1) Drose looks healhty.

2) KP was making it rain from 3 (shooting form has improved)

3) Mindy looks like a rotation player with smarts

4) Sasha made me laugh within 5 seconds of entering (4 pt play allowed)

5) KOQ is a BAD defensive center (rather see KP at the 5)

6) Plumlee looked serviceable--shocked me

7) Randle can play.

8) Mo is an athletic freak who hustles.

9) Pringles's mustache is gone (Is he still pringles?)

10) C Lee is rock solid at the 2

11) We saw more penetration from Drose and Jennings in 1 preseason game than from Jose all last season

12) we will not allow 20 3's on most nights

13) Dad Melo looked like Grandpa Melo at times

GustavBahler wrote:Positives I take out of this game are Rose showing his inside game, enough to make up for forcing the issue at times. KP's stroke looks in midseason form. Bench players showing things here and there. KP should be able to play under the rim more with Noah back. He will find KP cutting.

I was hoping to see KP being set up inside but didn't happen. Mauve in the next few games we will start seeing that.

nixluva wrote:Lebron and Melo are the same age basically. I don't think we anything serious to worry about Melo. He'll always be able to shoot. How about that KP tho??? If he can be aggressive and work off Rose n Jennings etc... that's gonna be fun to watch.

People age diffently. Lebron is a once in a generation athlete. And he's not dealing with knee scopes and shoulder surgeries the way Melo is. Also, isn't Lebron a year younger since he came directly out of high school and Melo played a year in the NCAAs?

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:Lebron and Melo are the same age basically. I don't think we anything serious to worry about Melo. He'll always be able to shoot. How about that KP tho??? If he can be aggressive and work off Rose n Jennings etc... that's gonna be fun to watch.

People age diffently. Lebron is a once in a generation athlete. And he's not dealing with knee scopes and shoulder surgeries the way Melo is. Also, isn't Lebron a year younger since he came directly out of high school and Melo played a year in the NCAAs?

They're basically the same age. Melo isn't reliant on being athletic so really what's to lose??? He'll be able to hit jumpers into his 50's. He's just one of those guys that I believe can hang around forever if he wants to. He's not going to be a high energy guy at this point IMO. He's headed towards Paul Pierce/David West/Joe Johnson territory.

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:Lebron and Melo are the same age basically. I don't think we anything serious to worry about Melo. He'll always be able to shoot. How about that KP tho??? If he can be aggressive and work off Rose n Jennings etc... that's gonna be fun to watch.

People age diffently. Lebron is a once in a generation athlete. And he's not dealing with knee scopes and shoulder surgeries the way Melo is. Also, isn't Lebron a year younger since he came directly out of high school and Melo played a year in the NCAAs?

They're basically the same age. Melo isn't reliant on being athletic so really what's to lose??? He'll be able to hit jumpers into his 50's. He's just one of those guys that I believe can hang around forever if he wants to. He's not going to be a high energy guy at this point IMO. He's headed towards Paul Pierce/David West/Joe Johnson territory.

Melo's FG% has been trending downwards for three straight years. He got blocked a lot more often last year than he ever had and got fewer free throws, too. Pierce's FG% trended upwards at Melo's age. I think it's somewhat of a fallacy to compare the two.

Also, it makes no sense to compare him to Lebron - they have almost nothing in common stylistically and are different ages and play wildly different games.

I'm rooting for Melo to have a good year, but statistically and by the eye test, Melo has been in decline for the past 2-3 years. He relies a lot more on his quickness and bully ball down low than you see to give him credit for. His free throw attempts have been trending downward for four years since the 54 win season in 2012-3.

OK first off I DID NOT compare Melo to Lebron in terms of their games. I was just pointing out that Melo and Lebron are in the same age range.

I see no reason to get concerned about Melo falling off just yet. It's only natural for his stats to trend down. Melo will not have to go with Bully Ball as much if he looks for more shots in the flow of the offense as Hornacek is working to create. His face up and turn around jumper is still there. We'll see how this plays out this year.

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/herringwsj/status/783500003390087168

Not sure I love this approach.

Don't read anything into this. Horny believes in Thibs defensive philosophies. He's just easing the team into this cuz there's a lot to bring together.

I think you're probably right. But telling guys to close out on shooters seems pretty basic. It was an early game and probably not great to go up against freewheeling Houston and MDA in game one. But there were some major areas of concern, I'd say.

They definitely looked unprepared so this Tweet explains that. I'm not too concerned with trying to win as much as I am for guys to get their feet wet. It's October, preseason... we're getting started not out here trying to win a preseason championship.

nixluva wrote:

EnySpree wrote:

crzymdups wrote:My main take away is that I don't think KOQ fits with this team. Or he's just not good. He looks lost and plays totally the wrong style for this team.

That might be the biggest hole...

Or hopefully guys like Ndour play so good it forces KOQ to the bench.

Cheese to me showed enough to be the primary backup 3... Lance and NDOUR could play the 4. KOQ could possibly be phased out.

Yeah KOQ can just be frustrating to watch. He has moments where you think OK just play like this but more often he just plays like he's better than he is and doesn't know his role. I'm ready to see the other young guys if he keeps this up.

At this point, he is what he is. The team loves him so they will give him the opportunity but the new guys will be breaking down his neck.

Also, the starters desperately need Noah's passing over KOQ's... whatever it is he does.

blkexec wrote:I worry about melo messing up chemistry, trying to keep his 20 pt average and star status.....i saw a few times when melo and others would not pass to the open man, trying to selfishlyput up stats..... as soon as all 5 players on the court plays like a team, we will start winning.

Chancey also said something critical. The triangle worked in the past because phil had a top defensive team. Our defense is at the bottom.....thats a bad combination for a team running a triangle offense. Just like Horny said play defense without a strategy.....i used to build my teams based on defense and told them dont worry about offense, but a provided defensive strategies.....my winning record is flawless....Defense wins championships.....we havent been a good defensive team since the 90s.....

Knicks had worse defenders on the perimeter last year and ended up 18th in defense. It's possible that this team could end up a good deal better once they lock in. I think Horny is just trying to ease the team into this. They have a lot to absorb and bring together with all the new players and maybe he is taking things in stages.