First let me say that KAT has been better than I expected. His shooting has been tremendous, and he's tougher than I realized, but the big eye-opener has been his very great passing for a big. His defense has been ok, though not up to the level we had last year. Bridges has been rounding out, but still not up to the level impact player that I would have liked. His mid-range has been great, but I would have expected he could be a second floor general out there, which I"m not seeing him being a good enough release valve for JB. In theory he should be the prime beneficiary with JB getting double-teamed or having a 6'9" defender on him, and with all the attention KAT gets, Bridges should be thriving. I'll say that pleasantly surprised that OG has been stepping up offensively, and maybe *he* is benefiting more than Bridges from the attention paid elsewhere. Hart is Hart, and he's been one of my faves since the Knicks received him. We all know his abilities as a defender, rebounder, and connector, but what goes unmentioned his his uncanny knack to lay the ball in the hoop with defenders all over him. Also, as I've said from the start, I think the Campaign signing was underrated, and I think he's a huge bang-for-the-buck and can play alongside JB to make teams pay for double teaming him.
However, I'm curious to take the pulse around here, and though it still may be early for that, about how people feel about the entertainment value of watching this team vs. last year's team. Maybe its just me, but I really LOVED last year's group. Watching those games left me pumped just how much fight they had in them. With iHart/Mitch beasting in the middle, defending like men possessed. Sure we have more scoring from the center position, but the infinite range we get from KAT now, we got from DDV last year. Because they played the bulk of last year without Randle, his return could have gone either way. Anyway, the bottom line is I miss the particular fight/fire that DDV/iHart/Mitch brought to the team, those guys plus JB & Hart set the tone for the next-man-up mentality that amazed me over and over again. Whoever got injured, there was someone waiting to step in and produce.
So, JR contract aside, impossibility of having resigned iHart aside, championship aspirations aside (I know I'll get killed for that one), in an possible alternate universe vs this one, which team would you prefer to be watching right now?
