While I was watching the Oklahoma City Thunder battle the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 of their first-round series, there were several things that come to mind and really jumped out at me.

First, after watching Russell Westbrook over the past few weeks, and the time he came to the Garden against the Knicks and calmly just missed a triple-double by a single rebound (31 pts, 10 assists, nine rebounds), I think that he’s established himself in Derrick Rose‘s class in terms of guards on the cusp of superstardom.

Rose, the first overall pick from the 2008 class, really burst onto the scene last playoffs against the Celtics and worked hard on his jump shot this offseason. That work translated more in his mid-range game, not from behind the arc, where he managed just 26 percent (up from 22 percent last year), but Rose is clearly morphing into a very gifted scoring guard, a la Dwyane Wade.

Westbrook, on the other hand, has more tools in my opinion. He’s as gifted defensively as any guard in the league. He can distribute the basketball and score when needed. Just look at his NBA.com efficiency numbers, which can be calculated here.

During the first four games of the playoffs he’s managing a ridiculous +26.25 efficiency total compared to Rose’s +22.67. Now, I still think that Rose has more on his resume and has the slight edge, but Westbrook is gaining fast and a first-round upset over the Lake Show would inch him even closer.

Can the Thunder pull off an upset over a Lakers team that now needs to rely on an injured Kobe more than ever before? I still think the Lakers manage to pull through, but a long first-round series could hamper a title defense. And not just because it’s drawn out and players garner more minutes; to me, it’s more because a longer series exposes a team’s weakness. Ron Artest, in my opinion is the best two-way forward since Scottie Pippen, and he is having a hard time getting the right shots in the Lakers’ offense. He’s deferring right now and focusing on defense, not playing his typically aggressive offensive game. I don’t know if that’s by design from Phil Jackson, but if it is it’s terrible game-planning. The Lakers now more than ever need Artest to step up.

Sources have told me that Knicks general manager Donnie Walsh desperately tried to move up to get Westbrook two years ago and dangled David Lee in a deal to Memphis. Westbrook never fell to No. 5. So Walsh stayed put and selected Danilo Gallinari, who just completed a very impressive second season. I just have to wonder where the Knicks would be with Westbrook, a kid out of UCLA whom I rated over O.J. Mayo and Eric Gordon and behind Rose at the guard position. I think he would have been special enough to have led them to the playoffs this year.

But enough hypotheticals. More.

Winning in New York is certainly memorable, but losing can be too. One of my friends joked with me the other day that we’ve been watching the Knicks since they were horrible. “Remember, when they had Pat Cummings?”

Remember Pat Cummings?

Cummings wasn’t the smoothest of Knicks in his four years in New York, but he played hard and was, by all intents and purposes, a good NBA player. Still, Cummings represented the early Patrick Ewing years, which weren’t the most successful the franchise has ever seen. Those teams were pretty bad. Cummings was guilty by association.

Fans of Nate Robinson will be sure to defend the guard’s tenure under Mike D’Antoni by saying the Knicks coach has problems communicating. They can point to the Stephon Marbury situation last season and Larry Hughes this year as evidence that he’s a coach who gives players a raw deal. Robinson was in the coach’s doghouse during a stretch that saw the Knicks play their best basketball in years in December, but fans still clamored for Nate to get in the game.

They paid for tickets to see the little guy light up the court and have the opportunity to do so Tuesday as the Celtics are in town.

Robinson is a polarizing player. His stature should mean that he has no business on an NBA floor, let alone winning dunk contests and going off on huge offensive nights.

By all admission on the surface, Robinson was a good soldier here. He kept his mouth shut during the benching and came back to explode on the Hawks down in Atlanta. The guy just wants to play … a lot. Unfortunately, he’s not getting the opportunity to showcase his talents in Boston. His minutes are spotty and he’s not a favorite of Doc Rivers, it appears, in big games. With the Celtics in a critical game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, Nate didn’t play. In fact, Rivers set his playoff rotation and Nate is not in it.

What does that tell you? more.

The huge rift between the Rockets and McGrady, I’m told by a source, began last year at the trade deadline. The Rockets had a deal in place to send McGrady to New Jersey for Vince Carter and other pieces, similar to the Nets-Magic deal on draft night. When McGrady’s agent Arn Tellem informed his client he was about to be on the move, McGrady abruptly ended his season by saying he needed micro-fracture surgery on his ailing knee.

Unfortunately, McGrady didn’t tell the Rockets until after his decision was made.

“My knee hasn’t been right all year, and we can’t seem to get the pain to go away,” McGrady wrote on his Web site Feb. 18th, one day before the trade deadline.

“We’ve tried just playing through it, taking back-to-backs off, and extended periods of rest, but none of it has really been effective in limiting the discomfort and allowing me to just go out there and play.”

The Rockets’ reaction?

“I found out like everybody else did,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman told the Houston Chronicle. “I think there should be a protocol there. There should be a procedure where we have a chance to sit down and talk about a situation and not (have it) announced in the press. I don’t know why that happened, why he did that. It certainly is not the way it should be handled.”

And the friction has led up until this year.

“The Rockets are still mad. They had sent the trade to the league,” another source told me. “They were ready to ship him out and McGrady killed it.” Read more…

One of the sources told me the Rockets were in heated discussions with the Kings as well…McGrady wasn’t having any part of a deal.

I also read the report about the Rockets demands of Jordan Hill or Toney Douglas.  I would have to believe that if a rookie were involved, Jared Jeffries would go as well. Maybe a third team will have to be involved.

As the discussion surrounding where Tracy McGrady will ultimately land, what’s clear is that the Knicks seem to be the most logical destination. Last year, with the Knicks in a groove, Donnie Walsh made the necessary decision to trade both Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford, two contracts who exceeded July 1, 2010. The results on the court were horrid, and the team lost any momentum from November on.

Now as we head into the New Year, what will Walsh do? Yahoo is reporting that the Rockets are considering taking back salary, and the Knicks would love to include Jared Jeffries. But in order for the contracts to fit, it seems the Knicks would also have to include Larry Hughes in the deal as well.

“McGrady is making a league-high $23 million in the final year of his contract, and won’t be easy to trade given his large salary and how little teams have seen him play this season,” wrote Adrian Wojnarowski.

“Rival teams say the Rockets are willing to take back long-term money for the right trade with McGrady, but no deal appears imminent. Talks could pick up closer to the trade deadline in February when cost-cutting franchises may be more attracted to McGrady’s expiring contract.”

The Rockets should listen hard to the deal based on the fact that at $73.5 million the team is roughly $3.5 million dollars over the luxury tax threshold estimated at $69.9 million. Hughes and Jeffries make a combined $20.1 million versus McGrady’s remaining $22.8, and that near 3 million can make it easier to avoid the luxury tax. Should the Rockets demand, say, Jordan Hill, it doesn’t help that number, but it does bring back more talent. In turn, do the Knicks ask for Kyle Lowry should they part ways with Hill?

Sure, the Rockets are flooded with forwards, but Carl Landry, Brian Cook, Chuck Hayes and Luis Scola are in the last years of their contracts and adding Jeffries gives them another option up front for next year, needless to say Jeffries adds depth at the center position. more.

When looking at the Knicks, there are two things that stand out as reasons the team has struggled with consistency. First and foremost, Mike D’Antoni’s offense is predicated on space and open shots. If you create space, you get open shots. You have to make them.

Other than Danilo Gallinari, the Knicks don’t have consistent perimeter shooters. Career numbers always tell the truth, and here are the career 3-point percentages of the Knicks perimeter players currently in the rotation:

Larry Hughes – 31 percent
Al Harrington – 36
Wilson Chandler – 32
Chris Duhon – 36

Even if left wide open in good rhythm, the odds are that it’s a low percentage shot for whichever Knick is taking it. Now, that’s not to say that this system can’t produce great things. It can. Because if players continue to get good looks, those percentages should rise. But other than Larry Hughes, none of these players is shooting at a higher clip.

To me, it’s the reason why Grant Hill was attractive over the summer. Despite a putrid career 3-point shooting percentage, Hill had a breakout year last season from behind the arc while playing with Steve Nash. In addition, Hill is a near 50-percent career shooter from the field. Sure, Knicks brass wanted fans to believe that the interest in Hill had more to do with “locker-room” qualities, but Hill has been revitalized with space. He could have been a real help in New York if he didn’t have to ultimately choose between Duhon and Nash.

But over the past few weeks, the players seemed to be in sync and the ball was moving around well. Why? Because you have to get the defense to “react.” (more…)

Here’s what I know about Mike D’Antoni’s offense: In 2007, when the Suns were essentially robbed of advancing past the second round of the playoffs, they were at their collective best, offensively, with Shawn Marion at the power forward position.But Marion struggled to guard the opposing team’s four, causing for the Suns to really have to open up the game and not make it a halfcourt battle, something that the playoffs naturally become.

People like to reference the amazing play of Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire, but Marion may have been the team’s most important player. Second to him may have been Boris Diaw, whom the Suns acquired from Atlanta along with draft picks for the disgruntled Joe Johnson.

Diaw allowed Marion to move off guarding the four position, and focus more on spotting and perimeter defense, where his length was more effective in getting out in transition on tips and steals.

I mention this as background because the Knicks have not had a power forward that could effectively guard the four-spot and shoot from the perimeter since Zach Randolph. Again, in this offense, the power forward must have range to extend from the perimeter, thus moving his man away from the basket and giving the lane to a driving player who can get to the basket or kick to the perimeter.

Many people would often wonder why Randolph resigned to shooting so many 3′s. In his 80 games with the Knicks — his first 69 being with Isiah Thomas — Randolph hoisted up 104 3-point attempts. Under D’Antoni, which saw the Knicks winning early, Randolph was on pace to shoot 160.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is no chance on earth I’d take Randolph back, and Donnie Walsh’s ability to shed Randolph’s contract is the reason LeBron James‘ name can be in discussions. To me, though, the loss of Randolph exposes the idea that David Lee is not the four that D’Antoni is looking for either. It was a question that I posed several weeks at practice in terms of the coach pairing Lee at the four and Darko Milicic at the five. His response?

“No.” More.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — With Eddy Curry missing in action from the Knicks’ lineup until he gets himself in shape (again), one guy who could stand to benefit is Darko Milicic.The 7-foot Milicic, obtained in a draft-day trade with Memphis for Quentin Richardson, is practicing with the first unit and could see additional minutes as David Lee‘s backup at center.

“I think [he] and Eddy were competing for playing time a little bit here,” Lee said. “If Eddy’s not playing right now, I think Darko’s going to get his shot. Hopefully he’ll make the most of it, but we are also waiting for Eddy to come back as well.”

The 7-foot, 317-pound Curry was forced to leave training camp on the first day last week with a torn right calf muscle. Knicks President Donnie Walsh said Tuesday that Curry would be held out of action until he proves he can run up and down the floor. He could potentially miss the season opener Oct. 28 in Miami.

That, in turn, opens the door wide open for Milicic, the No. 2 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft behind LeBron James.

“Oh yeah, he’ll play a lot. We expect a lot of him,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said on Wednesday. “He’s 7-feet long. He blocks shots. He really knows how to play. He’s a real smart basketball player. He is better defensively one-on-one than I thought. Mostly we expect him to keep getting better and better and getting more comfortable. He could add a lot.”

When he was just an 18-year-old out of Serbia, Milicic was drafted behind James but ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.

He has never quite lived up to the hype and is now seeking to resurrect his career at Madison Square Garden.

“I didn’t ask nobody to be the second pick,” Milicic, 24, told reporters last week at training camp in Saratoga Springs. “I didn’t ask nobody.”

Milicic spent two-plus seasons in Detroit where he was relegated to the bench on a team that reached back-to-back NBA Finals. He played in 71 games his first two seasons but never averaged more than 1.8 points a game. More.

For more from Zags, head to Zagsblog.

While some Knicks fans wished for the team to make offseason moves, the end result is a summer of relative silence. Whether one thinks that adding Ramon Sessions and dipping into the 2010 piggy bank was a move that Donnie Walsh should have made, it is a rather moot point.

The fact that Walsh didn’t pull the trigger to try to sign the restricted free-agent point guard seemingly had more to do with economics more so than how the organization felt about the 23-year-old floor general’s on-court ability. A source close to the situation told me that Mike D’Antoni seemed “gung ho” about the idea during the summer, but in the end Walsh was determined not to cut into the 2010 budget, especially after a July memo from the NBA hit the wires noting that the salary cap could come down even further next summer.

There are sentiments from fans who believe it is imperative that the team makes the playoffs if it has any chance to lure a big-time free agent over the summer. I agree and also feel that it’s important to keep the Utah Jazz, owners of the Knicks’ 2010 first-round draft pick, out of the lottery and a playoff berth would obviously assure that. Plus, it would give the young players on the roster valuable experience and showcase for the first time in a while just how loud the Garden can be during important games in the spring. More.

I remember heading to Shea on a summer day in 1983 with my dad and my brother, and watched as Mike Torrez gave up hit after hit, run after run. The poor guy didn’t get out of the 4th inning and left the field to a chorus of boos. Yep, another young, impressionable Met fan set to embark on lifetime journey of frustration and pain was born that day in Upper Level 25.On Saturday Oct 25,1986, while a young man in possession of every Met baseball card from the ’86 team, every piece of Mookie Wilson flair and the number 16 proudly displayed on my back every time I took the mound in little league, my family got a phone call that we had tickets to Game 6 of the World Series.

Now I had been allowed to stay up late to watch the first five games of the series: the Teufel error, the Gooden shellacking and the heroic performances by Bob Ojeda and Ron Darling on the brink in Beantown. So, when we came to Shea trailing 3-2 there was a confidence in the air that we could bring the whole thing home.

And we all know how that turned out, and I turned out a Met fan for life.

With all that said, I can’t help but wonder the impact that CC Sabathia winning a World Series in New York with the crosstown Yankees would have on his close friend and impending free agent, Lebron James. James, as we know, will leave his free agent options open come next summer with the Knicks poised to make a run. Yes, it’s tricky to think outside the box with the Knicks toiling in relative obscurity, but I keep thinking that Lebron, who we all know displayed his own Yankee pride in the 2007 playoffs with Sabathia still pitching for the Tribe, would get a full feel of what winning is like in New York if his boy were to help the Yanks to a Series. Imagine if CC pitches masterfully and wins 3 or 4 games during the playoffs? He’d immediately join the ranks of Yankee heroes- that long, long list of them.

I just can’t stop thinking about Lebron living vicariously through his boy CC and seeing what the future may hold for great players who win here. I know that the current Knicks’ roster is bad, but that won’t be for much longer. Too many media types are focused on the fact that the Knicks need to add another max player in order to attract Lebron. That’s overblown. Maybe winning here is enough and maybe that won’t take as long as people think.

By next year after what should be nice years from Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, people may realize that there is some good, young talent here. More.

Thanks to the economy, this is easily the strangest NBA offseason I’ve ever witnessed. As far as the Knicks are concerned, the obvious plan is to improve for this season without compromising the ultimate goal of 2010.It seems that the organization is intent on improving and what’s on top of Mike D’Antoni’s wish list. Judging by the interest in Jason Kidd, Andre Miller and Steve Nash from afar, those desires include an upgrade at point guard to share time with Chris Duhon. The Knicks’ actions also have made clear that D’Antoni doesn’t want the ball in the hands of Nate Robinson to make decisions during possessions.

Robinson, as well as David Lee, are hanging out in no-man’s land trying to figure out what their next career step will be. As restricted free agents, both have said the right things about wanting to be Knicks. But it’s hard to envision them being comfortable with the organization, especially when their futures in New York are as clear as driving in a blizzard.

And it has to frustrate them. Yes, they are well-paid and they play basketball for a living, so it’s hard to feel too bad. But all the hard work they put in last offseason was to put themselves in position for a big chunk of the pot of gold that is free agency, which has all but disappeared thanks to a rotten economy. You have to imagine that it’s affecting their focus in becoming better basketball players both physically and mentally. It has to be like studying for the bar exam and coming a few points short because the bar made the test harder to filter the number of new practicing lawyers.

That said, they are professionals. You’d like to think that, if both came back on one-year contracts, they would play hard. But where do you draw the line in saying what’s best for the team and what’s best for oneself? Both have reportedly said to confidants that they feel disrespected by the events of the summer thus far. So in all seriousness, have the Knicks reached the point of no return with them? More.

Give Mark Bartlestein credit, the guy knows what being an agent is all about. Rumors have swirled that the agent for David Lee has been campaigning to try and get his client top dollar. In essence, that’s his job.

At the same time, what you have to love about Knicks president Donnie Walsh is his patience, and the gamesmanship between the two has been something to watch over the past year. Walsh’s experience, it would seem, has given the Knicks great positioning.

Walsh knew that his focus when he took the job in New York was going to be clearing cap space so the team could be players in the 2010 free agent market. He also knew that he had some talent here, particularly in Lee and guard Nate Robinson, and his job was to evaluate them moving forward. Without question, their play — along with their free agent positioning — would have an impact on the Knicks.

But let’s stick with Lee. They guy is a workhorse who brings the energy that you need to make it in this league. He’s got all the tools to be a real player in this league year in and year out.

Almost.

Lee is the type of player fans can grasp on to, as in someone who you know will give you an effort even if the team loses by a ton. It’s that effort that sometimes disguises his weaknesses and often gets ignored by fans who are fascinated by stats and double-doubles.

Lee is a solid player on a championship team. His agent is kidding himself if he thinks he’s a player who puts teams over the top for a championship. Is Lee the missing piece in Cleveland or Orlando? Is he the guy that gets Denver over the rocky mountain? The answer, it would seem, would be no.

In this economy and this market, the fact that no team has reportedly given Lee an offer he can’t refuse tells you all you need to know. Granted, Lee has said all along that he wants to be here and I don’t think, in the end, that he’d be upset if he comes back here for far less than what his agent is asking for.

Advantage Walsh.more.

Poor free-agent signings, bad draft picks, awful trades for brutal contracts. Sure, there are plenty reasons the Knicks have missed the playoffs in almost every year this decade. Having to watch the playoffs sans the Knicks really stings, and for a Knicks fan who still need a hoops fix, nothing should bother you more than having to watch Phil Jackson cruise towards an NBA record 10 championships.Jackson was a Knick and always seemed interested in some day coming back to the Garden when he was done in Chicago. Phil famously flirted with the Knicks in 1999 before the Knicks made a historic run to the NBA Finals. Isiah Thomas even called Jackson back in 2005, but they — and you may find this hard to believe since Isiah was involved — never seemed to reach the stage of seriousness.

As a famous Knick once told me on the golf course one day, Jackson is no dummy. His legacy is often wrapped around Tex Winter’s triangle offense, much like Mike Ditka’s Super Bowl defense is descended from Buddy Ryan’s innovated 46 approach. And as we know, especially his doubters, Jackson has had supreme talent throughout his career. Even his supporters will admit that he’s not really an X’s and O’s guy as much as he is a kindred spirit that gets the most out of the best. Heck, anyone remember when Michael Jordan was shown drawing up a last-minute play during the NBA Finals?

But this is not to knock Jackson; he’s a great coach. This is an attempt to give credit to former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who went toe-to-toe with the then-Bulls coach both on and off the court. Both men have a sense of humor and an even greater sense of how to needle people (see Van Gundy’s calling Jordan a “con artist”. Their constant bickering was a big part of the Knicks-Bulls rivalries from 1995-1997. I remember listening to the comments from both coaches where Van Gundy would constantly refer to Jackson as “Big Chief Triangle” and Jackson, in obvious disdain, couldn’t seem to manage to get Jeff’s name right, instead referring to him as “Gundy.”

Wisecracks or not, every time the Knicks and Bulls got together, to me, it was always a battle of the extremely prepared, well-coached Knicks versus supreme talent and execution, which, more often than not in all sports, seems to win out.

Granted, the Knicks lost to the Bulls in five games with a depleted team in 1995-96, but I still maintain that the next year’s edition would have beaten the Bulls had it not been for what I call the “flip and nitpick” in Miami where the P.J. Brown/Charlie Ward incident led to an NBA overreaction. To this day, I still wish I could do anything to see that Knicks-Bulls series. Anything. more.

Brandon Hoffman of realgm.com shares relatively similar sentiments as yours truly when it comes to Lebron James’ supporting cast.

“…Two years ago, I was fairly certain that James would sign with the Knicks or Nets in 2010. Now I’d say there’s a 70% chance he stays in Cleveland. But there’s one thing that everyone seems to overlook when trying to predict James’ future. Yes, the Cavs have surrounded James with a championship-caliber supporting cast, and the Knicks and Nets are still toiling away in mediocrity. But the Cavs aren’t built for the future. They’re built for this season and next. Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are running on fumes. Neither player will have much left in the tank beyond this season, which means Cleveland will have to replace two of their top three frontcourt players in order to remain in title contention. Minus James, and without Wallace and Ilgauskas, do the Cavs really possess more talent than the Knicks or Nets? Don’t underestimate Wallace and Ilgauskas’ importance to the Cavaliers. Wallace is a terrific team defender, while Ilgauskas may be Cleveland’s best mid-range jump shooter.

It’s not as if James will be faced with the option of walking away from a young, talent rich team like the Lakers or Blazers. Are Mo Williams and Delonte West enough to keep James in Cleveland? (Williams and West will be free agents in 2011.) Or will the Cavs have to sign someone like Chris Bosh? If there’s one thing the Knicks or any other team hoping to sign James must possess, it’s a strong commitment to defense. LeBron has continually praised his team’s effort on that end of the floor this season. He’s also been quick to credit Coach Mike Brown for establishing a defensive-minded culture…”

Now I think chemistry has a lot to do with it and it’s a funny thing. Sometimes I don’t think there’s anything as overrated as adult, professional players being asked to come together for a common goal. Other times I believe that players who are very tight together can overcome any obstacle. In the end, I think it comes down to trust and execution and that’s occurred plenty of times where players didn’t speak to each other.

I mean, Kobe and Shaq couldn’t share the same locker room even when they were destroying teams.

That said, without Lebron, this Cavs team is barely a playoff team in the east. With him, they have the best on-court cohesion I think I’ve ever seen.

You can’t underrate that, nor can you place a time table on when it disappears.

The more Andrew Bynum struggles to find consistent minutes for the Lakers, the greater the chance the Cleveland Cavaliers have of winning the NBA championship in June.And if that happens, Knicks fans should feel really good about the chances of LeBron James landing in New York.

All year long I truly believed that, if Bynum could give the Lakers the inside presence they lacked against the Celtics last year, they would win it all. But even after the Lakers dismissed the Jazz in five games, Bynum has been limited to just 15 minutes per game and seems out of sorts. Big men always take longer to get back in the swing of things, so I’m not sure if Phil Jackson can bring Bynum along at a snail’s pace and hope that he contributes in a few weeks should the Lakers get to the Finals.

Advantage: Cavs. More.