there was one move last night where sweetney got it in the post, did a nice fake and turnaround which brand rejected. it was almost like saying "sorry sweets, you're not me yet".

brand is good and is light years better than sweetney. but when you look at them, if sweets cuts down 20 lbs, they look very similar on the offensive side. brand on defense is another story. but that's alright briggs. brand is a #1 pick. sweets is #9. that's how it's supposed to be.

kurt thomas should've been traded in 2002, 2003, and 2004. now we're in 2005 and he's still here. i'm not sure what's going on but it needs to change.

Posted by martin:

Here is the difference between the Clips and the Knicks:

The Clips' best players are at the 4 and 5, the Knicks' best players are at the 1 and 2. All things being equal, it's no wonder the Knicks lost: rebounding (and everything else that comes with being tall).

It's an easy call.

Nicely summarized. The game turned when Elton Brand grabbed that rebound on the offensive end and was fouled. The Knicks were down one at the time, Elton got position on Kurt and the Knicks never had a real chance after that.

Posted by fishmike:

I think we have been at this for awhile. Let me ask you this... what is the difference between now and when we were 16-13? I dont have the answer... I'm more curious about your observations.

How is it Sweetney took one shot in 17 minutes? I just dont get it. With Isiah in Europe its unlikely a trade will happen, but who knows. It bothers me that moving KT and making a change to see Sweetney play more minutes hasnt happened. How many of these double doubles does KT have to put up for management to realize he has no impact on the game?

why cant bad teams have a decent start? happens in every sport. there were dubious signs which were pointed out back to pre-season. @ 16-13 you want to believe, you want to throw rationale judgement out the window and believe because we are all fans and we want to win. But just like I have suggested that the 29-24 was a bit of a farce because of multiple EC teams tanking, the 16-13 was a farce. I read this thread and Martin is dead on, we needed to build front to back. when isiah says we have to give props to Starbury because he has to match the skills of franchise big men, its a redudnant idiosyncracy.

I dont blame isiah for some things, I understand that he was probably under immediate CVC mandate to get into the playoffs and make a splash at any cost, then convinced himself that using ending contracts would be a successful business model, although it was never proven.

To believe that Nazr Sweetney Crawford Ariza and Starbury is the core of a championship team, that most parts are here, is false.

At this pont I dont know what to say other than I hope we lose 30 more games this year, and it freaking stinks that even a 27-28 win team wont be a top 5 lottery team in an expansion year.

How can you say we are at ful strenght and not have h20 and timmy? Timmy might not be the best guy but he will get you ten points a game. For a team who struggles to score thats not bad. this team was also made with the assumption that h20 would be back to his old self. If h20 was back to his old self your telling me we would still be this bad? When he played he got so many wide open shots he would have hit easy when healthy. That also has a chain effect that makes it more easy for sweets, marbs and craw to drive and post up without constantly being double teamed. IT knows we need a shooter maybe even worse then a center but he wont get one yet because he wants us to tank without knowing. He willwait till next year so when he makes his trade with our ending contracts and use our lottery pick and second round pick we will be a much improved team and he will be there to take all the credit.

Last night, I saw the team start to defend as a team. The rebounding was horrible because the players were actually trying to defend first. Marbury was BAD last night. He does not play D. At least Crawford tries at times so he will get some steals.

NY lost because of the lack of rebounding and lack of shotblocking last night. They need a C who will swat shots.

NY does not need TT. Ariza is a gifted talent. He knows the game and is court savvy. The things holding him back are experience (obviously) and his outside shot. Once they develop, the kid will be a 20/8/4 type player with 3 steals a night too. His game gets him to the line as well, so even if he only gets 12 shots a night, he will be a good scorer.

I like the Bogut kid. KT has to go NOW!!!

I am officially off the Marbury bandwagon. The guy has talent, but there is something wrong in the head. He is not a leader. He is not as hungrey as he should be. I was worried about this when we got him but I thought maturity mayhave fixed the problem. Now, I am not so sure.

That being said, I am on the Ariza bandwagon!!! The kid can ball.

The fact of the matter is that good teams win down the srtetch, bad teams blow big leads and can't finish strong down the stretch. If we were good enough to get the lead, we should have been good enough to sustain the lead.

We have been in every ( almost every lost) game that we have played, and lost just about all of them in the forth qtr were it matters the most.

Executing, making key stops, and not turning the ball over doesn't require an all star team, it requires a team that is well coach, and well prepared.
TT and allan are truley miss despite what they have done thus far in the season, if there healthy and playing up to there potential the loses would probably come far and in between. If you have a coach who is commited to a rotation and spends 85% of there pratices on what the team is lacking( defense) and rebounding, we would always have that to lean on.

You don't have to be 7" to rebound a friggin ball, your front court doesnt have to be bigger then the opponent to rebound the ball, it's all skill and technique, and we just don't have the proper training staff or coach to teach this. They allow KT to shoot 95% of his shots from 15 feet, they allow steph and craw to boch plays at will, all because they want the player to play were he's comfotable at. And all it does is results in a fail attact in the forth qtr in almost all of our loses.

I'm sorry if you guy's can't see this, it's not just the lack of talant, it's the lack of commiment and smarts.

Posted by djsunyc:

in 02/03 when dice went down, we blew alot of games down the stretch as well. the difference between that team and the one now is that in 02/03, we actually played defense with ward, spree, shandon and, to a lesser extent, kurt, which resulted in 37 wins. we're losing ALOT more games down the stretch now b/c we play ZERO defense and probably end up with far fewer than 37.

but we still blew lots of games in the 4th quarter during that time. I really think the constant in us blowing games in the 4th quarter since Ewing left is due to Kurt Thomas and his lack of athletism and ability to do something other than jumpshot when the defense clamps down in the 4th.