Posted by King1:

I will be the first to say he had a bad night but the only time Howard didnt go nuts for a 5 minute span in the third quarter is when Lee was guarding him. Last year teams were face guarding him to keep him off the glass. The difference this year is he isnt going to get a lot of minutes. Here is a guy that IT gave up draft picks instead of Lee and has numerous trade offers for him. WHy would you bring in a guy at his position when you needed a three man that could guard people? If Lee had a bad night with 4 rebounds in 20 minutes what do you call Curry night of three rebounds in 35 minutes?

Posted by King1:

No what I am saying is you wont win with Curry and Randolph playing side by side for a whole year. They are the exact same type of players. What I am saying you get rid of Lee because no one wants Zach or Curry because of the contracts and you bring a big time SF in. I am saying it was nuts to bring in Zach when you needed perimeter help and it will cost the Knicks a chance on the 09 free agent class because you added another bad contract.

Posted by King1:

Big C tell me this why was Portland dumb enough to give Zach away for Channing Frye? Because they didnt win with him there, he got arrested every year and has a large contract. It is about building a team not getting the best collection of talent. We are paying Curry 8 million dollars for about 10 shots a game because Zach is getting 20 a game. Curry isnt going to rebound or block shots so I would say 8 million is over paid and I thought he signed 6 years 60 million. To win each player must have roles and no one on this team wants them. We have a bunch of starters that need lots of shots to score, and none that put a emphasis on taking care of the basketball, and defense.

Posted by BigC:

Posted by s3231:

Zach has been playing pretty well so far in terms of doing what he does best.

Consequently, I don't want this to sound too harsh, but is it me, or does Zach seem like a stat whore?

When him and Lee are on the court, I notice both of them going up for a rebound and even if Lee is there first, Zach seems willing to rip the ball from his hands so that he can get the rebound. Add to that he never seems to pass the ball when he has the ball in the low post (although to his credit, he had some nice passes to Curry from the high post in the Orlando game).

Not trying to act like a hater or anything, but just wondering if he seems to rub anyone else that way.

A stat whore? Would you rather him be passive? Like the Nuggets game. Zach wanted the ball and deliever in the clutch. I rather have a player that wants the ball the ball than a player that runs away from the ball.

Now to Lee and Zach, I see to players working hard for a rebound. Would you rather him stand there and not try to get a rebound.? When you are jumping for a rebound you don't have time to look all the time to see who you are fighting to get a rebound from. I have seen Balkman and Lee fight over a rebound also. Do have a problem with Balkman doing that? Or is just Zach?

That is not what I'm saying at all. Of course I would want a talented PF to want the ball in key situations. What I'm saying is, to me, it seems like there are situations where he seems intent on getting his. One play especially stood out to me during the preseason against Maccabi Elite. There was essentially a 2 on 1 and Zach went to the basket against a defender instead of making a pass to Lee who was going baseline and would have had an easy dunk. Zach made the shot but it didn't make sense to me why he would take a shot like that instead of dumping it to a wide open Lee.

With the rebounds, I see Lee right there ready to make the rebound with no players on the other team really threatening to take it away, and Zach will come and basically grab it even though Lee is right there. Of course you want both guys to fight for the rebound, but you also don't want them to actually FIGHT for it and cause the ball to go out of bounds or to the other team. That doesn't happen cause Lee will give in to Zach in those situations. But it makes me wonder if this has to do with Zach's personality and has anything to do with why the Blazers wanted him gone.

Posted by s3231:

Posted by BigC:

Posted by s3231:

Zach has been playing pretty well so far in terms of doing what he does best.

Consequently, I don't want this to sound too harsh, but is it me, or does Zach seem like a stat whore?

When him and Lee are on the court, I notice both of them going up for a rebound and even if Lee is there first, Zach seems willing to rip the ball from his hands so that he can get the rebound. Add to that he never seems to pass the ball when he has the ball in the low post (although to his credit, he had some nice passes to Curry from the high post in the Orlando game).

Not trying to act like a hater or anything, but just wondering if he seems to rub anyone else that way.

A stat whore? Would you rather him be passive? Like the Nuggets game. Zach wanted the ball and deliever in the clutch. I rather have a player that wants the ball the ball than a player that runs away from the ball.

Now to Lee and Zach, I see to players working hard for a rebound. Would you rather him stand there and not try to get a rebound.? When you are jumping for a rebound you don't have time to look all the time to see who you are fighting to get a rebound from. I have seen Balkman and Lee fight over a rebound also. Do have a problem with Balkman doing that? Or is just Zach?

That is not what I'm saying at all. Of course I would want a talented PF to want the ball in key situations. What I'm saying is, to me, it seems like there are situations where he seems intent on getting his. One play especially stood out to me during the preseason against Maccabi Elite. There was essentially a 2 on 1 and Zach went to the basket against a defender instead of making a pass to Lee who was going baseline and would have had an easy dunk. Zach made the shot but it didn't make sense to me why he would take a shot like that instead of dumping it to a wide open Lee.

With the rebounds, I see Lee right there ready to make the rebound with no players on the other team really threatening to take it away, and Zach will come and basically grab it even though Lee is right there. Of course you want both guys to fight for the rebound, but you also don't want them to actually FIGHT for it and cause the ball to go out of bounds or to the other team. That doesn't happen cause Lee will give in to Zach in those situations. But it makes me wonder if this has to do with Zach's personality and has anything to do with why the Blazers wanted him gone.

Good points.
The Blazers were tried of the their old image so therefore everyone had to go. You really get blame them. I mean their team was referred to as the Jailblazers. You can't get worse than that. Notice how no one will use that term now.




As far as Zach, I also think that great rebounders do things like that. Mason and Oakley use to fight for rebounds do all the time. Look at Dennis Rodman. He had a mentality that he was going to get every rebound. No one was going to stop him including teammates. A player will be set back trying to assume that his teammate is the one he is fighting for a rebound with. NOt to mention when you get a rebound your team has to get the ball down the court as fast as they can. Good coaches will tell their players don't let anyone take the ball from you. And I mean no one.