Posted by izybx:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Michael6835:

here is my rant.

Curry is young, he is only 24-25 and he is just now coming into his game, realizing his potential. He was drafted out of highschool (age 18) and because he has been in the league 6yrs, people write him off as a waste, possibly damaged goods. Everyone matures and grows at different times, for some it takes a change in scenery, a team willing to take a chance on you, believing in you, etc. I look at him in a different light, many of his critics say 6yrs same crap, I say he has 6yrs of NBA experience under his belt. He played for a demanding coach with the Bulls and now he is playing for a coach who is asking him to step up and be the franchise. Last season was a wash, no one had a good year and he came into the situation out of shape and with tons of speculation. Fast forward to this season, he finally starts to blossom and show signs of dominance in the paint. Pardon my expression when I say, I think the fan base *** backwards in their thinking. The moment a guy starts to finally show signs of improvement, we are ready to tear him down and trade him, discrediting all of the accomplishments. Furthermore, everyone is so sure that these future draft picks of Oden and Ty Thomas will amount to superstars is beyond me. I hear statements like, if Ty Thomas continues to develop or if Oden comes in and develops. Everyone else is given the benefit of the doubt to "develop" their game, Curry is not. Look at Billups, how many teams did he play for before he found his game and home with the Pistons ? Curry is half way there, he will never be a prime time shot blocker like Mutombo, Mourning, etc. I am not blind, I do think he needs to improve his defense and rebounding along with becoming a smarter passer on offense. The difference in my thinking is that I believe he can and will improve while others are ready to jump ship. We could possibly have the next prime time guy right in our own backyard, and everyone is willing to just throw it away. I say put Ewing on the coaching squad and have him work with Curry.
My .02 cents

3 points better on average than he was with the Bulls. That's dominance and blossoming?

I think that its more than the three points more per game...this is the first year where Curry demands double and triple teams everytime he touches the ball, and hes still dropping three points more a game than before. While that wouldnt exactly qualify as dominanating the ballgame, it is dominating the low post. Even you have to admit he looks better this year than he ever has before on the offensive end. No more running people over in the low post. No more dissapearing in the fourth quarter. Like Mike says, he has a lot to improve upon, but that process is underway. If he improves his game next year to the same degree that he had the previous year, then what kind of player do you think hell be? At 24, and showing imrovement, I think theres a good possibility that the hype will eventually become reality.

Posted by martin:

Posted by izybx:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Michael6835:

here is my rant.

Curry is young, he is only 24-25 and he is just now coming into his game, realizing his potential. He was drafted out of highschool (age 18) and because he has been in the league 6yrs, people write him off as a waste, possibly damaged goods. Everyone matures and grows at different times, for some it takes a change in scenery, a team willing to take a chance on you, believing in you, etc. I look at him in a different light, many of his critics say 6yrs same crap, I say he has 6yrs of NBA experience under his belt. He played for a demanding coach with the Bulls and now he is playing for a coach who is asking him to step up and be the franchise. Last season was a wash, no one had a good year and he came into the situation out of shape and with tons of speculation. Fast forward to this season, he finally starts to blossom and show signs of dominance in the paint. Pardon my expression when I say, I think the fan base *** backwards in their thinking. The moment a guy starts to finally show signs of improvement, we are ready to tear him down and trade him, discrediting all of the accomplishments. Furthermore, everyone is so sure that these future draft picks of Oden and Ty Thomas will amount to superstars is beyond me. I hear statements like, if Ty Thomas continues to develop or if Oden comes in and develops. Everyone else is given the benefit of the doubt to "develop" their game, Curry is not. Look at Billups, how many teams did he play for before he found his game and home with the Pistons ? Curry is half way there, he will never be a prime time shot blocker like Mutombo, Mourning, etc. I am not blind, I do think he needs to improve his defense and rebounding along with becoming a smarter passer on offense. The difference in my thinking is that I believe he can and will improve while others are ready to jump ship. We could possibly have the next prime time guy right in our own backyard, and everyone is willing to just throw it away. I say put Ewing on the coaching squad and have him work with Curry.
My .02 cents

3 points better on average than he was with the Bulls. That's dominance and blossoming?

I think that its more than the three points more per game...this is the first year where Curry demands double and triple teams everytime he touches the ball, and hes still dropping three points more a game than before. While that wouldnt exactly qualify as dominanating the ballgame, it is dominating the low post. Even you have to admit he looks better this year than he ever has before on the offensive end. No more running people over in the low post. No more dissapearing in the fourth quarter. Like Mike says, he has a lot to improve upon, but that process is underway. If he improves his game next year to the same degree that he had the previous year, then what kind of player do you think hell be? At 24, and showing imrovement, I think theres a good possibility that the hype will eventually become reality.

good points. Is he playing more minutes? Yes. At the cost of not playing ANY d? Yes, but at least he is out there (it's a stretch point).

If the Knicks had shooter, the wins and double teams wouldn't come as strong. Now, when Curry was on CHI, he had a TON of outside shooting around him and was probably only single teamed, so I guess that IS improvement.

Posted by islesfan:

Curry is being doubled because he's absolutely clueless how to beat them and is just as likely to turn it over, force a bad shot or be called for an offensive foul as he is to get a good shot off.

Teams know that the Knicks are forcing the ball to Curry everytime down and running their offense through him. They also know that he can't handle the double teams. So the most obvious way to defend the Knicks offense and stifle it is to double Curry.

That's the difference between how he got his points in Chi and NY. In Chicago they didn't run their offense through him solely and had other players that could beat them. Here they blatantly run their offense through him, don't have other scorers outside of Marbury to beat you, and don't know how to handle double teams.

Teams don't just double Curry because he's some dominating force with his 19 points a game.

Posted by martin:

Posted by islesfan:

Curry is being doubled because he's absolutely clueless how to beat them and is just as likely to turn it over, force a bad shot or be called for an offensive foul as he is to get a good shot off.

Teams know that the Knicks are forcing the ball to Curry everytime down and running their offense through him. They also know that he can't handle the double teams. So the most obvious way to defend the Knicks offense and stifle it is to double Curry.

That's the difference between how he got his points in Chi and NY. In Chicago they didn't run their offense through him solely and had other players that could beat them. Here they blatantly run their offense through him, don't have other scorers outside of Marbury to beat you, and don't know how to handle double teams.

Teams don't just double Curry because he's some dominating force with his 19 points a game.

you look at the games just before Curry was being auto-doubled and it was like 20ppg easily. Chicken or the egg? I think Curry's offense exploded this year and caused the double teams. The Knicks were running the same offensive philosophy last year and you didn't see the doubling cause Curry was inept in the post.

Curry is struggle when 2/3 guys come at him, just in the same was he was struggling in the post in general with offensive fouls and such last year. Did he improve from last year to this? 100%. Can he improve the passing and decision making in the post when doubled? No reason he can't.

Posted by islesfan:

How do you plan on getting the "perfect" personnel? By trading "non-perfect" personnel? Good luck with that.

Can you say that this team is on the right track without using any big "IF"'s?

"IF they have solid shooting on the perimeter"

Because that's so easy to get on a consistent basis.

"IF they can improve our passing"

Because that's so easy to do for players who aren't already even decent passers.

Or maybe we need Isiah to do his 4th complete roster overhaul.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by islesfan:

How do you plan on getting the "perfect" personnel? By trading "non-perfect" personnel? Good luck with that.

Can you say that this team is on the right track without using any big "IF"'s?

"IF they have solid shooting on the perimeter"

Because that's so easy to get on a consistent basis.

"IF they can improve our passing"

Because that's so easy to do for players who aren't already even decent passers.

Or maybe we need Isiah to do his 4th complete roster overhaul.

IF's are a big part of any team hoping to improve. You can't speak in absolutes. Only teams that have successfully reached the Contender level can speak in absolutes. Everyone else HOPES their young talent develops, hopes to get a good player in the draft or the right player in Free Agency or via a trade. How else does that work?

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by martin:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by martin:

Posted by islesfan:

Curry is being doubled because he's absolutely clueless how to beat them and is just as likely to turn it over, force a bad shot or be called for an offensive foul as he is to get a good shot off.

Teams know that the Knicks are forcing the ball to Curry everytime down and running their offense through him. They also know that he can't handle the double teams. So the most obvious way to defend the Knicks offense and stifle it is to double Curry.

That's the difference between how he got his points in Chi and NY. In Chicago they didn't run their offense through him solely and had other players that could beat them. Here they blatantly run their offense through him, don't have other scorers outside of Marbury to beat you, and don't know how to handle double teams.

Teams don't just double Curry because he's some dominating force with his 19 points a game.

you look at the games just before Curry was being auto-doubled and it was like 20ppg easily. Chicken or the egg? I think Curry's offense exploded this year and caused the double teams. The Knicks were running the same offensive philosophy last year and you didn't see the doubling cause Curry was inept in the post.

Curry is struggle when 2/3 guys come at him, just in the same was he was struggling in the post in general with offensive fouls and such last year. Did he improve from last year to this? 100%. Can he improve the passing and decision making in the post when doubled? No reason he can't.

I think the decision to force the ball to Curry every time down came first.

I'm not saying he sucks offensively and I give him some credit for not being a walking foul (although we agree that most of that can be attributed to refuses to challenge anybody on defense), I just don't think he's improved drastically. They're just doing everything they can to get him the ball 5 feet from the basket. You do that with any decent post player and you'd think they could average 19 points.

But at what expense? Their offense is obvious, stagnant if they can't get it to him and easy to defend if they can but he's double teamed.

Curry's defense has not changed from last year to this one. His offensive fouls have gone WAAAAAY down and he is able to stay on the court for much longer.

LB was forcing the ball to Curry the same way Isiah is doing it this year, so I say his offense HAS gotten better.

D still sucks.

There is no way that you can honestly say that they're forcing the ball to Curry the same way this year as last.

Yeah, I think Martin's way off on all bolded points