With the way the CBA is we have to make the best out of what we have--and be creative to enhance it(we did well at that this year)

IMHO going forward--we need to put the main three guys in best position to play at their peak. I noticed that Amare and Carmelo were on the bench together atleast a few times in games--this should NEVER happen unless FT. It does NOT happen with the Heat. Amare and Carmelo are both score first players--they look to shoot. When we have Chandler Carmelo and Amare in there--the log gets clogged and lanes are shut down--which makes it easier to go play a perimeter player like Novak--why--you are creating your own double teams. Solution--move Amare to 6th man as a 4-5 30 minute player--he cant physically go more than 30 IMHO and stay healthy--we have to treat him like the Spurs treat Duncan the next 3 years--his minutes need to be monitored. He can sub for Chandler at the 7-8 minute mark--keeping Melo at 4 and when Melo goes back to the bench--we move Amare back to 4 and Chandler back into 5. Its a 3 man rotation at 4-5 with Melo Chandler and Amare---and if we can find a quality 6-9 + big man who can run and play good D as player 4 that would be great--is that Jorts? maybe maybe not. A good coach has to see that the three cannot play big minutes together and spacing the floor is vital.

We are stuck for the most part with Douglas and Fields. Quite frankly both need to get on their ass to improve back to their premium levels. Fields has been a disastrous disappointment after such a good rookie year. I mean he looks nothing of what the guy who played at Stanford looked like right now--pure digression. He is scared to shoot--and when you are scared to shoot you are playing 4.5 on 5. He needs to put on 5 pds of hard muscle and get his jumpshot and overall game back in order. He needs to be able to hit the open shot--use his dribble drive to score--and rebound better. I noticed that he has starting taking the ball kind of wimpy inside and hasnt rebounded like he had been doing--we need that. He needs to get his body stronger--not so much in weight but strength. Douglas can replace JR Smith in the back 4-5 IF he can find his game that he had last season. He is NO PG--so lets not play him out of position for the most part. He is a slasher three pt shooter who can play some good D and is a willing passer. Both players need to work hard and the coach has to give them a clean slate.

Jeremy Lin is the PG--bar none. I would like to offer that to him--offer that he will be our starting PG for the next 10 years--I ask of him to take less just one year for the team to improve and commit to him that he will be paid accordingly the following season to make up for any money he loses--even through injury. If Jeremy can play at a 15-8-3 level--he would make more than 5mm per anyway--so this season money wise it might be smart to take less to make more later on. I hope Novak stays but I dont think he will. JR has been hot and cold. He's a pretty decent 6th or 7th man type and should be able to command the MLE or close to it. This is why he wont be back here---we need better than JR with that money. If Lin takes less that opens us up to use the MLE on a very good player--perhaps a Ray Allen. If we can convince an Antwan Jamison to take a 1 year to win a chip--that would leave us at

C-Chandler
F-Carmelo
F-Fields
G-Allen
PG Lin
6th Amare
F Jamison
G Shumpert
Vet back up lle PG(hey Steve Nash would be nice:)
G Douglas

Jordan
Jorts
draft pick.(we could use an additional 2 guard--one who can break down the dribble a little---like Darius Johnson Odom.

melo is a power forward. it forces him to do a lot of things he otherwise gets too lazy/complacent with doing (bodying up on D, getting rebounds, posting up) and he is a better passer from the block than he is from the perimeter going inside.

we re-signed douglas so he needs to be in the gym starting today and up until training camp working on his jumper and his handle. guard depth is so pivotal and the fact that he gave us so little this year was a total disappointment.

i would be more than happy to let fields go but i am not sure who else we can get to replace him. we need to anticipate that shump is gonna come back in january/february at like 80%; he isn't going to return to the old shump until 2013-14 season. without him, and moving melo to the 4 for most of the game, we really need perimeter depth. because of that, i think we bring fields back on the cheap and just hope he can regain his confidence and his mojo.

i disagree about targeting ray allen and jamison. this team needs to add athleticism and length on the perimeter, not an old vet with a creaky wheel like allen. and i think if JORTS spends the offseason taking 3's and lifting, he'll be a competent 4th big.

two guys i like a lot are shannon brown and CJ Miles. brown would give us needed athleticism and is a good enough 3 point shooter. CJ miles can play either backcourt spot. both would be cheap. i also think gerald green would be worth taking a flier on. finding guys that can run and can jump to play on a 2nd unit that plays up tempo with lin (when both melo and stat are off the floor) should be a goal.

Chandler - please develop some kind of jump hook. It is easy to get a charging foul on you once you got the ball more than 5 feet away from the basket as you only barrel straight in. If the defender plants his feet, find another way to punish him. Shaq did.

Amare - for 15 minutes each day hold the ball and then get somebody to try to whack it from your hands. Hands of stone work in boxing, not basketball. You're probably hopeless on help defense, so let's not even waste time there.

Jeffries - just get the knee right. that's all we ask.

Jorts - lose some weight; it can do wonders for your speed.

Novak - you are who you are, but watch tapes of rip hamilton, ray allen and larry bird

Shump - get the knee right.

Lin - memorize Amare and Melo's spots, until you can pass them even while doing a forward flip with two full turns. they're not going anywhere, so better learn to play with them. but keep on attacking, young man. NY is behind you more than you know.

Fields - go to Europe, Israel, Argentina, the Philippines, whatever, during the off season and PRACTICE the effing jumpshot and dribble. You dribble almost as ugly as Oakley ... and re-enroll in a college course on physics (stuff like trajectory, arc)

gunsnewing wrote:Bonn none of those teams were going up against Miami?

Bonn1997 wrote:We had our big 3 intact for all of the playoffs except one missed one game. You could say we had anywhere from the 3rd to the 5th worst luck regarding injuries of the 8 eastern conference playoff teams. Missing D Rose and Dwight Howard are bigger losses than anything we endured. The Celtics lost Rondo for two and allen for one game. The Hawks missed Josh Smith for one and Al Horford for three games.

An 8th seed can't afford injuries.

Tyson also was abysmal this series wasn't he?

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:We had our big 3 intact for all of the playoffs except one missed one game. You could say we had anywhere from the 3rd to the 5th worst luck regarding injuries of the 8 eastern conference playoff teams. Missing D Rose and Dwight Howard are bigger losses than anything we endured. The Celtics lost Rondo for two and allen for one game. The Hawks missed Josh Smith for one and Al Horford for three games.

An 8th seed can't afford injuries.

Tyson also was abysmal this series wasn't he?

Well we weren't the 8th seed. I'm sure the other teams I listed had players playing while sick too but at best you could say we had the third worst injury luck. A lot of whiners here are acting like we had unprecedented bad luck with injuries.

I remember when Jordan had the flu and he was almost passing out between plays - he was a warrior

Tyson was a no show and was horrible. Yesterday he looked like he was barely trying which is inexcusable no?

Bonn1997 wrote:

IrishKnickFan wrote:Bonn losing your entire backcourt and the backup pg is a big deal. Shump is one of the best defenders so he was missed. Obciously missing both lin and baron would be impossible. also JJ has been playing on one leg. Chandler was sick teh first two games but i agree he was horrible the rest of the series

I don't disagree with any of that. We did have slightly below average luck - nothing like the Bulls or Magic but probably slightly worse than the Celtics and Hawks.
You do have to take into account the GOOD luck we had too though. Our big three have played about 30 years in the league and yet somehow were healthy for 14 out of 15 appearances.

So Tyson WAS healthy? I thought he was sick and that was your excuse for his abysmal play

Stat punched a piece of glass and he is out for the critical game 3, we go down 3-0 and you say "hey 14 out of 15 ain't bad" STOP!!

We lose our starting PG and our backup PG, we lose Shumpert (eh ... rookie whats the big deal)

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

IrishKnickFan wrote:Bonn losing your entire backcourt and the backup pg is a big deal. Shump is one of the best defenders so he was missed. Obciously missing both lin and baron would be impossible. also JJ has been playing on one leg. Chandler was sick teh first two games but i agree he was horrible the rest of the series

I don't disagree with any of that. We did have slightly below average luck - nothing like the Bulls or Magic but probably slightly worse than the Celtics and Hawks.
You do have to take into account the GOOD luck we had too though. Our big three have played about 30 years in the league and yet somehow were healthy for 14 out of 15 appearances.

So Tyson WAS healthy? I thought he was sick and that was your excuse for his abysmal play

Stat punched a piece of glass and he is out for the critical game 3, we go down 3-0 and you say "hey 14 out of 15 ain't bad" STOP!!

We lose our starting PG and our backup PG, we lose Shumpert (eh ... rookie whats the big deal)

I didn't say he was healthy; I said he appeared, which is better than a lot of teams can say for their top players. We did have slightly below average luck but we were NOT the victims of an unprecedented number of injuries. If you want to look forward, it would be reasonable to expect our back-court far fewer playoff games and our front-court to miss slightly more.

If our big 3 are worth what we play them (which is a few million more than Miami pays theirs), they should be able to get us past round 1 or at the very least compete with the less expensive Heat. Our big 3 - the most expensive big 3 in the conference and I think 2nd most expensive in league history - was negative seventy points for the series.

Oh you said "appeared" which according to the correct sample sizing chart ... uh ... wtf does that mean again?

Is appearing healthy - healthy or not healthy? What are we playing here dodgeball?

Well it depends what "is" is.