nixluva wrote:

misterearl wrote:

eViL wrote:thx. hope Melo can change.

The thing that makes LeBron great is not his physical gifts, or the work it requires to maintain strength and speed - his greatest asset is his willingness to adjust his skill set to whatever his team needs. This season, King James wisely (pun intended) made a decision to drop the three point shot. He is running hard. Yesterday, he grabbed a rebound and sprinted past the entire Bulls defense down the court. As a result, the entire Heat team is more focused on getting to the rim.

Lebron makes the pass and is genuinely happy to see his running buddies succeed.

A true star makes those around him better.

Even Lebron has struggled with how best to help his team. It's not always crystal clear to a player. If he had it figured out already, Lebron would already be an NBA champion!!!

Melo still has a lot to learn in terms of being a leader. He's going thru a test this year and it's actually good for him to take his lumps this way and be humbled. This time the coach put it all in his hands and he can't blame anyone else for his failure. It was all on him. He could shoot whenever or setup his teammates and run the offense so that it flowed. It was his team. Now maybe he an grow from this and become a better player. We'll see. Lebron just now seems to be getting it and may finally win his ring. let's hope Melo has his epiphany.

Mike was perfectly aware that Melo experiment will fail.
And he managed to make it clear in very rapid fashion.
If he get the Dolan and Co understand what it takes to build a winner it will be coll but I doubt it.
If he get himself fired which is more likely he will get his wish to go to some better place faster.
And I have no doubt it will be a bunch of teams lined up for his services.
In any case he is smart. He wins regardless of what will happen and pretty soon.

eViL wrote:

nixluva wrote:People I posted the stats for a reason. It's not about Melo being a "manufactured superstar". Even if he played great so far this year, him alone wouldn't make up for the players we lost and their production. Many have said that this is the reason you can't compare the Knicks to the Nuggets. They already had players in place and basically replaced the guys they lost and added to their talent. The point is that this team needed to be built back up.

The biggest flaw was what we lost from Felton/CB. Tyson doesn't replace that. He's doing what he's supposed to do in making this team a better defensive team. The defense hasn't been the problem since we actually ADDED to the defense with Tyson and Shump. However, we totally whiffed on the offensive balance we had with a major drop off at the PG spot.

The PG losses are 3 fold. 1. we lose STAT's production. 2. We lose a means to control Melo's shooting too many bad shots and going ISO. 3. We lose that scoring threat at the PG spot that is what help to breakdown the defense and go NORTH-SOUTH rather the east-west like we do with the PG's we have now. That is except for Lin who is just getting into the mix. Lin could eventually be a good backup PG for this team.

So this isn't about bashing Melo. It's about what our GM has failed to address with the makeup of the team. You've got to have a PG that somewhere between a Felton and a Nash. He's got to be able to Score, Pass and PnR. Gotta improve the bench!!! We lost too much strength off the bench. Fix those areas and this is a BETTER team than we've had before, because we'll be able to defend as well as score.

any time someone complains about lack of depth, Starmelo is the first person that comes to mind. we had to give up all of our depth because he had to get his. and we're paying for it. so in 4 years when his contract is up, it will be -- well, Starmelo did what he could do, but he just didn't have the right teammates. lol.

wow, e, you're in rare form today! Great stuff. Your points are right on.

MS wrote:Either way the Knicks would have been better off not making the trade. It's not open for debate. Melo is not elite. The Knicks are worst the Nuggets are better.

Wow, the dark side is becoming a really crowded place these days...

A) No one knew that Douglas would be this awful. Apparently, he is still playing with a hurt shoulder and you have to believe that the Knicks FO didn't know he would be this messed up because of it. Douglas was a solid shooter last year and a lot us had faith in him to get the job done based on what we saw him do as a starter last season, when Chauncey was hurt. If TD was his healthy normal self and hitting 3s at his usual rate, no way in hell would we be this bad.

B) The Melo injury. Even when Melo was healthy, he wasn't great but he was still playing pretty well. I posted those synergy stats early on that showed how efficient he was being as a point forward and he was doing it on high volume attempts. When Melo got hurt though, no one knew the injuries were this bad until we saw that he couldn't make a shot for his life. What killed us even more is that A) Melo didn't use himself as a decoy to set others up until the Charlotte game, B) He decided to carry the scoring load even though his shooting motion was clearly affected by the injuries, and C) Knowing the injuries were this bad, he didn't sit out until after we lost several straight games, putting us in even worse shape to wait further for his recovery.

C) Amare's delayed start. Amare looks more like himself as of last couple of games but at a time where we needed him to start the season off strong b/c of A) and B), he got off to perhaps his slowest start in years. Whether it was b/c of his back or w/e, not a lot of us thought it would take him this long to get going.

You combine all these problems along with our already shallow bench, and the result is a team that is in shambles. We weren't built to withstand critical blows to our top 2 guys and it clearly shows after the struggles we have seen this season on the offensive end. With that said, we clearly aren't this bad either. A lot has gone wrong and it has all happened at the same time.

Once things start going our way just a little bit (hopefully for our sakes it happens soon), we'll see what this team can really do.

nixluva wrote:POINT GUARD - MORE DEPTH!!!

Nix, let' imagine for a minute that Baron never comes back to play. Let's say his back is such that, he comes back, hurts himself in game 3, then in and out of the line up for the rest of the year. Since we have all of our salary tied up in our 3 front court players, just how exactly are we going to get this PG and DEPTH that we need. This is a fundamental problem. Saying it over and over again isn't going to make it magically happen. Resources are constrained by the cap. Who exactly do you want to get and how?

Panos wrote:

nixluva wrote:POINT GUARD - MORE DEPTH!!!

Nix, let' imagine for a minute that Baron never comes back to play. Let's say his back is such that, he comes back, hurts himself in game 3, then in and out of the line up for the rest of the year. Since we have all of our salary tied up in our 3 front court players, just how exactly are we going to get this PG and DEPTH that we need. This is a fundamental problem. Saying it over and over again isn't going to make it magically happen. Resources are constrained by the cap. Who exactly do you want to get and how?

I'm simply stating what the specific issues really are. Right now we don't know if Baron will eventually be the answer, but he could very well be. Right now the players we do have can play better if they stop playing lazy BB. They need to move, move the ball and keep defending. We'll see if they will actually execute the offense rather than take the lazy way out and jack 3's.

This team will most likely add one of the guys from China, so that's one avenue to improve. We don't know if there's some minor trade they can workout at the deadline, but it's possible. Of course in the offseason they can do some things, but during this season those are the things they can do.

Misterearl, The Nash talk is for next year. We still haven't closed the book on B. Diddy yet, can we see what happens there 1st?

We don't need 6 new guys. Stop exaggerating! We know we can get someone from the China crew and maybe a small trade at the deadline. Other than that guys need to step up and play better.

I never said Melo had the strengths of Lebron. Why would you say that based on what i've been posting. Melo's main strength is his closing ability, which is a well documented fact. We need that but along with that good you have the bad of Melo which can be mitigated with a strong PG. That is what i'm advocating. This is why CB was so important to Denver. This is why we miss what we had with Felton. Having a PG that is a legit scoring threat as well as being a balanced ball distributor keeps Melo from dominating the ball. We don't have that right now.

Panos wrote:

misterearl wrote:
Agree. The spots from four through five and seven through twelve are up for grabs. That equals six new guys with fresh blood. See Panos comment above.

See my post above. Still need players we have to step up and execute better. Still no verdict on Baron, could be the answer. Still waiting on China players and trade deadline. All is not lost.

misterearl wrote:

nixluva wrote:Melo's main strength is his closing ability.

Closing ability? That only time that matters is if you are playing teams close, which we are not. I'd rather have five guys with opening ability.

You know that in the end you MUST have a closer type on your team to win a title. YES you need a good overall team but in the end that's not enough either. You need both and that's what the Knicks are trying to do. The hardest part is to have the rare elite players. They'll eventually get the role players that we lack right now. You've got to take the long view.

nixluva wrote:You have to imagine that the team will get better...

Imagine? You can also imagine the team, based on its ill-fitting parts, and insecure playing personality, may get worse. The holes are huge and the league taking full advantage of the scouting reports that are being compiled on our poor quality depth. The schedule in February is no cakewalk. "Play the Knicks starters even and overwhelm their mis-matched bench."

nixluva wrote:The hardest part is to have the rare elite players.

Elite players make the players around them better. Elite players take pride in triple doubles. They KNOW that winning demands MORE than scoring points. If any player thinks he is good enough to win a game by himself - he will quickly find himself playing that way - by himself.