No need to panic and do dumb things. We've already been horrid before, so what's the fear. We know what the summer is gonna bring too, so we need to stick to the plan and see if we can right the ship.

JesseDark wrote:

JohnWallace44 wrote:Anyone think Mike is really the problem? Bring a Princeton offense guy in here and we might win a few more games this year, but what does that accomplish?

The Suns are killing it this year using the same system.

Philly is using the Princeton too. When we played them I thought we should be doing what they are doing.

In the short term, you're right, that would be a better system for us. If you want to diminish the importance of the PG, then you need an offense like that.

MikeD's offense is pretty much proven though. If you look at Milwaukee, they're basically running it too, which is painful to see with Jennings...

I don't know if there's really a point to changing it. Even in the Princeton, if your players can't hit an open shot, you can run picks and junk all you want and people will just play off of you. The players have to start hitting shots, enough to get defenders to respect them, and then any offense will look better.

You're not going to see a different result until Nate comes back. Having Hughes and Jeffries on the floor at the same time sabotages the D'Antoni scheme.

In the meantime -

2) Return Harrington to the starting lineup. I don't care for him coming off the bench AT ALL. Maybe it's not saying much but on this team he's the best player. Some nights the decision-making and shot selection are poor but the effort & intensity's always there. So is the willingness to step up and lead. I like this guy's makeup. And I think he's a very good offensive player - some nights this guy reminds me of an east coast version of Carmelo Anthony - that's how good his offensive skills are. After he stepped up and asked for the leadership role, D'Antoni benches him a few games into the season?? WTF was that? What kind of a wacky mixed message does that send the rookies and young players who Al's gone out of his way to mentor?? Harrington is not the problem.. Credit him for not crying about it. I mean he is in his contract year and he's a proud man. He took it in stride, remained professional and continued to bring max. effort. If we come up with a better player along the way, great. But until then, treat this guy like he's the best player on the team and don't jerk him around. Forget David Lee or anyone else - Al's the only one on this team capable of putting us on his shoulders and getting us a victory all by himself. If we don't plan on changing much this year and we're still serious about trying to win some games here, Harrington needs to be the centerpiece. We're off to terrible starts in a lot of these games and Mike wants to bring Al Harrington off the bench?? No good. All it did was compound the tension, confusion and hysteria surrounding the team. Needs to be corrected..

3) Stick with Douglas in the starting lineup. He's done a nice job. I'm glad I wasn't one of the many who came on here and bitched about how "he sucks, he can't do this and can't do that..." I simply said I wasn't familiar with him and let's give him a shot. I actually liked what I saw in SL (he didn't shoot it well but he ran a pretty nice show and passed it real well - that stood out to me) and now his offense, which is what he was known for anyway, is starting to come around. Nice job by Walsh and D'Antoni zeroing in on this guy. They deserve credit for this pickup..

4) Play Jordan Hill and Darko Milicic over Jeffries. If there was ever a no-brainer this is it...Can't see how anyone on here can bash Hill. There should only be two ways of looking at Hill right now if you're a Knick fan - on one side there should be the folks that have seen him play in college and know he has the skills to help this team (a skill-level head & shoulders above Jeffries) and on the other the people that know nothing about him but nevertheless are intrigued by him and want to see him. Regardless of what side you're on, everyone should be pulling for the kid to play and succeed...I don't see how any of you look at this any other way. "We shouldn't have drafted this guy...He sucks...He's a bust...blah, blah blah.." Totally F-in' absurd. Until the day comes where he gets a run and then looks overmatched in the NBA for whatever reason (I'm 100% certain that'll never happen - this guy will be a major contributor IMO), how can you throw stones at the guy yet? Reserve judgement until you see for yourselves. The negative opinions are completely absurd to me and unjustified. Darko should be playing as well. Much better equipped to help on both ends than Jeffries... I just can't understand D'Antoni's facination with Jeffries. I don't see a need to showcase him if that's indeed what's going on here. Nonsense. By sheer luck, if some team suffers some kind of frontcourt injury and seeks help, they'll be the one's contacting Donnie about this guy and it doesn't matter if he's playing or not - GMs around the league know what Jeffries is all about by now and whether or not he could help them. In fact I'd argue that playing him too many minutes actually hurts us & could possibly backfire: (1) first of all, he sucks and doesn't deserve those minutes, (2) he's brittle & could get hurt the more he plays and (3) the more mins. he plays, the more he exposes himself for the poor overall player he really is. The last thing we'd need is for this guy to hurt himself from overuse or to keep proving how badly he sucks with all this extended PT. Either way hurts what little trade value he might have. I say cut his PT way down, spot him here and there if need be and make a better effort to go with the better options and the guys the fans wanna see. This guy's not part of the future at all -- Hill definitely is and Darko has a chance to be.

On the bright side, I'm willing to bet that by the trading deadline, Jefferies will be quite tradeable. At least to contending teams who aren't in play for 2010. They would definitely be willing to take Jefferies on as a backup player who can play a little bit of defense and fill the lanes.

If Curry comes back and playing well, it will be easy to move him.

With all that said, I think we dug ourselves in a hole that will make the free agents not want to come here, but things can change, I suppose.

Allanfan20 wrote:I agree with John Wallace that everyone is up for grabs. Just purge and purge.

On the bright side, I'm willing to bet that by the trading deadline, Jefferies will be quite tradeable. At least to contending teams who aren't in play for 2010. They would definitely be willing to take Jefferies on as a backup player who can play a little bit of defense and fill the lanes.

If Curry comes back and playing well, it will be easy to move him.

With all that said, I think we dug ourselves in a hole that will make the free agents not want to come here, but things can change, I suppose.

I think Walsh has purged the team of past regimes quite well. We are in a wait and see now for 2010. Coach Pringles needs to abandon his love for Dudu and go from there.