Steph isn't a miserable shooter. He seems like he's about a 35-36% 3pt shooter at this point in his career. I'm not counting last year under LB, since he didn't really want them taking 3's. Don't forget how poorly he started the year, which i'm sure effected his overall % on the season. Besides what is the point of bringing this up anyway? Also this whole thing about being a leader as well is a problem, since there are very few true leaders like that in the entire league. Yeah you can mention Nash and Kidd, who are only the two top PG's in the league. Few others have been able to show that level of leadership. Not every player is a natural leader. It would be nice for your PG to be that person, but that is also a rare thing even in the NBA.

What I will say is that Steph has become MORE of a leader than he was and it's not the 1st time that he's done that in his career. People just don't give him any credit for when he's done that in the past. Likely because he's not that good at leading. Still he has been noted for leading his team before, but he's just not a great leader. Anyone that is out there calling the plays and telling his teammates where to go is in effect leading, but like anything there are many degrees of leadership, Nash and Kidd being on the higher level. Steph is more of a guy that mans the position, but isn't taking full responsibility for the entire team. I would love for him to be more vocal and I think he has improved in that regard. You could see him doing it this year.

Back to the topic at hand. We do have shooters, but if isiah is going to make a trade for a PF perhaps getting Almond would make sense at that point. None of the shooters we have are in Almond's class in terms of his size and stroke. We have guys that can penetrate and kick so why not add a spot up shooter?

Question:

How likely is it for a rookie SG (Almond, Bellinelli, Young, whoever) to come in and get playing time... enough to make a difference as a shooter who spreads the court. You've got to GET on the court first before you can spread it with your stroke.

Its probably easier for a shotblocker to earn minutes and make an impact off the bench. Almond or whomever isn't going to be able to start over Craw/Marb will he? The whole point is to have our shooter be on the court with Curry who starts. So it would make sense to go for a shooter in free agency and draft a young shotblocker. Thats all about this year. If we don't care about drafting to fill a need in year 1, i'm on board with drafting a shooter and being patient with him and the coach as they deal with his rookie initiation.

To me that showed me Marbury is not focusing or still doesn't understand...Defense win's CHAMPIONSHIPS not more scorers.

It just shows where his basketball IQ is ! The knicks are built to entertain , not win big playoff games.

Almond looks very deliberate out there...that's my one concern about him. Sometimes it's just a matter of style, but I have some questions on his athletcism. Then again, if you really can shoot the lights out that's enough to get you on the floor.

crawford to zeke: "we need a head out there"

Stephon saw how badly the Knicks needed outside shooting first hand once Jamal went out and Q-Rich went out. Curry was getting double and triple teamed on a nightly basis. Last year the Knicks carried 4 players very weak in the shooting department. Balkman, Lee, Mardy and Jefferies. Thats pretty bad folks. Lee is great around the basket but 10 feet away its pretty much a toss around the rim. So when Stephon praises a guy like Kerr he has a good reason. Just look at all the spot up shooter the Spurs have opening the floor for Duncan, the knicks need more shooter to open the floor up for a mre efficient offense to exist.

a deadeye shooter would definitely be nice, but i also want to give a shoutout to lee and balkman, who i see as very effective on offense next to curry despite lacking that J. both guys are good offensive rebounders, something that requires the defense to pay attention to them. from what i've seen balkman is also an exceptional cutter - finding that space and corralling passes from our less-than-perfect passers. lee is not quite as active that way, but also can be effective inside next to eddy.

basically, my point is that we could definitely use a shooting specialist, but let's be cautious and make the appropriate pick, not go crazy the way we did over size two offseasons ago (frye/lee/james/curry) and defense last year (jeffries/balkman).

[Edited by - Masterplan on 06-13-2007 09:55 AM]

Posted by Bippity10:

This shiot about getting a shooter has been obvious since the day we acquired Curry. Unfortunately we were so desperate to find guys that would not quit and would play some d that we haven't been able to address it until now.

Yet we still didn't find many guys who play d!

Zeke to Steph: Stop shooting

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by Cookdcokehop:

This is why Channing Frye is a mystery. His game fits beautifully with Currys. He is 7 foot power foward that can shoot. When him and Curry are on the court together they should both have big games. Too bad Frye is a bitch.

I think Frye's game would fit with curry only if he rebounded and played D. But Frye's game has always been a jumpshooter that isn't the strongest defender or rebounder. This was apparent before he was drafted. Unfortunately unless we demand that our 7 foot 300 pound center grab some rebounds and block some shots, guys like David Lee and Frye are mismatched next to him. We have to find someone in the frontcourt that can close the middle. No matter how much promise our youth has, and no matter how much we sugar coat it, we all know somewhere in the back of our minds that you cannot win if you don't at least attempt to close down the middle.

Yeah it's the interior D that makes me have such a hard time deciding on whether to take a Morris Almond or a Sean Williams. In truth I think we need BOTH. It's hard to choose if you have the one pick. One thing that would make the balance shift towards Sean is the idea that we can already score. We CAN'T stop people. The other side of things is that we already have a few F's including Morris who we haven't really seen yet. Taking a shooter like M. Almond would serve to reinforce us as an offensive power. Then we could hope and pray that we can get enough D from our group of F's and an improved Curry.