2. Shot selection. Yes over defense. I believe taking good shots will help our defense and raise out FG% which was also poor in pre-season. Amare is going to help big time--but Im not worried about him. I'm worried that we will continue to position our players 30 feet from the basket and take too many low % shots when we can work the ball for a good one.

3. Defense. I think we will need to compensate our lack of experience and depth at the 5 and possibly length from the G position using a zone defense. We had a our best time with MDA when he went to a zone. This will keep Mosgov in the game longer and help our rebounding as well. Obviously you can play 48 minutes of zone--but I think we need a high number with who we have right now--upwards of half the game.

4. The bench--what looked like a possible strong point has been porous at best. We need to bring more energy efficiency and execution off the bench. Guys have to play smart/strong with a purpose. This is important--these guys cant come in and give up leads or extend deficits.

5 Danillo--yes Mr Gallo--I put my chips on him to avg 22/23 points 5 rebound 4 asst. He has to be the 2nd CONSISTENT scorer and I want to see the Gallo of the last 6 weeks of last year and nothing of what I saw in pre-season. He needs to play a smarter brand of bsaketball that takes advantage of his size/skill combination. If he concedes to being a niche player--than we will be hurt from that. he has to be the 2nd man--he has proven he can do it--he has the skills to do it. I will forget about pre-season--he went to Italy and seemed to never recover--so much for going there again!! I hope he takes priorities in check--like getting good sleep before game day.

1. Midseason trade for Carmelo Anthony. Come on, we are simply not good enough to be a Playoff team as currently constructed. Amar'e Stoudemire cannot do it alone and I know it hurts some of you to read and admit this but there is not a single player on this roster who will ever become an All-Star.

2. Amar'e Stoudemire must play like an MVP and the best PF in the game. STAT's averaged 27, 9 and 2 after the All-Star break last year and was arguably the best player in the league. He'll need that type of production and needs to stay healthy.

3. Raymond Felton must make us forget Tony Parker. If we are talking about Parker during the season, we won't be any good. Felton showed flashes in Preseason of being a capable PG in this system. I think 15 and 8 with solid D is the goal.

Rebounding is definitely a concern, but looking on the bright side...we were SO BAD in preseason, that you know the coaching staff is addressing it to the players, and trying to get more effort out of them, especially Amare, Mozgov, and Turiaf. I would've been more concerned if our rebounding differential was only -5 or so. Still bad, but D'Antoni may have accepted it/overlooked it. A rebounding differential of -15 is flat out alarming.

Now that said, we do know that there are some concerns about rebounding, but again we don't know for sure that it's gonna be an issue. That could just be a preseason blip on the screen. I think we know that this team must get better play from Gallo since he's a key player. It would help a lot if AR got it together and filled a specific role as an energy player/defender for now and let the game come to him. Timo just has to stay out of foul trouble. He doesn't have to be spectacular, just be 7-1 and concentrate on the boards. I'm not as worried about the other guys, I think we saw enough signs that this team can do some good things on the court. They just need to play some games and jell.

That is, if our defense improves significantly this year (which it probably should as we were dreadful last year and should at least be average TY), then we can afford to give up a few more boards on the defensive end.

Opposing FG% is going to be one of the most important stats for our team this season. We're not going to be a great rebounding team as none of our guys by nature are good at it but if our defense improves enough to offset the loss of Lee, then we should be fine.

scoshin wrote:

nixluva wrote:BRIGGS you realize that you're making your assumptions based mostly Preseason games? That's a dangerous thing to do. Those games are so hard to gauge. There are bad teams that have winning records in the preseason that will end up at the bottom of the league. How can we judge what the team will do when the coach is trying new combos and the starters aren't necessarily playing full games or even giving full effort. IT'S PRESEASON!

Now that said, we do know that there are some concerns about rebounding, but again we don't know for sure that it's gonna be an issue. That could just be a preseason blip on the screen. I think we know that this team must get better play from Gallo since he's a key player. It would help a lot if AR got it together and filled a specific role as an energy player/defender for now and let the game come to him. Timo just has to stay out of foul trouble. He doesn't have to be spectacular, just be 7-1 and concentrate on the boards. I'm not as worried about the other guys, I think we saw enough signs that this team can do some good things on the court. They just need to play some games and jell.

I highly doubt our rebounding issue was just a preseason aberration. Getting outboarded by -15 in nearly every preseason game is a huge warning sign. And we were already in the bottom 5 in rebounding differential last season, and that was with David Lee.

I'm just saying that you can't use the preseason to judge that. For one thing Mike was trying so many player combos and when you already don't have a lot of rebounding, if you take out the few good rebounders you have it's gonna get ugly. In the regular season that won't be happening. We're only gonna see our best players getting major minutes and thus I expect that we'll be outrebounded, by less than we saw in some of those preseason games. This is the folly of paying too much attention to what happens in preseason.

Felton, is the key to this season reguardless of whatever. This guy has got to master the P/R, know when to feed Amare, or set up your perimeter players, he has to be a chatter box on defense and offense, and has to avg no less the 8.5ast a game. He has to be the 3rd best pg (in the east) behind Rose and Rondo.

COACHING...Rotation as got to be solidfy(barring injury) early, enough of this 20 different (whats my role) line ups, this is important so guys can know what it is expected from them. Please no 10/11 man roation unless needed

Amare...has got to be a MVP canidate, the best thing I have seen so far about amare, he never holds the ball and waits for the double and triple team, dude is super quick with his move catches the defense off guard, there force to foul him, he needs to get guys in foul trouble early and often.

chemistry..If we force 17 TO's we can't give up 17 TO's, especially since were a poor rebounding team, out of all our young guys FIELDS and Mosgov have the highest IQ.

TMS wrote:defense... we need to play it.

Also somewhat important

Bippity10 wrote:Nix I understand the gyst of what you are saying. It was preseason and we were playing with lineups but...rebounding was a concern even before preseason. Then to see how awful we were its just an ominous sign. Now the team can of course show a better effort during the season but this doesn't erasee the fact that right now it is a major concern and in fact, a key to our season

I think nix has a point to some degree, I saw a much better effort in the last game then the 1st 7 games. It's a issue without a doubt, but it's hard to say with out your core playing there full minutes, or roles being set. We don't have any natrual Rebounders, so the more tape you watch, the more you will figure ot why your getting out rebound.

If MDA wnats to run, as soon as the ball goes up guy's are looking to get in position to dart down the court hoping someone grabs a board and lofts a pass. No one is really committed to rebound. In the 2nd to last game, the effort was there, but the positioning and timing wasn't.

knicks1248 wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Nix I understand the gyst of what you are saying. It was preseason and we were playing with lineups but...rebounding was a concern even before preseason. Then to see how awful we were its just an ominous sign. Now the team can of course show a better effort during the season but this doesn't erasee the fact that right now it is a major concern and in fact, a key to our season

I think nix has a point to some degree, I saw a much better effort in the last game then the 1st 7 games. It's a issue without a doubt, but it's hard to say with out your core playing there full minutes, or roles being set. We don't have any natrual Rebounders, so the more tape you watch, the more you will figure ot why your getting out rebound.

If MDA wnats to run, as soon as the ball goes up guy's are looking to get in position to dart down the court hoping someone grabs a board and lofts a pass. No one is really committed to rebound. In the 2nd to last game, the effort was there, but the positioning and timing wasn't.

Briggs never said we can't improve our rebounding, he did say that if we don't improve over the preseason then we are in trouble. Tough to argue that one. Regardless of the reasons for our poor rebounding it still is a concern