Clean wrote:The wolves packed it in the paint all night. Thats why Lin had a lot of deflected passes and blocked shots. They paid for it in the end because Novak is a beast when left open. If When we have JR Smith Carmelo hitting all those open shots Walker has been missing the game would have been will be over before the 4th quarter.

The Bootleg Remix Tapes

The Answer Man knows that the "bow" routine flashed by Carmelo and Lin is an obvious sign of mutual respect.

First, Carmelo is the best "drive and finish" big man this side of Lebron. He wants to get in on the fun Fields and Shump are having with the new available angles to the rack. His shot selection is already affected by the respect Lin has garnered in one week of hellacious basketball.

Second, people are missing the new bond among the Knicks band of brothers. Carmelo will protect Lin like a little brother. Do not think for a moment that Carmelo, and the rest of the big men, (Harrellson included) have ignored the sneaky hits (Kobe's backcourt elbow included) that Lin has absorbed during his courageous week. They will stand up for Lin and respond accordingly.

Carmelo was raised on the courts of West Baltimore. They don't play that.

Third, Carmelo desperately wants to win in New York.

The whole world is watching.

Bonn1997 wrote:We need a guy who's been playing the same way for 8 years to entirely change his approach to offense. It's not impossible but it's highly uncommon.

bonn1997 - Carmelo does not need to change his approach entirely. He needs to be better than Bill Walker.

Rather than kvetch over Carmelo's past imperfect game - playing beside Toney Douglas - why not give him an opportunity to mesh with Lin on the court?

Bonn1997 wrote:We need a guy who's been playing the same way for 8 years to entirely change his approach to offense. It's not impossible but it's highly uncommon.

bonn1997 - where was the same uproar over Carmelo changing his game when the goal was to bring in CP3?

franco12 wrote:there are a lot of ways to read this- but on Stephen A's show, SAS said he heard from a source close to Carmelo that he was lobbying MDA to play Lin.

Whether this is after the fact, let me look good, or him seeing something in Lin or Melo not wanting the hardship of being a Point Forward - no one can really know.

But, my hope is Melo and Stat aren't taking anything from Lin, but taking away from some of the others that have had to step in - Walker, Jefferies & Novak.

Melo said in an interview after the Nets game that he and Chandler were talking at halftime that Lin should get more mins...Its obvious the players saw somehting in him @ practice.

Uptown wrote:Lin is going to have to adjust his game a bit. We saw last night that the TWolves were packing in the paint on Lins drives and were playing him for the shot. Definitely want Lin to stay in attack-mode, but he is going to have to kick it out to shooters some, or lay it off to Stat or Chandler creeping on the baseline as he drives to the basket.

A steady diet of drives and kicks and drives and lay-offs will give the defense something to think about when he's penetrating. Afterwards, when he takes it to the rim, a simple ball fake or look-off will open up the basket for layups. Also, I noticed a few times that Chandler was open last two games and Lin missed him a few times.

Absolutely brilliant post Uptown.

With the return of two more "new" players, they all will need to adjust.

Let the games begin.

"I worry just like everybody about how willing Carmelo Anthony is to blend into this freshly free-flowing offense, but let's not pretend like there haven't been some iso possessions in all the wrong hands. We saw Steve Novak shooting turn-around fadeaways and Bill Walker and Jared Jeffries trying to create off the dribble last night. Lin can't create everything for everybody all of the time, and that's one of the many ways in which Melo can help. A good motto for the fully-staffed for the Knicks would be: "We don't always go iso, but when we do, we prefer that Carmelo Anthony go iso". Or something."

- Seth Rosenthal

Melo should be fine with an actual PG- he played some of his best ball when the Nuggets traded Iverson for Billups- he became a characature of himself these past few weeks, because we had nothing going for us- no one was making any shot of any kind, so he tried to force things while being injured. Once he's back, hopefully we'll see a much improved Melo.

I get fed up of the way we trash our own players so quickly- fair enough with Bibby, Billy Walker and TD it's justified, but with Melo it's ridiculous- give him a fair chance and let him actually play some games with Lin before you throw him under a bus.

crzymdups wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:We need a guy who's been playing the same way for 8 years to entirely change his approach to offense. It's not impossible but it's highly uncommon.

uh, he's played with point guards before. andre miller was always near the league leaders in assists when he was in denver with melo. chauncey had the ball in his hands a lot. so did iverson.

melo isn't a selfish player, i think he got caught up in the idea he needed to do it all here.

i'm hoping this week watching the team helps him see the possibilities of playing with his teammates. it's certainly a big slice of humble pie to have the team go 5-0 w/lin after a 2-11 stretch.