The knicks were impressive losing 104-102 to the Dallas Mavericks. The Knicks did not play the 2 big names (Curry or Marbury) much. Here is a fans view of how each player did

Jackie Butler- very promising, he showed good passing and defense, had a block, couple of assists and was so so on the boards. He held his own against diop (5 blocks and gw put back) and dampier. Showed he has some offense with a 12. ft jumper early and then some nice hooks later. he looks like he will make the roster easily

Matt Barnes- very atheletic, can dunk, plays great D, hustles, sub par jumper. If he dosent make the knicks cause he is a clone of Ariza he will defintley be signed by another team

Steven Barber- Very very very small and weak. Hes taller than nate by 1 inch but is nowhere near his build. Has a nice midrange jumper and the baby jumper is good, he is not a great driver though. could become a good scorer. But his size and lack of strength is his weakness

Nate Robinson- WOW, this kid can play, hes tough, jumps out of the building, hustles, plays great d (had a couple of steals that led to fast breaks), and most important, can score in the clutch. With the game winding down he hit 2 free throws to tie the game. He can get to the basket at will. A little dissapointed when he attempted a dunk after a foul and was stuffed by the rim. HE WILL START AT PG BY THE END OF THE SEASON. write it down

David Lee- had a great game, good defender, great finisher, can run the court, great ball handling for a big guy and has a heart. He plays his ass off and works well with his teammates, nate and him especially

Channing Frye- like the previous game report said he is NOT SOFT. He is a animal, if anyone saw the dunk with 20 seconds left they saw a beast throwing a ball down hard. played average defense, not a blocked shot but a few adjusted. Showed his touch from 12+ ft. hitting a couple of nice shots.

Stephon Marbury- played 26 mins with the hammy injury and scored 10 pts and had 5 assists but from what i saw he is not taking as many shots and not scoring a ton (10 pts), but then again hes injured and its preseason. Expect him to be back into form by the beginning of the season.

Eddy Curry- got in early foul trouble and did not play long, did not look good as last night, he had a couple of nice shots and draws fouls. He is a guy you should have to double team. Worried about the stupid fouls, he got a foul on the opening tip off which is really hard to do

Jamal Crawford- not as great a performance as last night, distributed the ball but ineffective in scoring this night. he has defintley improved his D though

Trevor Ariza- a big improvement from last season, he has it all but creating his own shot and a jump shot. Played lights out on defense and had a bad night on the offensive end. He will get the time because of his defense, he had a couple of steals and tipped balls that were key. His potential is out of this world.

Quentin Richardson- 2/3 from downtown, did not play alot because of what appeared to be a hamstring pull or something minor. Looks good from downtown though, and showed his post moves, he is NO LONGER A 3 POINT BOMBER

Penny Hardaway- trade him





[Edited by - nykbasketball on 10-16-2005 10:24 PM]

Stephon Marbury- played 26 mins with the hammy injury and scored 10 pts and had 5 assists but from what i saw he is not taking as many shots and not scoring a ton (10 pts), but then again hes injured and its preseason. Expect him to be back into form by the beginning of the season.

I remember being concerned about Steph this time last year because he averaged something like 10/4 in the preseason but then he turned it up several notches the minute the regular season started. I would not be worried about him. As long as he's healthy, he'll continue to be a gifted scorer and playmaker.

Great analyses, guys. Thanks a lot, from someone who does not have access to the games. Keep 'em coming!

Anyway, a quick note on Ariza. It's great to hear he has improved his game. The consensus seems to be that Ariza has upped his game in all areas -- except, perhaps, shooting (too early to really tell). But shooting is often the last piece to the puzzle. If you look at some of the great NBA players, many did not become good shooters until well into their career. I have no doubt that Ariza will eventually become a good shooter. He seems to be the type of player who works hard and wants to improve, and shooting is largely all about hard work as well as coaching. So I'm not at all concerned about his shooting. It will come, though it might take a couple of years.

Also, just for the record, Marbury does not have a bad hammy. He had a skin infection that caused him to miss the first game. QRich is the one who has been nursing a hammy for much of the preseason, and he apparently aggravated it vs. Dallas. I don't quite understand why they don't shut QRich down for a while to get his hammy better. Those are often very dangerous injuries because they can linger for months if they are not allowed to heal properly. QRich is a veteran and LB knows what he's all about and pretty much knows how he'll use him, so I'd just sit him down and let him heal properly.

Anyway, it's nice to see that we might have landed a big-time draft this year. When was the last time the Knicks had three rookies contributing significantly? This could be the year. I know it's only preseason, when rookies automatically get PT, but it's hard to imagine Frye, Lee or Nate not being part of the rotation. The best part is, if LB uses Frye and Lee as a 1-2 punch at power forward, it alleviates the need to rely on Rose and Taylor, which, to me, is addition by subtraction.

I still say (assuming Houston is unable to contribute) we need to get a veteran, pure shooter in here, if only to give LB a nice option if we need someone to drain a 3 late in the game. I think we'll get someone eventually to fill that role. But other than that, we can just sit back and watch this team improve steadily.

It's been just two weeks under Brown, and already every Knicks fan I've been in touch with has been completely stunned at how big an influence he has had. Like I said when he was hired, if LB does nothing else but get this team to play defense, he will be worth it. This is looking like it'll be the best $50 million the Dolans have ever spent.

All I have to say the young guys look awesome, and guess what, IDIOTS WHO LIKED THE MO TAYLOR TRADE MANUP!!! LOL

Seriously, when he was in we had our worst strech by far. The guy had 0's across the board and 2 to's. And he looked as fat as when he came to us last year. What a freakin bum. Him and Penny cost us the game in a way (can't really cost a game in presason when everybody plays just because like in little league).

And Rose looks like he shrank another inch this year. I dunno if he is even 6 5 anymore. He is soon going to challenge Nate for the shortest Knick stature. I dunno how this dude plays PF, but he def is not able to every get a shot of. He does rebound well though on the initial boxout. The play when he mistimed his jump and Dirk just got the ball over his head was really sad though.

Craw played under control, but it seems to be takin him a little bit out of the game. Good to see him learning though. I guess having Brown barkin in your ear helps lol. Marbs looked like he did not give a rats @ss about the game, and I know its his nth year in the league and he really can't care, but at least humor us and show some damn leadership for once.

Q looked like exactly what he looked everywhere, its either the dunk or the 3, he has no midrange game. He tired to post, but did not handle the double team well. Either way he looks best spotting up on the wing. Considering we now have Curry as the post option there is no reason to put Q in the post anymore. Sorry Q, but its the 3pt bomber days for you again.

Did I say Penny blows already? Is there really a reason he is still in the NBA, let alone gettin al these minutes? Doug freakin Cristy who is like a billion years old made him look like a stiff.

Don't get the wrong message though, they team that played in the 4th quarter is the real Knicks, and that team is awesome to root for. They kinda remind me of the new Rangers, just a bunch of hardworking bluecolor young guys. Marbury can be Jagre I guess, even thou I don't think he is as good relatively speaking.