Plusses:
Giving PT to Ariza instead of blindly going with TT. Ariza earned the minutes ... he was playing very well ... and this is a great way to light a fire under TT's butt. Guy played like he was asleep.

Giving PT to Sweets down the stretch. Also was playing well. He and KT look so much better than Nazr and Baker. Don't care what positions they're supposed to be playing.

Getting Steph reasonable rest (38 mins) even though he was playing so well it must have been hard to keep him off the court.

Getting team to play hustling defense in 2nd half.

Minuses:
How hot does KG have to get before we send a double at him? He hit what, 10 straight? KT was playing solid D on him, just doesn't have the height to match up. Get the ball out of his hands once he hits 3 or 4 in row.

Defensive rotations aren't solid yet. When we do double, we can't leave the Wally's or Hoiberg's of the league wide open for 3's. We're quick enough that we should do better here.

Not a very impressive approach to attacking Minny's zone. We had all summer to prepare for it ... it's what they do ... and we looked awful tentative against it, especially down the stretch.

Craw is still taking a lot of really bad shots. This one's probably not on Lenny, as from all indications, he's trying to get into the kid's head on this. But Knicks aren't going anywhere unless Craw figures it out.

Final grade: C+

I give him an A to be honest. Everyone played hard and we forced a bunch of TOs. We had 11 steals and numerous turned into easy buckets. I think we lost a hard fought game on the road to a team many picked to win the title this year and last year's MVP.

Its going to take time to figure out which units play the best together and this team fought hard through the whole game. A year ago when we got down 10 in the 3rd to a team like this guys would have packed it in.

I LOVE the fact he's not afraid to play the kids as thats are future. This is how guys like Ariza and Sweetney will learn to win NBA games... by being in these situations.

THey were winning when they went man to man. When doubled, KT kicked it out and thats whent he lead grew. Give Wolves credit, they hit those shots. I thought our guys did ok on the D.

We need Alan.

We lost our legs and missed FT's down the stretch.

Playing Trev showed great flex by Lenny. Sweets got his minutes late tells me he is not ready to go a full game due to stregnth or fouls.

Nazr looked bad because he had some nice chances. That is actually a postive sign. Vin looked lost.

YOu don't stop KT, just try to contain the damage.

Sam is still very effective.

gotta give Lenny credit for playing the youngsters. Most coaches wouldn't. The only knock I have on Lenny is that he doesn't care about defense anymore. He needs to get them to play tough defense. If opposing centers beat the crap out of us it's fine because there's nothing we can do about it, but as a team they have to play defense!

I'd hire Rick Pitino to coach this team

Let me say this much about Lenny. I do believe that he is trying, therfore I will give him a b+ for effort. Giving the kids a chance to develop is very courageous, specially when TT and Naser were nonexistant. I didn't see the game, but I noticed that he didn't use Penny much. Marburry played 38 minutes and Moochie pretty much played about 6 minutes and Penny only played 16 minutes. That to me was a mistake. Moochie should not have been in this game at all, specially when you have Sam Cassel and Troy Hudson at the point for the opposition. If you are going to the bench at pg, Penny should have been the substitute to force Minesota to go big, which would have been in our advantage. Penny only took five shots last night, the combo of Penny, Crawf, Ariza, Naser, and Sweetney should have been our second string.

Marb, Crawf, TT, Sweetney, and Kurt as our first string. As for Vinny, since he has yet to get his game in gear, I would layoff of him for now, and continue to draw energy from JYD and Sweetney at the 4, and Kurt/Naser at the 5.

Posted by Bizzy211:

Yeah, you can't stop KG when he's on. Also, during the first half, Wally and Cassell were hot as well which is why we didn't force the double team as they would've been left open for the 3 or 2 easily. We played it safe and remained close. The only time we got in trouble was when Moochie came in and Marbury sat. If you look at our point total for the 2nd quarter then you will see. We alos didn't execute in the 4th, but we would've been in better shape had we played well in the second.

Posted by diderotn:

Let me say this much about Lenny. I do believe that he is trying, therfore I will give him a b+ for effort. Giving the kids a chance to develop is very courageous, specially when TT and Naser were nonexistant. I didn't see the game, but I noticed that he didn't use Penny much. Marburry played 38 minutes and Moochie pretty much played about 6 minutes and Penny only played 16 minutes. That to me was a mistake. Moochie should not have been in this game at all, specially when you have Sam Cassel and Troy Hudson at the point for the opposition. If you are going to the bench at pg, Penny should have been the substitute to force Minesota to go big, which would have been in our advantage. Penny only took five shots last night, the combo of Penny, Crawf, Ariza, Naser, and Sweetney should have been our second string.

Marb, Crawf, TT, Sweetney, and Kurt as our first string. As for Vinny, since he has yet to get his game in gear, I would layoff of him for now, and continue to draw energy from JYD and Sweetney at the 4, and Kurt/Naser at the 5.

Penny didn't look good out there. Him and Moochie weren't able to run the point effectively and Lenny seemed like he was trying to have a faster backcourt to protect the perimeter which IMO is why he went with Moochie.

Here is my take on the Knicks. If we can get the production that we got from Marb, Crawf, Kurt, and if TT pulls his dues, we could be an awsome team. Specially if we can get what we got from the bench. Now the problem is with TT and Naser. They are both incosistent, and that will hurt us in big games. If TT was to give us 12 points last night, we would have won the game. 7 points and 4 rbs from TT is absurd. We need him to either score when his shots are falling or grab rebounds when he is off since he can't do both consistently. What bothers me is the fact that he didn't go to the foul line once last night.

the NY Times made nice mention of this today:

That Ariza, the surprising rookie, and Sweetney, the second-year project, were both playing critical minutes spoke to the investment the Knicks are making in their next generation.

The Knicks are apparently willing to live with the consequences while they learn.

"It's going to build their character; it's going to help them grow as players," said Marbury. "We're going to expect them to do big things down the road, and I think coach is doing a great job as far as allowing the younger guys to get their feet wet and be in those situations."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/sports/basketball/04knicks.html

I see a lot of posts about Crawfords FG% and maybe people dont realize that the knock on Jamal is that he can be erratic at times. Maybe he will grow out of it who knows - but most players dont. Look at TT.

What I was impressed with was how close they played the Wolves while lacking an inside presence and the shooting touch of H20. I think a rejuvinated H20 will take this team a long way. A dominating center would be fantastic but I will take Alan for now.

I was also impressed with how articulate Jamal Crawford was during his interviews. He seems like he is a very bright young guy and represents the Knicks well, I am glad Isiah got him.

Grade for Lenny: B-

The Knicks should have been hitting their FT and playing tougher D, why no double on KG allowing him to hit 10 straight? TT stinking it up on the court for major minutes when Ariza was being effective - I dont care how old the player is - if he is scoring, dunking, rebounding, and throwing out dimes you keep him on the court. You cant give him an A because they didnt win the game....regardless of the fight the knicks put up they still couldnt close the deal. It does look like the future is promising though.