Posted by earthmansurfer:

Ok, so here is his stats from last night:

8 mins, 0 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, no fouls and had his shot blocked under the basket by Chandler, after which he never saw game time again, what gives?

To be honest, I thought he was going to have a big game...

Balkman had a chance to make MDA eat his dismissive words regarding what he might have meant to the Knicks this year, but he did not exactly rise to the occasion last night.

Balkman will always have his moments, but his offensive liabilities have never been addressed by hard work and extra practice on his part. With a decent jump shot, he would be worth his weight in gold, but the effort he puts into his playing time has never been transfered to an off season improvement on his shooting.

Balkman is what he is. A huslte guy with a lot of energy. As I said before, as bad as we feel jeffries is, he still is a more competent offensive player than balkman.. jeffries actually had a very good game, posting 10 points and 8 boards, along with 3 dimes, I think..

There a dime a dozen yeah but he's a very good role player, and those are hard to find. I would rather ariza or balk then jj.

Posted by knicks1248:

There a dime a dozen yeah but he's a very good role player, and those are hard to find. I would rather ariza or balk then jj.

And when we are ready to compete legitimately in the playoffs, then we can start worrying about role players. In the meantime, again, who gives an f?

I am not knocking his skills, but players like Ariza, Posey, Horry, Delonte West etc have a way of looking good when they are playing alongside Lebron and Michael and Kobe and Shaq and hakeem and Kevin and Paul, Tim etc. The great players have a way of masking the flaws of role players and making them look good. Trust me there are plenty of bench players in this league whose stock would skyrocket in the same situation. When we have a star to lead us(god, someday please) the star role players will be coming out of the woodworks.

Ask yourself, why is it that year after year during Tim Duncan's career the Spurs have been able to find so many great role players? If you say it's great management, I would agree with you. But let's see what happens after Duncan retires.