Bippity10 wrote:What amazes me is how so many guys get handed crappy rebuilding teams that no one can win with, they get fired, and then never receive another chance. Yet this fool, never wins, yet he always has a job.

Don Nelson is the single most overrated coach in the NBA.

rvwink wrote:Coming off his finest season, Jamal Crawford is averaging 18 points on career-best 45 percent shooting. In helping the Hawks to a 53-29 record, their best mark in 13 years, Crawford reached the playoffs for the first time in his career and was the Hawks' second-leading scorer behind Johnson during both the regular season and the playoffs.

Warriors' coach Don Nelson made no secret of the fact that Crawford wasn't in his future plans. His not getting the best out of Jamal Crawford's gives us hope concerning his subsequent disappointment with Anthony Randolph. Just because a player doesn't make Don Nelson happy, doesn't mean that they won't be very successful with the next team they play with. While Don Nelson seems to be a great evaluator of basketball talent, he doesn't appear particularly skillful at motivating his players. Why didn't Jamal Crawford play as well for the Warriors, as he later did for the Hawks? If Mike Woodson of Atlanta was able to turn Jamal into a 45 percent shooter and the league's best 6th man, why couldn't Don Nelson do the same?

Someone said that getting Anthony Randolph is like getting a high draft pick this year. Actually, its much better than that. Randolph has had 2 years to put some additional weight on his body, and to develop his mid range jumper. Most third year players are significantly better than they were in their rookie seasons. Mike D'Antoni has had a reputation for getting significantly better performance out of players coming from other teams. Boris Diaw shot 447% and 422% in his two initial years in Atlanta. In his first two years in Phoenix he shot 526% and 538% playing center for Phoenix. Amazingly, he was only 6 foot 8 inches and weighted 215. Also his assists increased from 149 in his last year at Atlanta to 503 in his first year with Phoenix. Yes it is true that he played more than twice as many minutes for Phoenix, than he played for Atlanta, but that is still a 330% increase.

I predict Anthony Randolph starts at Center for the Knicks this year. Where does everyone else think he plays this year?

I believe playing AR @ 5 with Gallo Amare Chandler and Felton is our best 5. No 7 footer we have has the talent that AR possess or even close. You go with your best 5. I see many similarities to the phoenix team--and if somehow the bench comes together--maybe even better. That is why I predict 52+ wins and a very solid playoff run(I think better than 95% of people's expectations) IF HEALTHY

BRIGGS wrote:
I believe playing AR @ 5 with Gallo Amare Chandler and Felton is our best 5. No 7 footer we have has the talent that AR possess or even close. You go with your best 5. I see many similarities to the phoenix team--and if somehow the bench comes together--maybe even better. That is why I predict 52+ wins and a very solid playoff run(I think better than 95% of people's expectations) IF HEALTHY

I don't see him starting at the 5 or even playing there as much as we (includes me) think he will. You have to have the feeling after listening to ARs interviews that the Knicks' coaching staff has told him that they are going to be using Randolph at almost every position on the court at some point, whether it be on D or O at those positions. I believe MDA sees him as the Swiss Army Knife of this team, and all of his talents are going to be put to use.

He will guard 1s and 2s at times
He will be used to exploit centers who don't have the post game and bulk to push him around
We can put out a lineup with AR at the 5, Gallo or Chandler at the 3/4, with Douglas and Felton at the guard
positions to go up tempo on offense, but also have a defensive presence
You can go with Turiaf at 5, AR at 4, Gallo at 3, and Chandler at the 2 for a pretty good defensive lineup,
especially in terms of shot blocking
If you have Douglas and Azubuike in the lineup with Turiaf/Mosguv, Amare, and AR at the 3 you can even let him do
the kind of ball handling Hedu did 2 years ago when Orlando made the finals.

You can think many other optional lineups, I'm sure, and I think MDA and staff are toying with variations as we write.

Pretty exciting to have a team with guys who can play so many positions and do so many things. If everyone is healthy, this is an extremely athletic roster at this moment, and I expect to see our coaches make full use of it.

Paladin55 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:
I believe playing AR @ 5 with Gallo Amare Chandler and Felton is our best 5. No 7 footer we have has the talent that AR possess or even close. You go with your best 5. I see many similarities to the phoenix team--and if somehow the bench comes together--maybe even better. That is why I predict 52+ wins and a very solid playoff run(I think better than 95% of people's expectations) IF HEALTHY

I don't see him starting at the 5 or even playing there as much as we (includes me) think he will. You have to have the feeling after listening to ARs interviews that the Knicks' coaching staff has told him that they are going to be using Randolph at almost every position on the court at some point, whether it be on D or O at those positions. I believe MDA sees him as the Swiss Army Knife of this team, and all of his talents are going to be put to use.

He will guard 1s and 2s at times
He will be used to exploit centers who don't have the post game and bulk to push him around
We can put out a lineup with AR at the 5, Gallo or Chandler at the 3/4, with Douglas and Felton at the guard
positions to go up tempo on offense, but also have a defensive presence
You can go with Turiaf at 5, AR at 4, Gallo at 3, and Chandler at the 2 for a pretty good defensive lineup,
especially in terms of shot blocking
If you have Douglas and Azubuike in the lineup with Turiaf/Mosguv, Amare, and AR at the 3 you can even let him do
the kind of ball handling Hedu did 2 years ago when Orlando made the finals.

You can think many other optional lineups, I'm sure, and I think MDA and staff are toying with variations as we write.

Pretty exciting to have a team with guys who can play so many positions and do so many things. If everyone is healthy, this is an extremely athletic roster at this moment, and I expect to see our coaches make full use of it.

Lets not consider it a 5--lets consider it putting your 5 best players on the court. I think that we can force opponents to match up with us rather than us trying to match an opponent. That is playing to our strength. I don't view what we have at C as a strength--we will usually be inferior at the true 5--but with Randolph the mismatch should be in our favor.

BRIGGS wrote:
Lets not consider it a 5--lets consider it putting your 5 best players on the court. I think that we can force opponents to match up with us rather than us trying to match an opponent. That is playing to our strength. I don't view what we have at C as a strength--we will usually be inferior at the true 5--but with Randolph the mismatch should be in our favor.

Fair enough.

It will be interesting to see how the lineup evolves over the season, and I also expect to see a lot of experimentation during the pre-season.

BRIGGS wrote:

rvwink wrote:Coming off his finest season, Jamal Crawford is averaging 18 points on career-best 45 percent shooting. In helping the Hawks to a 53-29 record, their best mark in 13 years, Crawford reached the playoffs for the first time in his career and was the Hawks' second-leading scorer behind Johnson during both the regular season and the playoffs.

Warriors' coach Don Nelson made no secret of the fact that Crawford wasn't in his future plans. His not getting the best out of Jamal Crawford's gives us hope concerning his subsequent disappointment with Anthony Randolph. Just because a player doesn't make Don Nelson happy, doesn't mean that they won't be very successful with the next team they play with. While Don Nelson seems to be a great evaluator of basketball talent, he doesn't appear particularly skillful at motivating his players. Why didn't Jamal Crawford play as well for the Warriors, as he later did for the Hawks? If Mike Woodson of Atlanta was able to turn Jamal into a 45 percent shooter and the league's best 6th man, why couldn't Don Nelson do the same?

Someone said that getting Anthony Randolph is like getting a high draft pick this year. Actually, its much better than that. Randolph has had 2 years to put some additional weight on his body, and to develop his mid range jumper. Most third year players are significantly better than they were in their rookie seasons. Mike D'Antoni has had a reputation for getting significantly better performance out of players coming from other teams. Boris Diaw shot 447% and 422% in his two initial years in Atlanta. In his first two years in Phoenix he shot 526% and 538% playing center for Phoenix. Amazingly, he was only 6 foot 8 inches and weighted 215. Also his assists increased from 149 in his last year at Atlanta to 503 in his first year with Phoenix. Yes it is true that he played more than twice as many minutes for Phoenix, than he played for Atlanta, but that is still a 330% increase.

I predict Anthony Randolph starts at Center for the Knicks this year. Where does everyone else think he plays this year?

I believe playing AR @ 5 with Gallo Amare Chandler and Felton is our best 5. No 7 footer we have has the talent that AR possess or even close. You go with your best 5. I see many similarities to the phoenix team--and if somehow the bench comes together--maybe even better. That is why I predict 52+ wins and a very solid playoff run(I think better than 95% of people's expectations) IF HEALTHY

If AR comes off the bench at SF/PF and they start Turiaf at C, backed up by Mosgov--- what's your win prediction?