The only way to fit Randolph into the starting lineup is at center. Mozgov has been a poised presence during camp, but the Knicks might keep him out of foul trouble by bringing him off the bench.
The versatile Randolph also is being used to front the Knicks' fullcourt press that will be used more this season.
"We're trying to find out where best to use him," D'Antoni said.
--------------------------------------

Looks like Randoph will be at center either now, or in the near future. This is just the best thing for this offense, although he will still struggle defensively. The simple solution is to start him at center regardless, and if you run into a difficult matchup, just play Turiaf or Mozgov more minutes as center. But when facing a team without a bigtime center, Randolph should be playing at least half the game at that position. When facing Dwight, Turiaf and Mozgov could make up 30+ minutes at center and randolph can play 16-18 at center and 12-14 mins at PF that Amare doesn't play.

With all of these reports, it seems like NY has such big plans for Randolph and it is making me believe more and more that Gallo is the guy included in Denver talks. For denver, Gallo is more proven, more of a sure thing, and directly replaces Melo at SF. For the Knicks, Walsh now sees in Randolph what he didn't see in him when he drafted Gallo over him, and plus he sees his ability to be the ideal center in this offense as harder to replace. The knicks will be in the search for a SG who can really shoot lights out, but it is more likely to come about at some point rather than a lengthy 6-11 big who can block shots, rebound, and score from inside and out.

When did Mozgov get in foul trouble?

sheesh

i've said this since we got him - but i think a front court of Gallo, Amare and AR is one of the biggest and most talented in the entire league.

nixluva wrote:I don't see what the issue is. Mike had Boris Diaw at C and won 54 games and went to the WCF's. There's not much difference between AR and Camby body wise. Do I want him banging for 4 qtrs against the biggest C's in the league? NO! I don't think that's how it's gonna go down tho. We're gonna likely see some pressing and zone on D. This team is tailor made for that kind of defense. We want to force teams into long jumpers and bad passes. This coach doesn't really play a hard man D style. He wants players in the passing lanes and denying penetration while forcing long jumpers. That's his style and that would work just fine with AR out there. Amar'e, Gallo as well as AR will spend time guarding opposing C's n PF's. If he helps to produce the best lineup then he should play. We'll see how things workout.

camby had to play out of position for his first 10 years in the league, he was never strong enough to play center, yet he rebounds and block shots like crazy..On the other hand, he had no jumper (unless you called the ugly as 17 footer a jumper) and he couldn't guard sf..so he most teams had no choice..

AR is to weak to play center, he'll get push around and at times, over do it and get hurt. I see him in a (think josh smith /shawn kemp/anthony mason) role. He can play center for about as long as TD can play the 2G, whenever you go small.

Traditional speaking, SF suits him perfect, if he could master that position he can turn into the second coming of SCOTTIE PIP

TymeLessKnicks wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

nixluva wrote:I don't see what the issue is. Mike had Boris Diaw at C and won 54 games and went to the WCF's. There's not much difference between AR and Camby body wise. Do I want him banging for 4 qtrs against the biggest C's in the league? NO! I don't think that's how it's gonna go down tho. We're gonna likely see some pressing and zone on D. This team is tailor made for that kind of defense. We want to force teams into long jumpers and bad passes. This coach doesn't really play a hard man D style. He wants players in the passing lanes and denying penetration while forcing long jumpers. That's his style and that would work just fine with AR out there. Amar'e, Gallo as well as AR will spend time guarding opposing C's n PF's. If he helps to produce the best lineup then he should play. We'll see how things workout.

camby had to play out of position for his first 10 years in the league, he was never strong enough to play center, yet he rebounds and block shots like crazy..On the other hand, he had no jumper (unless you called the ugly as 17 footer a jumper) and he could guard sf..so he most teams had no choice..

AR is to weak to play center, he'll get push around and at times, over do it, and get hurt. I see him in a (think josh smith /shawn kemp/anthony mason) role. He can play center for about as long as TD can play the 2G, when you go small.

Tradional speaking, SF suits him perfet, if he could master that position he can turn into the second coming of SCOTTIE PIP

AR is not camby and def not pippen.

AR will run circles around traditional centers.

And break his ankles, dude there's no way he becomes a stud playing Center

The guy is not strong enough to bang with big bodies.

No but seriously, why not? Ronny Turiaf is not a legit starting Center anyway. If Randolph is ever going to reach expectations, he needs to be a starter and play 35 mpg next to Amar'e Stoudemire.

iSergio wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Randolph at center = injury waiting to happen.

The guy is not strong enough to bang with big bodies.

Well, Amar'e Stoudemire has the PF locked up the next 5 years so if Anthony Randolph plans on being here, he better start getting used to playing Center next to him.

Playing defense requires you to stay between the ball and your man as well as the basket and your man. d'Antoni has proclaimed that AR can do this for all five positions.

"He'll guard a point guard. He'll guard a 5," D'Antoni said. "He'll be all over the place, that's due to his talent. He'll guard Rondo, and he'll guard Dwight Howard."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/randolph_knicks_factor_PdWtlo42L6YRZJQHnvnnRN#ixzz11A9LA2sB

  
    Name	Team	GP	Min 	M 	A 	Pct 	Pct 	Off 	Def 	Tot 	Ast 	TO 	Stl 	Blk 	PF 	PPG 
 Brook Lopez	NJ	82	36.9	6.9	13.8	49.9	81.7	3.3	5.4	8.7	2.3	2.5	0.7	1.7	3.1	18.8
 Chris Kaman	LAC	76	34.3	7.8	15.8	49.0	74.9	2.4	6.8	9.3	1.6	2.9	0.5	1.2	2.8	18.5
 Dwight Howard	ORL	82	34.7	6.2	10.2	61.2	59.2	3.5	9.7	13.2	1.8	3.3	0.9	2.8	3.5	18.3
 Andrew Bogut	MIL	69	32.3	6.9	13.2	52.0	62.9	3.0	7.1	10.2	1.8	1.9	0.6	2.5	3.2	15.9
 Andrew Bynum	LAL	65	30.4	6.0	10.6	57.0	74.0	2.7	5.6	8.3	1.1	1.8	0.5	1.5	3.0	15.0
 Marc Gasol	MEM	69	35.8	5.5	9.4	58.1	67.0	3.0	6.3	9.3	2.4	2.0	1.0	1.6	3.7	14.6
 Jerma O'Neal	MIA	70	28.4	5.6	10.6	52.9	72.0	1.8	5.2	6.9	1.3	1.8	0.4	1.4	3.0	13.6
 Mehmet Okur	UTA	73	29.4	4.9	10.6	45.8	82.0	1.8	5.3	7.1	1.6	1.7	0.5	1.1	3.1	13.5
 Shaq O'Neal	CLE	53	23.4	4.9	8.7	56.6	49.6	1.8	4.9	6.7	1.5	2.0	0.3	1.2	3.2	12.0
 Roy Hibbert	IND	81	25.1	4.8	9.7	49.5	75.5	2.2	3.5	5.7	2.0	1.8	0.4	1.6	3.5	11.7
 Greg Oden	POR	21	23.9	4.4	7.2	60.5	76.6	3.1	5.4	8.5	0.9	1.9	0.4	2.3	4.0	11.1
 Emeka Okafor	NO	82	28.9	4.2	8.0	53.1	56.2	3.1	6.0	9.1	0.7	1.4	0.7	1.6	2.7	10.4
 Kend Perkins	BOS	78	27.6	4.0	6.7	60.2	58.2	2.0	5.6	7.6	1.0	2.1	0.3	1.7	2.8	10.1
 Spencer Hawes	SAC	72	26.4	4.3	9.3	46.9	68.9	2.0	4.0	6.1	2.2	1.8	0.4	1.2	2.8	10.0
 Bren Haywood	DAL	77	30.6	3.6	6.4	56.2	62.0	3.6	5.7	9.3	0.6	1.3	0.3	2.1	2.7	9.1
 Brad Miller	CHI	82	23.8	3.1	7.1	43.0	82.7	1.0	3.9	4.9	1.9	1.3	0.5	0.4	2.3	8.8
 Sam Dalembert	PHI	82	25.9	3.5	6.4	54.5	72.9	2.9	6.7	9.6	0.8	1.5	0.5	1.8	3.1	8.1
 Nazr Mohammed	CHA	58	17.0	3.3	5.9	55.3	64.8	2.0	3.3	5.2	0.5	0.9	0.3	0.7	1.8	7.9
 Zyd Ilgauskas	CLE	64	20.9	3.0	6.8	44.3	74.3	1.8	3.6	5.4	0.8	1.0	0.2	0.8	2.9	7.4
 Tyson Chandler	CHA	51	22.8	2.1	3.7	57.4	73.3	2.2	4.0	6.3	0.3	1.8	0.3	1.1	2.7	6.5
 Serge Ibaka	OKC	73	18.1	2.8	5.1	54.3	63.0	1.9	3.6	5.4	0.1	0.9	0.3	1.3	2.7	6.3
 Erick Dampier	DAL	55	23.3	2.4	3.9	62.4	60.4	2.3	5.0	7.3	0.6	1.1	0.3	1.4	2.8	6.0
 Andr Biedrins	GS	33	23.1	2.5	4.2	59.1	16.0	1.9	5.9	7.9	1.7	1.0	0.6	1.3	3.6	5.0
 Joel Przybilla	POR	30	22.7	1.5	2.9	52.3	64.7	2.4	5.5	7.9	0.3	1.3	0.3	1.4	3.2	4.1

Most of these guys aren't serious offensive threats. Only 7 of them avg 10 FGA's a game. That means there's a lot of guys that AR would play that aren't seeing a lot of post ups. He can play C in this league. There's no Shaq waiting for him in every city.

knickstorrents wrote:

nixluva wrote:Most of these guys aren't serious offensive threats. Only 7 of them avg 10 FGA's a game. That means there's a lot of guys that AR would play that aren't seeing a lot of post ups. He can play C in this league. There's no Shaq waiting for him in every city.

What would be interesting to see is the percentage of attempts these guys make that are back to the basket attempts. I would not want AR doing any kind of low post defense on anyone (some PF's are burly too... like Z-Bo). That would stress his lower body too much. But can he guard someone like a Mehmet Okur? Sure no problem.

Not too many offenses are Center dominated. If you've got Shaq or Ewing you go inside almost every possession. Teams don't do that with many of the C's in the league. You've got Howard,Lopez, Bogut as the top post up guys right now, where almost every time down you will be fighting to deny him position deep under the basket. That's why we'll use a lot of Zone and fronting as opposed to having AR play behind those big brutes.