http://www.nj.com/knicks/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1043910665167910.xml

Allan Houston

said his sore right toe has not improved, and he fears it will nag him for a while. The one thing he doesn't worry about is the injury affecting his hang time. "I'm not the athlete I used to be anyway," he said. "I'm not worried too much about lift."

Damn Case, you got me excited over nothing. I thought you'd let us all in on what you thought of Allan Houston.

Cause personally I love the guy, contracts aside. That's been his albatross, but really, if anyone is to blame, it's management. Throwing money at a player doesn't make him a superstar, but at the same time, it shouldn't take away from what he can do. And, c'mon, I know I wouldn't have turned down that much money.

The knock on Houston is that he doesn't deserve the money. And it's true, few do deserve $100 million. But that doesn't make him a bad player. He's just not what the Knicks envisioned. Not being Kobe doesn't take away anything from his talents. He has one of the sweetest shots in the game. His perimeter game leaves little to be desired. He's 6th in the L in 3-pointers made and attempted, shooting 40%. He's proven he can score. Top 20 in the league and averaging a career high with 21.4 ppg. He's tops in the league in free throw percentage, ahead of guys like Nash and Reggie.

Point is that he still finds ways to help his team, and a lack of a supporting cast shouldn't put that into question. Even if you put this guy on a good team, he'd still get his minutes. The problem with the Knicks is that they placed expectations beyond what he could do, instead of recognizing his strengths and molding a team to compliment those strengths.

His leadership has made us one of the top perimeter teams offensively and defensively. We're second in 3-point percentage and fifth in opp. 3-point percentage. But we have no inside game. We're 26th in rebounds and last in blocks.

Give Houston the supporting cast before ya write him off as a Knick.

Posted by BigSm00th:

And another thing is, since Houston's gotten a huge contract, he's always had the 2nd best player on the team in Spree play on the wing with him. McDyess will do wonders for Houston because of the double teams on the block result to kick outs, then passing it around the perimeter until you find the open shot, which many times will be Houston. For him to be a spot up shooter and never have a post presence and still average 20 a game is pretty remarkable.

yeah, houston will be fine - just not really as opportunistic on Offense as he could be, he really just never, ever drives. he'd get more fouls that way. he needs to put the ball on the floor a little more.

fmoran "Damn Case, you got me excited over nothing. I thought you'd let us all in on what you thought of Allan Houston."

I thought the same thing and I came in here with the intentions of defending the skills of my favorite player. BUt isn't it funny that his detractors speak mainly about his contract?

But anyway, I think he should go to the hole more also, maybe not even to bang with someone and make contact, but to get some easy shots in the paint and breakdown the defense.

Besides height in the paint the other thing that we need more than anything else is dribble penetration. If we could get somebody that could breakdown the defence we could get some excellent shot oppurtunities for our team which is an excellent perimeter shooting team.


But isn't it funny the difference a year makes? The Houston vs. Spree argument has kind of dissappeared. I guess the answer has become undeniable.