! Homegrown your own!