You know...... come out the gates slow....hit a stride after the first month and then start derailing approaching the month of February. Remember how Duhon got ran into the ground and faded almost as soon as January hit in back-to-back seasons? Remember how Lee looked around All-Star time last year? Remember Harrington has all these leg nagging injuries? We see it Felton most certainly but we're also seeing it in Amar'e and quite possibly Chandler. Look no further than the amount of minutes they all play. Some of us have been discussing the lack of him developing a bench for the longest while fighting the rebuttals but now our whole roster is breaking down right before our eyes. Lest not it go unnoticed this is also attributed to players playing out of position and having to cover multiple positions throughout the course of a game. Amar'e is getting his shot blocked more regularly, Felton playing with bad paws and a high ankle sprain, Chandler fading as the game progresses, Turiaf in and out of the lineup every other game, Dougie playing with bum shoulders.....meanwhile AR and Moz are healthy as larks.....

Duhon was rumored to be hitting the bottle to drown his sorrows.

Toney Douglas had a bum shoulder to start the year. Turiaf is a fragile little drama queen that will always be injured.

Vmart wrote:

Nalod wrote:I think its a combo.

Gotta make one appreciate Nash's MVPs a little more as he kept this pace up his whole time with MDA. The dude is amazing even with a bad back.

This is why a melo trade is tough. We need a deeper bench. Players not up to the standard will bring the result down. 8 man rotation is not enough for the speedball we play. Slow it down we are not effective.

This team is tired. Amare is getting cranky. We need Moz and AR to step it up.

Being banged up is part of the game and we are.

Forget the deeper bench if they can't hold their own. The Knicks are best when Amare is on the floor and when he is not the bench does nothing but pass the ball around the perimeter and jack up shots from the perimeter. Knicks need another star for the time when Amare goes to the bench, a player like Melo who seriously help whatever bench the Knicks have to be better. Why do you think Amare and Felton are getting long minutes because bench does nothing and they have to be rushed back into the game.

Look man, I appreciate your position. I wondering even with melo that our starters would even further outweigh our bench and MDA is gonna burn out Melo too.

His job is to win. Players get paid big to play big. If our bench falls behind then starters have to rally and it drains them. Yeah, I like melo. IN fact the poll shows a vast majority around here do.

You don't have to sell it. The question is burn out. Melo would be taking up like 3 bodies. Melo would be playing big minutes and have to carry a big load.

With Melo or without we are still two seasons away from contention. Team is not structured right. Melo is an upgrade no doubt but at what price? Im trying to think longer term.

tj23 wrote:I've thought the same thing, but a lot of it is just very poor execution. Felton is doing a very poor job running the offense right now. He doesn't come around the pick tightly, gives up the ball too early, and either amare goes one on one but into traffic or we swing the ball til someone jacks up a three. There is very little inside scoring right now outside of stat. will isn't driving. Gallo seems to be the only other agressive player. The amount of minutes cant help though.

I agree, Felton is also giving Stat the ball at the same time a defender is closing in on him, he turns around and has nowhere to go, and he ends up forcing the issue. It doesn't have to be a P&R for Amare to get the ball in motion.

As for Wilson, like I said in the game thread, he stopped taking it strong to the rim and he is throwing up a little floater in the paint or he is kicking it out when he has a clear path. Gallo is having trouble with his footwork since coming back it seems. A few times he took it to the rim and he couldn't finish because took off from the wrong place.

GustavBahler wrote:

tj23 wrote:I've thought the same thing, but a lot of it is just very poor execution. Felton is doing a very poor job running the offense right now. He doesn't come around the pick tightly, gives up the ball too early, and either amare goes one on one but into traffic or we swing the ball til someone jacks up a three. There is very little inside scoring right now outside of stat. will isn't driving. Gallo seems to be the only other agressive player. The amount of minutes cant help though.

I agree, Felton is also giving Stat the ball at the same time a defender is closing in on him, he turns around and has nowhere to go, and he ends up forcing the issue. It doesn't have to be a P&R for Amare to get the ball in motion.

As for Wilson, like I said in the game thread, he stopped taking it strong to the rim and he is throwing up a little floater in the paint or he is kicking it out when he has a clear path. Gallo is having trouble with his footwork since coming back it seems. A few times he took it to the rim and he couldn't finish because took off from the wrong place.

Amare and Fields/Felton were occasionally getting some easy buckets backdoor or off a handoff and will started getting some recently also but the bread and butter all year has been the pick and roll or amare's iso where he goes baseline and uses the floater. Amare hasn't been finishing as well inside, and is settling for too many jumpers. He had that one stretch where he was shooting something like 34%. The only thing getting him by was his trips to the line.

arkrud wrote:We have 2 complete players and bunch of young kids with not established game.
Nothing in between. Solid veteran role players are making a contender.
We are yet to get to the point we can start getting this players.
Rebuilding in only in phase 2 of geting you 2-3 stars for the assets you developed.
Then you look at you needs ahd start working on support players.
Work in progress is waht we are. And it is looooong way to go.

GustavBahler wrote:

tj23 wrote:Ah ok I cant remember that happening but if you're refering to the rockets game i got disgusted with that game pretty quickly and turned it off.

Yes I am and I don't blame you, it was pathetic. I guess what bothered me the most about Amare and Felton's performance
was that they didn't try to out think the Rockets when they couldn't out work them. I can understand them being gassed with
all the minutes they've been getting but they pretty much gave up when one part of their game failed them. This won't get them
through the playoffs, let alone to it.

Nalod wrote:

Vmart wrote:

Nalod wrote:I think its a combo.

Gotta make one appreciate Nash's MVPs a little more as he kept this pace up his whole time with MDA. The dude is amazing even with a bad back.

This is why a melo trade is tough. We need a deeper bench. Players not up to the standard will bring the result down. 8 man rotation is not enough for the speedball we play. Slow it down we are not effective.

This team is tired. Amare is getting cranky. We need Moz and AR to step it up.

Being banged up is part of the game and we are.

Forget the deeper bench if they can't hold their own. The Knicks are best when Amare is on the floor and when he is not the bench does nothing but pass the ball around the perimeter and jack up shots from the perimeter. Knicks need another star for the time when Amare goes to the bench, a player like Melo who seriously help whatever bench the Knicks have to be better. Why do you think Amare and Felton are getting long minutes because bench does nothing and they have to be rushed back into the game.

Look man, I appreciate your position. I wondering even with melo that our starters would even further outweigh our bench and MDA is gonna burn out Melo too.

His job is to win. Players get paid big to play big. If our bench falls behind then starters have to rally and it drains them. Yeah, I like melo. IN fact the poll shows a vast majority around here do.

You don't have to sell it. The question is burn out. Melo would be taking up like 3 bodies. Melo would be playing big minutes and have to carry a big load.

With Melo or without we are still two seasons away from contention. Team is not structured right. Melo is an upgrade no doubt but at what price? Im trying to think longer term.

Think the Heat were thinking long term when they emptied thier roster for the 3 Amigos? Actually, they were becasue you dont win championships in this league unless you have MVP calibre talent on your team. Get the stars first, worry about the other pieces later. We have an opportunity to get a star player now, an opportunity we may not have for another decade or so. Ignoring Melo, to worry about adding average players to the bench is short term in my opinion because it wont make us much better.

Speaking of burn out, lets take a look at the Heat big 3:

James 38 mins per
Wade 37 mins per
Bosh 36 mins per...and they only have the 2nd best record in the East....Fire coach Spo!