CrushAlot wrote:Good news. But the kid had surgery. Wtf is up with. Bargs? Also in Berman's other article one of his sources is an 'assistant coach'. If someon on Fisher's staff is talking to Berman it probably doesn't end well. http://nypost.com/2014/12/22/knicks-christmas-gift-a-healthy-j-r-smith/

I'm glad that Early will be back so he can continue to be developed. We really need to get Early, THJ and even Larkin into the groove of playing meaningful minutes and gaining confidence. Early and Larkin more so than THJ, both need to be more aggressive and not as scared to take the opening and make a play.

CrushAlot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:Good news. But the kid had surgery. Wtf is up with. Bargs? Also in Berman's other article one of his sources is an 'assistant coach'. If someon on Fisher's staff is talking to Berman it probably doesn't end well. http://nypost.com/2014/12/22/knicks-christmas-gift-a-healthy-j-r-smith/

Removing a loose fragment in the Knee isn't like a structural or muscular injury. If you've ever had a pulled hamstring or a Calf strain it's a tricky injury. Just when you think it's better you go hard and tweak it again. I know personally how long it can take to really get past the point where you can go hard and not re-aggravate the injury. I'm not saying Bargs injury isn't frustrating just that it's a tricky thing for a lot of athletes.

I'm glad that Early will be back so he can continue to be developed. We really need to get Early, THJ and even Larkin into the groove of playing meaningful minutes and gaining confidence. Early and Larkin more so than THJ, both need to be more aggressive and not as scared to take the opening and make a play.

Bosh has been out with a calf injury as well.

I didn't even realize Bosh had a calf injury.

I hope Early doesn't have any kind of continued issues with his knees. That's the last thing we need. He has good energy on D and if he can fully develop his handle and passing game he should be a good rotation player.

I also don't want to overlook Wear and Aldrich as players we need to continue to develop. Both have had some good moments when given a chance to play. They both need more minutes IMO.

Knicks1969 wrote:I almost forgot about that kid. For the little I have seen of him so far; he appears to be a competitor. He has decent fundamentals on defense and can shoot the ball and has a nice post up game. Heavy minutes will definitely be beneficial to his development. But where is he going to find the minutes; specifically, when Carmelo is still playing 40 minutes a game?

Obviously they would have to cut Melo's minutes at SF. Also Melo is gonna miss some games with his current condition.

Some of the judgments rendered on him in sparse minutes were woefully disparaging which made little sense. Coming back now during a crap season is perfect as there should be more minutes for him to get comfy. Hope he works out for this team's sake.

mreinman wrote:

Splat wrote:I liked what I saw of Early. He looked like a confident shooter, he has an excellent stride that covers ground fast on defense and should make him a good fast break finisher and he was actually working on defense.

Some of the judgments rendered on him in sparse minutes were woefully disparaging which made little sense. Coming back now during a crap season is perfect as there should be more minutes for him to get comfy. Hope he works out for this team's sake.

what I liked most about him is that he actually makes smart decisions with the ball.

He actually looks like he went to college.

He is a smart kid who puts in a lot of time researching the game of basketball. He reads a lot of books and asks a lot of questions. If he gets minutes and can stay healthy, he might be a huge surprise for years to come.

Splat wrote:I liked what I saw of Early. He looked like a confident shooter, he has an excellent stride that covers ground fast on defense and should make him a good fast break finisher and he was actually working on defense.

Some of the judgments rendered on him in sparse minutes were woefully disparaging which made little sense. Coming back now during a crap season is perfect as there should be more minutes for him to get comfy. Hope he works out for this team's sake.

The problem with Early is he played 4 in college and has no handle. He can shoot but he needs extensive time in the D league when healthy. Just throwing a rookie out there in the NBA after knee surgery is sure to rip his confidence down another 5 pegs.

Splat wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

Splat wrote:I liked what I saw of Early. He looked like a confident shooter, he has an excellent stride that covers ground fast on defense and should make him a good fast break finisher and he was actually working on defense.

Some of the judgments rendered on him in sparse minutes were woefully disparaging which made little sense. Coming back now during a crap season is perfect as there should be more minutes for him to get comfy. Hope he works out for this team's sake.

The problem with Early is he played 4 in college and has no handle. He can shoot but he needs extensive time in the D league when healthy. Just throwing a rookie out there in the NBA after knee surgery is sure to rip his confidence down another 5 pegs.

In your obvious quest to read all available sources, I think sometimes you are so dependent on other people's opinions you recite their take on the players and forget to actually watch the player themselves. At least, that seems to be the case with Early, since the standard rap against him was he has no handle. Yet, I saw him take it to the hole and dribble through traffic a number of times. Considering how little he has played, neither of our takes have much weight, but I'm certainly going to go by what I've seen far more than some report based on his play 6-12 months ago in college.

Say he has no handle and I say we'll see if he does or not.

I only repeat what I see myself. He played 4 in college--he was the 4 man. Wichita State plays a 3 guard set and their other bigs were young 4's who they swapped around into the SL all year. Great great team. But the truth is he did not play with a handle much in college and he did not show any handle in the SL action he had. He clearly needs development time--can that be in the NBA in the last 40 junk games--sure. But I think the smartest move is to start him in the D league for 5 games.