misterearl wrote:If you start anyone, you start Jeffries.

And you don't start Jeffries.

Out of respect D'Antoni will allow Amar'e to remove himself from the starting lineup after he waches the film.

If is a public move, D'Antoni possibly loses Amar'e ("the Knicks are back!") forever.

D'Antoni is not stupid.

Agree 100 percent. Pringles remembers Amar'e single handedly crushing the Spurs when they were in thier collective prime. A simple cost/benefit here is so freakin easy to see. The risk of benching Amar'e: lose him forever. The risk of playing Amar'e: above average PF play. Maybe his play has slipped but can anyone name 15 PFs that are better than Amar'e right now?

This is so ridiculous. fishy hit it on the head. What a joke

The other thing that absolutely needs attention is boxing out.
We are getting killed on the boards because our guys do not box out at all.
They just stare at the ball while the opposing teams hustle to get between the Knicks players and the ball.
If the whole team made a concerted effort to box out our overall game would improve tremendously.

Im not concerned about getting Amare and Melo more involved to satisfy their egos. I want them more involved because they are monsters and when they get how with our two headed PG monster thats growing daily you cant stop this group. Amare doesnt need to be a great defender, but he can pick it up on the boards and at times has. Boozer is a lousy defender and always has but his role on the defensive Bulls is to clean the glass and Amare can have big rebounding games.

Amare starts until he's on another team. Plain and simple

fishmike wrote:man the Amare hate is nuts.

Knick fans have the patience of sugar highed toddlers.

A guy struggles his career is shot.
A rookie has a good game he's the next Larry Bird.
A bench player has a good game he should start.

I mean relax people.. Amare is what? a 7 time all star? Let the dude work through it. Jorts cant sniff Amare jock

I dont know who this is addressed at. I certainly don't hate Amare. But I am looking towards the future instead of getting lost in the woods trying to count "all star" appearances like they mean something. A guy winning a popularity contest based in fan voting is now supposed to mean he can continue producing at a level that justifies his contract? - we must differ on this because I don't buy that rationale.

Right now Amare is hurting the team, regardless of what he did in the past. And past production does not equate to future success. It's only an indication of what may be expected. If you figure in I juries, family issues and bad defense then the current lack of production is easily magnified.

I am very concerned that he will never recover to his past levered and I don't think we can afford LJ2 at 20 M an year, assuming he even gets that far.

MS wrote:It's just not going to work. Amare's best role is as the center running pick and roles and pick and pops. When he was at his best he had Richardson/Johnson spacing the floor and mario was constantly moving very much like Chandler/Fields/Gallo.

Melo is going to hold the ball and Tyson is going to run the pick and roll. I think you want to play Amare more with the second unit. Baron/JR/Novak/Jefferies/Amare give you everything he he needs to be succesful. Jefferies picking up for him on defense, Baron running the pick and roll and floor spacing. It's not that difficult. You play him 6 minutes to start the game and you rest him and then insert him to begin the for about 8 minutes keep him at 28-30 minutes a night and getting him 15 shots.

I like this idea.

You start him but give him most of his minutes with the Second Unit, where he is the Big Kahuna.

It's too crowded in the First Unit. Both units benefit; the First Unit from the extra edge Jeffries would bring and the Second Unit from having a FREAKIN' SUPERSTAR to keep them honest.

Never forget, NEVER FORGET, that Manu Ginobili made an All-Star and arguably a Hall of Fame career coming off the bench for San Antonio.

fishmike wrote:man the Amare hate is nuts.

Knick fans have the patience of sugar highed toddlers.

A guy struggles his career is shot.
A rookie has a good game he's the next Larry Bird.
A bench player has a good game he should start.

I mean relax people.. Amare is what? a 7 time all star? Let the dude work through it. Jorts cant sniff Amare jock

I think it's a attempt to offset the Melo hate which offset the MDA hate.

You notice there's hardly any "Dolan is an ahole" threads anymore? 'Caption this' posts notwithstanding.

airchibundo507 wrote:

MS wrote:Struggling is one thing. Not rebounding or rotating on defense is another.

Again one thing Melo and Amare always do very well is talk a big game. Amare, loves to call himself a leader, blah, blah, blah and then he puts forth that type of defensive effot.

Jefferies has really been tremendous this season, his offense is still bad, but he draws 2 charges every game and knows how not to get in the way and impact the game.

Amare needs to step up and do it fast. Are starters didn't win the game for us last night, which is fine, but we had another gimmie game and didn't come up with urgency. Which is a ****ing joke.

More Melo and Amare coupling, as if they are one and the same player and share the same deficiencies.

This is what I do not get and it is not fair to Melo. The dude has been playing good defense and has played even better D after coming back from injury. Last night he was locked in to start the second half. Does he still have some plays where you roll your eyes but he has been putting great effort on the defensive side this year.

Tee Hee.....

Bonn1997 wrote:

tj23 wrote:Lol at above average pf play. What pf's are not playing better? 44% from the field with 3 turnovers, 8 rebounds, less than a block, and no defense at all.

Amare is one of the worst starting PFs on both ends of the court right now.

Oh but he will draw double teams based on reputation alone he is a seven time all star. It's simple we will never be contenders while he is eating third of our salary cap and putting up numbers that are at the bottom of the league. Next year we will lose one or two key pieces from this team, and then unless he magically improves his game we will be a second round playoff teams for years to come. We can't just pick up players like BD and JR every year. We are screwed.