Tyson Chandler will spend the entire summer eating himself into John "Hot Plate" Williams territory, and report to training camp at a plump 320 pounds. Eddy Curry, eat your heart out.

Carmelo and Amare work with Hakeem at the ranch and discover something more valuable than low post moves. Hakeem shares some personal stories about spirtuality and bonding. Evenings are spent discussing things other than basketball. Their bond becomes closer. Whatever Stoudemire brings is a bonus. We prepare to play without him. That is a significant part of the plan.

I Man Shumpert cameos at lead guard in Las Vegas and learns the joy of the assist. By August, his legs are feeling like Usain Bolt's. He also develops his left hand. The operative concept is decision making with the ball in his hands. A chiseled 6'5 lead guard? Be still my heart.

Using the indiana series as motivation, Raymond Felton works himself into the best offseason condition of his career. Forget the stats, Felton is a heart and soul player. A blue collar worker who will outwork his opponent.

Andrea Bargnani gets acquainted with New York. He embraces the fresh start. Mike Woodson, the most hands on offseaso. head coach the Knicks have had in decades, meets with him over dinner and lays out a blueprint for expectations. Pablo Prigioni invites Bargnani to choose a residence in his neighborhood. Asst Coach Dave Hoopla watches film and makes minor adjustments to his shot mechanics.

Taking the Indiana series personally, JR Smith dedicates himself to playing like Sixth Man of The Year in The Playoffs. Yes, the Knicks will make the playoffs. Finally feeling like he has a home, JR sets his sights on making the all star team.

Tim Hardaway Jr has a missable summer league. Then turns around and has an impressive training camp and preseason. You heard it here first.

CJ Leslie, playing with a 2x4 chip on his shoulder, dunks over Kenyon Martin in a pickup game.

misterearl wrote:As a counter to dk7th's "why I hate the Knicks/ we are doomed" rants, Your Friendly Neighborhood Answer Man sets the record straight for what to expect in July.

Tyson Chandler will spend the entire summer eating himself into John "Hot Plate" Williams territory, and report to training camp at a plump 320 pounds. Eddy Curry, eat your heart out.

Carmelo and Amare work with Hakeem at the ranch and discover something more valuable than low post moves. Hakeem shares some personal stories about spirtuality and bonding. Evenings are spent discussing things other than basketball. Their bond becomes closer. Whatever Stoudemire brings is a bonus. We prepare to play without him. That is a significant part of the plan.

I Man Shumpert cameos at lead guard in Las Vegas and learns the joy of the assist. By August, his legs are feeling like Usain Bolt's. He also develops his left hand. The operative concept is decision making with the ball in his hands. A chiseled 6'5 lead guard? Be still my heart.

Using the indiana series as motivation, Raymond Felton works himself into the best offseason condition of his career. Forget the stats, Felton is a heart and soul player. A blue collar worker who will outwork his opponent.

Andrea Bargnani gets acquainted with New York. He embraces the fresh start. Mike Woodson, the most hands on offseaso. head coach the Knicks have had in decades, meets with him over dinner and lays out a blueprint for expectations. Pablo Prigioni invites Bargnani to choose a residence in his neighborhood. Asst Coach Dave Hoopla watches film and makes minor adjustments to his shot mechanics.

Taking the Indiana series personally, JR Smith dedicates himself to playing like Sixth Man of The Year in The Playoffs. Yes, the Knicks will make the playoffs. Finally feeling like he has a home, JR sets his sights on making the all star team.

Tim Hardaway Jr has a missable summer league. Then turns around and has an impressive training camp and preseason. You heard it here first.

CJ Leslie, playing with a 2x4 chip on his shoulder, dunks over Kenyon Martin in a pickup game.

I like it. The only thing I don't believe in from your post is JR's ability to focus and put together a consistent season from start to finish. I think he is what he is at this point. I hope I'm wrong.

misterearl wrote:Quick Question

MSG3 - at the beginning of last season, how many people penciled in JR Smith as winner of Sixth Man of the Year?

A. Nobody

Actually a lot of people thought he could be once it was clear he was staying on the bench. And the only reason he ended up winning it was because of a strong mid March - April stretch. He was (predictably) wildly inconsistent again last year.

I have a question for you. How many people predicted JR to do something really dumb and be horrible in the playoffs?

A. Many....and they were right.

tkf wrote:

FeltonandAmare wrote:Good try misterearl but you can't change the negative crowds mind. They still think the Nuggies won the Melo trade.

nah!! we all know the knicks won the trade.. look at how we are set up with all these picks, and caps space.. can't wait to get elton brand and sebastian telfair...

who needs multiple draft picks, 57 wins, cap space, JJ hickson on the cheap....

of course the knicks won the TRADE!!!! SMH

Sorry but don't see anything exciting about what Denver is doing. No star potential or room for tremendous improvement with cap space. Meanwhile, Knicks are coming off the best season in forever with a ton of cap space waiting in 2015.

martin wrote:

tkf wrote:

FeltonandAmare wrote:Good try misterearl but you can't change the negative crowds mind. They still think the Nuggies won the Melo trade.

nah!! we all know the knicks won the trade.. look at how we are set up with all these picks, and caps space.. can't wait to get elton brand and sebastian telfair...

who needs multiple draft picks, 57 wins, cap space, JJ hickson on the cheap....

of course the knicks won the TRADE!!!! SMH

Generally speaking, the Knicks have had a setback because of Amare. If Amare plays to the level he did in his first year, all of these other small arguments go away. Has nothing to do with Melo trade.

Yeah agreed, Amare was the real failure in this situation. A healthy second star and a Melo-led team is a lot closer to contender status. But being able to bring Felton back at pennies to the dollar, and none of the players we traded really developing further really solidified getting Melo in my opinion as a smart move. It was the other stuff that put us in a hole.

martin wrote:

tkf wrote:

FeltonandAmare wrote:Good try misterearl but you can't change the negative crowds mind. They still think the Nuggies won the Melo trade.

nah!! we all know the knicks won the trade.. look at how we are set up with all these picks, and caps space.. can't wait to get elton brand and sebastian telfair...

who needs multiple draft picks, 57 wins, cap space, JJ hickson on the cheap....

of course the knicks won the TRADE!!!! SMH

Generally speaking, the Knicks have had a setback because of Amare. If Amare plays to the level he did in his first year, all of these other small arguments go away. Has nothing to do with Melo trade.

my take is that even if stoudemire were healthy, because amare and melo have demonstrated how poorly they mesh with others, that the knicks would struggle with them on the floor together. it's a case of subtraction by addition.

people tend to forget that while stat was on his so-called mvp run for the first 50 games of the season that he was basically going one-on-three most of the time, yes securing wins in doing so but burning himself out while freezing others out. they just did not look good on the floor together and that isn't coaching so much as limitations of the two most expensive players.

what he needed most at that time was a true point guard who could let him continue doing what he was known for: rolling and finishing.

and if one claims that he could come off the bench i still see the same issue, unless prigioni is working with him in the pick and roll.

martin wrote:

dk7th wrote:

martin wrote:

tkf wrote:

FeltonandAmare wrote:Good try misterearl but you can't change the negative crowds mind. They still think the Nuggies won the Melo trade.

nah!! we all know the knicks won the trade.. look at how we are set up with all these picks, and caps space.. can't wait to get elton brand and sebastian telfair...

who needs multiple draft picks, 57 wins, cap space, JJ hickson on the cheap....

of course the knicks won the TRADE!!!! SMH

Generally speaking, the Knicks have had a setback because of Amare. If Amare plays to the level he did in his first year, all of these other small arguments go away. Has nothing to do with Melo trade.

my take is that even if stoudemire were healthy, because amare and melo have demonstrated how poorly they mesh with others, that the knicks would struggle with them on the floor together. it's a case of subtraction by addition.

people tend to forget that while stat was on his so-called mvp run for the first 50 games of the season that he was basically going one-on-three most of the time, yes securing wins in doing so but burning himself out while freezing others out. they just did not look good on the floor together and that isn't coaching so much as limitations of the two most expensive players.

what he needed most at that time was a true point guard who could let him continue doing what he was known for: rolling and finishing.

and if one claims that he could come off the bench i still see the same issue, unless prigioni is working with him in the pick and roll.

Amare and Felton looked very good together. And Felton back on team, or did you forget?

Did Amare, Melo really have much time to figure if they worked out? How many games did they play injury free?

felton is plainly inadequate as a pick and roll player and orchestrator-- that's what i noticed.

amare and melo, if they were players with "meshing skills" and "meshing mindsets" would have immediately figured things out and had a very positive impact. for comparison sake i will ask you to remember this assertion when pierce and garnett play this season. they are chemistry creators not destroyers.

both are low BBIQ players who need too much help and the problem is compounded if they are both out there.

CrushAlot wrote:

dk7th wrote:

martin wrote:

tkf wrote:

FeltonandAmare wrote:Good try misterearl but you can't change the negative crowds mind. They still think the Nuggies won the Melo trade.

nah!! we all know the knicks won the trade.. look at how we are set up with all these picks, and caps space.. can't wait to get elton brand and sebastian telfair...

who needs multiple draft picks, 57 wins, cap space, JJ hickson on the cheap....

of course the knicks won the TRADE!!!! SMH

Generally speaking, the Knicks have had a setback because of Amare. If Amare plays to the level he did in his first year, all of these other small arguments go away. Has nothing to do with Melo trade.

my take is that even if stoudemire were healthy, because amare and melo have demonstrated how poorly they mesh with others, that the knicks would struggle with them on the floor together. it's a case of subtraction by addition.

people tend to forget that while stat was on his so-called mvp run for the first 50 games of the season that he was basically going one-on-three most of the time, yes securing wins in doing so but burning himself out while freezing others out. they just did not look good on the floor together and that isn't coaching so much as limitations of the two most expensive players.

what he needed most at that time was a true point guard who could let him continue doing what he was known for: rolling and finishing.

and if one claims that he could come off the bench i still see the same issue, unless prigioni is working with him in the pick and roll.

2. Melo, Amar’e and Tyson actually play pretty well together

Whether these three can play together is the $25,000 question (or perhaps the $58 million question, if one looks at their salaries for next year.) The hype surrounding the trio is understandable – the Knicks are paying them a lot of money, and with the mix of injuries and mixed results, the experiment has hardly been a resounding success.

But last year, the three quietly put up some very solid numbers together in a fairly significant number of minutes. With Melo-Amar’e-Chandler lineups, the Knicks posted offensive, defensive, and total rebounding rates that would rank best in the NBA. And those lineups were also extremely efficient offensively, putting up a 115.5 offensive efficiency rating (would be best in the league) and a 58.1 true shooting percentage (would be second-best in the league, behind the Heat.)

These two elite skills – rebounding and offensive efficiency – carried these lineups to a very productive (albeit not elite) 7.9 net rating in over 200 minutes. To put this in perspective, this trio posted a better net rating last year than the following lineups (note: all these lineups had over 200 minutes played together, so there are no small sample size optical illusions below.):

A. Chris Paul – Matt Barnes – Blake Griffin

B. Rajon Rondo – Paul Pierce – Kevin Garnett

C. Norris Cole – DeWayne Wade – LeBron James

D. Steph Curry – Klay Thompson – David Lee

E. Tony Allen – Zach Randolph – Marc Gasol

F. Harrison Barnes – David Lee – Andrew Bogut

G. Josh Smith – Al Horford – Zaza Pachulia

The Knicks trio also performed just slightly worse than Pacers lineups with Paul George – David West – Roy Hibbert and Clippers lineups with Chris Paul – Jamal Crawford –Blake Griffin

Listen, the Melo-Amar’e-Chandler frontcourt unit will always have its limitations – namely that Melo and Amar’e really hurt the team defensively when on the floor together, and that both guys have such high usage rates that they need to be paired with a specific subset of players to get their touches. Given how successful the Knicks were in small-ball lineups with Anthony at the 4, and given Amar’e’s injury problems, this will never be a 30-minutes-a-night lineup.

But the high-priced trio proved they can play big minutes together at a very productive clip, and it would behoove the coaching staff and fans to pay attention to these numbers.

http://knickerblogger.net/5-takeaways-from-the-5-on-the-floor/

But where's the Faried - Gallo - Koufous three headed monster?