RK	PLAYER	TEAM	GP	MPG	BLK	PF	BLKPG	BLKP48M	BLK/PF
1	Darko Milicic, C	MIN	17	27.0	50	57	2.94	5.23	0.88
2	JaVale McGee, C	WAS	16	28.4	43	47	2.69	4.54	0.91
3	Andrew Bogut, C	MIL	12	33.8	32	36	2.67	3.78	0.89
4	Josh Smith, PF	ATL	18	33.3	44	54	2.44	3.53	0.81
5	Dwight Howard, C	ORL	17	34.7	41	58	2.41	3.34	0.71
6	Emeka Okafor, C	NOR	17	30.8	38	51	2.24	3.48	0.75
7	Roy Hibbert, C	IND	16	30.3	33	54	2.06	3.27	0.61
8	Pau Gasol, PF	LAL	18	39.4	37	46	2.06	2.50	0.80
9 	Serge Ibaka, PF	OKC	18	27.7	37	60	2.06	3.56	0.62
10	Amare Stoudemire, PF	NYK	19	36.5	38	70	2.00	2.63	0.54
11 	Samuel Dalembert, C	SAC	15	22.5	30	35	2.00	4.26	0.86
12	Wilson Chandler, SF	NYK	19	31.9	37	62	1.95	2.93	0.60
13	Tim Duncan, C	SAS	17	29.6	31	33	1.82	2.96	0.94
14	Brook Lopez, C	NJN	18	35.3	30	63	1.67	2.27	0.48
15	Marcus Camby, PF	POR	17	30.3	28	47	1.65	2.61	0.60
16	Tyrus Thomas, PF	CHA	16	21.3	26	42	1.63	3.66	0.62
17	Al Jefferson, C	UTH	19	35.8	29	51	1.53	2.05	0.57
18	Taj Gibson, F	CHI	14	26.9	21	47	1.50	2.67	0.45
19	Shane Battier, SF	HOU	17	30.4	25	42	1.47	2.33	0.60
20 	Tyson Chandler, C	DAL	17	27.6	25	56	1.47	2.56	0.45

maybe it took being exported to the ass end of the NBA for him to wake up and start playing with some fire.

i like the kid, but let's not act like he gave one ounce of effort while he was here. he was a waste. he's redeemed himself, which is great.

"I tell (Mozgov) to do the opposite like I did," Milicic said. "I don't know how it will be for him, if he plays a lot. When I didn't play, I stepped aside. You need to work a lot and I didn't do it. If he doesn't play, practice hard."

His numbers this year have nothing to do with last years minutes

Bippity10 wrote:Milicic accepted responsibility for not working hard enough once he fell out of favor with the team last season and apologized to D'Antoni and his brother, assistant coach Dan D'Antoni.
"I said 'It didn't work out,'" Milicic said. "I wished it worked out. I loved New York. I thought it was going to work out but when I got there and saw how it was going to be it wasn't for me. For me, last year I needed a lot of playing time to get my confidence back. Here it's different, this year I came in shape."

"I tell (Mozgov) to do the opposite like I did," Milicic said. "I don't know how it will be for him, if he plays a lot. When I didn't play, I stepped aside. You need to work a lot and I didn't do it. If he doesn't play, practice hard."

His numbers this year have nothing to do with last years minutes

from his quote, his numbers had everything to do with his minutes last year... he came in with a good outlook but saw right away that he wasn't going to get any playing time, so he started to slack off... his attitude sucked that much he admitted to, but one can easily argue that if he knew he'd be a part of the regular rotation, that the effort would have been there in practice... personally i think MDA played Fishlips way too many minutes last year & a big chunk of those minutes could easily have been divvy'd up between Darko & Jordan Hill, especially in a season where shotblocking was our obvious glaring need all year.

Bippity10 wrote:

TMS wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Milicic accepted responsibility for not working hard enough once he fell out of favor with the team last season and apologized to D'Antoni and his brother, assistant coach Dan D'Antoni.
"I said 'It didn't work out,'" Milicic said. "I wished it worked out. I loved New York. I thought it was going to work out but when I got there and saw how it was going to be it wasn't for me. For me, last year I needed a lot of playing time to get my confidence back. Here it's different, this year I came in shape."

"I tell (Mozgov) to do the opposite like I did," Milicic said. "I don't know how it will be for him, if he plays a lot. When I didn't play, I stepped aside. You need to work a lot and I didn't do it. If he doesn't play, practice hard."

His numbers this year have nothing to do with last years minutes

from his quote, his numbers had everything to do with his minutes last year... he came in with a good outlook but saw right away that he wasn't going to get any playing time, so he started to slack off... his attitude sucked that much he admitted to, but one can easily argue that if he knew he'd be a part of the regular rotation, that the effort would have been there in practice... personally i think MDA played Fishlips way too many minutes last year & a big chunk of those minutes could easily have been divvy'd up between Darko & Jordan Hill, especially in a season where shotblocking was our obvious glaring need all year.

IF you come into camp out of shape and you are a marginal player then you are going to find yourself on the bench. If you then follow it up with a lack of effort and poor practice habits you are never going to play. Never in the history has a coach given a guy minutes to try to stimulate a player's work ethic.

J Bender came here with 2 broken down knees but he got regular burn right away after 1 practice... i think there were political things going on behind the scenes that led to players becoming disenchanted w/their chances to succeed in NY... MDA playing his favorites led to a ton of dissention in that lockerroom IMO... there was obvious jealousy going on between several different members of that team, absolutely no sense of unity by the time the season had run its course... plenty of guys became disenchanted w/MDA as the head coach last season, not just Darko.

Bippity10 wrote:

TMS wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:

TMS wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Milicic accepted responsibility for not working hard enough once he fell out of favor with the team last season and apologized to D'Antoni and his brother, assistant coach Dan D'Antoni.
"I said 'It didn't work out,'" Milicic said. "I wished it worked out. I loved New York. I thought it was going to work out but when I got there and saw how it was going to be it wasn't for me. For me, last year I needed a lot of playing time to get my confidence back. Here it's different, this year I came in shape."

"I tell (Mozgov) to do the opposite like I did," Milicic said. "I don't know how it will be for him, if he plays a lot. When I didn't play, I stepped aside. You need to work a lot and I didn't do it. If he doesn't play, practice hard."

His numbers this year have nothing to do with last years minutes

from his quote, his numbers had everything to do with his minutes last year... he came in with a good outlook but saw right away that he wasn't going to get any playing time, so he started to slack off... his attitude sucked that much he admitted to, but one can easily argue that if he knew he'd be a part of the regular rotation, that the effort would have been there in practice... personally i think MDA played Fishlips way too many minutes last year & a big chunk of those minutes could easily have been divvy'd up between Darko & Jordan Hill, especially in a season where shotblocking was our obvious glaring need all year.

IF you come into camp out of shape and you are a marginal player then you are going to find yourself on the bench. If you then follow it up with a lack of effort and poor practice habits you are never going to play. Never in the history has a coach given a guy minutes to try to stimulate a player's work ethic.

J Bender came here with 2 broken down knees but he got regular burn right away after 1 practice... i think there were political things going on behind the scenes that led to players becoming disenchanted w/their chances to succeed in NY... MDA playing his favorites led to a ton of dissention in that lockerroom IMO... there was obvious jealousy going on between several different members of that team, absolutely no sense of unity by the time the season had run its course... plenty of guys became disenchanted w/MDA as the head coach last season, not just Darko.

I said this before and I will say it again, all coaches play favorites. You would too if you were a coach.

Bender was brought here to be given a chance to see if he had a long-term future with us. No doubt. But........Bender averaged 11 minuetes per game for the season and totaled 76 minutes in our last 35 games. Actually if you look at the numbers you will see that after game 24 he really didn't play at all. Bender's minutes had nothing to do with Darko's. There were plenty of minutes available to him, he just did not take advantage of the opportunity. He saw someone else get an early opportunity ahead of him. And instead of remaining ready, working hard and seizing those minutes when they became available, he pouted and stopped working. End result, bench time. Don't want that Stephon Marbury/Steve Francis/Mo Taylor type nonsense on my team.

like i said already & Darko admitted to, his attitude sucked last year & didn't deserve to win any playing time last year... i'm not arguing w/u on this... what i'm saying is that there were probably other factors going on behind the scenes that probably caused him to become disenchanted w/this team & this head coach... do i think Fishlips deserved to be playing 35+ a night & Bender deserved to be playing at all? no, i don't... i don't care how much effort they were putting forth in practice either... there were players on our bench that i think could have helped to address our glaring needs that were never utilized... obviously a lot of that goes on the players but i also put some of that on the coach... if i were a coach i would play guys who could help me win ballgames, bottomline... i wouldn't be playing guys who could barely run the court on 2 broken knees who didn't have "Ewing" on the back of his jersey... Bender deserved no playing time but got his fair share... meanwhile guys like Jordan Hill & Darko got barely any.

crzymdups wrote:man, i wish we had a dream front court of darko milicic and jordan hill... instead of amar'e and turiaf and a winning record. :rolls eyes:

right, because that's the point i'm trying to make here. :rolls eyes:

TMS wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:I can relate to D'Antoni 100%. If you came into one of my camps out of shape, you basically just told me that I can't trust you. You now have to earn my trust to get on the court. If you work hard and are talented it won't be long before you are playing. If you pout and stop working YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE COURT NO MATTER HOW TALENTED YOU ARE.

again, i'm not arguing w/u over the fact that Darko had a crappy attitude last year... but i'm sorry i can't relate to D'Antoni at all when he plays Jonathan Bender over Darko & Jordan Hill, i'm sorry... i don't care how great of an attitude Bender came in with, he didn't deserve to see playing time over guys who had been involved w/the team in training camp & who could have addressed our need for a shotblocking presence... we can go back & forth on this til the cows come home, you're not going to ever convince me that MDA's decision to play Bender was warranted last year... it made absolutely zero sense to me.

1.) Again, Bender barely played the last 58 games of the year, so I'm still not sure I understand how this is remotely relevant for Hill or Darko. If the guy was averaging 35 minutes a night I maybe could slightly understand your point, but he barely played. There were plenty of minutes for both Hill and Darko

2.) Being involved in training camp means nothing. If that was the case then you wouldn't play someone that you traded for midseason because they weren't involved in training camp. If you don't work hard your minutes are always at jeopardy to disappear and be given to ANYONE. Whether it's a guy off the street, from the d-league, from ultimate knicks. If you don't work hard your minutes are in jeopardy. Works that way with every coach.

3.) Do you think Riley/Popovich, Sloan are giving minutes to guys that aren't working hard just because they were in camp

4.) Agreed, I will never agree with your logic on this one. We are in the process of changing the culture here in NY. A culture of entitlement, whining and drama with a culture of hard work and effort. Darko's attitude was part of the old school. Hill's apparently was as well. Good riddance.