Give him a call at 646-478-5554 and listen in at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theknicksblog/2012/02/10/anthony-donahue-talking-new-york-knicks-and-nba

9PM ET

Tough to focus too much on the horrid decision to pass and the air ball, especially when Jerome Jordan is the screener, but what you notice most is a quick trigger before reading  the screen and obviously the inability to get in the paint.

Defenders are allowing him to shoot and as long as they give him that room, he doesn’t have the ability to improve on the pick and roll.

That said, I still believe Douglas will recover his jumper and his confidence will return. I expect him to be a big part of the team over the next few months, but if he’s not in the plans moving forward you have to look to try and score a draft pick even it it’s in the second round of this draft.

Between the Knicks early season struggles and Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony both sidelined, ticket prices for Friday’s game vs. the Lakers took a major hit. The average price for the game fell from $544 in mid-January down to $400 on Tuesday, a drop of over 25%.

That all changed when Jeremy Lin burst onto the scene and Linsanity took over The Garden this week. After three great games by the Harvard grad–and three straight Knicks wins–prices have begun to climb, rising 27% since Tuesday from $407 to $517 (as of 2:45 PM today).

If you’d like to be there on Friday and take part in the next chapter of Linsanity, click here. And for the cheapest ticket available, a $135 seat in sec 417, click here.

Lin is actually shooting 54% from midrange.

about 13 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@KnicksFanBlog

Dan L

Lin has made 6 shots outside of 10 feet in the last 3 games. His form isn’t perfect, but I think he’ll improve his distance shooting when the game slows down for him. He’s admitted he’s had to slow his own game down, but he’s still getting used to NBA pace. It’s a different speed.

Seriously.

The Jeremy Lin story is an amazing one. There’s a reason he’s had success in summer league and in this system and that is space on the offensive end. Think about it, he’s shooting .091 (1-11) from behind the arc this year yet still has the ability to create at will. Teams will adjust to that but getting under screens and thus nullifying pick and roll situations. Once this happens the ball has to move with no defensive reaction or dribble drive reaction and that leaves a shot clock running down in the hands of either Melo or Stat.

We’ve talked about what this team can be in terms of what we’ve seen around the league. Are they the Hornets during the CP3/Chandler Era? The Mavericks of last year? Or the old Suns. Right now with Lin at the PG they are typical old-school D’Antoni ball, but that has to change to fit the stars.

Unless Lin can prove he can knock down jump shots the Knicks will need the balance of D’Antoni’s continuity offense with isolation sets. The Celtics do it with Rondo, who can’t shoot either, Garnett, Allen and Pierce as they let Rondo read the possession then as as clock runs down they get others touches late. They also run plays for Allen, a type of player that they don’t have, but Fields can create mismatches at the 2. Amar’e has to continue to develop KG’s 18-foot jump shooting ability along with his natural pick and roll game.

But, before we get to the future we should enjoy the present and all fans are. Seems like the whole basketball world is. That said, we have to talk about how Melo and Amar’e will fit together, which is still the biggest question mark, Lin or not.

Jared Jeffries has done an outstanding job, not decent, not good, OUTSTANDING job as the pick and roll big along side Tyson Chandler. We know that Amar’e will be injected into that position. Can he be the dive pick and roll player? Yes, because we’ve seen it for years, but he also has to stretch the defense to the mid range a la KG. More simply put, Amar’e can and has to be KG from 4 years ago which is a tall ask, but if can be a poor man’s version offensively then that’s fine too. He can be a big, jump shot end of shot clock making big man as the defense tightens in bigger games in addition to being the explosive catch and finish man off of rolls.

So it would seem that Amar’e will be a fit, which leaves us with Melo, who has to assume the Paul Pierce roll in all of this. Pierce knows when his touches are coming and he learned this very quickly with Rondo in Rondo’s rookie year. Credit Rondo for this, but also Pierce as well. Pierce has learned to CLOSE possessions not DOMINATE them. That’s a Hall of Fame and champion quality.

That takes selflessness.

There was a time where Pierce was selfish and the Celtics were terrible. That has changed because he has changed and because Rondo has made him change. If Melo can read Lin, find space and get to his spot with time on the clock then it will work. If Mike D’Antoni can throw Melo a few bones by isolating him on a few occasions then there can be a balance. My thing is that Doc Rivers has the ability to balance his offense and D’Antoni has struggled to because the system is so point guard heavy.

Again, if D’Antoni can make it work then the team will have success and maybe the make a massive playoff push. If Melo isn’t happy then there will be a coaching change with a man with a zillion rings waiting in the wings. But in the end when Melo and Amar’e return they have to look to the Celtics offensive model to ensure proper balance, which as we’ve seen, is always the key to success.

RONDO PICK AND ROLL
PAUL PIERCE POST UPS
KG SPOT UP JUMPERS
ALLEN SPOT UP JUMPERS 

“I can guarantee there’s no rookie better defensively. That’s half the game. The other half he played well after being put in a spot where he had to be the point guard. And he’s not naturally a point guard. His best position is 2 and he can play 3. I’m shocked. That’s wild.”

Mike D’Antoni on Shumpert’s slight.

Shumpert is far better defensively guarding 2s and 3s and since Lin has been part of the rotation Shump hasn’t had to guard the ball as much and that’s a real positive. And yes he definitely should have been part of the game considering his athleticism he’d have had 5 or 6 sick dunks.

This kid is absolutely, 100-percent killing it.  He’s firing on more cylinders than any of us thought he had in the first place.  He’s lin-ing.  Hard.

Now: what the hell just happened? How in the lordez gomez did Lin go from unknown and unused to the team’s starting (and staring) point guard? How did he become the lynchpin to the 2012 New York Knicks? How did not snatching him up in my fantasy league become the worst managerial misstep of my life??!!!!?

How did we get here, and just as importantly, where are we going?

A quick recap…

Game 1 was just silly.  I was smiling, but it was incredulous; I was excited, but it was tempered; I was happy, but in all honesty, I was also kind of sad: what did it say about this team’s play to that point in the season that Lin’s breakout performance against the Nets was the best it had felt to be a Knicks fan all year? One-game wonders are cute and all, but remember when we were going to be a top 4 seed? Lin’s game was a soon-to-be forgotten anecdote, and it was a harsh reminder of how pathetic our play had been over the previous 15 games. So good for him, and a W is a W, but I wasn’t anointing him king or the team cured by any stretch.

Game 2 had me in the same position with the same dumbstruck look on my face, eyes wide with the same disbelief.  But this time, my smile was a bit more genuine.  The Jazz aren’t as bad as the Nets, and we were playing without Amar’e and Melo.  That counts for something, right?  I mean, that counts for a whole-lotta-something if you think about it: this team, without those two, is bad. Nobody would expect it to compete for anything. But it was competing, and the morning after Night 2, I allowed myself a brief — BRIEF — daydream: maybe this Lin guy was actually legit.

Game 3 wiped away any doubt that 1 and 2 were no more than fun, little distractions.  Last night made it official: Lin is ready, willing and able to run the point for this team. No more Shumpert playing a position he wasn’t drafted to play; no more Mike Bibby playing significant minutes; no more Toney Douglas, period. And whatever happens with Baron Davis can happen: that not-so-long-ago desperation for the 32-year-old injured Boomiverse to lace up has not-so-quietly left the building.

Most of all, with last night’s game, Lin is now tethered to this team and its coach for the remainder of the season. Excuses about not having a point guard are out the window.

Sure, he’s proooooobably not going to average 20+ / 8+ a night, and he’s proooooobably not going to end up the next Steve Nash. But Lin has now proven that he can do what MDA wants his point guard to do: he can play pick-and-roll with his head on a swivel and finish at the hoop.  That’s what we’ve been missing.  We have Amar’e Stoudermire and Carmelo Anthony.  We Have Tyson Chandler.  Impatient fans have been told to relax because we didn’t have a proper floor general to run MDA’s offense.  Well, Lin has proven — even with such a small sampling — to be strong enough to make things happen for a coach and a team still desperate to find an offensive identity.

How will we fare when our stars return and we stop playing the likes of the Nets and Wizards? I’m not sure. Lin may fall off and become just another Ed Smith by next week; he may ride this wave out through the rest of the schedule; he may be the first ever Harvard-graduated NBA All-Star. Is he really, truly good and every college recruiter and NBA executive just missed on him or are we just THAT desperate for winning basketball that we’ll delude ourselves, throwing caution to the wind.

I make no predictions and I certainly make no assurances. I merely cross my fingers and toes like the rest of you.

But this last week has taught us two lessons: (1) this Lin guy is certainly NOT a one-hit wonder; and (2) Mike D’Antoni better pray on Lesson #1…

AKA building camaraderie.

Thanks Notebook Number Four…