I just hope Phil also gives up the Triangle or just plain old leaves.

I'd like to bring in Thibs and build a young athletic defensive squad that runs elements of the Triangle.

franco12 wrote:its not the talent - its the system, and our insistence on playing a system that none of our players understand.

There are flashes, and there is talent and there is chemistry.

But I think at this stage of the season, guys are lost and trying to figure it out, and they're having to think in a foreign language, rather than english.

Agreed.

Coaching does make a difference - I felt players are taking better shots with Rambis and there's far less 1 on 1 stuff. Outside of that results are the same.
Rambis hasn't ever been known to get teams to win games, anyway. I wasn't expecting Rambis to get this team to more than 10 wins in the remainder of the season.

In the end I think what we saw up until 22-22 was a team that had Melo playing like a MVP caliber player. And if he had continued the Knicks would have won 43-44 games and made the playoffs. But reality hit. Melo's in physical decline. He regressed back to his season mean. I know he had an ankle injury, but so do many players in the league. The bum knee is the main problem. Once he rolled the ankle, it put more pressure on the knee and the team needed him back ASAP. He's been unable to play the same level. Even tonight if you watched the game you'd clearly see the difference in the 2 halves. One half Melo is on fire. Next half he's slow, lost that fire. By the 4th Q you could tell how stiff he had become on the bench. Melo at this point in his career can not be the number 1 guy on the team. Have no clue why he doesn't want to go to Cleveland, he should run if he gets the chance.

In a way it's good, because a playoff season may have given Phil Jackson a false sense that the team is good enough to keep moving forward and re-signing guys like Afflalo and DWill and Thomas to big contracts. Now I doubt any of them get a big contract this summer from the Knicks. They'll try to keep them, but not a major piece.

Really all it comes down to for the Knicks is Porzingis. Dude's literally already our best player (when you factor defensive impact) when Melo doesn't play at a superstar level. He's the game changer. Only he's 20, he's physically spent and he's a rookie who needs to learn many things. So long as KP is getting in a ton of reps, I am ok with whatever happens here on out. Get KP a whole NBA season experience. I also like Galloway, and hope Grant keeps getting playing time. We need to develop some young players. Even DWill, for his faults, is only 24 and has shown some improvement as the season has worn on.

Phil has a real challenge this summer, I think he may have to change the entire dynamic of the team around Melo/Porzingis. If Melo's not traded that is, I can't see Melo wanting to stay in NY for a 4th straight lottery season. If Phil can convince Melo of that, I think Melo waives the NTC. I really hope Melo is traded this summer because we need more than just Porzingis longterm. We need a young player in his age group, who will peak at the same time. The only younger guys we have are Galloway, Grant and DWill.

crzymdups wrote:If the season goes off the rails (and it looks like it will), I think you will season Melo traded to the Clippers or Cavs this summer.

I just hope Phil also gives up the Triangle or just plain old leaves.

I'd like to bring in Thibs and build a young athletic defensive squad that runs elements of the Triangle.

I'd ratherluke Walton and go get Denzell valentine kay felder and bryn forbes using melo or lopez

BRIGGS wrote:

crzymdups wrote:If the season goes off the rails (and it looks like it will), I think you will season Melo traded to the Clippers or Cavs this summer.

I just hope Phil also gives up the Triangle or just plain old leaves.

I'd like to bring in Thibs and build a young athletic defensive squad that runs elements of the Triangle.

I'd ratherluke Walton and go get Denzell valentine kay felder and bryn forbes using melo or lopez

I'm fine blowing it up and getting young talent. More than fine.

nixluva wrote:It's not the system or the coach. It's the players. Tonight we saw a lack of energy and effort from the Knicks on D and good energy and effort from the scrubs of the Nets. That was it plain and simple. Even if you aren't totally smooth offensively you can still create a lot of offense, as the Nets did with defensive hustle. You saw one brief spurt of defensive effort from the Knicks and that isn't enough.

Rambis tried to stretch the rotation because of the back to back and it was brutal. This roster is not full of great talent so they MUST give great effort and the chemistry has to be good. The chemistry gets killed with the deeper rotation and that saps the energy too. I still think they can fix these issues and get right.

KP has to stay on the floor so he has to play smarter on D. STOP JUMPING. Jerian was up and down again. He had some horrid TO's and some good aggressive moves. LT wasn't himself tonight. Gotta hope it was just one of those nights. KOQ and Seraphin are the Grim Reapers for this team. Nothing seems to kill the energy like they do. Melo looks like he's just not right.

callmened wrote:the system, the talent, the coach...just start all over man. lol. build around KP

The thing you don't want to do is put the Melo role or pressure of being the #1 guy on him now. He's not ready for it. He's physically spent playing a little less than 30 minutes a night as a 2nd/3rd option who doesn't even anchor the defense full time. If they put the pressure of him being the #1 guy and playing him 38 minutes a night, he'll be finished faster than people realize.

He's had a very good rookie season and his game has grown in the offense. He's at game 56 of the season and looks just as good as he did in game 5. He's developed some true consistency as a scorer now. I'd let him be.

The one positive in having a Melo - who is an overpaid in decline star - is that he hides all of Porzingis weaknesses really well. KP can take this year to learn what his weaknesses are and work on them in the summer. The label of being a loser as the top guy also is not attached to KP. Many positives in what Melo is doing for KP. Definitely think it's time to trade Melo, but I appreciate what he's done as a leader for the team.

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:It's not the system or the coach. It's the players. Tonight we saw a lack of energy and effort from the Knicks on D and good energy and effort from the scrubs of the Nets. That was it plain and simple. Even if you aren't totally smooth offensively you can still create a lot of offense, as the Nets did with defensive hustle. You saw one brief spurt of defensive effort from the Knicks and that isn't enough.

Rambis tried to stretch the rotation because of the back to back and it was brutal. This roster is not full of great talent so they MUST give great effort and the chemistry has to be good. The chemistry gets killed with the deeper rotation and that saps the energy too. I still think they can fix these issues and get right.

KP has to stay on the floor so he has to play smarter on D. STOP JUMPING. Jerian was up and down again. He had some horrid TO's and some good aggressive moves. LT wasn't himself tonight. Gotta hope it was just one of those nights. KOQ and Seraphin are the Grim Reapers for this team. Nothing seems to kill the energy like they do. Melo looks like he's just not right.

KP can't play 48min.

It may not be the system, but the way it is being coached by Phil and his disciples is not working.

Just remember that the System didn't make RoLo blow bunnies or Jerian miss layups and throw the ball away. System didn't make Melo miss his 2nd half jumpers. We can't win if Melo isn't going to be Melo and everyone else is also playing low energy. It's really about the players not playing well regardless of system. Especially on defense. Knicks have to get up into guys and make them uncomfortable. The effort and energy problem is something they can and should fix!!!