The same thought holds the key to teamwork in basketball. In other words, what big man wants to chase Josh Harrellson out to the three point line?

Answer - not many.

Chasing Jorts away from the rack does a beautiful thing. It frees space for our wonderful sophomore Landry Fields to recreate his role as the slashing and burning John Havlicek. The productivity of Jorts AND Fields in the same game is no abberation, it is a stone cold fact of basketbal life. You open up the floor and you open up lanes to the rim... which are the lanes our beloved Knicks need to take.

Defense?

“The boxscore doesn’t show how you play defense," Harrellson said. “I think I did well, stopped one of the best big men in the league. I think I did a good job against my former teammate. He didn’t really know what I could do out there. I’ve improved since I’ve played with him."

Can you say enforcer? There were more than a few occasions where players bounced off Harrelson inside, allowing him to disrupt shots and grab boards. Cool. “He defends pretty well,’’ D’Antoni said before the game of Harrellson. “He’s smart, he spaces the floor. Though he’s a rookie and has growing to do, he’s got a good feel for the game."

Coincidentally, Tyson Chandler, scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half despite being in early foul trouble. Carmelo Anthony notched 23 points.

“It seemed like the guys got their groove back," Anthony said.

Asked afterward about the ball moving better without Stoudemire, D’Antoni said, “Could be. It didn’t matter. We’ll get over it. And we’ll make the ball move [with Amar’e]."

Jared who?

And the kid sure seems like a solid NBA player and the kind of role player that could really excel in MDA's system.

Q. The Game - Is Josh really that good?

A. Good enough to make The NBA Hall of Fame? Probably not. Good enough to consume some of Jared Jeffries minutes?

Hell yes.

holfresh wrote:Josh played a solid game last night...What I like as well is that he battled under the boards...He is a big dude that eat up space...He had a great game up and down...He played 38 minutes and cramped up in the end...We were up large...MDA has to do a better job managing minutes...Melo was in there when he shouldn't be...Jorts was awesome for a youngin'...

Decision Time

Jeffries and Jorts play the same position. One brings the intangibles. The other just booked a double double in his first NBA start. The fun starts when Jeffries is healthy and D'Antoni inserts him into a game ahead of Harrellson. Jeffries blows another layup and the MSG crowd starts in with, "We Want Jorts!"

You do the math.

misterearl wrote:

holfresh wrote:Josh played a solid game last night...What I like as well is that he battled under the boards...He is a big dude that eat up space...He had a great game up and down...He played 38 minutes and cramped up in the end...We were up large...MDA has to do a better job managing minutes...Melo was in there when he shouldn't be...Jorts was awesome for a youngin'...

Decision Time

Jeffries and Jorts play the same position. One brings the intangibles. The other just booked a double double in his first NBA start. The fun starts when Jeffries is healthy and D'Antoni inserts him into a game ahead of Harrellson. Jeffries blows another layup and the MSG crowd starts in with, "We Want Jorts!"

You do the math.

You know this will happen MisterEarl and we all look forward to it as D'Antoni will really really hear it. We'll see how Jorts plays from here on out because he didn't play that great the last few games. And he really knows Cousins. I hope that isn't the reason. He looked GREAT rebounding the ball and was ok scoring inside, though not great - missed some gimme's. That said and like you said, he is leaps beyond Jeffries when it comes to guarding the Center spot. Yeah, Jeffries can guard some guards, but outside that I take Jorts. And when Shumpert is back, Jeffries won't need to be guarding guards.

If Jorts plays well the next month and Lin turns things on a little, I'd rather cut Jeffries and keep Lin to make room for KMart. But we'll see what happens.

Nalod wrote:Sac play by play guys kept comparing him to Brad Miller.

I could see this - that'd be great. Miller was a really good passer, too, though.