fishmike wrote:

nixluva wrote:Everyone seems to be looking for immediate improvement on all counts. NO that would happen if we had gotten Lebron. What we got now is a young team full of guys still finding their way in the league. 10 new people and it's gonna take some time to put it all together. We've been watching the team with many of its parts not clicking on all cylinders. Gallo and Felton have been off their usual game. IMO they will both eventually get back to their real level of play and not what we saw in Preseason. When the team chemistry fully develops we'll probably see a bit more fastbreak. I just don't expect it to look like the Suns with the players we have. It'll be faster in relation to what we saw the last 2 years, but I don't think they're built to run quite as fast as the Suns did under him. That was a BLAZING pace they kept up. We can't expect that, but they should be faster.

I'm looking for immediate improvement on all accounts and I dont think its too much to ask for. So far this preseason has been the same as the rest of MDA's Knick career. Some good, just as much bad. AR and Gallo have looked lost and flat. AR doesnt seem to know his role, and these are our cornerstone young players. Douglas and Mosgov look good on the other side of the coin.

The Knicks have best frontcourt player in the East sans Dwight Howard (and Amare is a better scorer). We have 2 excellent defensive players in Felton and Douglas. We have a group of versatile athletic forwards in Gallo/AR/Chandler and now Fields as well. We have a suprise 7 footer and even if he fouls out in 20 minutes every night he's going to block some shots and makes some good plays. There is enough here for the Knicks to play .500 basketball while they continue to improve internally.

They play 20 games in Oct/Nov

Knicks should be 12-8 or 11-9 barring major injuries. There is too much size, skill and athletic parts for MDA to have a losing record. I understand we arent winning the rebounding battle most nights. If we get beat 45-40 on the glass everynight we should be OK because we should be scoring at a higher rate, playing defense, hitting 3s and creating turnovers. There are simply too many good players here to play like crap and blame it on adjustments.

This offense has not looked good, and thats the part I'm ok with. There is some rhythm and feel there and it takes some time. However if we go out there and defend and put bodies on guys and hit that glass we have enough ponies to win games.

ITs on MDA to find a formula out of the gate he can lean on.

I agree..no one has the perfect roster in the NBA....and although some have more talent then others,I think we should be right up there with the 2nd tier of playoff teams

NYKBocker wrote:

knickstorrents wrote:Playing at SSOL speed also needs a great point guard. Barring that, you need everyone to be familiar with each other's game.

Right now, the Knicks aren't there yet. It's funny, we have pretty good outlet passing I feel, but we aren't that great on the boards. Timo is a great outlet passer but he still gets outhustled on the boards.

I don't know about getting outhustled. He is always trying to defend the rim which puts him in a bad postion to rebound. DLee was always in a good position to rebound because he did not protect the rim. Timo needs to watch some of Dikembe's old tapes and watch how he got those rebounds.

I'm always a big fan of watching tape!! Timo's arms seem a little short to me... Dikembe had very very long arms.

I think we may need to sacrifice SSOL to rebound the ball better. It seems like guys are jumping the gun and running back for offense before even securing the rebound. Until we fix our rebounding problems, we need at least 2 players hounding for defensive boards on every possession.

Paladin55 wrote:

knickstorrents wrote:

NYKBocker wrote:

knickstorrents wrote:Playing at SSOL speed also needs a great point guard. Barring that, you need everyone to be familiar with each other's game.

Right now, the Knicks aren't there yet. It's funny, we have pretty good outlet passing I feel, but we aren't that great on the boards. Timo is a great outlet passer but he still gets outhustled on the boards.

I don't know about getting outhustled. He is always trying to defend the rim which puts him in a bad postion to rebound. DLee was always in a good position to rebound because he did not protect the rim. Timo needs to watch some of Dikembe's old tapes and watch how he got those rebounds.

I'm always a big fan of watching tape!! Timo's arms seem a little short to me... Dikembe had very very long arms.

I think we may need to sacrifice SSOL to rebound the ball better. It seems like guys are jumping the gun and running back for offense before even securing the rebound. Until we fix our rebounding problems, we need at least 2 players hounding for defensive boards on every possession.

Two lost arts in the NBA, both beginning with a "B"- banks shots and boxing out. The latter is the problem here.

Guys have to box out. Guys have to anticipate when the ball is in the air and choose someone to get in front of. Guys have to have their butts, hips, and arms ready for action as soon as a shot is up. Rebounding is more about positioning your body and leverage than how long your arms are, IMO.

You can explain rebounding all you want--that means jack sht. The bottom line is do we have guys who can rebound the basketball--the pre season said NO in a resounding way. IF we dont rebound and its is not addressed--we are simply going to lose basketball games. Im very concerned about having such a paper thin 5 spot--and both of those guys are bench players who arent the best rebounders.