KNICKS vs. Bulls PG - YESSSSSSS!!

[CJackson]

Does anyone realize that Grant's rookie stats are as good/if not better than Teague's rookie stats? Interesting.

Yea but Jerian is 37 years old. He can't get better.

Also Reggie Jackson, Dragic, Bledsoe, Billups, Gary Payton, Nash, Baron Davis, Terrell Brandon, Mookie Blaylock, Mark Price, Conley, Kemba, Lin, McCollum, George Hill, and so many other PGs throughout the years have struggled as rookies, and sometimes even longer.

Said it plenty of times before, but Jerian has all the tools to be a starting PG in this league. If his shot keeps coming along (was always more mental than physical to me, as he has good form and was a solid shooter in college) I don't see any glaring weaknesses with him. He can drive, pass, and D up with very nice size/athleticism. Learning the triangle has made a tough adjustment to the NBA even tougher for him, but he's getting more and more confident every game.

As Knick fans we're so conditioned for our rookies to be let downs, but we'll see if Kris and Jerian can break the trend. I believe they will. Their upside is obvious.

Grant could become a starting pg and also be the best one the knicks have had in a very long time but he has to stop auditioning to be the star of The Clapper commercials. but hes still young enuf to get up every time he falls to the floor on his drives inside

[K_ick_God]

Oh my

Best part of the night was Barry's attempt to not be too excited about KP, but you could tell that he was really seeing it for the first time

the bankshots are rad

He definitely meant to bank it?

[CJackson]

Best part of the night was Barry's attempt to not be too excited about KP, but you could tell that he was really seeing it for the first time

the bankshots are rad

He definitely meant to bank it?

sure looks like a cold blood killer bankshot to me

[King of Canada]

Best part of the night was Barry's attempt to not be too excited about KP, but you could tell that he was really seeing it for the first time

the bankshots are rad

He definitely meant to bank it?

Did you mean to add a ?

He hits that almost every night

[Greenie]

Note worthy that Afflalo had lift on his jumper and he was actually passing. The team sure do enjoy a few days rest.

Bring him back for our bench.

rather have his good looks for 8 Mil? lol or a better player?

He's solid at 8

[Greenie]

Doesn't rad mean cool?

[King of Canada]

Doesn't rad mean cool?

I was waiting for him to say it was tubular too

[NoLayupRule]

i haven't wanted to say it with all the hate around here but this team is a lot better than their record

the Bulls are as well

since were out of the playoffs wouldn't it be nice for a change to deny a team like the bulls a trip there?
if we win tonight we push Chi 1.5 games out of 8th behind Det with Wash closing in from behind

its amazing that one of those three teams at least won't make the playoffs

if you had a poll right now i bet you 90% say they think the Knicks would be in the playoffs this year if Jackson had put any effort into building the backcourt and maybe also if Grant had been given more playing time. thats not hating and i bet most feel that way and thats on Jackson who cancels out every good thing with something bad. the frontcourt would be enough to compete this year but nothing happens with half a starting unit

im not certain we would be in the playoffs either way honestly unless our backcourt had gotten a major upgrade

Grant alone wouldn't have done it

the east has a lot of good teams


the real issues are things like us giving up the pick for Bargs so we didn't have flexibility to land someone like Teague with a pick addition. Or worse still that we didn't trade for Lowry when we could have because we already gave a pick for Bargs, inconceivably.


we could have had Rubio this year or probably Teague and that might have been enough


but without giving up more assets - and I applaud Jackson for standing firm on that - we were limited to coaching and growth from within

Coaching has been crap and growth from within has been limited by coaching
Galloway showed the ability to lead the point last year but has had no chance to do so this year somehow

[CJackson]

Doesn't rad mean cool?

I was waiting for him to say it was tubular too

it was tubular too

[NoLayupRule]

People need to understand that Phil and Rambis are friends, maybe even best friends. Although Rambis isn't the future head coach, that's not going to stop him from having a position in the front office or on the bench.

Everyone, including Rambis knows these final 10 games will be his last as the Knicks' head coach.

i don't know about best friends but Phil certainly respects him and won't throw him under the bus

however if he's coach next year i would be stunned!

It has to be thibs

nothing else makes sense

when you look at the bulls team they have - granted they have had injury issues - they are probably not making the playoffs despite top 3 in the east talent
yet with Thibs year after year - and with equal injury issues and less depth - they challenged for best in the east

its clear that coaching is the difference

imagine what we could do with some inspired coaching?

Yep Thibs and no Noah.

and assigning a healthy Noah - well sorta healthy - to the bench for Mitrioc

bad decision

[CJackson]

i haven't wanted to say it with all the hate around here but this team is a lot better than their record

the Bulls are as well

since were out of the playoffs wouldn't it be nice for a change to deny a team like the bulls a trip there?
if we win tonight we push Chi 1.5 games out of 8th behind Det with Wash closing in from behind

its amazing that one of those three teams at least won't make the playoffs

if you had a poll right now i bet you 90% say they think the Knicks would be in the playoffs this year if Jackson had put any effort into building the backcourt and maybe also if Grant had been given more playing time. thats not hating and i bet most feel that way and thats on Jackson who cancels out every good thing with something bad. the frontcourt would be enough to compete this year but nothing happens with half a starting unit

im not certain we would be in the playoffs either way honestly unless our backcourt had gotten a major upgrade

Grant alone wouldn't have done it

the east has a lot of good teams


the real issues are things like us giving up the pick for Bargs so we didn't have flexibility to land someone like Teague with a pick addition. Or worse still that we didn't trade for Lowry when we could have because we already gave a pick for Bargs, inconceivably.


we could have had Rubio this year or probably Teague and that might have been enough


but without giving up more assets - and I applaud Jackson for standing firm on that - we were limited to coaching and growth from within

Coaching has been crap and growth from within has been limited by coaching
Galloway showed the ability to lead the point last year but has had no chance to do so this year somehow

when there are some decent things going on it sometimes only take a push in the right direction to get traction and become very good. porzingis could be a major star. melo still can ball. lopez is a good signing. grant is still a good trade and could pay off very well. those are good things

my issue is with the stubborn mindset of jackson that pollutes the direction of the club with his need to prove something about himself. when he pulls his ego out of his butt and puts the club first i will support him but i dont because he made some insane choices just really really bad ones all because he wants it his way even if the rest of the nba knows better and because he put loyalty to him as the higher value. so **** his need for being right and his need to surround himself with the family tree. hes too dam smart for that but it ends up making him dumb too often and it cancels out what is good about jackson

you realize that the good things he did + good trades of the original players + sensible coach selection = very good. right now jackson is below average so i have little use for him and even if we have some flexibility moving forward my confidence in him is pretty low that he can make all the right choices this offseason. if he does and he builds a backcourt and hires a real coach who is not a triangle sock puppet then he will get a gold star

[K_ick_God]

the bankshots are rad

He definitely meant to bank it?

Did you mean to add a ?

He hits that almost every night

I believe you. I haven't been watching. Too painful. But that's a great shot. So deep, so smooth, and the angle is bad. Probably exceeds what a Duncan can do banking from the corner, particularly as a rookie.

[CJackson]

He definitely meant to bank it?

Did you mean to add a ?

He hits that almost every night

I believe you. I haven't been watching. Too painful. But that's a great shot. So deep, so smooth, and the angle is bad. Probably exceeds what a Duncan can do banking from the corner, particularly as a rookie.

his shooting mechanics are both rad and tubular and he was getting gassed so his shot was bricking but when he gets stronger and has a bigger gas tank he has every chance to be the best outside shooting 7 footer of all time. add in a sky hook and hes 25 points a night easy

[King of Canada]

He definitely meant to bank it?

Did you mean to add a ?

He hits that almost every night

I believe you. I haven't been watching. Too painful. But that's a great shot. So deep, so smooth, and the angle is bad. Probably exceeds what a Duncan can do banking from the corner, particularly as a rookie.

Yup, he has been hitting that shot from both sides on a regular basis. Awesome.

[BKlutch]

Jose Calderon has 402 followers. Dude is type popular wtf.

Im scared we will end the season on a good note and Rambis gets hired.

Win, Toronto pick gets worse, Rambis stays

or

Lose, Rambis gets replaced, Toronto pick gets better.


Life of a knick fan

That's why scotch helps so much.

[K_ick_God]

Definitely almost everything you'd want is already there with KP in his tools and talent. But can't get carried away yet. Remains to be seen if he'll get those %'s way up. Sure they'll go up some/significantly and he'll be very good at least. But to be absolutely great (as a scorer), he has a lot of sharpening to do on his J. Building strength and finishing big too.

[BKlutch]

What we learned last night:
. Give Melo a legit second option and the floor opens up for the entire team. KP will be everyone's focus and rightfully so, this was what he looked like early in the year. But D-Will (5/7), AA (13 points, 7 assists, 8 boards), Grant (8 pts, 3 boards), RoLo (11,13) and even Jose (11,8,4) all took advantage of a defense that was consistently spread thin.

. KP catching the ball in motion is damn near unstoppable. Using fast breaks to establish post position makes no sense when he can spot up as a trailer or make a HARD cut to rack and dunk on anybody since he's 7'3 and all. He gets to the line or scores in most motion situations and that cut across the paint to catch, turn and shoot is easy buckets for him at least once or twice a game.

. KP's defense was better last night than it's been in at least a month. 0 blocks is hiding just how much of a rim protector he was. Portis tried to do the bully him in the paint thing and missed a bunch of shots inside, KP challenged Brooks and Drose on multiple drives (varying levels of success) and KP's interior defense led to a lot of easy rebounds to the tune of 10 boards all night.

. KP playing big with RoLo playing like he has since January is a truly scary tandem. 23 rebounds between these two guys, a ton of shots challenged in the paint and even though we got beat in most team stats (assists, TO's, FTA's, threes), our rebounding advantage and FG% opened it all up.

. Grant has been looking much better of late in his all around play. Going out on a limb here and making a prediction, but I think both our rookies will show accelerated improvement. KP's stamina alone can make him a bigger impact player through consistency, strength and skill improvements will really help that. Grant's a workhorse and you can see in games that he has worked on his weaknesses, he can finally catch and shoot respectably well! These two are BOTH promising, so don't just zero in on your boy KP because Grant has low key improved a LOT.

. If you make AA a 6th man, he's a problem. Not the most efficient scorer but against second units, he can eat in so many ways and he just steadies the bench a bit (chicken or the egg here but I think D-Will's getting better looks lately and not sure if that's an AA thing until I focus on it more closely).

. I hate Sasha, but he did the pest thing well last night and I'd feel bad ignoring that since I hate on him so hard usually.

. Galloway is still very much a developmental player...he's playing like a young guy with no confidence a lot lately, his jumper has failed him and his defense is hot and cold as opposed to last year when that was where his real value lied. But his upside is real, he can be a good defender and he has the form to be a good shooter; he plays a pretty controlled game for the most part minus some reckless forced fast breaks; and you can build on all of that.

. Seraphin can kick rocks.

. Not Knicks related, but Taj Gibson is such a head scratcher player to me. Dude looks like a stud and a starter most of his time off the bench but whenever his role expands to starter duties he looks somewhere between below average and average. It's strange.

I like your PG analyses, especially because you say what you saw and what you think, without any need to make it conform to what you thought before. Some guys only want to back up their earlier observations, to the point that they can't let themselves see what's actually happening on the court.

Thanks for this.

[BKlutch]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/TommyBeer/status/713007840307376128[/tweet]

I'm like it.

Yay. And also when he drives on the hoop, it opens things up more for his teammates. Hitting his jumpers makes more room for him to drive. So.... he's gradually becoming what we've all wanted.

He might even become a suitable replacement for Jose in the next two or three years.

[BKlutch]

Best part of the night was Barry's attempt to not be too excited about KP, but you could tell that he was really seeing it for the first time

the bankshots are rad

He definitely meant to bank it?

He's made enough of them that they're not just lucky poor shots. It seems to be something they did in Europe, even though bank shots have been out of favor here for a while.

[F N 11]

Definitely almost everything you'd want is already there with KP in his tools and talent. But can't get carried away yet. Remains to be seen if he'll get those %'s way up. Sure they'll go up some/significantly and he'll be very good at least. But to be absolutely great (as a scorer), he has a lot of sharpening to do on his J. Building strength and finishing big too.

We have no Point guard!!!!!!!! There's no doubting his shooting ability. His finishing at the rim will improve as well.