-how was bargnani. No not his offense but his defensive and rebounding effort

-how was udrih? (And whats his number)

-I see timmy hit the game winner but how was his defense

-did tyson show any new offense?

-how was artest and who did he guard? Im hoping he can be a "3d" guy (defense and spot up 3pt shooting)

-will aldrich mKe this team...hopefully he provided bigman minutes

-were smtih and CJ as bad as I thought?

-are we still switching on defense?

-what type of offensive sets were we running? Are we still a 3pt shooting team?

Thanks

-Beno didn't shoot well, but orchestrated the offense better in the 2nd half. #18

-Timmy struggled defensively as expected of rookies, but he has the length and athleticism to be taught defense.

-Tyson actually hit a jumper! Word has it he's taking 600 jumpers a day in practice. Also, looks like he's making an effort of going straight back up for a shot instead of batting the ball back or passing back out.

-MWP was MWP. He'll board, D up, pass, handle, and hit shots. True 2 way player, played well, as advertised.

-Aldrich looked solid as a backup center. Will battle for boards and bang in limited minutes.

-Smith looked like liquid diarrhea. Not an NBA player by any means. CJ is raw as hell, needs to serve a NBDL bid to up his game. He did have the game winning block though.

-Yea, we still switching. Saw Ray Ray on Jeff Green a few times and Melo on Bradley or Lee, so I'd say yea.

-Couldn't tell if we were running the same sets, but it sure looked it when Ray and Prigioni started the game. Only difference was Melo and Bargs played some 2 man game, and it looked sorta fluid, not clumsy like when Stat is there. Yes, lots of 3s, but alot were in rhythm. Shumpert hit all of his shots! 7-7 from the field and hit several 3s reminiscent of Game 6 against the Pacers.

Overall good first preseason game to work off the rust and kinks. Get the new faces acclimated, work on the defensive rotations, and experiment with some lineups.

callmened wrote:Im out of the country so I couldnt catch the game. Im sure you guys gave your opinions on the site but ive yet to read them all. I just had a few specific questions:

-how was bargnani. No not his offense but his defensive and rebounding effort

-how was udrih? (And whats his number)

-I see timmy hit the game winner but how was his defense

-did tyson show any new offense?

-how was artest and who did he guard? Im hoping he can be a "3d" guy (defense and spot up 3pt shooting)

-will aldrich mKe this team...hopefully he provided bigman minutes

-were smtih and CJ as bad as I thought?

-are we still switching on defense?

-what type of offensive sets were we running? Are we still a 3pt shooting team?

Thanks

- Bargnani gave effort for rebounds, he looks much quicker than Copeland on offense
His signature move, the pump fake at the 3pt line, and pull up or drive it in the lane looks tough to defend vs mediocre DEFENSES

- Udrih looks slow much slower than Felton and even Pablo, he often played with the 2nd unit, with Iman, Artest, Alrich, Timmy etc, he played off the ball more and didn't play the PG role

- Timmy looked like he wasn't afraid to shoot the 3pt shot, similar to JR Smith with the green light, with the ability to get his shot off with little room and no hesitation
Defensively and working on his handle will be needed, don't see much PG or SF abilities, SG is his position
He has the scoring mentality like JR Smith, probably would be a 6th man candidate somewhere down the future, not sure if it would be this year or after...

- Tyson looked like he was has worked on his Offensive game and shot, often looking to post up more, score more on OFF rebounds, and often looking to shoot the free throw distance shots or less, with PnRs

- Artest looks very slow even though he has slimmed down a lot, having trouble staying in front of players with speed and without the size/jumping and lift to defend PF's
His shot is suspect and will likely be inconsistent, he made some good cuts, and looked to post up but looks like he lacks the size to do so, but he didn't play with AB much at C and with the shooters to spread him out
Physically, I just don't think he has the speed, size, athleticism, to be the effective player he once was, especially on DEFENSE with suspect OFFENSE
We probably could have done better with a vet min player like Shawne Williams, James Johnson, but he might help the bench/locker room with his effort/leadership

- Aldrich looks like he should make the squad with our need of a backup C, his game doesn't look pretty but he gives the effort needed and has decent size
He gets the job done and it doesn't look pretty but he does his job considering his salary

- Smith looks horrible and isn't a PG or SG, by default he should not even be considered to even make it in the D League
- CJ Leslie needs to bulk up and doesn't deserve a roster spot
- Powell looked aweful as well but got some decent minutes with our lack of big men

- Yes we were, we sometimes played zone, with Iman chasing down EVERYONE and ROTATING, he looked much more quicker, athletic, explosive, with a much improved confident shot *from beyond the 3pt line*
Iman looks improved, his handle looks improved a bit but still not good enough to play PG, he is a solid SG like Timmy but not nearly as much all round skills like JR Smith, including penetration/handle/facilitating skills, he was flying high to grab REBs and chasing down players to contend shots

- we were playing the spread out offense without enough picks off the ball and not enough player/ball movement together

- Felton looked good with his ability to penetrate, hitting the jumper, mid range game, and threw a couple of nice passes, but still lacks some facilitating/court vision to his game
- Pablo looked much better physically after getting a taste of the NBA, he looked like he worked on weakness's in the gym

Iman looked the most impressive in my opinion, with the eye of the tiger/killer instinct on the OFF end
He fell awkwardly once, slipping and falling on the sweat/wet floor
Would have liked to see Iman teamed up with Murry/Kmart *didn't play* on DEFENSE

AB looks skilled and rejuvenated with a change of scenario, think he should be playing as the 3rd option instead of #2
I think Copeland might have a better 3pt shot but AB has a better handle/ability to penetrate off the dribble
Would like to see him play some C more or with a more mobile C, with the right combination of players to suit his skills set, spreading the floor with penetration, speed, and the DEFENSE / REBounding
For Offense, he is much more comfortable out to spread the floor than to grab the offensive boards, he needs to blend that in with timely cuts to his game

Melo looked to score as usual but also to get others involved, especially trying to get AB going
Coach Woodson needs to run more options, on his sets/plays, Melo often threw passes cross court which are dangerous passes
Where Melo might not get the assist but kicking it out to someone else that could either shoot it or pass it off to 2-3 shooters instead of Melo trying to get a STAT
He needs to understand that he is not chasing STAT's to justify his next contract but better TEAM play

Enjoy Ned, my opinion of what I saw....

BigDaddyG wrote:

callmened wrote:Im out of the country so I couldnt catch the game. Im sure you guys gave your opinions on the site but ive yet to read them all. I just had a few specific questions:

-how was bargnani. No not his offense but his defensive and rebounding effort

-how was udrih? (And whats his number)

-I see timmy hit the game winner but how was his defense

-did tyson show any new offense?

-how was artest and who did he guard? Im hoping he can be a "3d" guy (defense and spot up 3pt shooting)

-will aldrich mKe this team...hopefully he provided bigman minutes

-were smtih and CJ as bad as I thought?

-are we still switching on defense?

-what type of offensive sets were we running? Are we still a 3pt shooting team?

Thanks

For the most part, everyone is spot on with their assessments. One thing though. Cole Aldrich is not a lock to make this roster. He'll need to show a little bit more IMHO. He's foul prone, his hands were surprisingly bad and he had trouble getting his shot off inside. Maybe it was nerves. But from what I saw, He didn't look better than Jorts.

The main thing for me was that Aldrich wasn't nearly as aggressive as I thought he'd be on defense. I've seen this kid play great interior defense in the past...STANDOUT defense.. Wasn't there last night for whatever reason. Wanna see him try to block shots more next game. That's his forte...Whatever he can give us offensively is gravy. The one thing about him that needs to remain a constant, however, is his interior D & rebounding. I wanna see him challenge EVERYTHING next game. Just seemed a step slow last night...I've seen him play MUCH BETTER so I know he's capable of more. Must've been nerves, learning a new system, I'm not sure.. Hopefully he plays better next game.

When the games count we are going to out class a lot of teams.

I don't agree with Artest and Beno looking slow....if you watched the game without thinking of what people are saying about them during the off season, they both look like complete steals. Artest is very skilled and intense. The dude can still score, pass and defend. He looked just as good as he ever looked in my opinion. He is smaller than he was with the lakers but the dudes game is still there. Outside of him losing a step because he is 34, the dude looked like a fantastic basketball player last night. Beno is not slow, but he plays with pace. I thought he played fantastic as well. He will change the speed and bring a different look. He looks confident and all business. He showed off his mid range pump face move he does and he made some nice passes to the scorers out there. He is really solid.

Bargs looked like a problem for other teams. I can't think of any team that can guard him. Melo is going to feed of this guy and have an even better season. It just seemed like everything was going through Bargs. He draws so much attention because they are scared of his jumpshot. His pump fake is deadly because of it. When Bargs is on the floor everybody is open. It's just a nice balance and I can't wait till this team settles in and puts this sucker on auto pilot. We are very good.

technomaster wrote:

ChuckBuck wrote:-Bargnani looked rusty in the 1st half, but got into rhythm in the 2nd half both offensively and defensively. He actually took a charge!

-Tyson actually hit a jumper! Word has it he's taking 600 jumpers a day in practice. Also, looks like he's making an effort of going straight back up for a shot instead of batting the ball back or passing back out.

A few thoughts here:
Bargnani: I still don't want him, Carmelo, or really, any player making over $10 million/year taking charges. Leave that for the league min guys. (How many charges did Ewing take - maybe... 3 in his whole career? He's a 7 footer, man, he should be trying to block shots anyway!)

Tyson: Just re-read that. Taking 600 jumpers a day? For what it's worth, I've been going to the gym during the day recently (thanks to unemployment!), and it takes a really long time to make 250+ shots, that's without anyone rebounding and feeding me the ball. I probably can make 10 feet and in at an 80% clip, then my percentage falls off a cliff from there. In any case, I'm not expecting him to turn into Tim Duncan on banking shots. I'd love it for him to shoot it when he's all alone, has his feet set and body squared to the basket. What was he doing the last decade or so of his career to work on his offense? Practicing alley-oops on the pick and roll? I don't get these "strong work ethic" "hit the gym" guys. WTF are they working on that practicing jump shooting like a dozen years into a professional career is something new? (I mean, Amare is supposed to have an unbelievable work ethic, but what was he working on if he only started developing a post game last year? And where are his defensive fundamentals?)

Bargnani: Lol, true, too valuable to risk injury at that pricetag. That said, I'll take any kind of defense from Bargs, be it charges, blocks, steals, boxing out etc that'll help this team. Especially the way he's viewed as some kind of Defensive retard around here by some posters, that think he couldn't guard a tree.

Tyson: Lol again, that's what they said during the broadcast, so either Breen's lying or the guy that relayed that tidbit to him is. Hey, any improvement is improvement, and I'll take it no matter how late in a career. If Tyson can make 1 or 2 jumpers a game, the Knicks will be that much tougher to defend.

Sidenote on Tyson. I definitely could tell he looks thicker, especially in the upper body. His legs will always be chicken little, but looks like the added bulk didn't hinder his game for at least for 1 night.

Bargnani to me looks like he could use a summer with Tyson working on his body, but his skills are undeniable. With a threat like him out there it will open up the floor for everyone. He's just too BIG to ignore out there. You can see that his reputation precedes him and teams are scared that he'll hit shots. Melo and Bargs has to potential to be a really good tandem. I like that Melo has taken Bargs under his wing and is actually trying to get him acclimated and confident. Great leadership from Melo.

Loved Shump and THJ!!! We really had some people down on the move for THJ, but IMO he's what you need on this team. He was a legit catch and shoot guard and he demonstrated that. Shump made me proud with his silky smooth new jumper. Last year in the playoffs he had that moment in game 6 and I can see he has picked up right from there.

MWP is just what the doctor ordered. He's not as quick as he once was, but he can really play on both ends. His game fits right into what we do. He's crazy but he's also good.

Felton, Prigs and Beno will give this team solid if unspectacular PG play. We just need the ball to move and to run good sets and these guys should be able to do that.

Not too impressed with Aldrich or Powell. Diogu just seems like he has more skills, but I don't know if his height will work against him. Leslie needs to show something more. Not sure what his role would be at this level. I see him going straight to NBDL. Smith was garbage!

Woody has his work cut out for him. This is a very deep roster and someone's not going to get good minutes. He's got to handle some wildcards like JR and keep this team running smoothly.