18. NEW YORK KNICKS
2014-15 RECORD: 17-65, did not make playoffs
ADDED: G Arron Afflalo (two years, $16 million); C Robin Lopez (four years, $54 million); F Kyle O'Quinn (four years, $16 million); C Kevin Seraphin (one year, $2.8 million); G Sasha Vucevic (one year, $947,000); F Derrick Williams (two years, $9 million); F Kristaps Porzingis (first round, 4th pick); G Jerian Grant (Draft rights via trade from Washington);
LOST: F Quincy Acy (signed with Sacramento); C Cole Aldrich (signed with Los Angeles Clippers); F/C Andrea Bargnani (signed with Brooklyn); G Tim Hardaway, Jr. (traded to Atlanta); G Shane Larkin (signed with Brooklyn); G Alexey Shved (signed with Khimki Moscow); C Jason Smith (signed with Orlando)

RETAINED: F Lou Amundson (one year, $1.65 million)
THE KEY MAN: Owner James Dolan. Only he knows how long he'll be patient with Phil Jackson if the Knicks again have a horrible season next year.

THE SKINNY: They'll be a little better. The rush to condemn the selection of Porzingis seems comically premature and clichéd; he'll certainly have his ups and downs as a rookie, but you can be sure those who brayed the loudest on Draft night against him have never seen Porzingis play live. Anyway, Lopez will be decent at center, Afflalo and Grant will help shore up what was a woefully deficient backcourt, and Seraphin and O'Quinn are pretty good role players on very low-risk contracts. The Knicks won't be sexy, and they'll likely not make the playoffs again, but at least they'll put a credible product on the floor after last year's embarrassing version, and that's a step in the right direction.

Yes, I'm very optomistic.....But I'm also realistic. And if everybody can remain healthy, theres a very good chance of us making the playoffs. Every single player on the roster has a chip on their shoulder. This wasn't the case when we had Melo and Amari playing together. This team, this coach and this GM are all hungry to succeed. Thats a recipe alone for future success. This is the only time I don't mind making the playoffs, since we don't have a pick anyway. And it will be a great learning experience for the rookies to play a 7 game series.....I think Grant and KP are the types to step up in pressure moments.....Both have great basketball blood lines to back that up.....

blkexec wrote:I'm willing to put a huge wager on the Knicks making the playoffs......

Yes, I'm very optomistic.....But I'm also realistic. And if everybody can remain healthy, theres a very good chance of us making the playoffs. Every single player on the roster has a chip on their shoulder. This wasn't the case when we had Melo and Amari playing together. This team, this coach and this GM are all hungry to succeed. Thats a recipe alone for future success. This is the only time I don't mind making the playoffs, since we don't have a pick anyway. And it will be a great learning experience for the rookies to play a 7 game series.....I think Grant and KP are the types to step up in pressure moments.....Both have great basketball blood lines to back that up.....

i'm not optimistic because i don't trust melo to change. or put another way, it's a long season and he may not be up to the task of changing. not talented enough or smart enough. if you think he can change then you are certainly NOT being realistic.

CrushAlot wrote:

dk7th wrote:

blkexec wrote:I'm willing to put a huge wager on the Knicks making the playoffs......

Yes, I'm very optomistic.....But I'm also realistic. And if everybody can remain healthy, theres a very good chance of us making the playoffs. Every single player on the roster has a chip on their shoulder. This wasn't the case when we had Melo and Amari playing together. This team, this coach and this GM are all hungry to succeed. Thats a recipe alone for future success. This is the only time I don't mind making the playoffs, since we don't have a pick anyway. And it will be a great learning experience for the rookies to play a 7 game series.....I think Grant and KP are the types to step up in pressure moments.....Both have great basketball blood lines to back that up.....

i'm not optimistic because i don't trust melo to change. or put another way, it's a long season and he may not be up to the task of changing. not talented enough or smart enough. if you think he can change then you are certainly NOT being realistic.

If he stays the same and hits his career averages of 25, 7 and 3 I think the Knicks will be fine. He obviously has been working on the triangle and he will have better teammates this year.

he'll need to get closer to 6 assists to be effective in the triangle. that's the assist number of jordan and bryant. melo is not that guy. also, the usage to assist ratio for both jordan and bryant is around 1.3:1, or 1.4:1.

melo's best year in terms of this ratio was playing UNDER chauncey billups, the mvp of the finals. again, melo is just not that guy. he's a lumbering swingman/tweener.

and then lets compare jordan and bryant's conditioning to anthony's conditioning......................................

CrushAlot wrote:

dk7th wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

dk7th wrote:

blkexec wrote:I'm willing to put a huge wager on the Knicks making the playoffs......

Yes, I'm very optomistic.....But I'm also realistic. And if everybody can remain healthy, theres a very good chance of us making the playoffs. Every single player on the roster has a chip on their shoulder. This wasn't the case when we had Melo and Amari playing together. This team, this coach and this GM are all hungry to succeed. Thats a recipe alone for future success. This is the only time I don't mind making the playoffs, since we don't have a pick anyway. And it will be a great learning experience for the rookies to play a 7 game series.....I think Grant and KP are the types to step up in pressure moments.....Both have great basketball blood lines to back that up.....

i'm not optimistic because i don't trust melo to change. or put another way, it's a long season and he may not be up to the task of changing. not talented enough or smart enough. if you think he can change then you are certainly NOT being realistic.

If he stays the same and hits his career averages of 25, 7 and 3 I think the Knicks will be fine. He obviously has been working on the triangle and he will have better teammates this year.

he'll need to get closer to 6 assists to be effective in the triangle. that's the assist number of jordan and bryant. melo is not that guy. also, the usage to assist ratio for both jordan and bryant is around 1.3:1, or 1.4:1.

melo's best year in terms of this ratio was playing UNDER chauncey billups, the mvp of the finals. again, melo is just not that guy. he's a lumbering swingman/tweener.

and then lets compare jordan and bryant's conditioning to anthony's conditioning......................................

Mike was at 6 assists pre baseball but was around 4 when he came back. Kobe was never at 6 when they were winning championships, usually around 5. I am going to go with Phil on this one.

Usually the assists are spread pretty evenly. There are a lot of "hockey assists" when you run the Triangle. That's why PG's don't usually have a ton of assists in the Triangle. Melo just needs to play in the flow, pass if he's doubled and he'll be fine. It's possible for him to end up at about 4 assists this year.

mreinman wrote:hockey assists would be nice. Melo does not pass out of the double, triple, quadruple, quintuple team. I hoped that he would last year since phil is/was our zen master. It did not happen. Don't expect it this year or you will be disappointed / wrong. Melo is Melo. Check ..........

Well his ast% was up higher than it had been the previous 2 yrs. He needs to keep going on the up scale.

mreinman wrote:hockey assists would be nice. Melo does not pass out of the double, triple, quadruple, quintuple team. I hoped that he would last year since phil is/was our zen master. It did not happen. Don't expect it this year or you will be disappointed / wrong. Melo is Melo. Check ..........

I actually saw it happen for like two games when we played the pelicans and the magic . I actually thought that t was.going to continue but unfortunately I was wrong.

ChuckBuck wrote:

smackeddog wrote:Fair enough

Agreed. If they all play up to their potential, they should easily double their win total from last season.

Probably end up on the outside looking in the playoffs, possibly sneak in the 8th seed if they win a few more games.

I'm looking at this year as strictly a building block season, as KP and Grant go through their rookie growing pains. They'll add a few more pieces and continue building, season by season.

Very fair and I agree this is going to be a building block season.

I do feel the charecter of this group will build an identity. People trash Lou and Lance but the team took on their personalities down the stretch. The Knicks didn't have the talent to win but they had the heart to complete. Our talent level increased this off season but we basically got a team full of Lou and Lance. I think we will display that identity from the start. I have a great feeling about this group. Even if we don't make the playoffs, I feel this group will establish our style of play and establish our identity going forward. Foundation is being laid my friends