i'm going to say it again, just like after the second cleveland game: the knicks are BACK!
pelicans may be 1-8 but with a healthy all-nba anthony davis they remain a playoff-caliber team. the difference in this game to prior games was that fisher's coaching between games came through: the team tried much more to run the offense after the 40 minute mark, the time of the game where, coincidentally, melo usually comes back in to finish games.
well, guess what? melo tried much harder to work the offense deeper into the game than i have ever seen from him. that's the good news, no-- that is GREAT news. now, the next step is to *not only* work the offense every possession so the goal of working as a unit is achieved, but to actually work the offense for more and more of each possession as you try to close out games, especially with 4 to 5 minutes left in the game. this is how you achieve synergy and maintain poise under greater duress.
melo just a great game from him, and with only a few discernible mistakes. really an all-nba first team demonstration. defensive energy was excellent from him, with only one lazy drift back in transition. on offense he took two bad shots in a row, in the first half i believe, before fisher took an excellent timeout. fisher needs to do this whenever melo's negative tendencies rear up. hopefully these episodes will lessen further under coach fisher's guidance. they never did under karl, d'antoni, or woodson. (in fact woodson actually encouraged this sort of foolishness.) anyway-- i noted in the game thread that i wanted to see melo get to the line 4 times and get two assists. well he got to the line two times, and had an opportunity to get there a third time off a desperation pass from grant. i think with five seconds left from 15 feet out you should be putting the ball on the floor to draw a foul. why did he rush the shot? because grant's hysteria affected melo. as to the assists, well that will continue to be a work in progress, but at the very least carmelo is now moving the ball at the end of games much better than i have ever seen from him as a knick. so-- if melo keeps working on his focus and his shot selection, freely passes the ball and plays defense-- the knicks will make the playoffs.
seraphin this may be an example of an okay player having a great night. i would not count on seeing this from him consistently. with all that is happening to the french, it's a feel-good story. and it also may be an indication of culture change that, once again, a role player steps up and majorly contributes to the win. kudos to coach fisher for having the courage to play 13 guys in an effort to figure out what and who and when.
kp let's say that eleven games into his nba career that there is plenty of fight in this dog. he is a warrior! at this point we have come to expect his floor impact, so that says it all. heck, he once again altered several of davis's shots and was not in the least but intimidated. the postgame allan hahn-- who i don't like-- insisted that two of kp's four fouls were bullshyt call, and of course i agree, especially the one over the back against anderson, who was clearly under the cylinder. refs, as allan hahn says, are going to need to adapt to this new phenomenon-- a 7'3" athlete who happens to play basketball. only quibbles: a little too aggressive sometimes on his outside shot and not getting to the line enough. it's up to coach fisher to get this phenomenon to take it up a level. still: it's kp's eleventh game!
afflalo i agree with those posters who think he has had a salutary effect on calderon, but outside of that he still looks out of sync and rusty. i really wouldn't mind seeing him come off the bench and play himself back into the starting lineup, because galloway is the more valuable and effective player.
calderon vis a vis the afflalo observations, he looks like an nba player all of a sudden. the question is how much of that is due to afflalo. i cannot tell but i am willing to go with if it ain't broke don't fix it for now. maybe calderon is another of those players who play better defense once their offense is going. i am not a fan of this but there you go.
galloway i think that he should be in the starting lineup with afflalo in the backcourt. i realize that is not going to happen barring the unforeseen... it's just that he is the better all around player. would it be so bad to have grant and calderon running the second unit? i'd like to see that, coach fisher!
thomas i don't get the hate for this guy. he is fundamentally sound although his feet and shoulders need to be more squared to the basket on his jumpshots. easily fixable, since his stroke is pretty good.
grant i see mostly positives from him: he occasionally maintains his dribble, he draws fouls, and his defense is improving, and he plays well alongside galloway (that may be coming to and end or lessen over this season). however, sometimes he loses poise, gets a little hysterical, and makes frenetic ill-timed passes. he makes several of these sorts of passes every game and that has to stop. he also shot better today, thankfully. it has otherwise been painful.
o'quinn got yanked after a bad sequence against davis. he only took two shots but it seems like he's sulking a bit. i don't get it. i thought he'd exhibit more leadership.
vujacic and williams token minutes for both. no need to go into detail here except to say that williams will get more minutes the more he is able to work properly in the flow of the offense. the knicks under coach fisher's steady hand believe in system basketball, so williams's minutes will be curtailed, i think. i wonder if fisher can figure out a role for him anyway.
if this keeps up i may have to refer to coach fisher as "mr. fisher." kudos to coach fisher-- gotta respect what we see from his players , his team....
knicks win 38-43 games in 16-17. rose MUST shoot no more than 14 shots per game, defer to kp6 + melo, and have a usage rate of less than 25%
11/15/2015 4:23 PM
