H1AND1 wrote:

mreinman wrote:

meloshouldgo wrote:

fishmike wrote:

meloshouldgo wrote:

nixluva wrote:People just don't get that efficient offensive teams can win too. The trick is to play just enough defense and ball out on offense. One of Phil's Laker teams did this. The 2000-01 finals team was great offensively but was 23rd in Pts allowed and 21st in defensive rating. They were #2 in offensive rating. It's not how you want to do things but it has been done. Not every great defensive team wins the title. It's more complex than that. Gotta hope they can scheme a defense like the Mavs did. Find a way to hide the weak links on D.

Sorry but how do you find a way to hide anywhere between 3-4 out of the 5 players on the court? Melo (on most days), Amare, Bargs, Calderon, THJR, JR( when he is clubbing) and Shumpert when he had confidence issues.

ask Dallas... they won 50 games with Monta and Calderon starting in the backcourt and Dirk at PF, three NBA turnstiles if there ever were any. Marion is a great defender and Dalembert is here now. Vince Carter was the #1 guy off the bench. Thats a horrible defensive team. Horrible... but they won 50 and took the Spurs to 7. Somehow when players come to the Knicks only the bad part of their games surface and fans seem to flush the good.

One other thing. This rookie coach has a great staff and the full 100% backing of Phil Jackson. That and you have a bunch of guys in walk years. People act like this is going to be a mail it in year. Take a closer look....

They also had more firepower on offense. We have ME lo and THJR.
Amare and Bargs are good but I need to see what they can actually being before I count them.

Come again? Bargs is what?

An inefficient chucker on offense, a 7 footer who can't rebound, and an abomination on defense.

One of the top PnP bigs in the league, 7'er who can score and defend the post better than any other big we have. No one defended centers better than Bargs and he was over a blk a game. He's just not a great rebounder or help defender. Bargs has strengths that can be enhanced with the right coaching. He's still in his prime so might as well try to get him playing well.

They may be above .500, but winning 50 games will be a stretch.

The players have to learn the triangle, and how to adapt to whats going on in games on every possession.

There will be bumps in the road with the current roster primarily an expectation of below average defense, which likely will not be offset by an improved offense.

45 max with this roster as it stands today.

H1AND1 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

H1AND1 wrote:

mreinman wrote:

meloshouldgo wrote:

fishmike wrote:

meloshouldgo wrote:

nixluva wrote:People just don't get that efficient offensive teams can win too. The trick is to play just enough defense and ball out on offense. One of Phil's Laker teams did this. The 2000-01 finals team was great offensively but was 23rd in Pts allowed and 21st in defensive rating. They were #2 in offensive rating. It's not how you want to do things but it has been done. Not every great defensive team wins the title. It's more complex than that. Gotta hope they can scheme a defense like the Mavs did. Find a way to hide the weak links on D.

Sorry but how do you find a way to hide anywhere between 3-4 out of the 5 players on the court? Melo (on most days), Amare, Bargs, Calderon, THJR, JR( when he is clubbing) and Shumpert when he had confidence issues.

ask Dallas... they won 50 games with Monta and Calderon starting in the backcourt and Dirk at PF, three NBA turnstiles if there ever were any. Marion is a great defender and Dalembert is here now. Vince Carter was the #1 guy off the bench. Thats a horrible defensive team. Horrible... but they won 50 and took the Spurs to 7. Somehow when players come to the Knicks only the bad part of their games surface and fans seem to flush the good.

One other thing. This rookie coach has a great staff and the full 100% backing of Phil Jackson. That and you have a bunch of guys in walk years. People act like this is going to be a mail it in year. Take a closer look....

They also had more firepower on offense. We have ME lo and THJR.
Amare and Bargs are good but I need to see what they can actually being before I count them.

Come again? Bargs is what?

An inefficient chucker on offense, a 7 footer who can't rebound, and an abomination on defense.

One of the top PnP bigs in the league, 7'er who can score and defend the post better than any other big we have. No one defended centers better than Bargs and he was over a blk a game. He's just not a great rebounder or help defender. Bargs has strengths that can be enhanced with the right coaching. He's still in his prime so might as well try to get him playing well.

In all seriousness I'll be ecstatic if Bargs has a great season. But every single year people have been hoping and predicting that THIS is the year, the year for him to finally be placed in the right position to succeed and put it all together. Except it never happens. Not even close. I'm a believer in Occam's razor: the simplest explanation is generally correct. Is the simpler explanation that Bargs has been simply misused and misunderstood all these years or is he simply not that great a player? I know which one I believe. But hey I hope you're right. I'm not holding my breath though.

nyvector16 wrote:I remember that last quarter of the season and subsequent playoff run 2 years ago, Kidd could not hit a 3 if his life depended on it.
The guy was missing wide open shots and that actually cost us at least another 3 or 4 wins.

If Kidd had been hitting that 3 the way he was earlier in the season we would have swept the Celtics and beat Indiana during that playoff run.

The 3? hitting a layup once a week would have been nice.

jrodmc wrote:

nyvector16 wrote:48 Wins, East Division title, and top 4 seeding in playoffs.

Nets are DONE
Celtics are in rebuild and Rondo is still an unknown after his surgery
Raptors will make playoffs but will be closer to 44 wins...
Lowry played his ass off on that contract year and will fall back down to earth.

And even the Sixer fans I'm surrounded with are certain they are tanking again. That doesn't leave a whole lot in our division to contend with.

But then again, no matter what success we have, it will be FOOLS GOLD. Book it now, avoid the rush.

And that tkf will leave his gamepicker at 0-82. Well, maybe he'll pick two Knick home wins based on Phil's presence alone.

Bonn1997 wrote:We will win 50 games...
in 1.5 seasons

Bonn1997 wrote:

fishmike wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:We will win 50 games...
in 1.5 seasons

is that your prediction? Someone might bookmark it... you know the team. Quote your win total

ROFL!
If you're doing your usual Bookmarking Fish, I'll be more precise. 50 wins will take about 1.2 seasons.

Vmart wrote:It's basically the same team that won 54 games. So yes I could see this team win 50 games, its just that the leadership will have to come from someone other than JKidd. I think Fisher and Calderon can provide that and having Phil is huge for team Psyche.

It's much closer to the 37 win team. The only thing that's changed is that we replaced the PG with a less bad one - still a PG who gets outrpoduced by his opponent though.

fishmike wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Vmart wrote:It's basically the same team that won 54 games. So yes I could see this team win 50 games, its just that the leadership will have to come from someone other than JKidd. I think Fisher and Calderon can provide that and having Phil is huge for team Psyche.

It's much closer to the 37 win team. The only thing that's changed is that we replaced the PG with a less bad one - still a PG who gets outrpoduced by his opponent though.

classic Bonn... Calderon is more eff% than is opponents, so lets focus on production. Oh wait.. off to a Melo thread, lets forget about production and focus on eff%

But yea... Calderon is much less bad than Felton. Good stuff