After an 0-5 start, the Knicks have won 3 of their last 5 games. Channing
Frye is being called a very strong candidate for Rookie of the Year. Team
defense has improved greatly. All these factors should make it easier to
get potential customers to become actual buyers. Here are your weekly
facts:

Knicks Facts: Top 20 Countdown

Knicks are #5 in rebounding leaguewide
Knicks are #5 in opponents points per game (only allowing 90.6 ppg)
Knicks are tied for #10 in steals per game

Marbury #10 in FG% of all point guards in the NBA at 45.7%
Crawford #16 in FG% of all shooting guards in the NBA at 42.6% and #20
amongst all guards in 3pt-FG% at 40.7%
Curry #14 in FG % of NBA centers at 50% and #11 in blocked shots with 1.3
per game
Ariza is tied for #17 in steals per game at 1.5 spg

Frye is #3 in points per game amongst all rookies (13.2 ppg)- he is also the
3rd leading scorer behind Marbury and Crawford
Frye is #4 in rebounding amongst all rookies with 5.7 rpg
Frye #12 in FG% of NBA centers at 51% and #1 amongst all rookies
Frye is tied for #16 in free throw % at 87.5% leaguewide
Lee is #3 in rebounding amongst all rookies with 6.0 rpg

to me Frye has been the lone bright spot in a very lousy start. I'm very happy he's playing the way he is and it gives me great hope when a rookie plays as well as he is as early as he is.

10 games into it I feel like we are a team with no identity and no rotation

Well, a couple of huge factors in our bad start on offense have not really been about who shoots the ball. We are the most TO prone team in the league right now and we also have not been hitting the foul shots at a respectable rate. Our eFG% is poor as well, and that may have something to do with guys like Malik taking more shots than they deserve to, but I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that we're barely shooting any 3s. Anytime you shoot over 33.3% on 3s, it's equivalent to shooting over 50% on 2s, so that's usually a big boost to eFG% and it's not something we're taking advantage of (then again, we only have like 3 guys who can hit the 3 anyway, and none of them are really great at it). So basically, if we can keep the TOs down and hit some damn FTs (we did do this in the last game against Portland), we'll look a lot better without even having to change the set offense. The low eFG% is not as much of a concern as it might be otherwise because we're a very good offensive rebounding team so far.

[Edited by - tomverve on 11-22-2005 10:27 PM]

[Edited by - tomverve on 11-22-2005 10:29 PM]

Posted by tomverve:

Well, a couple of huge factors in our bad start on offense have not really been about who shoots the ball. We are the most TO prone team in the league right now and we also have not been hitting the foul shots at a respectable rate.

Many of the turnovers happen because LB wants everyone to touch the ball. What that means is that guys who aren't good passers, or ball handlers end up with the ball in their hands more often than they should. They try to make passes they are in capable of, or they try to dribble to the basket when dribbling isnt their 'thing'. I think the TOs are a product of the offensive scheme. But maybe this scheme will pay dividends later.