Baker Presumably the Last Move; Early Season Outlook

With the recent signing of Vin Baker (rumored to be 2 years, $6.4 million) the Knicks are probably done for now. Isiah said on the FAN at the Jamal Crawford press conference that once he goes into the season he'll be done dealing because he wants the unit to grow together and have chemistry, then head coach Lenny Wilkens came on and said the same thing, about how last year it was so hard to develop any cohesiveness since they had a new team every 2 weeks. With most of the MLE used up, the Knicks should be done dealing for now

So where does that leave the Knicks?

-Obviously Marbury's at point guard. From what I've seen in the Olympics, I'm expecting big things from him this year. He can get bashed all he wants, Larry Brown said after the 3rd game he and Odom have been the two who've sacrificed the most out of their individual games. He's passing the ball very well, and isn't forcing anything. Once he and Crawford and Houston get some chemistry going that group will really take off.

-Houston and Crawford at 2, with Crawford probably starting since Houston will still be recovering. I'm content with 25 minutes a game from Houston, but his outside shooting opens everything up for everyone else. On the flip side, he should get a lot of open looks from the penetration of Marbury and Crawford and the post games of Sweetney (double and tripled in SL) and Baker. If we are lucky, Shandon Anderson will never play for the Knicks again.

-Tim Thomas at 3, and I think he'll play as well as he did last year for the Knicks (16 points, 5 rebounds). He's long, athletic, and has a ton of different ways to score. He'll be a staple of their offensive attack. Penny proved in the postseason he can be a calming presence on the court and a good leader. He does a little of everything, has a nice mid-range game (as does Thomas), and the 3 should be a stable position for the Knicks. Trevor Ariza was signed and should see sparing time behind TT and Penny.

-Kurt Thomas and Mike Sweetney should anchor power forward for the Knicks this year. While neither is that big height wise (Tim Thomas is taller than both), they are both strong and should provide some muscle. If Sweetney continues to progress as he did in the summer league, the Knicks should have a formidable frontline. Over the summer he looked strong, confident on the block, and backed bigger players down with ease. He also rebounded the heck out of the ball. Thomas should get a bunch of easy looks on the pick-and-roll with Marbury, as he did last year. Overall, power forward should be a spot for the Knicks to rely on for much of their frontline production because...

-they have Vin Baker and Nazr Mohammed playing center. While both would probably be more effective at power forward, they will be forced out of position at the pivot. Baker could be very effective. Last year with the Celtics, Baker came out of the gate extremely strong and flourishing as the 2nd option to Paul Pierce. Then, apparently Vin started hitting the drinks again and his activity declined greatly. After heart surgery this year and over a year of cold turkey, Baker has reportedly been in great shape while playing in a summer league in Connecticut. If he can start at C and be relieved by Mohammed, the Knicks would receive a real boost. Mohammed would be a solid backup center, providing his 7 points and 6 rebounds.

OUTLOOK: Depending on several things (will Gary Payton play for Boston; will Jason Kidd be the same Jason Kidd, etc), the Knicks could (and should) win the Atlantic Division. Several other Eastern Conference teams could surprise people (Cleveland, Washington), but luckily none are in the Atlantic. A guaranteed top-3 seed awaits the Knicks should they win the Atlantic. As of now, it's theirs to lose.

Nice article.Good to see something besides crack induced trade rumours from them.

Posted by Kwazimodal:

Nice article.Good to see something besides crack induced trade rumours from them.

Yeah, I agree.

Also, of course no one knows what will happen Briggs. But the Knicks have solid starters and the deepest team in their division. So I agree; the division is theirs to lose

Posted by MaTT4281:

Hmmm...thought they'd atleast say something about JYD off the bench. Oh well, still waiting like a kid on xmas for next season.

I guess the Knicks have too deep a bench for one concise article to mention all of our quality bench players.

With or without Dampier, our squad will be very solid. As Isiah has said, they will be using speed to offset the lack of height at the front court. By mid-season, we will acquire a big man.

Posted by timmyTtop:

wheres the link for this article?

just check realgm.com

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by diderotn:

With or without Dampier, our squad will be very solid. As Isiah has said, they will be using speed to offset the lack of height at the front court. By mid-season, we will acquire a big man.

I don't think the Knicks have a lack of height. The starting front court I would like to see gives us PF 6'8" (Sweetney), SF 6'10" (TT), and C 6'11" (Baker) players.

My guess is that average is around SF 6'7", PF 6'9", C 6'11" or 7'

I actually charted this a few years ago. At that time the league averages for starters were a 6'11" center, 6'9" PF, 6'8" SF, 6'6" SG, and 6 1 1/2" PG.

It't not really undersized, its undertalented. TT's rebounding is awful for a 6 10 250 SF. Baker is not a good defensive rebounder either, even though he is an OK offensive rebounder. Sweetney has a promise of being an outsanding rebounder, but it is only his 2nd year int he NBA and he did not play much last year.

Another problem that has nothign to do with whether a guy is 6 10 or 7 is shotblocking. Ratliff is 6 10 and is the best shotblocker in the game right now. Our bigmen just don't have a defensive presence in the middle. Once somebody gets into the paint, its a free for all. Couple that with bad perimeter defenders all over the place, and we just can't be a good defensive team unless we play really good team defense.

I think if Sweetney breaks out, Baker has a comeback season, and KT does his thing, along with JYD and Mohammed also doing there part, we should be a slightly below average frontcourt. With our perimeter game being above average, we should come out to be a sligtly above average team overall. Thats why I'm predicting 43-45 wins, with the number being on the bigger side of the range due to the weakness of our conference and division. If we were in the West, we'd be lookin at 28-33 wins and a trip to to the top 5 pick in the lottery. But we are in the East, in a divison where every other teams mananged to actually get worse, or stay about the same at best.

you pin-pointed it. the opposition has very little barrier to entry into the lane. I agreee with moving dikembe because you have to --have to--ALWAYS move old to young--even at the expense of giving a big for a small.

That being said we will miss deke in the lane he played close to 70 games and averaged 2 blocks and something like 4+ alters +7 rebounds inless than half a game.

the three guys who helped in terms of defense+rebounding with their size and length are all gone doleac van horn +deke.

this is a variable im taking into account--i think this team is not going to be as good defensively and isiah is severly overestimating team speed? who is fast? crawford moves well but we have slow bigs for the most part marbury is pretty fast houston hardaway are snails


in our best case scenario

we will have 4 players who can score at a high % inside

we will have 4 scorers on the wings who can all go for big points

we have nice depth

we have more of a skill team than a running team or a big team. if the knicks can run hard move the ball and use their skills as a unit--we could be good better than .500 but we are forced this year to beat teams with offense and the way to win in the nBA is the other way:>(


im looking forward to the season, like i said we can finish first in our division--1st time in 4 years i can say that--but on the other hand we could finish last. a lot of intrigue

Thats hardly fair, most of Deke's games came w/out Marbury, and most of the games he did not play if not all were with Marbury. The point is Deke is done, he is too old to play and not be a total liability out there. Last season was most likely his last yeah where he had any significant impact.

Ohnestly, I expect us to win the division and will be upset if we don't, because Boston got worth (is that even possible?), Sixers are very weak, I mean we should really win the division unless the team just does not mesh.

So lets just wait and see.

I'm with Briggs, they're still going to need an enforcer in the lane, that's why Keon Clark makes sense because he's a proven shotblocker at the NBA level.

Other than that, I think this team is pretty solid.