I think most would agree that an acceptable benchmark for this team, all things considered be it roster makeup and their recent history, would be a 41-41 season with a playoff berth.

In that, when you picture 41-41 what do you need to do to get there?

Simply... you have to go 36-31 (.530) to close out the year. Hardly an insurmountable achievement especially given the number of fans who believe the team is on the verge of picking it up. However when you look forward and see Phoenix and New Jersey - you must win at least 1 of the 2 - otherwise you are 5-12 and now you need to go 36-29 (.550) to reach that finished product for the 07/08 season.

That puts the team into a winning percentage that they have not proven to be able to realistically attain especially over a long period of time.

The margin of error has been reduced to almost nil.

Isiah needs Jones to play 30 solid minutes at the point and everyting will be good.
Am I sarcastic? May be...

Posted by arkrud:

Isiah needs Jones to play 30 solid minutes at the point and everyting will be good.
Am I sarcastic? May be...

I agree. We need Fred Jones to start, and we need him out on the floor for at least 30 minutes per game.

41-41 will get Isiah another extension. That's the team's ceiling. Either we lose or we go deep, no in between mediocrity crap.

Posted by BasketballJones:

Posted by arkrud:

Isiah needs Jones to play 30 solid minutes at the point and everyting will be good.
Am I sarcastic? May be...

I agree. We need Fred Jones to start, and we need him out on the floor for at least 30 minutes per game.

It's a really sad day when Fred Jones emerges as our best guard. If this doesn't show the ineptitude of Isiah Thomas a General Manager what does!?

Posted by misterearl:

Hindsight Visualization

Cosmic - in one tiny move - drafting Ron Artest out of St Johns - the Knicks course of history would have been permanently altered. For the better? Maybe. No one one knows. But life, as we knew it, without Shandon Anderson and Qyntel Woods would have been different.

that one was a gimme

I'm entirely confused how this pertains to the topic at hand???

The only thing that makes sense is Hindsight Evaluation but I'm using it from a future stance so it's not hindsight at all.

We want to make the playoffs. It's entirely plausible that would require a 41-41 record. Working back from that you see we need to go 36-31 (.530) to get there. In that you get a very clear picture of where we are in relation to what we want to accomplish.

Not sure what else you've made of my point here... *confused*

The problem of this blog is that you guys overreact to losses and wins. Fred Jones played well but he is not the second coming and he does not deserve to play thirty minutes per game in less he can duplicate his performance on Friday on a consistent basis.

I actually thought Mardy played decent considering he was coming off an energy and did not play that much in the preseason.

Posted by ronald722:

The problem of this blog is that you guys overreact to losses and wins. Fred Jones played well but he is not the second coming and he does not deserve to play thirty minutes per game in less he can duplicate his performance on Friday on a consistent basis.

I actually thought Mardy played decent considering he was coming off an energy and did not play that much in the preseason.

Why all the hate for Fred Jones?

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by misterearl:

Cosmic - I totally misinterpeted your angle. I thousand pardons.

But it's more than a cold math problem. The inner workings of a basketball team have more to do with how quickly you can get 8-9 guys to trust one another by February so you can make a run in the last 2 months following the All Star break.

Up to that point, many teams go thorough an internal feeling-out process. They change lineups and fine tune rotations while the inevitable injuries mount and persoanl issues ( a given over a 7 month time frame) kick in as distractions.

The Knicks have always led the league in drama.

The question is how they work through it without turning on each other in 2008.

IOW, if/when the knicks fail to live up to your goals and expectations of a winning season and the playoffs, you'll be satisfied if you can point to a single stretch of .500 play that the PR department can use to sell hope and tickets for next year.

i dunno about u guys, but 30 win seasons & late lottery picks just don't cut it for me anymore... it's a shame some fans will still tolerate those types of results every year.