THJ, Shump and Early can also provide a much needed boost this year. I really like the talent of those guys. To a lesser degree we also have STAT and Bargs who could really help by being reliable. Not necessarily spectacular, but reliable and effective. However JR is the one that can be the big gun after Melo.

StarksEwing1 wrote:Hardaway. Kid looked great in the summer. Live his mental maturity as well as his competitiveness

Yeah agree on all accounts

Phil may have plans for it to be Bargs

Known commodities aren't gonna surprise on this team

The league and scouts are used to tenured players in this league

It's the unknown who are much more dangerous and can produce greater spikes

If THJR can become a 2 way threat, he's it.

StarksEwing1 wrote:

F500ONE wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:Hardaway. Kid looked great in the summer. Live his mental maturity as well as his competitiveness

Yeah agree on all accounts

Phil may have plans for it to be Bargs

Known commodities aren't gonna surprise on this team

The league and scouts are used to tenured players in this league

It's the unknown who are much more dangerous and can produce greater spikes

If THJR can become a 2 way threat, he's it.

i think phil would love to trade bargs but no team will bite. It was a terrible trade but at least he only has 1 year left

StarksEwing1 wrote:

F500ONE wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:Hardaway. Kid looked great in the summer. Live his mental maturity as well as his competitiveness

Yeah agree on all accounts

Phil may have plans for it to be Bargs

Known commodities aren't gonna surprise on this team

The league and scouts are used to tenured players in this league

It's the unknown who are much more dangerous and can produce greater spikes

If THJR can become a 2 way threat, he's it.

i think phil would love to trade bargs but no team will bite. It was a terrible trade but at least he only has 1 year left

Were not desperate to trade Bargs or Amare coming into a season on a 1 yr deal, so why would phil get hood wink into a Donnie walsh (clean house no mater what)trade.

A few factors play into a success full season

1)Health- Amare, Jr, shump, melo, barg, calderon

2)leadership- who's going to lead this team on the floor, in the clutch, when were down, when were up.

3)unselfishness- If melo passes, everyone will pass.

4)coaching- Rotation, Rotation, Rotation, No favorites, and no token minutes, set it, get it, and stick with it, unless circumstance (injuries, foul trouble) calls for something different.

X factors are for the playoffs, the regular season is way too long.

All of our guards and SF's will have a chance to make a huge impact. I think JR and THJ have the kind of talent to make a big splash. I wonder which big will have the best adjustment to the Triangle and perform the best in it as far as passing is concerned? I think STAT will be able to score inside at a high clip, but it will be interesting to see him as a passer. If he can make the adjustment to looking for his teammates more often it can really be very interesting what can happen. STAT may not be a gifted passer but he should be capable of making the very simple passes in the Triangle when he's in the post and a cutter goes by, which is really just a hand off. That's the thing about the Triangle it really does make things easier for players.

knicks1248 wrote:

nixluva wrote:My gut feeling is that Fish will not have any agendas when it comes to minutes. He strikes me as a no nonsense kind of guy who is used to saying no to stars and doing things that are all about winning. Also being there 1st hand for 10 yrs watching Phil coach and absorbing all of that has to have left an impression of how it's done. Especially for a PG who was having to implement so much of what was going on. Fish knows all about the Triangle and the decision making.

All of our guards and SF's will have a chance to make a huge impact. I think JR and THJ have the kind of talent to make a big splash. I wonder which big will have the best adjustment to the Triangle and perform the best in it as far as passing is concerned? I think STAT will be able to score inside at a high clip, but it will be interesting to see him as a passer. If he can make the adjustment to looking for his teammates more often it can really be very interesting what can happen. STAT may not be a gifted passer but he should be capable of making the very simple passes in the Triangle when he's in the post and a cutter goes by, which is really just a hand off. That's the thing about the Triangle it really does make things easier for players.

It's easy to say fisher maybe a no non sense guy, but he doesn't have the luxury of a kobe, shaq, or MJ like phil. I think the biggest challenge for both phil and fisher is to turned melo into a leader, vocally, mentally and emotionally.

Moreover this is a fun offense to play in. There's so much going on that players get to use all of their skills in nearly every play. All that motion, passing, picks, cuts etc. It's so different from how they played in the past. I don't think Fish is gonna have any issues with players buying in cuz they're all involved in this offense as opposed to our style of play before.

knicks1248 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

nixluva wrote:My gut feeling is that Fish will not have any agendas when it comes to minutes. He strikes me as a no nonsense kind of guy who is used to saying no to stars and doing things that are all about winning. Also being there 1st hand for 10 yrs watching Phil coach and absorbing all of that has to have left an impression of how it's done. Especially for a PG who was having to implement so much of what was going on. Fish knows all about the Triangle and the decision making.

All of our guards and SF's will have a chance to make a huge impact. I think JR and THJ have the kind of talent to make a big splash. I wonder which big will have the best adjustment to the Triangle and perform the best in it as far as passing is concerned? I think STAT will be able to score inside at a high clip, but it will be interesting to see him as a passer. If he can make the adjustment to looking for his teammates more often it can really be very interesting what can happen. STAT may not be a gifted passer but he should be capable of making the very simple passes in the Triangle when he's in the post and a cutter goes by, which is really just a hand off. That's the thing about the Triangle it really does make things easier for players.

It's easy to say fisher maybe a no non sense guy, but he doesn't have the luxury of a kobe, shaq, or MJ like phil. I think the biggest challenge for both phil and fisher is to turned melo into a leader, vocally, mentally and emotionally.

I don't know. I can't imagine that Melo will change who he is in terms of being a vocal leader if he isn't already. As long as Melo is buying in and doing the things that Fish is asking the example will be set. With every pass, catch and shoot and cut to the basket Melo executes he'll be leading by fully executing the offense which is a team game. We really need that more than any words from Melo. talent wise Fish has a player in Melo that can be his MJ or Kobe lite. That's good enough. Fish needs total buy in from the whole team. I think he'll get that. My impression is that these players want to win and wipe away the bad memories of last season. The new guys will want to come in and win PERIOD. I think it's a good situation.

Moreover this is a fun offense to play in. There's so much going on that players get to use all of their skills in nearly every play. All that motion, passing, picks, cuts etc. It's so different from how they played in the past. I don't think Fish is gonna have any issues with players buying in cuz they're all involved in this offense as opposed to our style of play before.

Buying in is one thing, executing is the primary thing. The reason woodson failed is because the buying in resulted in early losses, that resulted in to stop buying in. Then the line up changes come, with bad rotations, disgruntle players = selfish players.

MEH! Woody didn't really have a "system" per se. Especially last year when he was all out of sorts early in the season. There won't be that same kind of dysfunction IMO. They may struggle but I think the players will be a bit more patient in this case. Guys like Jose won't be so easily dissuaded.

Let's remember that some of the young players have already tried a bit of this and they surely will be vocal about how they were able to adjust. I also think it's gonna be up to the players to start early with running the plays in their informal workouts before Training Camp. I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to have some help running thru some of the sets. We know they already have the play books.

TripleThreat wrote:IMHO, the reasons that Woodson failed is because

1) The talent simply isn't on the roster, not now and not last year, to really build a winner and contending team. Woodson has no control over what the front office does and whom they pick up and trade for, etc.

TripleThreat wrote:3) Woodson gave Melo what he wanted, which was to play as much hero/iso ball as he wanted, and as little defense as he wanted.

You could cobble together a reincarnated John Wooden along with parts of Chuck Daly and they still couldn't win with last year's Knicks.

TripleThreat wrote:IMHO, the key player is Dalembert.

Your starting center sets the tone defensively for your team. Doesn't matter how much the Knicks score if they can't stop anyone on defense. Dalembert has to be the stalwart veteran with a cool head and anchor for that D. He's not getting help from STAT or Bargs, and it remains to be seen if Smith and Aldrich can really help.

Without Dalembert pushing hard and staying healthy, it's going to be a free layup line against the Knicks D all season.

I've posted this before but when Tyson was out for stretch and Bargs was playing Center the teams defense was actually good and they won games only giving up scores of 80, 85, 92, 92, 96 in consecutive games. That was a good defensive stretch against some good teams. They also beat the Spurs on the road tho they won that game 105-101 still the point is that they were in fact able to play defense with the very bigs you say they can't defend with, STAT and Bargs. The key was having KMart along side Bargs in the starting lineup in addition to Shump. There is a way to make it work. This year Jason will likely play the KMart role as will perhaps Acy in some situations. You just need an active defender to mix in.