2) Gallo needs to assert himself more, i hate how he's dormant for 3 quarters, then wants to play hero in the 4th. Consistency is key

3 AR needs to be put in the games so that he either builds his confidence or we build up his value. but DNP's arent helping anyone. And instead of have chandler rack up fouls against miami I wouldve had AR on bosh or anyone for that matter.

4) Amare and felton are playing great but 38+ mins a night, and he is sure to burn out by the all star break.

5) Get rid of Mason,either play or Cut rautins.

“I’m a little slow at changing what we do,” D’Antoni said. “I fully believe what we do is going to work over the long haul, and we’ll stick with it.”

nyk4ever wrote:

NYY1NYK2 wrote:1) Timo NEEDS to play more, even if its sporadic minutes, but we have to get him in. In the FIBA games he was most effective in the PNR.

2) Gallo needs to assert himself more, i hate how he's dormant for 3 quarters, then wants to play hero in the 4th. Consistency is key

3 AR needs to be put in the games so that he either builds his confidence or we build up his value. but DNP's arent helping anyone. And instead of have chandler rack up fouls against miami I wouldve had AR on bosh or anyone for that matter.

4) Amare and felton are playing great but 38+ mins a night, and he is sure to burn out by the all star break.

5) Get rid of Mason,either play or Cut rautins.

playing randolph 'just because' does nothing for this team. that is the way a losing team and a losing coach plays.. playing players just to play them. if ar isn't fulfilling the role that the coaching staff wants him to than he shouldn't be playing. it's up to ar really - play smart, play within your role and you'll see minutes. doesn't work any other way on a winning team.

it does a lot, it stops stat from playing over forty minutes in a losing game. i dont get the point of ar not fulfilling his role like he was signed to be the franchise player of the knicks and boy has it been a big let down. he is a bench player. he fulfills that role excellently.

AR is a different story. in limited minutes at GS he showed he can do some things. he's prone to bad decisions but he brings enough to the table to see some floor time.

i can see the argument for not playing walker. shawne has made him redundant. with turiaf, mozgov is redundant and toney plays because no one else can handle the ball. AR has shown, in his limited time in the league, that he can rebound. We are currently 23rd in rebound rate in the league and he has the highest career rebound rate on the team by a huge margin. everyone else coming off the bench is a flawed player. that's why they come off the bench but they bring enough to get minutes.

against the good teams we are getting exposed and it's not going to be any different tonight against the magic. AR is the one player where we don't have to trade anyone for, that could improve this team SUBSTANTIALLY. i could argue that he could make more of a net impact than a trade for melo would bring.

i just don't sense that kind of urgency to bring this guy along. he seems more like an after thought. i could be wrong and i sure hope d'antoni knows what he's doing but if AR is wasted away or traded for a draft pick then i think it's more on d'antoni than anything.

Vmart wrote:

cheers wrote:good points but don't expect any of that to quote mda--

“I’m a little slow at changing what we do,” D’Antoni said. “I fully believe what we do is going to work over the long haul, and we’ll stick with it.”

If MDA is worried about the long haul then he better start playing Mozgov and AR, or there might not be a long haul.

cheers/VMart

why do you guys think MDA isn't playing AR? I really want AR to play too.

nixluva wrote:It's simple. AR doesn't know how to play! IF he did, there's no way that Mike would hold him out. Also AR is not as strong as he should be in order to really help where we need it most, on the inside. We need him to be able to play like a PF and his game right now is more like a SF/SG, only he can't really shoot like one. The kid still has brain freezes out there and this is not the time for messing around.

Timo I can see them giving him some minutes if we need them, but again, Mike is going with the guys that actually know how to play and can give us the best chance to win. He's also knows that we can't go with extended minutes forever. FOlks we've played 31 games. It's not time to panic about minutes. We all know Donnie is working on something to rectify the problems and sometime between now and the deadline there's gonna be some moves made to improve the team. Right now the schedule has provided more days off so our guys can recover and there's no risk of burnout. RELAX!

Yeah man. I think it's a lot more logical to guess:

MDA really wants to win games (see Amare and Felton's minutes...)
If MDA thought AR could help him win games, he'd be getting minutes

than to just think MDA has some kind of vendetta against the kid.

if everyone agrees on this the debate really becomes about whether MDA is CORRECT in assessing that AR can't help (vs. debating the motivation for the splinters)

You figure MDA knows his basketball. You figure he knows his team since you know..he sees things we obviously don't in practice, etc.

I really want AR to play and thought he'd have a HUGE year under MDA but I'm placing my trust in the guy who has coached this team to a decent record so far this season. The guy who sees these players way more than anyone on this board does.

nixluva wrote:It's simple. AR doesn't know how to play! IF he did, there's no way that Mike would hold him out. Also AR is not as strong as he should be in order to really help where we need it most, on the inside. We need him to be able to play like a PF and his game right now is more like a SF/SG, only he can't really shoot like one. The kid still has brain freezes out there and this is not the time for messing around.

Timo I can see them giving him some minutes if we need them, but again, Mike is going with the guys that actually know how to play and can give us the best chance to win. He's also knows that we can't go with extended minutes forever. FOlks we've played 31 games. It's not time to panic about minutes. We all know Donnie is working on something to rectify the problems and sometime between now and the deadline there's gonna be some moves made to improve the team. Right now the schedule has provided more days off so our guys can recover and there's no risk of burnout. RELAX!

Alan Hahn : I thought Andy Rautins played with confidence in the scrimmage on Tuesday. He moves the ball well and obviously has the ability to shoot it. I wish the Knicks would let him play in the D-League but they have their beliefs on that and think he's better served working out with the team and watching film, etc. Shawne Williams will play more and should. He's very smart, plays very cool. He's 6-9, but a huge wingspan (7-2). Good shooter. I wanted to see more out of Anthony Randolph, but I can't say I see a huge difference in him now than when I saw him in training camp.

Alan Hahn : Randolph had a few standout moments in the post-practice scrimmage, mainly on drives to the basket in transition, especially when Curry didn't get down the floor fast enough to keep pace. But Randolph also had a few mental mistakes and bad decisions that had a couple of teammates frustrated with him. Again, it goes back to two major issues: strength around the rim (he is easily overpowered) and decision-making (he is prone to taking bad shots). For those who demand he should play, you need to first consider who he would replace. Williams has the four spot for the reasons we explained above and Turiaf is an easy choice as backup center.

These are just small observations, but you can imagine how much more MIke sees in the hours of practice he's had with his team and working with AR.

TMS wrote:

NYY1NYK2 wrote:1) Timo NEEDS to play more, even if its sporadic minutes, but we have to get him in. In the FIBA games he was most effective in the PNR.

2) Gallo needs to assert himself more, i hate how he's dormant for 3 quarters, then wants to play hero in the 4th. Consistency is key

3 AR needs to be put in the games so that he either builds his confidence or we build up his value. but DNP's arent helping anyone. And instead of have chandler rack up fouls against miami I wouldve had AR on bosh or anyone for that matter.

4) Amare and felton are playing great but 38+ mins a night, and he is sure to burn out by the all star break.

5) Get rid of Mason,either play or Cut rautins.

6) bring in another go to scorer cuz this team looks like crap when Amare's shut down or off the floor.

That's why i'm actually happy about what we're seeing in these games. Donnie HAS TO SEE what we also see when Amar'e leaves the floor there's NOTHING! You can't have a team like that. A slight drop off is one thing, but we tend to look like a D league team without him. As much as we may like Gallo and Chan etc. You can't have a team with just one guy and no other ballhandling scorers that can get their own offense of create for others.

I do believe tho that Felton needs to be more of a scorer as should Gallo, when Amar'e leaves. Still the problem is solved if you add Melo. What also bothers me is the bigman situation. We simply MUST get something done about that. I guess it's such a hard thing to fix, but if there's a way to bring in Melo and one of Denver's bigs in a big deal that would be the deal to make.

TMS wrote:

nixluva wrote:

TMS wrote:

NYY1NYK2 wrote:1) Timo NEEDS to play more, even if its sporadic minutes, but we have to get him in. In the FIBA games he was most effective in the PNR.

2) Gallo needs to assert himself more, i hate how he's dormant for 3 quarters, then wants to play hero in the 4th. Consistency is key

3 AR needs to be put in the games so that he either builds his confidence or we build up his value. but DNP's arent helping anyone. And instead of have chandler rack up fouls against miami I wouldve had AR on bosh or anyone for that matter.

4) Amare and felton are playing great but 38+ mins a night, and he is sure to burn out by the all star break.

5) Get rid of Mason,either play or Cut rautins.

6) bring in another go to scorer cuz this team looks like crap when Amare's shut down or off the floor.

That's why i'm actually happy about what we're seeing in these games. Donnie HAS TO SEE what we also see when Amar'e leaves the floor there's NOTHING! You can't have a team like that. A slight drop off is one thing, but we tend to look like a D league team without him. As much as we may like Gallo and Chan etc. You can't have a team with just one guy and no other ballhandling scorers that can get their own offense of create for others.

I do believe tho that Felton needs to be more of a scorer as should Gallo, when Amar'e leaves. Still the problem is solved if you add Melo. What also bothers me is the bigman situation. We simply MUST get something done about that. I guess it's such a hard thing to fix, but if there's a way to bring in Melo and one of Denver's bigs in a big deal that would be the deal to make.

i watched the game carefully to see who would step up when Amare went to the bench... no one did... Wilson looked fantastic when Amare was on the floor w/him but the team looked completely disjointed w/o him... this is a major problem we need to address... i agree that we need a defensive bigman also but that's something u can always address in the offseason using salary exceptions, or in subsequent trades... even if we get a defensive bigman first, if we fail to address this issue of another go to scorer, then this team is going to have problems in the playoffs against the better teams in the NBA.

this will be addressed in practice. mda will tell gallo and wilson that he needs both to step up together with the scoring while stat spells. mda will work with both in practice by developing plays for the two to compliment each other. he will tell timo and ar look while wilson + gallo are being jordan/pippen offensively. i need you to be my laimbeer and rodman, here's how. hahahahahahaaaa. im just messing with you tms. stuff like that is beyond mda's comfort level. happy new year.