Every player go through kind of slump (ie : TT... just kidding). but you're right, he may just be tired.

btw this issue is far from concerning only nazr. all of our starters log a lot of minutes every nights. our backcourt will be fine with the return of houston and penny after that...

but our frontcourt will suffer if lenny persists in playing sweet only a few minutes again , not even talking about vin's regular dnp's...

Posted by diderotn:

That is the thing I am not understanding about Lenny's substitutions. He is not consistant at all. Some nights he will play JYD, Sweet, and Ariza some minutes; and some nights he totally forgets about them. That to me is very freaking irritating, especially when they are our best defenders. He is more consistant with what he does with the guards, but when it comes to using his front-line players, he is very clue-less. I know that he has a guard mentality, but he is a head-coach and our team really needs his attention at the front-court, especially given the development of Marb as a playmaker.

Posted by raven:

Every player go through kind of slump (ie : TT... just kidding). but you're right, he may just be tired.

btw this issue is far from concerning only nazr. all of our starters log a lot of minutes every nights. our backcourt will be fine with the return of houston and penny after that...

but our frontcourt will suffer if lenny persists in playing sweet only a few minutes again , not even talking about vin's regular dnp's...

I think part of it is matchups and part of it is who is playing well. You don't rest Craw too much when he has it grooving.

On one hand you want to get consistant minutes to your main guys, but when glaring mistakes are made, especially on the defensive side of thing, you yank people: true with Craw when he takes bad shot or with Sweets/TT/Nazr on defense. I think JYD came out once during the Cavs game when he DIDN"T shoot the ball.

I think it's more about the mistakes. This is a learning/growing season, and that's one way you teach the guys.

Posted by Mac:

A big thing for Nazr is to stay out of foul trouble...

What has really made him play more effective minutes is exactly that point, and I hope he keeps having no problems with that.

What I do really hope is that Lenny uses Sweetney more, trust more on him because, as a young man he will make mistakes, but his play is very important to us. Also, Vin may not be the best defender, but at least use him for offensive purposes...

I disagree about Mohammed playin badly during the past few games.

He has been concentrating a lot on defense, and it shows, as we have played some of our best D recently. Actually our defense was very good in long streches during the last 5 or so games, but we gave up so many offensive rebounds someties it does not show up in the score.

Also, our offense if flowing through the right people, with better shooting in general, so Mohammed is not gettin as many touches and not as many tipins as there are simply less missing and mroe going to the charity stripe.

If you look at our games in general this year, Mohammed putting up big numbers is usually not a good thing. A typical NY loss is Marbury and Mohammed being the only guys scoring, which means Marbury is not passing and Mohammed is cleanin up some of his misses.

We usually don't win that way, as another interesting stat says that we win almost all games in which Marbury gets 10 or more assists.

I disagree with that statement. I do believe that Knicks are at their best when Crawf takes better percentage shots. The kid is awesome and the addition of Houston and Marburry in the back court creating, will make him a much better player. Nazr is not accoustumed of playing these long minutes, he is still adjusting. That is where Lenny needs to monitor his minutes, especially on back to back games. Why not give Vinny some touches to spare Nazr???


"If you look at our games in general this year, Mohammed putting up big numbers is usually not a good thing. A typical NY loss is Marbury and Mohammed being the only guys scoring, which means Marbury is not passing and Mohammed is cleanin up some of his misses".

Posted by simrud:

I disagree about Mohammed playin badly during the past few games.

He has been concentrating a lot on defense, and it shows, as we have played some of our best D recently. Actually our defense was very good in long streches during the last 5 or so games, but we gave up so many offensive rebounds someties it does not show up in the score.

Also, our offense if flowing through the right people, with better shooting in general, so Mohammed is not gettin as many touches and not as many tipins as there are simply less missing and mroe going to the charity stripe.

If you look at our games in general this year, Mohammed putting up big numbers is usually not a good thing. A typical NY loss is Marbury and Mohammed being the only guys scoring, which means Marbury is not passing and Mohammed is cleanin up some of his misses.

We usually don't win that way, as another interesting stat says that we win almost all games in which Marbury gets 10 or more assists.