Look how many great players the Knicks drafted over the last decade.

The only way to build a championship team is to get lucky in the draft or sign a star. Denver in a bad spot.

ChuckBuck wrote:

Nalod wrote:

ChuckBuck wrote:

martin wrote:

ChuckBuck wrote:Sorry, speedball don't work in the playoffs. Works a little against slower halfcourt teams(Lakers), but size and experience won out in game 7. Nuggets aren't going anywhere in the near future, no go to player.

I think the Nuggs have a good future ahead of them. Lots of young players, all with plenty of upside. They do need a backup PG (Andre Miller old) and another player to step up as a closer for them to go a lot further.

It's strange to me that you suggest the Nuggets aren't going anywhere in the near future because they have no go-to player: Didn't the just trade one of the better go-to players.... whose teams really didn't go anywhere? It's more than just having a go-to player.

And why doesn't speedball work in the playoffs? It does for Miami. It did for the Lakers and Magic. Spurs push tempo whenever then can. PHO used it pretty well too.

Playoff basketball typically come down to defense and half court execution. Sure, run outs off turnovers like what Miami does or the Spurs do to score easy transition buckets help. But for the most part, you'll get grind it out affairs under 100 pts that are won in the 4th quarter like the Philly-Boston series, Miami-Indy game 1, Clippers-Grizzlies round 1 series. The Nuggets whole philosophy is to run off ever miss, every turnover, every basket etc. It worked for awhile against a slow, halfcourt based team like the Lakers for the most part in 7 games, but when push came to shove, got worn down inside and annihilated on the glass by Bynum and Gasol in the 4th quarter. So yes, having a Lebron, Parker, Pierce, Paul in the 4th quarter does matter in the playoffs when it slows down. Speedball can work for a few games, maybe win a series, but ultimately doesn't succeed in the big picture.

Neither does starphuching!

Cuz if it did we'd be world champs many times over!

one of the symptoms of starphuching is having a great on paper team but they get injured.

It happens more to starphuched teams than the unstarphuched.

AMare cuts his hand. Starphuched teams do stupid things. His play most of the year has not been better than Bosh.

Starphuched teams have old guys like Baron and BIbby. Lin was hurt. Starphuched teams don't abuse their ute like MDA did gettng Linsanity to save the day.

The Starphuched underachieved. The KNuggs over achieved. One day they might have to make decisions about players and trade them or decide if they want to take on the financial aspect of trying to win a championship. But for now they are rebuilding.

Starphuched teams don't rebuild because they never suck enough or they trade their picks chasing an instant fix.

Boston Starphucked and it works for them. It can be done, we just have not been successful at it.

Maybe we can going forward.

Maybe part of the starphuch is to make us hopeful enough to support the team.

Cuz on paper it all looks so damn good each year!

Obsessed with Starphuching much? Forget the rosters, stars, etc. I'm talking basic playoff basketball. It's defense and halfcourt offense that wins most of the time. That's why a roster of mostly younger aged role players, Philly, was able to grind out a playoff win at the garden. They didn't run circles around Boston or play uptempo style basketball. They out grinded Boston. For all of the Nuggets young talent, they won't advance far due to style and basketball philosophy.

That has always been a given. Teams need to be able to run, play defense and grind it out a close game. You need all the components to win.

YOu can win with Melo as one component.

NO doubt injury derailed us. But we were never really on the rails most of the season. Did we ever have our starting unit with one coach more than 5 games in a row?

We all saw the potential.

As for denver, they will draft, they will develope and then they can make a trade. They are not close to being a contender.

We maybe on paper. But we all know paper don't play.

AnubisADL wrote:It's easy finding a closer in the draft.

Look how many great players the Knicks drafted over the last decade.

The only way to build a championship team is to get lucky in the draft or sign a star. Denver in a bad spot.

NUPE wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:
Huh? They have exactly what you just said is needed. They have their own and other teams' draft picks and cap space. Ty Lawson is pretty close to a star anyway. He just doesn't take enough shots and isn't flashy enough to get the recognition Melo gets.

Denver does not have great draft picks. They have the Knicks which will be non-loterry and they will have theirs which is also be non-lottery. As far as the draft goes it is a crap-shoot and many teams have tried and failed to win via the draft. As far as Lawson being comparable to Melo, that is just laughable. Lawson is not a star nor a superstar. He has had one good season and is undersized.

At the end of the day I will take the current Knicks roster over Denvers.

That’s exactly the issue with our Knicks, with such a good roster, why are we still a mediocre team since the trade? Shouldn’t the Knicks be winning more games now? Shouldn’t Denver be losing more games after they traded Melo to us?

As far as the Draft, it really depend on each team scouting department and how effective they use their picks, Oklahoma, San Antonio, Indiana and Denver (Lawson and Faried) have done a pretty good job drafting early as well as when drafting late. Also the picks can be use in trades so they are always assets.

mrKnickShot wrote:

KnicksFE wrote:

NUPE wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:
Huh? They have exactly what you just said is needed. They have their own and other teams' draft picks and cap space. Ty Lawson is pretty close to a star anyway. He just doesn't take enough shots and isn't flashy enough to get the recognition Melo gets.

Denver does not have great draft picks. They have the Knicks which will be non-loterry and they will have theirs which is also be non-lottery. As far as the draft goes it is a crap-shoot and many teams have tried and failed to win via the draft. As far as Lawson being comparable to Melo, that is just laughable. Lawson is not a star nor a superstar. He has had one good season and is undersized.

At the end of the day I will take the current Knicks roster over Denvers.

That’s exactly the issue with our Knicks, with such a good roster, why are we still a mediocre team since the trade? Shouldn’t the Knicks be winning more games now? Shouldn’t Denver be losing more games after they traded Melo to us?

As far as the Draft, it really depend on each team scouting department and how effective they use their picks, Oklahoma, San Antonio, Indiana and Denver (Lawson and Faried) have done a pretty good job drafting early as well as when drafting late. Also the picks can be use in trades so they are always assets.

You are judging a small sample size in a very simplistic view.

Based on the way the knicks finished the regular season, there are much bigger expectations than before (MDA time).

Denver had their lowest winning pct in 5 years. They also stole Faried in the draft (Best pick this draft by far) and Lawson became an excellent player with the exit of CB.

Trades should not be judged for at least 3 years to fully see the long term affect (See Eli Manning trade)

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:

KnicksFE wrote:

NUPE wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:
Huh? They have exactly what you just said is needed. They have their own and other teams' draft picks and cap space. Ty Lawson is pretty close to a star anyway. He just doesn't take enough shots and isn't flashy enough to get the recognition Melo gets.

Denver does not have great draft picks. They have the Knicks which will be non-loterry and they will have theirs which is also be non-lottery. As far as the draft goes it is a crap-shoot and many teams have tried and failed to win via the draft. As far as Lawson being comparable to Melo, that is just laughable. Lawson is not a star nor a superstar. He has had one good season and is undersized.

At the end of the day I will take the current Knicks roster over Denvers.

That’s exactly the issue with our Knicks, with such a good roster, why are we still a mediocre team since the trade? Shouldn’t the Knicks be winning more games now? Shouldn’t Denver be losing more games after they traded Melo to us?

As far as the Draft, it really depend on each team scouting department and how effective they use their picks, Oklahoma, San Antonio, Indiana and Denver (Lawson and Faried) have done a pretty good job drafting early as well as when drafting late. Also the picks can be use in trades so they are always assets.

You are judging a small sample size in a very simplistic view.

Based on the way the knicks finished the regular season, there are much bigger expectations than before (MDA time).

Denver had their lowest winning pct in 5 years. They also stole Faried in the draft (Best pick this draft by far) and Lawson became an excellent player with the exit of CB.

Trades should not be judged for at least 3 years to fully see the long term affect (See Eli Manning trade)

You criticize him for using a small sample size but you emphasize the mere 18 wins with the new coach?

The small sample size was not criticizing him but taking a (minor) stab at you

ShellTopAdidas wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:

KnicksFE wrote:

NUPE wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:
Huh? They have exactly what you just said is needed. They have their own and other teams' draft picks and cap space. Ty Lawson is pretty close to a star anyway. He just doesn't take enough shots and isn't flashy enough to get the recognition Melo gets.

Denver does not have great draft picks. They have the Knicks which will be non-loterry and they will have theirs which is also be non-lottery. As far as the draft goes it is a crap-shoot and many teams have tried and failed to win via the draft. As far as Lawson being comparable to Melo, that is just laughable. Lawson is not a star nor a superstar. He has had one good season and is undersized.

At the end of the day I will take the current Knicks roster over Denvers.

That’s exactly the issue with our Knicks, with such a good roster, why are we still a mediocre team since the trade? Shouldn’t the Knicks be winning more games now? Shouldn’t Denver be losing more games after they traded Melo to us?

As far as the Draft, it really depend on each team scouting department and how effective they use their picks, Oklahoma, San Antonio, Indiana and Denver (Lawson and Faried) have done a pretty good job drafting early as well as when drafting late. Also the picks can be use in trades so they are always assets.

You are judging a small sample size in a very simplistic view.

Based on the way the knicks finished the regular season, there are much bigger expectations than before (MDA time).

Denver had their lowest winning pct in 5 years. They also stole Faried in the draft (Best pick this draft by far) and Lawson became an excellent player with the exit of CB.

Trades should not be judged for at least 3 years to fully see the long term affect (See Eli Manning trade)

Yeah, but Denver should have withered away into the abyss of suckiness by now after losing there super dooper star.....looks like their doing alright to me!

This response makes absolutely no sense but thanks!

Danilo Gallinari can’t sleep, wants to prove he’s not a loser

It's something of an understatement to say that Danilo Gallinari did not come up big for the Denver Nuggets in their Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, a defeat that sent George Karl's upstart squad home for the summer after the opening round of the NBA playoffs for the second straight season. The 23-year-old forward missed eight of his nine field-goal attempts in the deciding game, scoring just three points in nearly 26 minutes of play and turning the ball over four times. It was a bad scene.

More damning, Karl yanked Gallinari at the 7:07 mark of the third quarter, parking him on the bench for all but a 1:58 stretch midway through the fourth ... during which he coughed it up to Metta World Peace with four minutes left and the Nuggets down five, earning himself a trip right back to the bench. In the biggest game of the year, Denver's coach didn't feel like he could trust a player the team just signed to a four-year, $42 million extension. Less than ideal.

As Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post put it, "Gallo was a zero," and 36 hours after Game 7, he was still pretty torn up about it.

The hurt left an emotional scar. You could feel his humiliation from here to his native Italy.

"I had a bad night. It's my nature, and I was given this by my parents, to live for those big moments. I want big games to prove to myself that I'm a winner and not a loser," Gallinari told me Monday [...]

"I didn't have just the world watching that game, but also my friends, my family and everybody in my home country knew I was coming out to have a big game. And I didn't."

Feeling like you let people down is the worst. The particular strain Gallo is referencing — basically, "the Adam Banks in 'The Mighty Ducks' strain" — is well known to anyone who's ever tried really hard to be excellent when your parent was finally able to get off work and come to your game, but failed. It's a bummer, and it can even stick with you when your head hits the pillow, as Kiszla writes:

If reputations are built or destroyed in the NBA playoffs, then Gallo has major repair to do. Because it's obvious he cares, I asked Gallinari if he has been able to sleep.

"I'm still not sleeping. I'm still mad," Gallinari said. "Not talking to anybody. You lucky I'm talking to you guys today."

Gallinari's frustration is understandable — as a second- or third-tier Western Conference team built on depth rather than star power, the Nuggets don't get a ton of national attention, so if he wants to build a reputation as a sharpshooter or lights-out scorer, he'll have to earn that recognition in the playoffs. And to this point, he hasn't — his per-36-minute scoring average and shooting percentages (field-goal, 3-point and free throw) are all down from his career marks in the 12 postseason appearances over the past two seasons. It's not quite star-status stuff.

Then again, that makes sense because ... y'know ... Danilo Gallinari isn't a star. The surprise isn't that he didn't play like a stud; it's that he didn't even play like himself.

He's a guy who scores about 16 points per 36 minutes, who's capable of popping for 30 on any given night but is much more likely to score half that. He shoots 42 percent from the floor, is pretty accurate from long range and very accurate from the foul line, has become a more willing passer, is getting better at moving his feet and using his length on defense, and doesn't rebound that well for either a 6-foot-10 guy or a garden-variety small forward. There's no shame in that — he's a good NBA rotation player, he's certainly useful, and he could become great one day — but right now, it's the truth.

A late-March thumb injury likely contributed something to his subpar performance — Gallo shot just 37.1 percent from the floor in 10 regular-season games after returning to the lineup, a mark that dipped to 36.1 percent (and just 17.4 percent from 3-point land) in the seven games against L.A. So did the Lakers defense (especially the harassment from a just-returned Metta World Peace in Game 7) and, yes, so did the combined effect of the pressures of the game on the floor and the game in his head. That's a lot to deal with; being great is hard.

There's good news for Gallinari, though. As renewable resources for offseason-workout motivation go, anger's right up there with the best of them; a return to health plus a summer spent sharpening could help him bridge the gap between the player he is and the player he thinks he is. Plus, he doesn't turn 24 for about three months, 12 late-spring games do not etch your rep in stone for eternity, and this Denver team looks primed to get a few more cracks at this postseason thing over the next few years.

Here's hoping that when Gallo does get some shut-eye, he'll be dreaming of those chances ahead rather than this opportunity lost.

KnicksFE wrote:

NUPE wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:
Huh? They have exactly what you just said is needed. They have their own and other teams' draft picks and cap space. Ty Lawson is pretty close to a star anyway. He just doesn't take enough shots and isn't flashy enough to get the recognition Melo gets.

Denver does not have great draft picks. They have the Knicks which will be non-loterry and they will have theirs which is also be non-lottery. As far as the draft goes it is a crap-shoot and many teams have tried and failed to win via the draft. As far as Lawson being comparable to Melo, that is just laughable. Lawson is not a star nor a superstar. He has had one good season and is undersized.

At the end of the day I will take the current Knicks roster over Denvers.

That’s exactly the issue with our Knicks, with such a good roster, why are we still a mediocre team since the trade? Shouldn’t the Knicks be winning more games now? Shouldn’t Denver be losing more games after they traded Melo to us?

As far as the Draft, it really depend on each team scouting department and how effective they use their picks, Oklahoma, San Antonio, Indiana and Denver (Lawson and Faried) have done a pretty good job drafting early as well as when drafting late. Also the picks can be use in trades so they are always assets.

Well, it is not that simple. The Knicks have been poorly coached. It is indisputable. They were sub .500 with Dantoni. And 18 - 6 with Woodson. You can blame Melo if you like but it was not just Melo who was playing better. Further, Dantoni is known for not focusing on D and running an offense that can cause defensive deficiencies and give up fastbreaks.

The Knick's also had a litany of never ending injuries this year.

There are a lot of reasons for the Knicks underachieving but at the end of the day almost every analyst I have seen or read this year stated that the Knicks have a load of talent and should be dangerous. It is a matter of realizing this potential which Mike Woodson has at least begun to do.

This is just my opinion.

muhaha wrote:

FeltonandAmare wrote:

KnicksFE wrote:And even if they don’t win the series against the Lakers, after last night, THERE IS NO QUESTION that they have had WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY more success than us since the trade.
But what do they know? After all, they are just a bunch of ROLE PLAYERS RIGHT?

The Nuggies are at best an average team who will NEVER win a championship. As yourself who has a better chance at winning a championship. It's the Knicks and it's not even close. Wake up.

You are kidding right?

Nuggets have the LOWEST salary cap among all the playoff teams this year. 12 Nuggets are under contracts next year for a total of 42 millions. Last year, they signed Faried and Hamilton for 5 years at about 2 millions/year each. Gallo, 5 years for 45 millions. Lawson for the next 2 years at 3 mils/year. Afflalo, 5 year contract too at 38 millions. Lawson Faried are their young stars. They have their core players set for years to come and they can ADD WHOEVER THEY WANT TO MAKE THEIR CHAMPIONSHIP RUNS!

Knicks have 3 years left with their core players in Tyson, Melo and Stat. They are capped out for the next 3 years. Don't expect quality players in the Knicks roster without trading one of the big 3. Knicks already traded many of their future draft picks. They have to win with what they have. After the series with Heat, the future looks very bleak for Knicks!