For the last decade and change we all learned the importance a point guard has in the offense...

Take a look at Marck Jackson's rookie year. He was perfect for Ewing and the coach at the time encouraged running the floor and for the point guard to do what he does best. Its worked great for a year or 2. Why they drafted Rod Strickland to trade him for Cheeks is beyond me....that's another story for another time.

Check the Doc Rivers stint. Doc was never a point guard that dominated offensively, but he was a good defender and facilitator. Great leader and had the respect of the whole team. He didn't back down and that fit the teams mentality at the time. When he got hurt....Derek Harper fell into the Knicks laps and brought the same attibutes Doc did but better in every respect. It fit the defense inside out game perfectly. Derek was a reflection of the coach and yeah yeah the rest was history.

Check the Charlie Ward/ Childs era....now at the time we all cried about how wack they were....looking back they also were perfect for the team the Knicks put out there. They split the minutes and didn't complain. Childs even gave up his staring spot. What they brought was toughness, defense and clutch play. Plus they were always fresh. They combined gave opposing pg's hell...and the Knicks won. They ran the system and held the team together and that's what the Knicks needed.

Enter Frank Williams. Now the last week of his Knick career, Frank came into his own. He was like Derek Harper. He was doing just enough and exactly what the coach at the time needed him to do. Then bang...Isiah traded for Steph.

Now don't get me wrong Steph was still a top pg and probably ranked #2 in the league next to Kidd at the time. It seemed the team was clicking too once Steph got comfortable...he had played well with a dude he suposedly clashed with in NJ in KVH. He was making guys like Doleac better. The team was shaping up in Stephs image the way it was supposed to be. Lenny Wilkins was probably the best coach for the team to start a new. They bang timmy trade. Its all good cuz the Knicks improved defensively and stayed the same offensively....but Lenny was fired...Larry was hired and all of a sudden the Knicks started doing everything but play ball. Playing ball the right way is one thing but playing to the personel and talent is another....that to me just shows the importance of a point guard in an offense. Nothing against the player....but the point guard must reflect the coaches system and it obviously blew up to embarrassing proportions....moving along.

Chris Duhon....FML...Duhon had a rep for doing what the coach wanted. He basically did this for us but he is not the right point guard to have in a spread offense like D'antoni. He needs a creative guy that can mix it up and be creative and deceptive....make plays outside of the offense. Duhon can not do it.

Present time....

Knicks are looking at quite a few guys. Sessions, J-Will, Tinsley,...they were looking at Andre Miller...Felton is still unsigned.....Knicks need to get a guy that can see the floor and get the ball to guys out on the perimeter and find dudes on the pick and roll....he also needs to pull passes out his ass to find open guys in the open floor and on the move in the half court.

J-will sticks out to me...but he's a 33 year old (Correct me if im wrong) that was medically retired for a season....if he was completely healthy there wouldn't be a point guard out there what would fit this D'antoni system better than J-will. Hence the dilema....

Sessions is the obvious answer for the now and the future....there is this hold up with Donnie trying to piece it in with 2010.

Now I don't wanna get side tracked with more Sessions brown nosing....I'm trying to make a point that the point guard and the system should go hand in hand. Get a good coach and get him a point guard that fits his style and the rest fall into place.

I've ranted a lot here, but we can talk about other teams also....Magic's effect on the lakers showtime....Dennis Johnsons effect on the Bird Celtics....Avery Johnson on the spurs, Kenny Smith and the Rockets....etc....plenty of pg's throught the history of the league just seem to fit that system they were in to perfection....

Speack on it bitches!!!

That's why I was hoping for Evans or Holiday so that we could get back to the Ron Harper days when we had a bigger set of guards that could switch off on defense.

I get more angry at the Walsh plan the more I think about it. He really seems like he's asleep at the switch.

I hope he's waiting for something, some deadline to pass, maybe the rookie trade deadline... no idea, but I'm not confident about it.

EnySpree...
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Speack on it bitches!!!

Posted by EnySpree:

For the last decade and change we all learned the importance a point guard has in the offense...

Take a look at Marck Jackson's rookie year. He was perfect for Ewing and the coach at the time encouraged running the floor and for the point guard to do what he does best. Its worked great for a year or 2. Why they drafted Rod Strickland to trade him for Cheeks is beyond me....that's another story for another time.

Check the Doc Rivers stint. Doc was never a point guard that dominated offensively, but he was a good defender and facilitator. Great leader and had the respect of the whole team. He didn't back down and that fit the teams mentality at the time. When he got hurt....Derek Harper fell into the Knicks laps and brought the same attibutes Doc did but better in every respect. It fit the defense inside out game perfectly. Derek was a reflection of the coach and yeah yeah the rest was history.

Check the Charlie Ward/ Childs era....now at the time we all cried about how wack they were....looking back they also were perfect for the team the Knicks put out there. They split the minutes and didn't complain. Childs even gave up his staring spot. What they brought was toughness, defense and clutch play. Plus they were always fresh. They combined gave opposing pg's hell...and the Knicks won. They ran the system and held the team together and that's what the Knicks needed.

Enter Frank Williams. Now the last week of his Knick career, Frank came into his own. He was like Derek Harper. He was doing just enough and exactly what the coach at the time needed him to do. Then bang...Isiah traded for Steph.

Now don't get me wrong Steph was still a top pg and probably ranked #2 in the league next to Kidd at the time. It seemed the team was clicking too once Steph got comfortable...he had played well with a dude he suposedly clashed with in NJ in KVH. He was making guys like Doleac better. The team was shaping up in Stephs image the way it was supposed to be. Lenny Wilkins was probably the best coach for the team to start a new. They bang timmy trade. Its all good cuz the Knicks improved defensively and stayed the same offensively....but Lenny was fired...Larry was hired and all of a sudden the Knicks started doing everything but play ball. Playing ball the right way is one thing but playing to the personel and talent is another....that to me just shows the importance of a point guard in an offense. Nothing against the player....but the point guard must reflect the coaches system and it obviously blew up to embarrassing proportions....moving along.

Chris Duhon....FML...Duhon had a rep for doing what the coach wanted. He basically did this for us but he is not the right point guard to have in a spread offense like D'antoni. He needs a creative guy that can mix it up and be creative and deceptive....make plays outside of the offense. Duhon can not do it.

Present time....

Knicks are looking at quite a few guys. Sessions, J-Will, Tinsley,...they were looking at Andre Miller...Felton is still unsigned.....Knicks need to get a guy that can see the floor and get the ball to guys out on the perimeter and find dudes on the pick and roll....he also needs to pull passes out his ass to find open guys in the open floor and on the move in the half court.

J-will sticks out to me...but he's a 33 year old (Correct me if im wrong) that was medically retired for a season....if he was completely healthy there wouldn't be a point guard out there what would fit this D'antoni system better than J-will. Hence the dilema....

Sessions is the obvious answer for the now and the future....there is this hold up with Donnie trying to piece it in with 2010.

Now I don't wanna get side tracked with more Sessions brown nosing....I'm trying to make a point that the point guard and the system should go hand in hand. Get a good coach and get him a point guard that fits his style and the rest fall into place.

I've ranted a lot here, but we can talk about other teams also....Magic's effect on the lakers showtime....Dennis Johnsons effect on the Bird Celtics....Avery Johnson on the spurs, Kenny Smith and the Rockets....etc....plenty of pg's throught the history of the league just seem to fit that system they were in to perfection....

Speack on it bitches!!!

Seriously I am not so sure that D'antony system needs point so badly.
Mike need somebosy (or better 2-3 guys) who can bring the ball fast and start the offense.
He can run it with point forward, good combo guard; he can run it with high tier SF.
So I cannot see a problem for Mikes team in having no good PG.

I tell you what, I'd love to get Ramon Sessions in here but if it doesn't happen, the show will go on (it appears now that it'll have to be on Donnie's terms and there's a reason for it and we all know what that is). For this upcoming year, I think we can survive with Duhon backed up by Toney Douglas. No reason Douglas shouldn't play btw - they went out of their way to pull off this trade with the Lakers to go get this kid, leaving other talented guys on the board in the process - all I ask is that you don't baby him and play him. I see nothing wrong with giving this guy 20-25 mins. a night as the backup PG. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a little trial by fire experience at the NBA level. There will be some growing pains along the way but he'll wind up being a better player for it. 6'2", pretty strong & quick, can handle it fairly well and drive & dish. Now combine that with the other skills he's known for - his jumpshooting and his defense - I say there's no reason he shouldn't be ready to serve as Duhon's backup this year. Same idea with Jordan Hill - play these guys!!

Anyway, say we pass on Sessions. I think we'll be able to stay afloat with Duhon & Douglas but once we wave goodbye to Duhon, we'll need to come up with a PG. A guy I like a lot that's not really on anyone's radar right now is Nic Wise from Arizona. This guy withdrew from the draft to go back to Arizona to play out his senior year and I think that was the right move for him. If he continues to develop and exceed his play from last year (where he played well) I think he has a real good chance of improving his stock to the point where he'll be discussed as a mid-low 1st round pick possibly/definite 2nd round pick whereas with this past draft, there was a chance he could've gone undrafted. I like this kid a lot - he's not as big or as high-profile as the PG talents projected to go high in next year's draft (Wall, Warren, etc..) but he's a very productive player in many facets of the game. At only 5'10" (granted he's a little small but not too small to be considered some major liability) he's a very good playmaker/orchestrator first & foremost. He's fast, has a good handle and he can really penetrate and create for others extremely well. In addition, he can also drive the ball and score it himself, step back and nail jumpers all over the court with solid form, deep range & a very quick release (over 41% from 3 last year) and he makes his FTs (85%). Very pesky on the defensive end as well - he can really ball-hawk his man well and he's a tremendous help defender with lightning-quick hands that allow him to come up with many deflections and steals. All he needs to do is get his T/Os under control and take better care of the ball. If we can do what we did this year and purchase another low 1st rounder or, if Wise is there when we pick in the 2nd round and we still need a PG he might make a lot of sense to go after. We could be looking at a similar player to DJ Augustin here, maybe better. Maybe better than Ramon Sessions too. This kid's impressive. Very talented..





[Edited by - finestrg on 08-08-2009 5:18 PM]