the guy has a pretty serious handle for his size.

i don't think folks should be panicking though.

seriously, i would doubt that he plays many minutes in the backcourt.

i think there are more than a few teams that sometimes run unusual lineups, other than nellie.

my guess is they will experiment during training camp a little and see how that goes. if it seems like a bad idea, i would guess they will scrap it.

I would hope AR was practicing his deep jumper, he will be open a lot, and needs to be able to hit that shot.
Hope the coaching staff made that a priority

BRIGGS wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:did anyone see david lee knocking down 3's during USA practices before he got hurt..Pretty fluid.

I would hope AR was practicing his deep jumper, he will be open a lot, and needs to be able to hit that shot.
Hope the coaching staff made that a priority

Oh my god no. Why would you want a 6-11 230 pound guy who can drive slash rebound post and mid range shooting 20 footers? Please my man--what a waste and no one will like the result. AR is a 14 foot--in player. Gallo can hit the deep shot--make sense?????

You know that a bigman with range is actually a good thing. Rasheed Wallace, Odom, KG to a lesser degree, Dirk! You can be a post threat that can also step out for a long-range shot. It will only enhance his game!

Finestrg wrote:I got a question to ask everybody -- why can't Amar'e play the 5?

Consider the lineup Phoenix went with against the Spurs in the 2005 playoffs..The Spurs took that series over the Suns 4-1 but Amar'e was an ABSOLUTE BEAST on the interior in every game against league MVP Tim Duncan..Now all of a sudden he can't play 5 anymore? It's somehow out of the question now??? Come on.. Look at the box scores from those games:

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250522021
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250524021
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250528024
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250530024
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250601021

Dude not only held his own that series as the sole interior presence, HE WAS DOWNRIGHT FILTHY!!!! He just ripped it up! San Antonio had no answer for him. Phoenix went down that series but it had nothing to do with Amar'e's play, that's for sure..Amar'e was the main guy down low basically in that Phoenix attack, along with 3 guards and a SF. And he was PRODUCTIVE AS HELL!! Now we have this guy..I could definitely see Amar'e as the man in the middle for us, flanked by AR (in the Marion do-it-all F role) and Gallo (in the Q-Rich outside threat F role)...Why not? Did Amar'e not respond well in the past with this role? Yes he did..Here's the proof that he did..That team won 62 games that year in the regular season with Amar'e in the middle (along with another 9 playoff wins = 71 wins total that year). I'm not saying we're gonna come out this year and win 71 total games but what we can do is use a very similar player alignment -- a similar philosophy. In the frontcourt anyway...Remember, same coach back then in PHX as he has now in NY..Amar'e 5, Randolph 4/3 and Gallinari 3/stretch 4 would be my guess for a starting frontline as of right now.

He can definitely play C, however Amar'e said in an interview soon after the Knicks signed him that he didn't really want to play centre (not in a diva type way), that he didn't mind doing about 10 mins there, but that he was a power forward and thats where he wanted to play most of his minutes- and to be fair you should play your best player at their most suited position, which in his case is PF (although like you said, he can play well at C).

TymeLessKnicks wrote:

Finestrg wrote:I got a question to ask everybody -- why can't Amar'e play the 5?

Consider the lineup Phoenix went with against the Spurs in the 2005 playoffs..The Spurs took that series over the Suns 4-1 but Amar'e was an ABSOLUTE BEAST on the interior in every game against league MVP Tim Duncan..Now all of a sudden he can't play 5 anymore? It's somehow out of the question now??? Come on.. Look at the box scores from those games:

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250522021
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250524021
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250528024
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250530024
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250601021

Dude not only held his own that series as the sole interior presence, HE WAS DOWNRIGHT FILTHY!!!! He just ripped it up! San Antonio had no answer for him. Phoenix went down that series but it had nothing to do with Amar'e's play, that's for sure..Amar'e was the main guy down low basically in that Phoenix attack, along with 3 guards and a SF. And he was PRODUCTIVE AS HELL!! Now we have this guy..I could definitely see Amar'e as the man in the middle for us, flanked by AR (in the Marion do-it-all F role) and Gallo (in the Q-Rich outside threat F role)...Why not? Did Amar'e not respond well in the past with this role? Yes he did..Here's the proof that he did..That team won 62 games that year in the regular season with Amar'e in the middle (along with another 9 playoff wins = 71 wins total that year). I'm not saying we're gonna come out this year and win 71 total games but what we can do is use a very similar player alignment -- a similar philosophy. In the frontcourt anyway...Remember, same coach back then in PHX as he has now in NY..Amar'e 5, Randolph 4/3 and Gallinari 3/stretch 4 would be my guess for a starting frontline as of right now.

minus nash, im thinking the knicks might have a better team than that suns team. kinda scary...

and don't forget which conference this was in.. I don't see Amare having much dificulties with most of the east teams' big men.

fishmike wrote:

nixluva wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:did anyone see david lee knocking down 3's during USA practices before he got hurt..Pretty fluid.

I would hope AR was practicing his deep jumper, he will be open a lot, and needs to be able to hit that shot.
Hope the coaching staff made that a priority

Oh my god no. Why would you want a 6-11 230 pound guy who can drive slash rebound post and mid range shooting 20 footers? Please my man--what a waste and no one will like the result. AR is a 14 foot--in player. Gallo can hit the deep shot--make sense?????

You know that a bigman with range is actually a good thing. Rasheed Wallace, Odom, KG to a lesser degree, Dirk! You can be a post threat that can also step out for a long-range shot. It will only enhance his game!

I'm with Briggs on this one... Gallo already had the long range. I want AR closer to the hoop, not further from it. A mid range jumper with a quick release is great. I dont need my 7 footers chucking 3s. Go look at the vids of AR dunking on Yao among others. You want this guy in the paint, pushing the ball and slashing to the hoop. The 15 footer means you have to come out and guard him. No 3s.. please no

I'm with you and Briggs. If I suddenly see a transformation in ARs game and he's just chucking and chucking and chucking, then you know for a fact that this is a poor coaching job. I don't think MDA will be dumb enough to let this happen though. AR is too fluid and athletic of a player to be stuck behind the arc. I don't want to see him past 18 feet for 99% of the game and I bet even AR agrees with that.

Defense is a different story. I do not mind seeing AR guarding point guards at all. I actually like that little idea MDA has. Will it work all the time? No, but you have to be selective but it's still a good thing to experiment with.

Allanfan20 wrote:I will hurt somebodys feelings if this ever happens in the next few years:

"Anthony Randolph with the block on Rondo and grabs the loose ball! He's bursting down the court with the ball himself! He's got Pierce guarding him and Shaqs is taking his wheel chair to the basket! What kind of dunk will this be?!?!?!? Oh wait he stops behind the arc and pulls the trigger! No good! What a bad shot! Shaq and Pierce breathe a sigh of relief that they don't get posterized!"