Mindaugas Kuzminskas to Knicks

[HEZI]

You guys leaving out our bench leader out of the rotation? As much as I like the Kuz addition, he is not taking minutes from Lance. Lance is the heart and soul of the bench mob

I tend to agree, but what if Kuz plays better than Lance? Lance is the D guy for sure, but Kuz can probably do a whole lot more on offense - Maybe too soon to say that last part as he is new to the NBA but guy can score in a few ways.

If Kuz proves he can score in the NBA then we can have them both out there at times with Kuz at the 3 and Lance at the 4.

[thebuzzardman]

You guys leaving out our bench leader out of the rotation? As much as I like the Kuz addition, he is not taking minutes from Lance. Lance is the heart and soul of the bench mob

I tend to agree, but what if Kuz plays better than Lance? Lance is the D guy for sure, but Kuz can probably do a whole lot more on offense - Maybe too soon to say that last part as he is new to the NBA but guy can score in a few ways.

If Kuz proves he can score in the NBA then we can have them both out there at times with Kuz at the 3 and Lance at the 4.

I believe there was a quote by Phil where he thinks Lance can guard 2-4, so I think Lance is a wild card in terms of matchups and who comes off the bench with him, but barring anything really standing out in camp, Lance is the 1st or 2nd guy to sub in - either him or Jennings.

[HEZI]

I tend to agree, but what if Kuz plays better than Lance? Lance is the D guy for sure, but Kuz can probably do a whole lot more on offense - Maybe too soon to say that last part as he is new to the NBA but guy can score in a few ways.

If Kuz proves he can score in the NBA then we can have them both out there at times with Kuz at the 3 and Lance at the 4.

I believe there was a quote by Phil where he thinks Lance can guard 2-4, so I think Lance is a wild card in terms of matchups and who comes off the bench with him, but barring anything really standing out in camp, Lance is the 1st or 2nd guy to sub in - either him or Jennings.

Yeah and he will likely be seeing a lot of quality time with the starters especially in the 4th quarters.

[thebuzzardman]

If Kuz proves he can score in the NBA then we can have them both out there at times with Kuz at the 3 and Lance at the 4.

I believe there was a quote by Phil where he thinks Lance can guard 2-4, so I think Lance is a wild card in terms of matchups and who comes off the bench with him, but barring anything really standing out in camp, Lance is the 1st or 2nd guy to sub in - either him or Jennings.

Yeah and he will likely be seeing a lot of quality time with the starters especially in the 4th quarters.

Agree with that.

I think Noah goes to the Bench first, and KP slides over to C, Melo to the 4 and Lance comes in at 3 - I think that is the substitution that happens first. Then Jennings comes in for Rose. I think it's more in the 2nd and 3rd they want to run Rose and Jennings together, after Rose gets his first breather of the game. Obviously matchups etc dictate, but I think these two are pretty obvious.

After that, I'm not sure. KP comes out, probably Noah back in, but Melo needs rest too. I think N'Dour has a good chance to see time in the rotation as he's the closest thing the team has to a backup 4 - which is a little bit of a concern. I guess Mind-Daug could play some 4, but N'Dour seems better suited against a wider variety of players. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

[earthmansurfer]

I tend to agree, but what if Kuz plays better than Lance? Lance is the D guy for sure, but Kuz can probably do a whole lot more on offense - Maybe too soon to say that last part as he is new to the NBA but guy can score in a few ways.

If Kuz proves he can score in the NBA then we can have them both out there at times with Kuz at the 3 and Lance at the 4.

I believe there was a quote by Phil where he thinks Lance can guard 2-4, so I think Lance is a wild card in terms of matchups and who comes off the bench with him, but barring anything really standing out in camp, Lance is the 1st or 2nd guy to sub in - either him or Jennings.

Yeah, no way Kuz is going to supplant Lance on D. Lance can be a big impact on D. Kuz - I'm gonna guess we will be happy if he can just adequately cover his position. Still, really excited to see what he can bring on offense, as we have so many weapons on the team now.

[el13adnino]

kuz needs to be in the game when KP and NOAH are in because his defense is calderon like

[Shadylove]

Kuz was brought here to relieve Melo . I hope Horny keeps Melo at 35-38 min's while Kuz takes the rest. Lance should be used as a sub for Kp. He is effective when he is on the floor with Melo.

[Shadylove]

For the 2 months hope the coach will play 12 man deep to avoid injuries. Kyle should be the back up to Noah. However Ndour and Willy should be enervy guys if Kp, Noah, Lance have low energy nights or in foul trouble.

[NBA Fan 1234]

For the 2 months hope the coach will play 12 man deep to avoid injuries. Kyle should be the back up to Noah. However Ndour and Willy should be enervy guys if Kp, Noah, Lance have low energy nights or in foul trouble.

12 deep? How is anyone supposed to get into a rhythm? Where are the minutes going to go? Aside from the Spurs and other teams that blow out opponents on a nightly basis, teams do not run 12 man rotations. IIRC, wasn't that one of the things people were getting on Fisher for - his HUGE rotations?

There are 240 minutes available per game. I'm going to put some numbers out there that might be low, but let's say they're more or less right.

Rose - 30
Lee - 30
Melo - 34
KP - 34
Noah - 26

That's 154 minutes for the starters.

Jennings - 18
Holiday - 10
Kuz - 12
Thomas - 20
KOQ - 15

That's 75 for the bench.

154+75=229. 11 minutes left for two guys? I understand going 12 deep when there are injuries, foul trouble, bad shooting nights, etc but having a 12 man rotation on a nightly basis is a terrible idea.

[BKlutch]

For the 2 months hope the coach will play 12 man deep to avoid injuries. Kyle should be the back up to Noah. However Ndour and Willy should be enervy guys if Kp, Noah, Lance have low energy nights or in foul trouble.

12 deep? How is anyone supposed to get into a rhythm? Where are the minutes going to go? Aside from the Spurs and other teams that blow out opponents on a nightly basis, teams do not run 12 man rotations. IIRC, wasn't that one of the things people were getting on Fisher for - his HUGE rotations?

There are 240 minutes available per game. I'm going to put some numbers out there that might be low, but let's say they're more or less right.

Rose - 30
Lee - 30
Melo - 34
KP - 34
Noah - 26

That's 154 minutes for the starters.

Jennings - 18
Holiday - 10
Kuz - 12
Thomas - 20
KOQ - 15

That's 75 for the bench.

154+75=229. 11 minutes left for two guys? I understand going 12 deep when there are injuries, foul trouble, bad shooting nights, etc but having a 12 man rotation on a nightly basis is a terrible idea.

I agree that a 12 man rotation is a bad idea. But we're going to need to see what Willie can do, especially after getting so many minutes in the Olympics. This is one of the places that Hornacek will earn his money this year -- one of the places where Fish showed he wasn't ready for prime time.

[NBA Fan 1234]

For the 2 months hope the coach will play 12 man deep to avoid injuries. Kyle should be the back up to Noah. However Ndour and Willy should be enervy guys if Kp, Noah, Lance have low energy nights or in foul trouble.

12 deep? How is anyone supposed to get into a rhythm? Where are the minutes going to go? Aside from the Spurs and other teams that blow out opponents on a nightly basis, teams do not run 12 man rotations. IIRC, wasn't that one of the things people were getting on Fisher for - his HUGE rotations?

There are 240 minutes available per game. I'm going to put some numbers out there that might be low, but let's say they're more or less right.

Rose - 30
Lee - 30
Melo - 34
KP - 34
Noah - 26

That's 154 minutes for the starters.

Jennings - 18
Holiday - 10
Kuz - 12
Thomas - 20
KOQ - 15

That's 75 for the bench.

154+75=229. 11 minutes left for two guys? I understand going 12 deep when there are injuries, foul trouble, bad shooting nights, etc but having a 12 man rotation on a nightly basis is a terrible idea.

I agree that a 12 man rotation is a bad idea. But we're going to need to see what Willie can do, especially after getting so many minutes in the Olympics. This is one of the places that Hornacek will earn his money this year -- one of the places where Fish showed he wasn't ready for prime time.

I agree you gotta see what he can do, but I wouldn't force feed him minutes just for the hell of it. He's gotta earn it. If he gets the last 11 minutes, I'm cool with that - that just means that we'll be playing KOQ(or Noah (ugh) at the 4...which is a bad idea because neither is a 4. Maybe he gets the remaining 7 minutes at the 5 and the final 4 are spread out amongst the bench / starters? 11 man rotation is still pretty big, though.

[GONYK]

For the 2 months hope the coach will play 12 man deep to avoid injuries. Kyle should be the back up to Noah. However Ndour and Willy should be enervy guys if Kp, Noah, Lance have low energy nights or in foul trouble.

12 deep? How is anyone supposed to get into a rhythm? Where are the minutes going to go? Aside from the Spurs and other teams that blow out opponents on a nightly basis, teams do not run 12 man rotations. IIRC, wasn't that one of the things people were getting on Fisher for - his HUGE rotations?

There are 240 minutes available per game. I'm going to put some numbers out there that might be low, but let's say they're more or less right.

Rose - 30
Lee - 30
Melo - 34
KP - 34
Noah - 26

That's 154 minutes for the starters.

Jennings - 18
Holiday - 10
Kuz - 12
Thomas - 20
KOQ - 15

That's 75 for the bench.

154+75=229. 11 minutes left for two guys? I understand going 12 deep when there are injuries, foul trouble, bad shooting nights, etc but having a 12 man rotation on a nightly basis is a terrible idea.

12 man rotation? I thought people didn't like Fisher

[NBA Fan 1234]

For the 2 months hope the coach will play 12 man deep to avoid injuries. Kyle should be the back up to Noah. However Ndour and Willy should be enervy guys if Kp, Noah, Lance have low energy nights or in foul trouble.

12 deep? How is anyone supposed to get into a rhythm? Where are the minutes going to go? Aside from the Spurs and other teams that blow out opponents on a nightly basis, teams do not run 12 man rotations. IIRC, wasn't that one of the things people were getting on Fisher for - his HUGE rotations?

There are 240 minutes available per game. I'm going to put some numbers out there that might be low, but let's say they're more or less right.

Rose - 30
Lee - 30
Melo - 34
KP - 34
Noah - 26

That's 154 minutes for the starters.

Jennings - 18
Holiday - 10
Kuz - 12
Thomas - 20
KOQ - 15

That's 75 for the bench.

154+75=229. 11 minutes left for two guys? I understand going 12 deep when there are injuries, foul trouble, bad shooting nights, etc but having a 12 man rotation on a nightly basis is a terrible idea.

12 man rotation? I thought people didn't like Fisher

I think a 10 man rotation is fine, as long as the bulk of the minutes are given to the right guys - meaning, I'd rather give Lance 25 minutes than give someone else the extra 5 just so we can have a larger rotation. Have the top 8-9 guys get the bulk of the minutes and use the last 1-2 guys when needed. 12 guys should never play unless we get hit with injuries in a game or if it is a blowout (either way).

[BKlutch]

12 deep? How is anyone supposed to get into a rhythm? Where are the minutes going to go? Aside from the Spurs and other teams that blow out opponents on a nightly basis, teams do not run 12 man rotations. IIRC, wasn't that one of the things people were getting on Fisher for - his HUGE rotations?

There are 240 minutes available per game. I'm going to put some numbers out there that might be low, but let's say they're more or less right.

Rose - 30
Lee - 30
Melo - 34
KP - 34
Noah - 26

That's 154 minutes for the starters.

Jennings - 18
Holiday - 10
Kuz - 12
Thomas - 20
KOQ - 15

That's 75 for the bench.

154+75=229. 11 minutes left for two guys? I understand going 12 deep when there are injuries, foul trouble, bad shooting nights, etc but having a 12 man rotation on a nightly basis is a terrible idea.

12 man rotation? I thought people didn't like Fisher

I think a 10 man rotation is fine, as long as the bulk of the minutes are given to the right guys - meaning, I'd rather give Lance 25 minutes than give someone else the extra 5 just so we can have a larger rotation. Have the top 8-9 guys get the bulk of the minutes and use the last 1-2 guys when needed. 12 guys should never play unless we get hit with injuries in a game or if it is a blowout (either way).

According to what we heard from and about Phil, they can tell a lot more in practice about how a guy's going to play that we gave them credit for. Last year, many of us thought that Grant needed more game time to show what he could do, but they weren't satisfied with what they saw during drills. So we may see them using a tighter rotation based on what they know about the younger guys without having to play them a lot.

Another thing that could help - if we win a few games by large margins, we may actually have some garbage time to play the new kids and see what they do. What a luxury that would be.

[NBA Fan 1234]

12 man rotation? I thought people didn't like Fisher

I think a 10 man rotation is fine, as long as the bulk of the minutes are given to the right guys - meaning, I'd rather give Lance 25 minutes than give someone else the extra 5 just so we can have a larger rotation. Have the top 8-9 guys get the bulk of the minutes and use the last 1-2 guys when needed. 12 guys should never play unless we get hit with injuries in a game or if it is a blowout (either way).

According to what we heard from and about Phil, they can tell a lot more in practice about how a guy's going to play that we gave them credit for. Last year, many of us thought that Grant needed more game time to show what he could do, but they weren't satisfied with what they saw during drills. So we may see them using a tighter rotation based on what they know about the younger guys without having to play them a lot.

Another thing that could help - if we win a few games by large margins, we may actually have some garbage time to play the new kids and see what they do. What a luxury that would be.

I'm cool with a tighter rotation as long as Mr. Unbreakable and Noah don't get huge minutes - I'd cap each of them at 30 minutes MAX just to be safe. If we end up having blowouts and can only play Noah 20 minutes but give 20 to G, that'd be amazing. I'm ALL for blowouts. Honestly, give me blowouts either way (win or loss) every game and that's fine with me. The tighter the game, the more pressure there will to tighten the rotation and play Noah/Rose more.

[BKlutch]

I think a 10 man rotation is fine, as long as the bulk of the minutes are given to the right guys - meaning, I'd rather give Lance 25 minutes than give someone else the extra 5 just so we can have a larger rotation. Have the top 8-9 guys get the bulk of the minutes and use the last 1-2 guys when needed. 12 guys should never play unless we get hit with injuries in a game or if it is a blowout (either way).

According to what we heard from and about Phil, they can tell a lot more in practice about how a guy's going to play that we gave them credit for. Last year, many of us thought that Grant needed more game time to show what he could do, but they weren't satisfied with what they saw during drills. So we may see them using a tighter rotation based on what they know about the younger guys without having to play them a lot.

Another thing that could help - if we win a few games by large margins, we may actually have some garbage time to play the new kids and see what they do. What a luxury that would be.

I'm cool with a tighter rotation as long as Mr. Unbreakable and Noah don't get huge minutes - I'd cap each of them at 30 minutes MAX just to be safe. If we end up having blowouts and can only play Noah 20 minutes but give 20 to G, that'd be amazing. I'm ALL for blowouts. Honestly, give me blowouts either way (win or loss) every game and that's fine with me. The tighter the game, the more pressure there will to tighten the rotation and play Noah/Rose more.

Capping them at around 30 minutes makes sense from just about every perspective, and we have enough of a bench that we can do this now. We all worried if we hired Thibs that we'd abuse their minutes, but I think Hornacek has a great talent in knowing how to use his players and he communicates well with them (unlike Fish). So I'm not really worried about the rotations or minutes. After all, if he does this well and they stay healthy and win some games, he's going to look like a great coach.

[NBA Fan 1234]

According to what we heard from and about Phil, they can tell a lot more in practice about how a guy's going to play that we gave them credit for. Last year, many of us thought that Grant needed more game time to show what he could do, but they weren't satisfied with what they saw during drills. So we may see them using a tighter rotation based on what they know about the younger guys without having to play them a lot.

Another thing that could help - if we win a few games by large margins, we may actually have some garbage time to play the new kids and see what they do. What a luxury that would be.

I'm cool with a tighter rotation as long as Mr. Unbreakable and Noah don't get huge minutes - I'd cap each of them at 30 minutes MAX just to be safe. If we end up having blowouts and can only play Noah 20 minutes but give 20 to G, that'd be amazing. I'm ALL for blowouts. Honestly, give me blowouts either way (win or loss) every game and that's fine with me. The tighter the game, the more pressure there will to tighten the rotation and play Noah/Rose more.

Capping them at around 30 minutes makes sense from just about every perspective, and we have enough of a bench that we can do this now. We all worried if we hired Thibs that we'd abuse their minutes, but I think Hornacek has a great talent in knowing how to use his players and he communicates well with them (unlike Fish). So I'm not really worried about the rotations or minutes. After all, if he does this well and they stay healthy and win some games, he's going to look like a great coach.

Don't be fooled by this. Remember Woodson's 54-28 season? He was a **** coach all year long even though we were winning and were (relatively) healthy

[BKlutch]

I'm cool with a tighter rotation as long as Mr. Unbreakable and Noah don't get huge minutes - I'd cap each of them at 30 minutes MAX just to be safe. If we end up having blowouts and can only play Noah 20 minutes but give 20 to G, that'd be amazing. I'm ALL for blowouts. Honestly, give me blowouts either way (win or loss) every game and that's fine with me. The tighter the game, the more pressure there will to tighten the rotation and play Noah/Rose more.

Capping them at around 30 minutes makes sense from just about every perspective, and we have enough of a bench that we can do this now. We all worried if we hired Thibs that we'd abuse their minutes, but I think Hornacek has a great talent in knowing how to use his players and he communicates well with them (unlike Fish). So I'm not really worried about the rotations or minutes. After all, if he does this well and they stay healthy and win some games, he's going to look like a great coach.

Don't be fooled by this. Remember Woodson's 54-28 season? He was a **** coach all year long even though we were winning and were (relatively) healthy

You're right, I always felt that his offense was iso plays only. His defensive planning wasn't great. But we won't win if Horny isn't good.

[Shadylove]

Correction folks going by the 54 game season and Rose, Jennings, Kp, Noah Lance coming back from injuries the coach should try and use 12 players in the 1st 2 months not play them all in 1 game. We have back to back and road trips etc. Willy and Ndour should get some minutes to relieve the pressure of Kp and Noah .Kp goat burnt out last season .

[BKlutch]

Correction folks going by the 54 game season and Rose, Jennings, Kp, Noah Lance coming back from injuries the coach should try and use 12 players in the 1st 2 months not play them all in 1 game. We have back to back and road trips etc. Willy and Ndour should get some minutes to relieve the pressure of Kp and Noah .Kp goat burnt out last season .

So, you're saying we should tank this season, too?