DurzoBlint wrote:I have been to some recent games (atl to name the most recent) and I call the reasoning listed for n8's benching as BS. Every game you see guys hugging and yucking it up with players of the opposing team. Hell, you can see Mike D doing the same thing.

Who hasn't seen him yuk it up with Nash, and his former players, Excuse me but, aren't they also on the opposing team. Being friends with them makes it OK

Not saying N8 should be playing but, the reason put out there is BS. Watch the pregame shoot around and you will see players from both teams approaching each other for a lil convo

Please read the most important two lines in this article

By MARC BERMAN

According to a source,

I'm willing to bet that talking to opposing players is not the reason he is being benched. I can guarantee you it is a multitude of things that add up over time. Some we know of like, being outplayed on d by a rookie, shooting in the wrong basket, flexing while the opposing team is going in for a lay-up, posing and strutting while getting your points as your team is getting blown out and pointless selfish away from the ball fouls. Now we can add in this tidbit that we recieved "from a source". That's 5 or 6 things that we know. Now add on top of this, Nate's suspended license issue in the preseason, his twittering habits, his run-ins with 2 other coaches who tried to get him to change as well and probably a few more things that we know nothing about. In the end, whatever the reason it does not matter. We has a team have a horrible record. The last 4 years we have as well. Nobody on this team should be demanding minutes. I don't care if the coach benches you because you looked at him funny. Until you as a player help this team win, you can demand nothing!!! Michael Jordan can do all the things Nate does and get away with it. Nate can not and should not.

Bippity10 wrote:

DurzoBlint wrote:I have been to some recent games (atl to name the most recent) and I call the reasoning listed for n8's benching as BS. Every game you see guys hugging and yucking it up with players of the opposing team. Hell, you can see Mike D doing the same thing.

Who hasn't seen him yuk it up with Nash, and his former players, Excuse me but, aren't they also on the opposing team. Being friends with them makes it OK

Not saying N8 should be playing but, the reason put out there is BS. Watch the pregame shoot around and you will see players from both teams approaching each other for a lil convo

Please read the most important two lines in this article

By MARC BERMAN

According to a source,

I'm willing to bet that talking to opposing players is not the reason he is being benched. I can guarantee you it is a multitude of things that add up over time. Some we know of like, being outplayed on d by a rookie, shooting in the wrong basket, flexing while the opposing team is going in for a lay-up, posing and strutting while getting your points as your team is getting blown out and pointless selfish away from the ball fouls. Now we can add in this tidbit that we recieved "from a source". That's 5 or 6 things that we know. Now add on top of this, Nate's suspended license issue in the preseason, his twittering habits, his run-ins with 2 other coaches who tried to get him to change as well and probably a few more things that we know nothing about. In the end, whatever the reason it does not matter. We has a team have a horrible record. The last 4 years we have as well. Nobody on this team should be demanding minutes. I don't care if the coach benches you because you looked at him funny. Until you as a player help this team win, you can demand nothing!!! Michael Jordan can do all the things Nate does and get away with it. Nate can not and should not.

hahaha you are so right about those 2 lines

Not sure about Douglas outplaying him. N8 is the better shooter and until Douglas averages more than 2 assists a game, I'm not sure he should be out there.

Bippity10 wrote:

DurzoBlint wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:

DurzoBlint wrote:I have been to some recent games (atl to name the most recent) and I call the reasoning listed for n8's benching as BS. Every game you see guys hugging and yucking it up with players of the opposing team. Hell, you can see Mike D doing the same thing.

Who hasn't seen him yuk it up with Nash, and his former players, Excuse me but, aren't they also on the opposing team. Being friends with them makes it OK

Not saying N8 should be playing but, the reason put out there is BS. Watch the pregame shoot around and you will see players from both teams approaching each other for a lil convo

Please read the most important two lines in this article

By MARC BERMAN

According to a source,

I'm willing to bet that talking to opposing players is not the reason he is being benched. I can guarantee you it is a multitude of things that add up over time. Some we know of like, being outplayed on d by a rookie, shooting in the wrong basket, flexing while the opposing team is going in for a lay-up, posing and strutting while getting your points as your team is getting blown out and pointless selfish away from the ball fouls. Now we can add in this tidbit that we recieved "from a source". That's 5 or 6 things that we know. Now add on top of this, Nate's suspended license issue in the preseason, his twittering habits, his run-ins with 2 other coaches who tried to get him to change as well and probably a few more things that we know nothing about. In the end, whatever the reason it does not matter. We has a team have a horrible record. The last 4 years we have as well. Nobody on this team should be demanding minutes. I don't care if the coach benches you because you looked at him funny. Until you as a player help this team win, you can demand nothing!!! Michael Jordan can do all the things Nate does and get away with it. Nate can not and should not.

hahaha you are so right about those 2 lines

Not sure about Douglas outplaying him. N8 is the better shooter and until Douglas averages more than 2 assists a game, I'm not sure he should be out there.

I think Nate is a better player. I think Douglas is more focused and is giving us something on the 2nd unit that Nate does not.........Defense. Mike has determined that this is what we need right now. I don't disagree. With Wilson, Larry, Gallo, Harrington, soon to be Eddie Curry and even David Lee taking shots, do we really need another shoot first player? No we need a guy that will do the dirty work. If Nate can do the dirty work, play d, bring intangibles, score and/or not create a scene everytime he plays then he would be on the court.

Yea, you know, that's the age-old thing. Intelligence (talent) can potentially open many more doors for you than someone that is less talented, but many times you have less talented people succeeding because they have something that the talented person does not have, focus, determination, consistency. It is great to be smart, because your ceiling is infinitely higher than someone birthed with lesser gifts, but it is not enough to ensure success.

Panos wrote:

orangeblobman wrote:Yea, you know, that's the age-old thing. Intelligence (talent) can potentially open many more doors for you than someone that is less talented, but many times you have less talented people succeeding because they have something that the talented person does not have, focus, determination, consistency. It is great to be smart, because your ceiling is infinitely higher than someone birthed with lesser gifts, but it is not enough to ensure success.

Thank God you have both, ay manblob?

I am cultivating the focus and consistency, as you can probably tell. But the other is in abundant supply.

Those like me, they don't go away that easily.

djsunyc wrote:

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:I love Nate but we're winning without him so keep his ass on the bench. Perhaps the team just is in a better rhythm when they try to create offense through spacing and ball movement vs. clearing out for Nate to do his thing.

the team has won 4 of the last 5 b/c of hughes + harrington and lee playing at an all-star level type clip...

Yea, and you put Nate in and he destroys the chemistry. 'F' Nate.

MS wrote:We could easily lose the next two games and then we are back to the ****ty team we have seen for years. The Knicks played good ball last year and lost a number of games they should have won. So they are capable of putting nice stretches together.

Chandler was shooting way to may jumpers, Hughes was taking terrible shots, Harrington was a blackhole on offense and Duhon maybe played worse than any guard in league history that was the reason for the bad start.

Nate is a very good player that just needed to be refocused. Douglas doesn't exactly share the ball in fact he shoots everytime he gets the thing. He is just playing better defense. Maybe this will do Nate some good

I think the hope is that this will be good for Nate. Everyone knows the guy is good enough to be in the rotation. But our culture is changing and the antics are stopping. It's becoming about what you do for the team to help us move forward. Nate needs to adapt to this. If he does, he will be back in the line-up.

djsunyc wrote:

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:I love Nate but we're winning without him so keep his ass on the bench. Perhaps the team just is in a better rhythm when they try to create offense through spacing and ball movement vs. clearing out for Nate to do his thing.

the team has won 4 of the last 5 b/c of hughes + harrington and lee playing at an all-star level type clip...

And lets face it - the team got lucky with some of our opponents either being out of sorts (as I think Phoenix was) or banged up or just bad.

franco12 wrote:

djsunyc wrote:

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:I love Nate but we're winning without him so keep his ass on the bench. Perhaps the team just is in a better rhythm when they try to create offense through spacing and ball movement vs. clearing out for Nate to do his thing.

the team has won 4 of the last 5 b/c of hughes + harrington and lee playing at an all-star level type clip...

And lets face it - the team got lucky with some of our opponents either being out of sorts (as I think Phoenix was) or banged up or just bad.

Yeah, but we lost a few games we should have won, so it balances out. We are about where we should be recordwise. If the team can continue to cut down on the 3s and drive to the basket, we should be able to play near .500 ball for awhile.