Calderon is knocking down every open jumper, he's making the right passes and directing traffic. He's not turning the ball over either.

We need the offense....

Eventually if can get healthy, maybe this starting group is what will get us the production we need:

Jason smith
Melo
Bargnani
calderon
shump

The Knicks could throw Amare, Acy and dalembert in as we need them.

Wtf is up with their health issues?

EnySpree wrote:7 footer with skills we need.

I know this is going to come across like I'm talking sass, but honestly what skills does Bargs have?

smackeddog wrote:

EnySpree wrote:7 footer with skills we need.

I know this is going to come across like I'm talking sass, but honestly what skills does Bargs have?

DEADLY THRIVING ones, just ask Phil

Jose is also an extremely capable PG who just so happens to be one of the most efficient scorers as well. There's no denying how much better Jose is at PG and in preseason he clearly was the one player who looked comfortable in the system. It's extremely important to have a brain on the court and a legit threat to score from the perimeter. The offense will run much better with them in the mix for significant minutes. Just gotta hope they can get to 100% and stay healthy the remainder of the season.

arkrud wrote:Having the statistically worst player in NBA back will no doubt help us to get better lottery pick this year.
We need him healthy and play as he always does.
Melo need to continue what he is doing last 2 games. Pretty effective.
I also like JR punching more people in the balls.
Go Knicks!!!

OasisBU wrote:

nixluva wrote:EnySpree is making sense. For those who just go by what they THINK they see it's easy to just bash Bargs, but when healthy he's capable of being very effective in this system. He's got more overall skills than Jason and basically is also a top midrange shooter. Bargs ave'd 1.5 blocks last year and was our best post defender against bigs. Last year in a down year overall, Bargs shot 48.7% from 2pt range!!! A few years ago he shot 50.9% from 2pt range. So as i've said a million times, this is his thing. In this system that is going to be a good thing to have on the floor. What's crazy is that I just strained my Hamstring playing today, so I feel Bargs pain LOL.

Jose is also an extremely capable PG who just so happens to be one of the most efficient scorers as well. There's no denying how much better Jose is at PG and in preseason he clearly was the one player who looked comfortable in the system. It's extremely important to have a brain on the court and a legit threat to score from the perimeter. The offense will run much better with them in the mix for significant minutes. Just gotta hope they can get to 100% and stay healthy the remainder of the season.

You pulled a hammy today? Ouch - good luck

Hey i'm 49 and just happy to be able to still ball. My knees are fine and i'm pretty healthy but i've gotta lose some weight. It was a fluke where my right foot slide forward and extended my leg awkwardly kind of like a Tennis slide. I'm not as loose as I used to be.

nixluva wrote:

arkrud wrote:Having the statistically worst player in NBA back will no doubt help us to get better lottery pick this year.
We need him healthy and play as he always does.
Melo need to continue what he is doing last 2 games. Pretty effective.
I also like JR punching more people in the balls.
Go Knicks!!!

The worst thing Woody did was not to use Bargs to his strengths and to have him in a SWITCHING DEFENSE when he's the worst player at playing help defense!!! This system is much better for a player like Bargs. He'll get more touches in his spots and he won't be as exposed in this defense as he was in Woody's Defense. It could very well be a boost to the team in that he can make the team deeper talent wise. People hate on Bargs but he's at least been a player who's ave'd 20 ppg in this league.

The consensus among fans seemed to have been Bargs was a decent man defender, but a butt ugly help defender as you say. I agree he may be better in this regime, but help D is always part of the game, so it will still be a fault of course.

He will not be a 20 ppg player again, so that's not so important. All it really comes down to is using the players who are on expiring contracts as it suits Phil and Fish, nothing more.

Their long-term agendas should be fully formed by now and if they feel it helps team culture to win more games this season, I'll limp along and say oh OK, go for it. And if that means they can utilize stiffs like Bargs and Amare, cool, do what you can.

I don't even care about winning games this year as much as figuring out who is worth keeping next year and giving them time to earn their stripes and work out their kinks.

Any emphasis on success this year is really just a see-saw game between building team confidence vs. developing players. I'm not sold on the value of making the playoffs for a team completely incapable of winning anything. Yeah, I'm all for high lottery picks.

Long story short, I could give a crap about Bargs and Amare's playing time. They're history and my priorities for this season are not necessarily aligned with you or other fans. I'd rather focus on development at the cost of winning if need be.

nixluva wrote:Player development is huge but also remember that Phil wants this team to win this year so that it makes a more attractive destination for FA's. We can't have a season where we lose big again this year. So that's one of the reasons that we talk about Jose and Bargs helping cuz we do need to play well this year. Phil is going to also want to make a deal if possible and we need some of these guys to play well enough to move them. Once Jose is back and running this team it may just smooth things out and make the team a bit more consistent.

I don't fully trust Phil's personal motivations for taking this job, but I still think there are small signs of progress allowing me to play along for now. But it is not just myself being the critic that I am. You can be sure the fans will turn on Phil very quickly next year if he doesn't improve this team significantly. The proof shall be in ye olde pudding.

yellowboy90 wrote:Well If Smith is going to continue to rebound and play D like this the transition to Bargs is going to be an easy one. Then again Bargs might start shooting threes or getting lost in help D like he always do.

It just occurred to me that Bargs may be the most interesting test case for Fish. I don't think he is completely uncoachable.

I simply believe Bargs is in the wrong career for his temperament. But his talent is not negligible. And I don't perceive Bargs as a recalcitrant douche. I just think he is out of place and in spite of the financial rewards, he'd rather be harvesting fig trees in Tuscany.

Bargs is one of those guys who can be connected with in spite of his sense of displacement. Therefore, Bargs is a good project for Fish. I'm semi-curious about how it turns out.