weren't you TT's biggest fan at the beginning of the year?

Lenny's job is safe, despite his inability to use his personnel properly:

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1105336511158600.xml

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/37926.htm

JEROME STARTS IN A BIG WAY

By MARC BERMAN

January 10, 2005 -- Lenny Wilkens has long debated whether to remove erratic Tim Thomas from the starting lineup. Last night, Wilkens had no choice when Thomas came up lame with a sore left knee and right calf.

With Jerome Williams making his first Knick start, the hustling forward gave Wilkens ammunition to keep the unit intact, his high-energy, floorburn game infecting the whole club and revving up the crowd. Williams played a game-high 44 minutes with 15 points, four assists and six rebounds. He ran the floor for fastbreak dunks and dove for loose balls.

"Jerome was the MVP tonight," Stephon Marbury said.

Marbury has never said that once about the inconsistent Thomas, whose calf swelled up on the flight home from Cleveland. Thomas had been playing with a sore left knee this week and said he injured his calf by overcompensating in Cleveland.

Thomas has been turnover-prone, erratic with his shot and unselfish with the ball this season, giving Wilkens reason to make a permanent starting lineup change.

...

It is one or the other. I have been very mad at Lenny because of the fact that he has been so scared to make the proper changes to our lineup. I know a lot of you think that we don't have the athletes to go long distance in this league, but I think that those of you that feel that way are wrong. We do have the personnel, it is up to Lenny to figure out how and who to use. Since the very first game this season I have called for a lineup change, mainly because I didn't like the energy that I saw from our starters. Marb, Crawf, TT, Kurt, and Nazr do not play consistant defense. They are all jump shooters or want to be scorers. This lineup in my opinion is not the best that we could do, especially when TT was ****ing all over the court due to personal reasons.

I have many times mentioned the lineup that I felt was the best from the players that we have. I have called for either one of the Thomase to come off the bench. It wouldn't matter which one of them would have had to come off the bench, because the one guy we would have replaced whomever with could find a way to juice some sort of energy out him.....

My ideal lineup all season has been:
Marb
Crawf
TT
JYD
Nazr

or

Marb
Crawf
JYD
Kurt
Nazr...........

JYD is an impact player.

Its not who starts, its who and how you finish.

Blame Isiah for your personel decisions. This head coach does not pick his players.

TT will Start when healthy and get the hook when he sucks. When you pay him the big bucks, you are patient and let him work it thru.

JYD is great, but thru his career he is injury prone and not apt to play big minutes.

I wish this was not true.

No Shareef and Miles made a difference. IT was a good win!

Let me answer your question to the best of my abilities. First of all, since last season, I have been calling to trade Kurt. My reason to ask for such a trade is simple: Kurt's age and his lack of size and athleticism. I saw flashes of a potential player in Sweetney, and I also thought that Kurt's presence would have hurt him. Once the deal for Crawf and JYD went through, it made no sense what so ever to keep him. Yes, he has produced this season, but his presence on the court, and the production that he supplied us with is not exactly what we are missing. What we really need is a PF who can lock down the many PFs in this league. One that has a post-up game, not a jump shooter.

As far as TT as our PF, again the reason I called for TT to be the PF was because of the lack of production that we were getting from him. I have noticed that he was a lot slower from last season and he was playing more like a SG. Yes, his defense is the worst in our roster, but he has some intangibles that Kurt doesn't have. I saw a switch of him at PF with JYD at SF would have helped maximized his and JYD's talents. If Kurt is not on the court we don't miss much. The pick & roll works between he and Marb, but it has also slowed the progression of all of the other athletes that we have on the court. Throughout the whole season, our team has showed a lack of energy, and that lack of energy occurs mainly because of the incoporation of the pick & roll. Marb is a running PG, not a slow the game type. He excells on the open court, with: Marb, Crawf or Houston, JYD, TT, and Nazr, he has no choice but to play his game which is quick motions.

As for Nazr. I must admit that I didn't know much about him. All throughout last season, he has struggled as our Center. It could have been because he wasn't accoustumed of playing as a starter, or perhaps because he wasn't familiar with the play of Marb. He did what he had to do in the offseason by working his butt off with Agwire, and we are seing the progress of that. In the beginning of the season, he really didn't earn the playing time that he was getting. I had called for Kurt to be the starting Center because some of you fans were extremely mad when I called for him to come of the bench. However, I am one to tell you that Kurt is no Center in my opinion...

Our team is very talented. However, Lenny has to find a way to properly utilize our talents. TT could flourish off the bench, because he wouldn't have to worry about losing his starting spot, and most of all, he would be the first option with the second unit.

a lineup of: Coochie or Brewer, Crawf, TT, Sweetney, and Vinny is excellent of the bench. We would maximize the talents that we have and most of all, we would have constant scoring regardless of who is on the court.

Bottom line is this, Lenny has a choice to make. He has to chose to either win and be a very good squad out of the East, or be a mediocre team. If he continues to have TT and Kurt on the court together, we will be just what we are right now, a sub .500 team. However, if he wants to retain his job and his reputation, or win games, his best option is:

Marb, Houston or Crawf, JYD, Kurt, and Nazr......with the second unit above as our backup players.

In our team, there is just one position worth playing 38 to 40 minutes per game, and that is the PG position. Marb is the only one that needs to play 40 minutes. As for the other players, there is a lot of minutes to go around. Houston can't play 30 minutes per night, therefore he and Crawf will definitely have to share the load. JYD and TT can go 25 min a piece; Kurt and Sweet 35/15, Nazr and Vinny 35/15.

Posted by fishmike:

Lenny is an idiot for not changing the starting lineup much sooner........

so whats your excuse? You also said that TT should start at PF, and when Nazr sucked early on that Sweetney should be PF and KT C and a host of other changes.

Dude! in the beginning of the season, I have said to give TT no more then 10 games to prove that he is ready. I never said keep him in the starting lineup if he continued to play like he was. I have always said that I am a die hard Knicks fan before I am a particular player's fan. Understand, TT is a very capable dude, and you know that, therefore he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

i'm just saying, in your first post you claim that you've been calling for a change in lineup since the beginning of the season...that's not true, you haven't...you've been a stout supporter of Tim Thomas for the first several weeks until it became obvious that he wasn't getting the job done...i don't like it when people say "i told you so" when they haven't.

Posted by raven:

firing lenny would have next to no effect.

This team is built to loose. As soons as it will be ready to win, lenny will be canned.

I agree with you everywhere except when you say its "built to loose." I like to think its being built to win . I doubt anyone has high expectations from this current Knick team. I think we will be a contender when we have traded TT + penny this off season and a real contender when we trade Houston's contract for someone. I hope all these trades bring us front court help.

... see what happens when TT is not on the floor?

Dont get too happy Pike! It had more to do with JYD being in the starting 5 than TT not being in it. You replace TT with someone else like Ariza, I doubt we get off to the same start. Also, Portland is not a good team.

Silver! you got it my man. JYD offers something that noone else other than Brewer and Ariza can. They will sacrifice their games to help the team win. They don't care much about stats..., but can you say the same for Kurt or TT??? Hell no....