Develop Moz, AR and Williams the rest of the year.

Sign Melo as a FA this summer.

Re-establishing our EC rivalries and contend for a chip the next 5+ years with depth, size, athleticism, star-power and a hungry NY fan base.

Priceless.

NYKBocker wrote:

martin wrote:interesting take:

http://www.postingandtoasting.com/2011/1/31/1965067/knicks-124-pistons-106-moz-gov-moz-gov

Yeah, Anthony Randolph played. Anthony's return to action was much less dramatic than Timo's, but he did gangle his way to 5 rebounds in just 9 minutes. After a decent stint in the first half, Randolph wasn't seen again until the fourth quarter. I wouldn't be surprised if he's headed back to the bench once Chander and E return, but there's no denying that he's capable of making an impact on defense and loose balls. What you also can't deny is that his presence on offense is akin to a daddy long legs' presence in your bathtub. Anthony's teammates are all like, "What is that? Do we give it the ball? Do we ignore it? Do we kill it?" and **** gets creepy and/or unproductive very quickly. Randolph just looks ridiculous in a halfcourt set, and I think it's perfectly justifiable that he sit until his sense of self in space is sharper. That probably requires some coaching, if not some advice from Mr. Mozgov.

On those 7 minutes he played in the 1st half last night, I saw him open 3 times and TD and Walker just completely missed him. If he gets his chance again he continues what he did last night then he will start playing a lot more soon.

i'll have to check out that first half stretch again and see how AR was moving and fitting into the half court set.

TD is not very good at seeing the long distance alley-oops which I know there was at least 1 that AR was open for.

tkf wrote:All I have to say, is that it was so good to see us have a big man tower over the opposition for boards.. Moz was just ripping them down off the boards.. for one night, it was just great to see....

+1

Great thread.

franco12 wrote:

TMS wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:if what the reporters were writing is true, Mozgov was riding pine because of his confidence (whereas AR was riding pine because of a **** attitude). They weren't punishing him, just trying to build his self-esteem up. I see no reason why it would be low after tonight's performance.

after this performance his confidence has to be way up... but if you watched him early on in this game he looked as lost as ever... badly missed his 1st 4 point blank layup attempts, lost track of his man badly on defense which led to an easy made basket on the other end, & committed 2 early fouls... in any other instance he would have been out of the game at that point but MDA left him out there out of necessity tonight... i think sometimes a show of faith by the coach can bring out the best in a young player... it's pretty clear Mozgov was able to get into the rhythm of the game at the end of the 1st quarter after his teammates kept going back to him with some nice dishes under the rim, & after that he didn't look back... if not for the injury & suspension he may have not gotten the opportunity to even play.

the same is true for AR... he came into the game in meaningful minutes with a totally different mindset... instead of coming in with the pressure of making something happen in garbage run & impressing his coach to earn some playing time, he simply went in & did his job... think a lot of that has to do with the fact he was seeing some meaningful burn instead of meaningless minutes at the end of a blowout loss... we gotta remember these are young kids we're dealing with, they're not seasoned vets that know what their role is as soon as they get into a game... sometimes a kid like AR will need a little building up before he can perform just like Mozgov needed tonight... why it takes a player suspension & injury for MDA to finally recognize this is beyond me.

I wonder if MDA also adjusted- and maybe has finally told AR not to try to do too much out there. Same for Moz.

A lot of Mozgov's hoops were easy dunks- part of that must be MDA & the staff working on that with both him and Felton.

Felton, TD & Gallo were doing a nice job of looking for Mozgov down low & got him going... he still fumbled a few easy put-ins & putback attempts but Amare was there to finish... it was good to see Amare have enough space to move in the paint & operate off the ball w/o Mozgov clogging up the lane... that was a primary concern of mine when it came to trying to figure out how Mozgov would integrate into the system, but Mozgov was active enough & moving around not just stagnant in the middle so there didn't seem to be much of an issue those 2 working together down low.

jrodmc wrote:Yep. One game against a .300 team and the lineup changes should now be set in stone.

Great thread.

It's about limiting the wear and tear on STAT, not hanging Moz or AR's jersey in the rafters. There is no intelligent arguement that can be made discounting the fact that playing one or both limited minutes will pay dividends down the stretch w/ STAT.

TMS wrote:

SlimChin wrote:i hope Timo gets more minutes moving forward but let's not get too carried away. the pistons aren't a physically big team and don't have a great record...

i really hope that MDA will let this kid develop. but if he keeps playing like this, it'll take some burden off of STAT in the paint.

i think he's earned regular burn in the rotation at the very least w/that performance... i'm not slotting him in for 40 every night just yet he's gonna have to show he can repeat these kinds of performances... IMHO i would start him out with a regular run of 15-20 a night & see how it progresses from there... AR should definitely see some regular run too, but i'm not optimistic about that happening... i don't even remember hearing MDA even mention his name in his postgame interview so i'm guessing he's going back to the bench.

Yes on Timo. About AR, MDA actually mentioned him in his post game and he said that AR played really well but the player he was going to replace was Amare and they were afraid to take him out in the 2nd half for fear of stiffening up. Also, Timo's play in the 2nd half stopped AR from getting any meaningful time in the 2nd half. I think AR will get his minutes in the 1st half of games at 9-15min a game from now on. MDA has a tendency to reward players who show some promise in games. That is why Shawne was kept in the rotation when he produced and same with Walker.

I'm not saying that you aren't some kind of basketball genious...I'm just offering the possibilty that maybe while you have just come to this earth shattering revelation....possibly this has been MDA's plan all along....

Maybe MDA's dog house is a basketball myth...and he is just a good smart coach who knows how to develop players...

....i like the way he treats the players like adults....either they get it or they don't.....if you don't play my game plan....you don't play....stay ready because you will get an opportunity...when you do get it, it a great system to play and you can see how with this group of players he is adding more of the nuances of his system....it is easy to see why he is a very popular coach with players

knicks1248 wrote:

scoshin wrote:AR still looks lost on the offense (hardly moving off the ball, just sitting in one spot like Artest would do on the Lakers), but at least he wasn't forcing it like in past games. In fact, he looked reluctant to do anything with the ball, and would give it up like a hot potato.

On defense though, I like what he gave us the other night. Covered his man, blocked and altered shots, and pulled down defensive boards in traffic.

He just has a real low IQ, which is why he's not good for this coach, or any free wheeling system, at least up to this point of his career. It would have suited him better to be coached by a pop, sloan, larry brown type coach in his early years, sort of like Felton. Right now he's just fundamentally lost and needs time.

AR would have never gotten playing time with Pop, Sloan or LB. Better that he stayed in college to learn.