(I refuse to wring my hands or gnash my teeth over ANY Knicks loss this season)

If Chandler's baseline drive and dunk makes ESPN Top Ten Plays, he can learn to manage as assistant guard in Summer League.

If that does not work - find a 6'7 clone of Golden State's Stephen Jackson and let The Mayor solidify the three spot.

Chandler has the potential to be a low level star on the level of a Richard Jefferson or Caron Butler. He has alot of work to do to get to that level on a consistent basis, but the potential is there. If he can solidify himself as our starting SF, I would be happy with that.

Posted by tkf:

Posted by JrZyHuStLa:

Chandler is a career role player. The only way this team will develop its own star through the draft is if they get a top 5 pick. Notice I didn't say top 6, because Gallo will not be a star.

I guess you and kevin Mchale are drinking buddies. It is that thinking that landed portland Brandon Roy with pick #6 and the wolves Randy foye with pick #7... what a trade LOL...

I guess the Bobcats and bulls who both had a top 5 pick are so happy they didn't have the #6 pick and Roy instead of Adam morrison and Tyrus thomas....

How in the world do you know what gallinari is going to be without him playing any real minutes in the NBA?

I agree. You cannot base a players potential on their draft position. There are plenty of guys taken in the second round who turn out to be great players and a bunch of top-5 players who turn into bust after only 1 season. Draft position means nothing.

Chandler, thus far, has indeed proven to be nothing more than a role player. He hasn't improved much at all once we saw what he could do with more minutes.

As of late I will say he has turned more and more into a Chucker, something I voiced concern in another thread early in the season, only to be trashed over that observation. Well, unfortunately, it seems my concern was correct, but hopefully a trend that can be broken and not a solid trait that we never noticed before.

Now other things are at play here. The team has given up playing hard. The trades. The minutes.

Chandler went from no minutes to starters minutes.
He went from playing well at the 4 to being pushed to the 3 when Harrington was brought on board.
He went from part of a team sharing the ball to a team that for whatever reason, seemingly spearheaded by Nate, is back to being frustrated and deciding to just go 1-1 nearly every time they get the ball, and once Nate did that, Harrington did that, and once Harrington did that, Chandler did that. It happened VERY quickly.

My point is there's a lot going on to explain why Chandler hasn't played well recently. Yet I think the observations that he's not what we want him to be are also on point: He's not the smartest, he's not the hardest working, he's going 1-1 too much, he's taking deep shots when he has opportunity to drive, and he might very well just be a bench player being asked to do too much.

How does that get fixed is the bigger question and one that is impossible to answer given the overall team's lack of chemistry the past handful of games.

Cosmic - what about the position change from a player who was described as a power forward to shooting guard?

"He's not the smartest, he's not the hardest working..."

How does anyone know how hard The Mayor is working at his craft?

Posted by misterearl:

Cosmic - what about the position change from a player who was described as a power forward to shooting guard?

"He's not the smartest, he's not the hardest working..."

How does anyone know how hard The Mayor is working at his craft?

Have you been watching the games? He has played much lazier on both ends of the court. He has made several really stupid mistakes.

If that's not smart and not hard working then I don't know where you put the bar for those categories. Quite low I would have to guess.

"He has made several really stupid mistakes."

Cosmic - If Chandler is making such unconscionable "stupid mistakes" why doesn't D'Antoni bench him?

"Do not tuch Chan... You see; man is in love.."

arkrud - good answer.

Naive as expected. Not that there is anything wrong with being naive.

I'm jus' sayin'.

Why is the defensive sieve (aka the "blue collar" hard worker) David Lee (the much more experienced veteran) never cited as lacking effort ( or intelligence) for his defensive liabilities?

You're kidding right? Everyone bemoans Lee's defense. I'll say it. Lee still makes rookie mistakes on the defensive end. Who knows, maybe he's not that intelligent. Maybe he just doesn't try hard enough on D. Who knows. I'd like to see the Knicks hire a real big man's coach. We can do better than Herb Williams.