this game was exciting in spurts but overall i found it unwatchable because of the egos involved. "just two guys having fun". okay i guess this acceptable for most fans but still.... it was "entertaining" in the worst possible sense of the term. as trautwig said: "the game had no soul." this is not a "good win" because the team looked disjointed. but it WAS a "needed" win.

galloway kid is cluuuuuutch. he has to get starters minutes even if he doesn't start... and i hope he does.
calderon maybe this gets him going... don't know, don't care. he isn't the future, galloway is. somebody mentioned he should just be a spot up shooter-- i agree, and that has been my position since the summer when other posters siad that he had to get minutes as the starter. i didn't even want to see him in the rotation.... but what are we doing having a starter who doesn't play any defense?!?
grant he is going to have to figure out how to adapt now that it is clear he is not a good shooter. just as troubling is his struggles finishing around the basket and two time he made terrible passes from the baseline off stifled drives, that happened to find their way to calderon one time and then melo another. but still... he picked up his dribble which is a big no-no. it's okay. he is going to need more time and frankly he looks like a 16 minute per game player as of right now. we shall see.
melo ego and inefficiency, pissing contest and playground ball... i lost track of poor shots today, and the negative effect it has on the offense is undeniable.
lopez he had floor impact again today doing the things he is being paid to do.
williams an okay game from him but he is showing his limitations as a player. does not have court vision or savvy but he is a terrific athlete and i love the way he can draw fouls and get to the line. that is a skill.
o'quinn & thomas serviceable bench players and these are the types of players who may be affected most by the disjointedness of the offense because of the egocentric sort of nonsense we saw today.
seraphin he does not deserve minutes. he has some attitude issues the way he plays and his lack of conditioning.
porzingis he alters shots of every assignment he has. he got jobbed on a couple of foul calls. fisher had a right to be upset. and the hustle? i have said this about porzingis: he has a chance to be a kevin garnett type of player, and with a three point shot. knicks are lucky and kudos to phil jackson. as it is i consider him the knicks most important player. i know this will drive the melo worshippers crazy. don't care

in spite of all this there is one overarching thing to this game, which is the coaching staff's being able to distribute minutes more concisely, especially if afflalo returns. remember afflalo?

yellowboy90 wrote:

mreinman wrote:very unfair to lopez and even to melo.

So you're saying it's just another day.

dk knows the game better than most but his hate gets in the way sometimes. Melo had a good game and his floor impact was solid today. Did he have some really ugly chucks? Yes but less this game. He did not get assists but did a lot of passing. He even drove with the intent to pass which I NEVER see him do. Rolo missed a gimme but it was a great play. He also played inspired defense most of the time though maybe that was because it was kobe.

yellowboy90 wrote:

mreinman wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:

mreinman wrote:very unfair to lopez and even to melo.

So you're saying it's just another day.

dk knows the game better than most but his hate gets in the way sometimes. Melo had a good game and his floor impact was solid today. Did he have some really ugly chucks? Yes but less this game. He did not get assists but did a lot of passing. He even drove with the intent to pass which I NEVER see him do. Rolo missed a gimme but it was a great play. He also played inspired defense most of the time though maybe that was because it was kobe.

Like I said before, I agree with you on the passing but the defense was shaky at times. He picked up his D in the second half some but giving up 1st half points still counts against him.

If he continues to pass like this I think it will open up his game because the help defender is not going to cheat as much. Hopefully Melo will trust that he can finish. It looks like he does not trust his explosiveness and is trying to get the ball up quick. Luckily, the bigs have rebounded his missed lay up recently to get some easy put back.

ok ... fair take. Lets give him credit for second half defense.

mreinman wrote:very unfair to lopez and even to melo.

sorry but i was in a hurry to tune in to the giants game. we can discuss your quarrel with my brief observations later. meantime i just heard moose on fox talk about playing with other versus playing for others. where does melo fit in to this spectrum?

dk7th wrote:

mreinman wrote:very unfair to lopez and even to melo.

sorry but i was in a hurry to tune in to the giants game. we can discuss your quarrel with my brief observations later. meantime i just heard moose on fox talk about playing with other versus playing for others. where does melo fit in to this spectrum?

the question is if you see more team play from him. Which direction is he going? You know that I am all over him in games but if you counted the number of passes that he made today and the speed of his passes (not holding the ball) you would be surprised.

yellowboy90 wrote:What's cool is that an 8 ast and 2 TO game is considered a bad game for a rookie who played less than 19 minutes. I amazed at how little time these rookie play despite being a big part of the rotation.

grant? yes he can affect the game in other ways. his defense and shooting was not good today. i want to if his usage to assist ratio is point guard-like before i heap praise on him for all those assists. if it's in the .5:1 or even as high as .70:1 then i'd say the assists had some value in terms of creating offensive cohesion. if it's in the marbury/francis/rose/felton territory then... not so hot.

mreinman wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:What's cool is that an 8 ast and 2 TO game is considered a bad game for a rookie who played less than 19 minutes. I amazed at how little time these rookie play despite being a big part of the rotation.

his passing is good and of course he is young but that shot! Oy vey. Not so easy to fix a broken shot.

I actually think Jerian will eventually get his shot going. It's not that unusual for rookie PG's to struggle early with their jumper. He's got loads of talent and heart. Just takes time.

Calderon finally had a little impact when he was on the floor, because he actually shot the ball. However, I still believe that dude should not be our starting PG. he can be a lot more effective playing off the ball, because he no longer can dominate the ball playing in the triangle; further, he doesn't have the foot speed to defend nor beat anyone off the dribble.

KP played a very nice game. He played tall and aggressive

Lopez impacted the game as well and it shows in the stat sheets

Coudos to the interim coach for managing the rotation during Fisher's absence

Last but not least, Galloway was once again a stud

dk7th wrote:MVP!MVP!MVP!MVP! fukk these bryant/laker fans in msg. i mean wtf are you kidding me?!? god all-fukkin mighty

this game was exciting in spurts but overall i found it unwatchable because of the egos involved. "just two guys having fun". okay i guess this acceptable for most fans but still.... it was "entertaining" in the worst possible sense of the term. as trautwig said: "the game had no soul." this is not a "good win" because the team looked disjointed. but it WAS a "needed" win.

galloway kid is cluuuuuutch. he has to get starters minutes even if he doesn't start... and i hope he does.
calderon maybe this gets him going... don't know, don't care. he isn't the future, galloway is. somebody mentioned he should just be a spot up shooter-- i agree, and that has been my position since the summer when other posters siad that he had to get minutes as the starter. i didn't even want to see him in the rotation.... but what are we doing having a starter who doesn't play any defense?!?
grant he is going to have to figure out how to adapt now that it is clear he is not a good shooter. just as troubling is his struggles finishing around the basket and two time he made terrible passes from the baseline off stifled drives, that happened to find their way to calderon one time and then melo another. but still... he picked up his dribble which is a big no-no. it's okay. he is going to need more time and frankly he looks like a 16 minute per game player as of right now. we shall see.
melo ego and inefficiency, pissing contest and playground ball... i lost track of poor shots today, and the negative effect it has on the offense is undeniable.
lopez he had floor impact again today doing the things he is being paid to do.
williams an okay game from him but he is showing his limitations as a player. does not have court vision or savvy but he is a terrific athlete and i love the way he can draw fouls and get to the line. that is a skill.
o'quinn & thomas serviceable bench players and these are the types of players who may be affected most by the disjointedness of the offense because of the egocentric sort of nonsense we saw today.
seraphin he does not deserve minutes. he has some attitude issues the way he plays and his lack of conditioning.
porzingis he alters shots of every assignment he has. he got jobbed on a couple of foul calls. fisher had a right to be upset. and the hustle? i have said this about porzingis: he has a chance to be a kevin garnett type of player, and with a three point shot. knicks are lucky and kudos to phil jackson. as it is i consider him the knicks most important player. i know this will drive the melo worshippers crazy. don't care

in spite of all this there is one overarching thing to this game, which is the coaching staff's being able to distribute minutes more concisely, especially if afflalo returns. remember afflalo?

so... monday morning and basketballreference.com http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201511080NYK.html?lid=yesterday_games_box comes out with it's box score-- the advanced box score says a lot about grant in terms of point guard skills, ie his usage to assist ratio is .28:1 which of course is off the charts terrific. obviously is shooting hurt(s) the knicks, as did his defense.

if you look at the usage to assist ratios for bryant and melo, it was clearly the bryant and melo show, with bryant clocking on at an unacceptable 1.83:1 and melo at his usual unacceptable 2.5:1. so lets not chime in with "melo passed the ball, melo shared the ball." he didn't. and combined with taking 5-6 bad shots, these two things hurt the team. on defense he sorta/kinda held his own, albeit in a shootout with his "big brother." lets hope he reverts to being a better team player, something he has already demonstrated he can do, happily.

as to lopez, i did give him short shrift when clearly this was one of his better games, if not his best game. it isn't the four "raw" assists, it is his usage/ast ratio, a fantastic .76:1 which is elite and defines a center as a playmaker. if he puts up this sort of ratio then that will be a huge factor in the knicks win total this season-- this is noah, gasol territory. and 5 offensive rebounds!