Nice read Bippity.

what i see is a buncha meaningless preseason games that don't mean much... i never thought this team would be good this year to begin with... just another wash year AFAIC.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by fishmike:

this is depressing because it just morre of the same. We just look bad in most facets of the game, and Gallo, Douglas, Hill and Chandler havent given us so much of a flash that says "rotation player on a winning team."

Douglas takes care of the ball and plays excellent D, but thats a role player. He's not creating his own shot (yet) and he's not setting up others (yet).

We just havent had anything good talk about with this group because they arent giving us anything to talk about.

We have to keep it in perspective. It's preaseason so adjustments will need to be made, but..........they have worked together for almost a year and should be further along at this point. For me, Wilson is the most disappointing so far. That being said, despite all the gloom, they will improve. How can they not?

Again, I'm aware of the situation here. I'm going in to the season anticipating a 30+ win team left out of the playoffs and my mind hasn't changed. Not sure what people are panicking over, when that is the reality before us. Maybe they actually had too much hope before the season :). My focus is more about watching the guys that have a shot to be here and then watching there personal development. Then try to determine if they can or cannot help us in the future as time goes by.

By the way I forgot about Darko. For one quarter last night he was the best player on our team. Now if only we could shorten the season to one quarter length.

If Darko can come in to be a defensive anchor of sorts and realize that he's meant to be a good passer and should be shooting 13 feet and in, he could easily become our 6th man.

I wanted to mention something about Gallo. I also noticed how he's herky jerky in his movements yet seems to be indecisive. But not necessarily with "Should I pass or shoot." More like "I wanna take it to the hole, but I don't think I can."

I don't think the guy realizes that he actually has talent, and his jerkiness keeps his defenders off balance, all the time (At least for now). Plus he's got the shot, so all he needs to do is put up a good fake, and he's got a lane to the basket. I remember a number of situations. Like last night, he went one on one along the baseline. Did a couple of non smooth looking, but effective dribbling moves and had a clear baseline lane to the basket, but he ended up jacking up a long distance shot. It's not the only time he did that this pre season.

I'm hoping the coaching staff is addressing this b/c it's clear that the man has the talent to get to the rim, when his J isn't falling. He's the last guy we need to be worrying about, in terms of jacking up shots.

I'm dissapointed in Wilson though.

Darko is a really good passer by the way.

I see what you are seeing with Gallo. Teams should not be allowed to guard him with Jason Kapono. His eyes should have exploded in that situation. He should have taken him to the rim everytime he touched the ball. Instead he was unaggressive and let him off the hook by taking jumpers. The one time he took him to the hole Kapono had to foul him. Gallo has to realize the reason his ceiling is so high is because teams can't guard him with big guys and are forced to put 6-7 and 6-8 guys on him. For him to reach his potential he has to recognize the difference between being guarded by James Posey and Jason Kapono. In one situation you let the offense come to you. IN the other situation you become the offense. Right now he's tentative. If it wasn't for the 28 game sample last year in which he showed some offensive swagger I would be nervous right now.

Jimimou-I agree with your entire post....I don't think the Knicks can worry about auditioning for Lebron. If he comes great, if not you have to build. This situation would be no different then if we weren't going to pursue him. The franchise will still have cap space with more on the way, and still need to show free-agents something on the court to attract them. Nothing will have changed. You can say we made no progress if we don't sign him, but set back? I'm still waiting for someone to give me a well thought out answer as to why not signing Lebron sets us back.

Fish-That line-up with Chandler, TD, Nate, Darko was fierce. They really took it to Philly and took them completely out of the flow of the game. Too bad they couldn't shoot straight. If the team shot 43% we'd be talking about how that line-up really turned the game around for us.

JesseDArkThanks. Sure beats talking about how everyone sucks and that nobody wants to play here and that we should have drafted______________ stuff that is mentioned ad nauseum. We know we suck so no need to keep rehashing. We know nobody wants to play here so no need cry about it. And talking about who we should have drafted? Okay we get it

FrancoYou are a young guy in your 3rd year trying to make your mark. If you can't be motivated by improving your game and becoming a leader of the future then you aren't going to be much of a player. If a player decides it's all about Lebron and then decides to take the year off, guess what??? We don't need them.

Once MDA determines players' roles and everyone gets comfortable, the FG% will go up and Gallo and Chandler will be fine. As far as a leader, I hate to say it but Harrington is probably going to have to be that guy. He has the most experience of any of the main pieces and he has a diverse enough offense to take over the game in different ways. Duhon and he are going to have to be the ones to really lead this team to wins.

I love what I see from a defensive standpoint. Darko makes a big difference for our defense and Gallo is a better defender than you would assume. With Douglas harassing opposing backup pgs and Darko giving us a legitimate shot-blocker, I predicate a 8-10 spot improvement in our team defense.

Posted by jimimou:

thanks bip - the media, fans, etc are so hyped on lebron coming, but those are the same groups that HAVE NO CLUE whether he is coming or not. point is everyone thinks its a done deal. its not. so, mentally, the franchise fanbase will get hit the hardest if it doesnt work out. that's where i stake my claim to the franchise being 'set back'.

i actually believe that by not signing lebron, they actually have MORE options to succeed on the court in the short term, b/c they'll have more options for their $. as w any workplace, one guy can certainly make a huge differnce but one guy alone does not bring you the world, so you cant bank on one guy to change the culture immediately. in my opinion, lebron comes here next year, with the current line-up as a compliment to him, the knicks dont win more than 40-45 games.

I get your point. Here's what I think:

Fans-I think the fans will definitely be destroyed, simply because they are buying the media hype about it being "all about Lebron" so they have decided it is Lebron or bust. But the actual organization will not. This type of setback is temporary. All it takes is one correct draft pick, trade or signing to change this

Free agent perception-If we keep getting spurned it will not look good to free agents, but this again is temporary. It's like college recruiting, it only takes one to turn it around just as quickly.

The organization-Other than our ego it changes nothing. The goal of a rebuilding team is to get cap space, sign promising young players and have vets with reasonable contracts to give you flexibility. If you don't sign Lebron this is exactly what you have. What would really set you back is if Gallo and Hill don't pan out.