yeah i said it. and by that i mean no longer being a league-wide joke, a laughingstock. competitive and RELEVANT.

sure there are kinks to work out, and i give a new team 25 games to do so. that means there are another 15 games before i start grousing.

the issues remain figuring out a rotation in terms of meaningful minutes allotted to personnel and melo's focus and mental toughness for all 48 minutes.

amundsen and seraphin hello... aaaaaand goodbye.
thomas i don't get the hate for him. he is fundamentally sound and a hard worker, moves his feet on defense, gritty, team-oriented. if you hate him because he's taking minutes from williams then what i can i tell you? hating the minutes he gets at the end of games at the expense of kp? well, that' a more compelling conversation.
williams i think fisher is going to sacrifice a few wins in the short term by sitting williams in order to develop a bench that can learn how to play as a unit, which was what fisher himself mentioned in his postgame. there is no begrudging his ability to draw fouls. but he need to finish more effectively too. his poor shooting hurt the knicks a bit. 1-6 ouch
grant i am pulling for this kid but he is getting beat on defense a bit and his shooting continues to hurt the team. 0-5 ouch. i do like that both he and williams draw fouls though.
afflalo he had his moments for sure, but still seems a bit off, herky jerky unintentionally. i have always respected his defensive effort. i hope he starts drawing fouls too. the knicks need to get more free throw attempts, and those attempts will likely go up when the triangle is executed more fluently players 1-10.
calderon he had a good shooting night but not much else, and his defense was not bad at all. still don't want him starting. something about his floor impact is irksome.
melo melo looked sublime in his own melo-ish way. he was just raining buckets on dudes which was truly a thing of beauty. whence this rain? my theory is that his shooting was a direct outcome of his teamwork.... until he got carried away a bit as the half ended. sublime one on one scoring/shooting but inspired by his team-first approach as well as his defensive intensity, which was great. will anyone ever forget the pass at the left elbow off a shot fake that eventually found its way for a three from the left corner? THAT is the melo we need to see in the second half too. the knicks momentum slowed and they lost offensive focus and cohesion because melo allowed it to! this is a focus and leadership issue for melo. i hope he learns it because when he does the knicks are going to be a playoff team. he ended up taking 20 shots. tonight i counted 3 maybe 4 bad shots, which is an improvement.
lopez i like this guys game. it's ugly beautiful. he played pretty good defense. only five shots tonight, and 1-5 is not going to get ot done. one was in and out. he gets a lot of in and outs it seems once or twice a game... ugly beautiful. nonetheless he could have gotten 3 more if melo had taken 3 less. just sayin
o'quinn i am not sure how fisher plans to use him. he is a good rebounder, a good passer, tough, definitely too slow to close out 3 point shooters... and he seems confounded out there. maybe he benefits most by game 25-- i hope so.
kp he had a solid, impactful game. he has positive impact every game. he has become the knicks most important player in only 10 games AND he and melo play well together. he and melo could develop a two-man game at the ends of games, but for the sake of kp's health i suppose fisher makes the hard decision to sit kp when he'd rather have him out there to act as a ballast for melo's reeling ship.

i have made my predictions for this season already but will go on record again, in case my sig has nt been clear:

knicks win a minimum of 27 games-- not including melo, kp, grant.
even a typical melo gets you another 7-8 wins. that puts the win total at 34-35 wins. sulking melo 4 wins and a total of 31 team wins, excelling melo 9-10 more wins above 27 wins, meaning 36-37 wins.
if grant and kp live up to expectations they would add another 3-4 wins, which brings the win total to 39-41 wins.
grant has not lived up to expectations but what can you say about kp? is he adding another 5 wins to the knicks this season?

the team is a work in progress and i am not attached to results so much as fascinated by how a winner takes shape over two seasons....

Tired but that block by Amundson on Thompson was huge. I think you have to recognize Amundson's play. Also, I think Fisher might see Lance as a guy that is solid and settles things down. Lance is a guy that is going to do anything that you can work at and get better at at a premium. He can't improve his athleticism.