There are no kids on the team that haven't been thru some wars as even Shump has at least gone thru some tough situations and his dealing with a torn ACL counts as one of them. He'll be mentally toughened by the experience of rehabbing his knee. Also this team is returning a good amount of the core from last year.

Overall the team is bigger and deeper than last year and IMO that puts this team on an upper echelon in the league.
Don't focus so much on the age of some of the guys on the bench but rather the level of experience those players bring. Woody should be able to develop some really strong rotations with the mix of players he has and that will make everyone stronger and to remain fresher for the playoffs.

The other thing is that for the 1st time in years this team is all on the same page. Everyone fits the style. Most of the players are capable of playing halfcourt style BB. The PG's we have are well suited to that and that can help guys who haven't been most successful in a halfcourt. So now from the Coach thru to the last man on the roster everyone is on the same page.

Let's remember this team won with DEFENSE to close the season. That is the identity of this team now. Camby, Kidd, Felton and KT are all smart defensive players. They're all tough minded and won't back down from a challenge. Who knows what the offense will be like, but with this level of D this team should be able to win games even with a pedestrian offense. That's old school Knicks and this team has the best chance to go deep in the playoffs in more than a decade.

Let's try to embrace the return of Old School Knicks BB.

ChuckBuck wrote:I just hope Amare Stoudemire doesn't play the Charles Smith role...

why would you put those guys name in the same sentence..thats like comparing douglas to lin

nixluva - you are the best.

Any day that our beloved franchise loses a favored player that we invested our hearts in, it is a sad and confusing day. It is difficult to move on gracefully as management cuts our emotions off with a sudden soundless act. It has happened twice in barely two season.

Jeremy Lin will be missed.

With that said, so were Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov and Raymond Felton. That one hurt too. As my boy chip stern reminds, "to be a Knicks fan is to suffer."

But hey, it's only basketball and there are some familiar (and productive) faces to ease the pain.

Raymond Felton was in a state of shock on that sad trade deadline day. He must be energized to be back in a place he never, ever wanted to leave. He wore his passion on his chest as we dug that about him. Get your butt in the gym young man. Embrace your second chance to be on Broadway. Antonio McDyess was a bad idea then. Marcus ('Sup Hartford?) Camby is a good idea now. Kurt Thomas? How can anyone not love Kurt Thomas, still enforcing after all these years?

If The Maestro can make a play, perhaps he will ease the loss of Linsanity - and the loss of the innocence in thinking Williams & Connally would not leverage every dollar they could from the Rockets. Chris Copeland and James White may never see any light under Mike Woodson, who reads from the Old School Bible of Red Holzman. Did somebody say Jason Kidd?

Hey, didn't Red win?

K22 wrote:The old-school Knicks would foul out of every game in this modern, considerably softer NBA. Thou shalt not breathe on, look at or touch the chosen ones.

Well no one is suggesting our guys will be grabbing and holding guys like the old days, but this team does put some good on ball pressure and they'll make it tough in the paint. A perfect example is Tyson's man D on Howard. Shump's ball pressure on guards. Now with Camby there will be no open lane to the basket like last year when Tyson sat down. Even KT is still a great post defender. Most of their defensive prowess is between their ears. It isn't about going nuts physically all the time. Just knowing the angles, getting low in the post, knowing how to bump at the right time and just be a pest and distraction. The team is set up very well to be a top defensive team.

The Heat make up for some weak defenders with raw speed of Lebron and Wade. The Knicks will be much more capable man to man. There will be times when camby and Tyson are out there together! NO LAYUPS!!! When Shump gets back I hope he's 100% cuz that kid will really help. Kidd still has great hands and his size helps a lot. He won't be able to stop the small super quick kids, but that's why we have Tyson and Camby. Kidd can play off of them a bit and force them to take long jumpers.

All in all I like the strengths of the team. Sure they won't be as quick as the other teams, but so long as they dictate tempo with sound D and efficient halfcourt offense, they should be able to win a lot.

yellowboy90 wrote:People who think NY will be like Atlanta on O are wrong in my opinion. In Atlanta he wanted a spot up PG in Bobby. Felting is not that he is a PnR guard that likes to get up and down. Remember that's what him and Nate argued about(Portland changing from a running team to a slow it down team). So why come to NY when you do not match the O.

Also, you herd stories about Melo working on working off the ball more and working on his screen game too. You also had quotes about tweaking Novak's game to run off more screens and the coaches doing a better job creating plays for him. So even though the coaches want Amar'e and Chandler to work on their post game there are signs that it will not be the same O from Wiley's Atlanta days. Fact is you always need a post presence in every offense.

I think the offense will be a hybrid between MDA's and Atlanta. He won't be afraid to exploit match ups down low while running a heavy pick n roll offense -

I don't know exactly what Woody's offense will be. I'm hopeful that you're right and he'll incorporate more elements into the offense. The Curl play for Novak was already part of the offense from MDA's time. He didn't use many Curl plays for his shooters last year and he went away from the PnR, so I don't know for sure that you're right. It would be a smart move, but we shall see what Woody does. I just know that he failed to impress me late last year. Why didn't he make use of those plays last year when he had the chance. Instead he went away from those things. Like I said, I hope you're right and Woody does put some creativity into the offense. IT would make sense for him to do that, but his history gives no indication that he'll do that.

I'm much more confident in the teams D and what that can mean to the teams success. I'll be pleasantly surprised if Woody installs an offense with variety and some motion.

IrishKnickFan wrote:the problem is taht this team would have fit well in the 90's. Now the refs call fouls if you pinch someone so we are gonna be in foul trouble quite a bit. also if we have to play an up tempo team like th heat or OKC it wont be pretty

I have my concerns about really fast teams, but this team will have to impose it's will on those teams. How you do that is to run an efficient and dominant halfcourt offense and GET BACK ON D!!! Felton and Kid aren't super quick but they should be able to get back on made baskets and if they keep their spacing on D they should be able to get back on D even on missed shots, cuz most of the shots are gonna come from in or near the paint with Woody's style of more post possessions.

As for fouls on D, that's not really how the Knicks played defense. It's about moving your feet and great spacing. It's about defending the perimeter as a team and really manning up in the post. Tyson, Camby and KT aren't just good they're EXCELLENT post defenders and they do so without fouling all the time. This team will be able to play that aggressive style as they did last year but with more depth.