http://www.nykfanpage.com/editorials/viewarticle.php?articleid=178

Go to NBA.com. At the top of the page, click on the arrow where it says Teams. Click on New York. Now, look at the banner on the top of the page and tell me what’s the first thing you notice. That’s right. All the players shown in the banner are perimeter players. You would have figured they could have found at least one frontcourt player worthy...



I mean, the Knicks did just draft a 6' 11" center from a big-time NCAA program, the University of Arizona. Oh wait, the Wildcats are known for producing NBA guards, not NBA centers. Hmmm.

Well, how many NBA teams can boast about having not one, but two legitimate seven-footers on their roster?

Yeeeaah. I knew I would get ‘em then!

Oh wait...those two seven-footers are respectively named “Big Snacks” and Bruno. Sigh.

Oh, I know. I know. What about Jackie Butler? I mean, the guy has averaged 18.7 points and 10.1 rebounds in an NBA season before...

Oh, that’s a “C”. It looked like an “N” at first. (calls for group hug).

Wait a minute...you mean to tell me there’s no one they could have included in the banner to give the Knicks the look of a more balanced team?

Hey, what about Mike Sweetney?

The Time Has Come

The trade that sent former face of the Knicks frontcourt, Kurt Thomas to the Phoenix Suns did more than leave the door open for Mike Sweetney to become the new face of the frontcourt. It essentially made the third-year player from Georgetown University the frontcourt player with the longest tenure on the team.

For any player, the time comes where ones’ expectations are either met or not met. The time comes where the line between comparisions are drawn. The time comes where a clear picture of what a player will and will not be begins to form. As Sweetney enters his third season with the Knicks, that time has come.

Throughout the many roster moves General Manager Isiah Thomas has made during his 21 months on the job, it would be safe to say that if Isiah wanted Mike Sweetney gone, he would be gone. So obviously the Knicks are counting on Mike Sweetney to play a big part.

Mike Sweetney

Drafted 9th overall in the 2003 NBA Draft, he was considered a “tweener”—a player who doesn’t fit a perceived mold of a certain NBA position. A tweener is often considered either too short in height or too small in weight to play a certain position. At 6' 8", 270 pounds, Elton Brand was considered a tweener for an NBA power forward. But he’s managed to make a good living playing power forward in the NBA. Often compared to Brand, Sweetney’s game possesses some of the exact characteristics that Brand’s game does—great wingspan, good footwork, good hands, quickness and a true NBA post game. Their combination of both size and quickness allows both players to utilize their body to power defenders smaller in size as well as utilize their good footwork to make fakes, create seperation and pivot to finesse taller defenders.

Man in the Middle

With a significant amount of shots figured to be taken by perimeter players this upcoming season, the Knicks are in desperate need of a man in the middle. An inside scorer. A post player. High percentage shots. Someone capable of drawing a double-team in the paint. Someone capable of creating open looks on the perimeter. The door is wide open for Sweetney to step in and become that man.

With Kurt Thomas gone, Sweetney’s minutes figure to increase. If he’s able to overcome his past problems of being foul prone—which may be attributed to his lack of conditioning, his numbers also figure to increase. Apparently, he took it upon himself to address his lack of conditioning while being rumored to have spent the offseason working with NFL star Curtis Martin. Sweetney finished his second season with the Knicks averaging 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds in 77 games. He shot 53% averaging 19.6 minutes a game.

“When I get into the post, I believe I can take guys, and I do,” Sweetney said. “Nowadays, a lot of the big guys are a lot slimmer and like playing out in the wing. I like being inside...I love physical contact.”

And Knicks fans love their post players who love physical contact.

“The one player on the team who’s certain to get fouled every time he touches the ball in the paint,” according to Coach Herb Williams.

The ability to draw fouls and convert them into points at the free throw line was something that was scarce during the Kurt Thomas era. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Sweetney. He consistently creates contact, draws the foul, and gets to the free throw line. Of all the unheard of things in the NBA...imagine that, a post player with an actual post game. Something that’s seemingly becoming a lost art nowadays in the NBA.

He’s also a good rebounder. Last season, he ranked 9th in the league in offensive rebounds per 48 minutes. Last season, do you remember when the Knicks walked into Conseco Fieldhouse sporting a nine-game losing streak and won the game on a game-winner by Sweetney? There’s no coincidence that the winning basket to beat the Pacers was an offensive put-back.

Demand the Ball

Self described as being “real laid back,” there are times where he may be a little too laid back. Not saying that he should go into the stands, but there are definitely times when he must become more vocal. Demand the rock! Make his presence known on the court. On a team dominated by perimeter scorers, a shy young post player can and will tend to get lost in the shuffle unless he becomes more assertive. The Knicks don’t need him to become the go-to guy, but they desperately need to be able to go to the guy in the paint. When Jamal Crawford takes a fadeaway jumper from halfcourt with three or four defenders hanging off him, we won’t be mad if Sweetney runs up to Jamal, stares him in the eyes and yells, “Get me the ball down low!”

I promise we won’t be mad.

Staying on the Court

Coach Herb Williams: “If Sweetney can keep himself on the court, stay out of foul trouble and, at the same time, also be aggressive...That’s what I’m constantly telling him. Whenever he is aggressive, he makes things happen for us.”

In order to be the man in the middle, one must be in the game. Avoid foul trouble. No team can get anything out of a player that expected to give something if he’s constantly sitting on the bench. His numbers in games last season where he played at least 30 minutes were solid. If Sweetney is to solidfy his spot in the starting lineup this season, he must stay out of foul trouble. His game can’t develop if he’s constantly sitting on the bench. He must stay on the court. What Sweetney manages to accomplish in the post will go a long way towards determining what happens on the perimeter. In other words, the game of basketball is still played inside-out.

The talent is there. But staying in shape and avoiding foul trouble will go a long way towards determining if perhaps, Mike Sweetney is ready to become the man in the middle for the New York Knicks.

Knicks fans have their fingers crossed, in hopes that Sweetney is able to overcome the latter and emerge as the presence in the paint the team desperately needs.

In other words, Knicks fans are hoping to go to NBA.com around this time next year, click on New York and see where Mike Sweetney had a banner year.

Never heard sweetney and brand called tweeners before. I always thought the term was reserved for undersized AND scrawny guys. I sure hope Mike becomes an impact player this year.

Michael just needs to get into the best shape of his life and all will fall into place for him.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Never heard sweetney and brand called tweeners before. I always thought the term was reserved for undersized AND scrawny guys. I sure hope Mike becomes an impact player this year.

Maybe its Tweeners as in, BE-tweeners...?

defensively, he needs to be coached, as do most young players. this is where LB should help him immensely. as for boards, 5 boards in 20 mins is more than our $30 mil center 7 foot 1 center. secondly, that means, if he's on the court for, let's say 30 mins, we're looking at 7 boards or so. 7 boards in 30 mins is solid.

The late Brian williams was a pretty good big man from arizona, he wasn't a center but a pretty good pf...

Posted by djsunyc:

defensively, he needs to be coached, as do most young players. this is where LB should help him immensely. as for boards, 5 boards in 20 mins is more than our $30 mil center 7 foot 1 center. secondly, that means, if he's on the court for, let's say 30 mins, we're looking at 7 boards or so. 7 boards in 30 mins is solid.

7 rbs in 30 min is decent but hardly what I had in mind when I mentioned the term impact player.

Posted by djsunyc:

Posted by JUNKMEIN:

Michael just needs to get into the best shape of his life and all will fall into place for him.

getting in shape is key but the one thing that bugged me so much about last year is that usually when a team has a post player, the use that in the offense. like they either go to the post option for him to score for the ball to work inside out. if you noticed last year, there was really only ONE GUY that looked to dump the ball down low to sweets everytime in the offense. can you guess who it was? marbury? nope. crawford? nope. sad to say it wasn't our primary ball handlers. it was h20. you know why? b/c he played with post players before and he knows to work it inside out.

and when herb took over, he initially started go more and more to mike and it paid off. but then as the season winded down, they stopped that as well and i don't know why.

uggh, everytime i think about last season and sweets i get upset. before the season started, and i don't know if anybody remembers, but i said the most important thing to take away from last season was to see whether sweetney could be our guy or not. and we wasted an opportunity to find out. i know i know - spillt milk.

sounds like i'm talking about brand or kg - i know but nothing i'm saying is that outlandish. he shot 50% from the field and went to the line. HOW DID WE NOT UTILIZE THAT MORE? was it marbury and craw's preference to shoot or was it from herb? whatever the case, we didn't do what we should have.



[Edited by - djsunyc on 08-24-2005 9:12 PM]

nice to know there's someone who watched the games last season until the end and knows exactly where the team stands. I know to value your opinion now. I could not understand it as well just like I couldn't understand why we were still trying our hardest to win meaningless games against other teams 3rd units!

kinda like zach randolph right. funny how all of the sudden he just exploded, you know, when he finally got minutes and was given the ball.

nobody's saying sweetney will become elton brand.
heck, even if he ends up being a 6th man for his career that's fine too.

the thing that irks me is that we have to really see what he is. give him the ball and see what he can do. then it's all on him - either he has the talent or not. he has shown, so far, that he does have the talent but for some odd reason, they let tim keep shooting even though he's been incosistent his entire career yet won't go to sweets down low 10-15 times a game for a good 10 game stretch.

we'll see if he's part of the long term plans and where he fits in this season.

Man you guys are gullable. As a joke I said Sweetney should be rumoring with Curtis Martin, an NFL star from my favorite team the Jets, and you bought it. You actually think Curtis Martin would waste his time working with Sweetneys fat ***!!! Come On!!!

Posted by djsunyc:

kinda like zach randolph right. funny how all of the sudden he just exploded, you know, when he finally got minutes and was given the ball.

nobody's saying sweetney will become elton brand.
heck, even if he ends up being a 6th man for his career that's fine too.

the thing that irks me is that we have to really see what he is. give him the ball and see what he can do. then it's all on him - either he has the talent or not. he has shown, so far, that he does have the talent but for some odd reason, they let tim keep shooting even though he's been incosistent his entire career yet won't go to sweets down low 10-15 times a game for a good 10 game stretch.

we'll see if he's part of the long term plans and where he fits in this season.

I was really mind numbing to me why at the end of the year we were still featuring KT and only getting Sweetney 20 minutes or so a game. We we eliminated, yet we never took an 8 or 10 game stretch to see what Sweetney would do if featured for 30 minutes, or what Ariza would do with 30 minutes on the floor for a legit 10 game stretch.

I think Sweetney's foul issues a overblown. I think if he actually played more he would foul less. Look at his game log, he certainly has some games where fouls are an issue, but he's got just as many games with 0,1 or 2 fouls and he still only logged 15-20 minutes.

His 30+ minute games
vs. Atl 6-8 16/2 and 6 fouls in 31 minutes
vs. Indy 8-15 20/9 and 2 fouls in 37 minutes
vs. GS 9-12 19/7 and 4 fouls in 28 minutes
vs. LA 9-15 19/12 and 4 fouls in 30 minutes
vs. Phili 2-5 10/9 and 3 fouls in 32 minutes
vs. Bos 5-10 19/5 and 0 fouls in 28 minutes
vs Utah 6-7 15/9 and 6 fouls in 30 minutes
vs Mil 6-13 14/11 and 3 fouls in 37 minutes
vs LAC 4-8 14/9 and 1 fouls in 31 minutes
vs Bos 7-12 18/5 and 2 fouls in32 minutes

those are his 10 games he played the most. I didnt pick his best games, just the ones he got the most minutes.
31.6 minutes, 3.1 fouls 16.4 points, 7.8 boards, shooting 60-105 total and 57% FGs

All I can say is wow. Those are off the charts numbers. Its 10 games but I take something from this, and thats the more time Sweetney is on the floor, the LESS he fouls and more productive he becomes. He played 33 minutes a game at GTown and was double and tripled every time down the floor. If you watched him there his pattern was to hustle down the floor, get immediate position in the post and attack the rim early in the possesion. You could see him doing that with us but the guard simply didnt get him the ball and he would have to do everything from a set offense.

When this guy plays he puts up MAJOR numbers. Look at his game log.. its not like he had all these 10-18 minute games because of fouls. They just didnt play him enough.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?statsId=3712