dont know if Lee is better at the 3 than Ariza.

I am sorry, having Crawff in the starting lineup is not wise...rest assure, Brown will realize it before the end of preseason. The wisest lineup is definitely: Marb, Q, Ariza or Lee, Frye, and curry......Nate, Crawf, Lee or Ariza, Rose or ???? and James....We can't afford to have two players who are defensive liability in the back court.

lee, butler and frye are our best rebounders

Posted by NYKBocker:

I like the Curry, Frye combination.

ever since we got Curry, that is the frontline im praying for

oh yeah, danny granger is absolutely sick, hes going to be an nba superstar pippen clone to bad he didnt slide a tad more to 21:>(

Posted by diderotn:

Rest assure Go, Larry will figure it out. Crawff is our biggest liability, because he is not strong enough to guard the opposing SG and most of all, he is not quick enough to guard the PG.

I'm not so certain that Crawford isn't quick enough to guard PG's. Jamal has a very good amount of quickness, I think it's defensive instincts more than anything else. There was a play in tonight's game when his man who the annoucers (Breen & Fraizer) knew favored his right hand. Crawford was guarding him straight up, so the player faked left and went to his right, past Jamal to the basket. Comare that to the Sixers' Iguodala, who on an earlier play was guarding Crawford. He clearly knew that Jamal likes to go to his right, but being as good a defender as he is, he guarded him what seemed to be straight up. However, when Jamal tried his little dribble-fake to the left Iguodala didn't go for the fake, shuffled backwards to Jamal's right figuring Jamal was headed that way, and drew the charge. That to me is one of Jamal's glaring weaknesses (as much as I like Crawford), not necessarily any lack of quickness to guard PG's.

It should be said that I think Crawford has played better D this pre-season than last year. I've seen more intensity from him (in yesterday's game and in the 2nd half of tonight's game), despite his overall inconsistent play. I uspect that the adjustment defensively as well as on the offensive end is what is causing him to struggle, thusfar.

Last year the offensive was clearly different. We saw a lot of Craw going one-on-one with his defender, trying to studder step/cross him over...more often than not...for a long jumper. What I have seen thusfar in pre-season, more than last year, is that he has been taking the ball to the basket. The thing is he has the tools: nice quickness, a good handle, a good jumper, and can finish in the lane. This led me, last year, to think he was afraid of contact, alltogether.

However, if he does more of the driving to the hole like we've seen in pre-season, this year, than the one-on-one stuff then we will see him grow more comfortable and do very well. I have a strong feeling that Crawford's game is one of Larry Brown's "works in progress," because it's not something you can change overnight. It seemed that last year Lenny & Herb just gave he and Stephon free-reign to do what they wanted, which more often than not, led to bad shot selection from pull up jumpers after one and sometimes no passes.

I think that's going to be the biggest adjustment for Crawford, and Marbury (to a lesser extent, since Steph is not afraid of contact while penetrating the lane). I have hopes that they will improve on this because I've already seen more of it than all of last season, IMHO.

Tonight's game was atrocious, but it's pre-season and an opportunity for the Knicks to learn from the mistake of coming out with a lack of intensity in a game. I assume Larry will not let them forget. Let's hope so.

Posted by Killa4luv:

dont know if Lee is better at the 3 than Ariza.

he's not. Lee is a PF. even if Frye starts Lee will get minutes

[Edited by - gunsnewing on 10-18-2005 10:56 PM]

How can you flat out say that Lee is a PF????

just because he is our best rebounder doesn't mean that he is a PF. That kid is a baller and we both know it, but we can best use his skils and our roster by pluging him in at SF....Lee and Frye seem to have a pretty good chemistry between the two and combine with Curry we could have a pretty pottent mixture...