misterearl wrote:"So. yeah. Bogut might kill us, but don't act like Mozgov was the Bogut stopper, please."

crzymdups - Mozgov, at least, provided an inside presence and was improving with experience. He was a rookie.

the idea is at least be able to match up at every spot on the floor with respectable size. The idea of D'Antoni deploying Shawne Williams at center is not particularly appetizing.

The team is a work in progress; by no means is this a finished product.

You're worried about who's guarding Bogut... I say, who's guarding Melo?

1. Defense - yes, Melo and Billiups are 'better' players, but our team defense just got weaker. Of course, this is not saying much, but there were times, especially before the Melo trade talk heated up, that our team defense was a strength, and we were beating teams with defensive intensity, much like the 80's.

2. A 7 footer with real potential to be a NBA starter based on his skills, and not his height alone. Of course, Timo may turn out to be nothing special, he still had potential, and in his second stint as a starter, was starting to clog the middle and make things generally harder on opposing teams. It took us 10 years and luck to find Timo- I hope it doesn't take as long to plug this hole again.

misterearl wrote:

JohnWallace44 - who is playing defense?

Who played defense before? We were second to last in defense a week ago. You want defense, bring a defensive coach in here.

Other than the hottest rookie in the Gaaaaaaammmmme, Landry Fields, we are going to get lit up inside by quality opponents. We have no center. None. Turiaf is brittle.Stoudemire cannot handle big bodies by himself

This was a probelm before the trade. Turiaf was brittle last week too. Amare couldn't handle bigs before. Why are we discussing this? Unless your inplying that we should have traded for a big instead of Melo and if thats the case D Howard was available.

Carmelo has NEVER been considered a defensive worker and Billups is 49 years old.

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were never know as defensive players until Thibs got a hold of them in Boston. Now those two offensive players are apart of the best defensive core in the game. As I mentioned earlier, get a defensive coach in here to install a defensive system, and I'm sure Melo will play good team defense. As far as Billups is concerned, the 49 year old Billups has outplayed Felton over the last month f the season. Besides, he's only herr for a year and a half just in time for his 50th bday.

For that matter, who has 7'1 260 pound Andrew Bogut tomorrow night?

Who was guarding if the trade wasn't pulled off?

misterearl wrote:3. Diversity

4. Those nights when Gallo and Wilson floated in and out of the game, disengaged and combined for 15pts on 4-15 shooting.

GoNyGoNyGo wrote:A now team with no depth? That is what you have. Just to be sure, when its time to get Paul or Williams, Fields will be gone too. This is a clusterf$#@@!

Look at Oklahoma, they are building from within. THey are doing it the right way. When needed they add a piece or two and they will be contneders.

NY had good young players, now they don't.

1. They made us proud to be Knicks fans again

The Knicks bench scored an embarrassing 12 points. "It's going to take us a little while," D'Antoni said.

After one quarter. After all the talk about the stars sharing the ball, Anthony had 16 points to Stoudemire's zero.

It is not the fact the lost to the absolute worst (and shorthanded) team in the league, it was HOW the nouveau Knicks lost.

Any comparison to the Heat big three MUST take in skill sets. Without a detailed critique that comparison is superficial because it does not take into account the versatility of Wade and James. There is no apparent flaw in their skill sets. Not one. Ball handling - check. Court awareness - advantage DWade and Lebron. Intelligence (verbal skills) DWade and Lebron. Neither Wade or James forces their ego on the game. They look up. They are unselfish.

They play savage defense.

The smaller knicks are the Atlanta Hawks with Carmelo as the iso bandito Joe Johnson - and Amare as the standing tall and tempermental Josh Smith.

Get ready for playground basketball

nixluva - I have a ton of respect for your unwavering optimism so please understand this is not personal.

Any informed critique of the Knicks individual talents is not based on two games but a body of work, in whatever uniform that player has worn. From the evidence of Carmelo's career in Denver, unless he is willing to reinvent his game and trust others, and add some urgency to his defensive effort, there will be a serious problem winning games against average teams. The Cavs game should sound a loud alarm because that is the worst team in the league. Period.

No, we do NOT have "all kinds of time" to put the "right parts" around them because the "right parts" are - in some cases - trial and error. The right parts take time to acquire, test and fine tune as a team. When you are constantly changing the playing personality of the franchise, the "right parts" have no infrastructure to depend on. The fact that Tony Douglas, is the longest tenured Knick, speaks volumes about change for the sake of change. What legacy, or playing personality, is Toney Douglas passing down from his years as a NYK player?

Speaking of Douglas, Carmelo should have bought Douglas a new car for his game saving performance on Wednesday night. Without those 23 points 19,765 people leave The Garden frustrated and disenchanted.

Last night, the entire bench scored 12 points. Problem. There is absolutely NO depth and neither Sheldon Williams nor Jared Jeffries is the calvary, and you know it. Yes, it is far from a "closed book" whatever that means. It is always a "work in progress" and Chris Paul will be here in 2012, right? Wrong. There is no Santa Claus.

To your point about Donnie bringing in some big men to help, don't be surprised if Donnie fades to Bolivia over the summer. This sinking feeling is not a lack of courage. It is a lack of chemistry, diversity and effort. No rebounds. No rings.

Forget the names on the uniforms and take a moment for a critical look at the Knicks as you would any NBA team. Take an unflinching look at the SKILL SET each player brings and then line up those skill sets to make certain you have every phase of the game covered. Take all the time you need to critique defense and rebounding. If you can honestly say that you are happy with how the current skill sets cohere as a team, more power to you. Put the rose colored tints back on and cheer at the top of your lungs. As a follower of this franchise for nearly four decades, I would also offer that something greater than points and rebounds was lost by gutting the roster.

The Knicks lost a lot of heart and soul.

crzymdups wrote:I will miss the chemistry that unit of guys had. Sports is about developing emotional attachments to guys who don't know you exist.

But to call what guys like Wilson Chandler and Timo Mozgov brought to the table "irreplaceable" is kind of laughable.

Guess what? We replaced Chandler and Gallo with Carmelo Anthony and to a lesser extent Corey Brewer. We replaced Felton with finals MVP Chauncey Billups. We'll replace Timo with Earl Barron.

The replacements make us a stronger team. I will miss the guys who left, but if the goal is to build towards a championship - this was a necessary step. Our ceiling before was a Memphis Grizzlies with Pau Gasol, Mike Miller, Battier, Swift, Jason Williams type of team. Now? The ceiling is far less defined. It can be much higher, depending how they surround the nucleus of Stat, Melo, Fields and Billups.

"The replacements make us a stronger team."

No, they do not. Team requires trust and these guys don't know jack about trust.

(Wilson Chandler brought a sincere defensive effort and rebounding every night... and there is nothing funny about not having a single center on the roster)

Corey Brewer is in Dallas

Derrick Brown is unhappy and already talking to the head man and not the coach. That is not a good sign.

Chauncey Billups misses Denver to the point he could care less about NYC

There is no nucleus. Just incomplete and offense heavy skill sets trying to figure it out on the fly.

The ceiling just got lowered

Marv wrote:winning cures all.

lack of winning accentuates all.

Winning is the best deodorant

The Knicks stink