The Knicks Fix

Jason Kidd grabbed 19 rebounds, a career-high, in the Nets' loss, without Vince Carter, to Orlando on Friday night.

Kidd had more rebounds in one game (19) than Eddy Curry did in three games (17) when the Knicks hosted Denver (eight), the Magic (three) and Miami (six).

A point guard with more rebounds in one game than our Knicks center had in three games? Great for Kidd. Just terrible for Curry.

Another thing about rebounding and Eddy Curry.

Jason Kidd has grabbed at least nine rebounds in five games this season.

Eddy Curry has at least nine rebounds in only two games.

Kidd's averaging 9.4 rebounds a game; Curry just rebounds 7.5 per game.

The Nets point guard is out-rebounding our center.

Alan, you (and maybe even Isiah) have hit the nail on the head.
The Knicks don't have a smart, hard working, set-up-my-teammates point guard, and thus they only score on the athletic ability of the players. They don't score due to good execution.

The second problem is that their "franchise player" (said with sarcasm) (ECurry) cannot rebound and cannot play defense. He also only plays hard on every other play.

To rectify:

1. Fire Isiah and hire a real coach and a real GM (but two different people).

2. Either put Collins at the PG position for the year and hope for the best, trade for a real point guard, or plan on drafting one high in 2008.

3. Bench ECurry and play him only 15-20 minutes a game. Play Randolph and Lee the majority of minutes.

"The web people are trying to address a problem all of the Newsday blogs are having with abusive people. "

=> MMBB

sorry to say but i can tell alot of u don't have b-ball iqz nor knows how to play basketball.the knicks got more talent then eva zeke don't even play chandler yess he is a rookie but he can block shots an rebound i would play him a balkman they will shutdown guys.i'm a fan or marbury but i know the knick will be better once he an zeke are gone...but i would cut zeke first cuz marbury can still play..all zeke has done is help his hometown team out...no doubt your all fanz but alot of fan have no idea about what they talking about.i played ball alot was a feen played ball in 20 degree temp.there is alot of p.g in the league that i can whoop there asses on a 1on1.nelson is garbage.parker is alrite.gibson i'll destroy.etc.itz krazy how these guys make it to the league.crawford can average 20+ he can consistently take the ball to the hoop an draw contact...itz easy to be great it starts with the mind but if your a p**sy your gonna suck plain an simple there is refs they not going to block your shots everytime keep taking it to the hoop an u will have success..............

sorry to say but i can tell alot of u don't have b-ball iqz nor knows how to play basketball.the knicks got more talent then eva zeke don't even play chandler yess he is a rookie but he can block shots an rebound i would play him a balkman they will shutdown guys.i'm a fan or marbury but i know the knick will be better once he an zeke are gone...but i would cut zeke first cuz marbury can still play..all zeke has done is help his hometown team out...no doubt your all fanz but alot of fan have no idea about what they talking about.i played ball alot was a feen played ball in 20 degree temp.there is alot of p.g in the league that i can whoop there asses on a 1on1.nelson is garbage.parker is alrite.gibson i'll destroy.etc.itz krazy how these guys make it to the league.crawford can average 20+ he can consistently take the ball to the hoop an draw contact...itz easy to be great it starts with the mind but if your a p**sy your gonna suck plain an simple there is refs they not going to block your shots everytime keep taking it to the hoop an u will have success..............

I hope Karl embarasses Isiah and he gets fired after the game.

Alan,

While I think your analysis of the situation is right on, the question that comes to my mind is, "Why the f**k was this not all worked out in training camp?" Isn't that what the camp was suppose to be all about. Installing plays and schemes and setting the players in their roles for those plays. This way we don't have this playground-type offense and defense game after game. I think the real problem here is that none of the coaches on the bench are offensive or defensive gurus. The sad part is that even if we could get a defensive mind like Larry Brown to coach this group, they would still be terrible defensively because of their collective low basketball IQ. (Oh wait...he did and they were). Never mind.

Benching Marbury makes sense, especially in the light of how he took the news. But I still don’t know what the plan is. Is Collins now the starting PG for the Knicks? And Marbury a back-up shooting guard? Is Marbury going back into the starting line-up once he “learns his lesson”? As what? Point guard or shooting guard? Are Collins and Nate ready to run this team? I used to think our biggest need was a premier small forward who complemented Zach and Curry. Now . . . I don't know.

Zeke loyalists are circling the wagons. As usual, any and all criticism of Isiah Lord Thomas is being branded “hate” and/or influenced by the big bad MSM. I thought Isiah deserved this year to see what he could do with his team. But then, nobody could have imagined we would reach this kind of crisis so early in the season. And certainly not a rebellion. Is it really that bad? I don’t know. But it ain’t good. Now the question is: Where do things go from here? Better or worse? At this point, Isiah has lost his margin for error. The next few games/weeks should determine his future with the club. When he had the support of the team, you could argue that a coaching change would be too disruptive. Is there any order now to disrupt? Unless he can quell the current rebellion . . . and at least get them playing with the tenacity of last winter (before the injuries) . . . there’s no reason to keep him. Otherwise, let’s not waste the last 73 games. Let’s bring in a new GM and coach early enough to salvage something out of this year.

Alan – the rock references are always first class – one of my favorite pet sounds, as well . . .

Eddy Curry is not a great rebounder. No matter how much people complain about him, he's never ever going to be a great rebounder. He was not a great rebounder when Zeke traded for him, he's not one now, and he never will be.

Why is this so hard to accept?

Move on, everyone. Next topic.

Alan,
Defense is obviously a major issue. Towards the end of last year, Marbury picked up his defensive intensity. Is the problem this year his conditioning, his commitment, or is he just slowing down with age and not able to keep up?
Also, how is Mardy Collins' knee holding up?
Thanks for the blog. I've been reading for awhile and appreciate your straight forward reporting.

Trane,
I really dont think its about Zeke supporters vs. detractors at this point.
Its all about wins and losses right now. No more "flashes of greatness" or "upside" or "potential". The Knicks will be judged by thier record this year. The question is, how many games will count as sufficient evidence for Dolan to reach a verdict. That number decreases with every loss.
Its evident to anyone watching that the Knick players are letting the pressure get the best of them.
There are Two things that can possibly save the Knick season tonight. Either Zach goes nuts and his attitude and swagger rubs off on this team that has had its confidence drained. Or Crawford just has one of his cant miss nights.

Alan- The Knicks and the Beach Boys? Boy, that Nyquil really has a kick to it.

You are on the money; This might be a good fantasy league team based upon numbers, but it does not thrive on teamwork. Someone needs to fix that.

The facts are west coast road trips are hard on the best teams, no cupcakes, losing your best player before he really gets to know a brand new team hurts badly, 7 games establish nothing, repeating fire Isiah may make you feel better but it's not original thinking judging by the press, blogs & message boards. The so called rebellion was 1 idiot acting like one and was dealt with quickly. A little more patience is needed for this team to even have a shot to gel.

Nate4prez – I don’t disagree. I also think you can see it in their play, even beyond the wins and losses. You can see this is a team that doesn’t know how to handle themselves when the game is on the line. Alan said it best – and it was true last year as well, even when they were winning games - it was based on talent, not teamwork. If Crawford was on fire . . . they won some of the games like last night. Or Lee’s tip-in stays in. But at least last year there was a tenacity, and an enthusiasm. You saw more of a shared spirit . . . even if there wasn’t much cohesive teamwork. Your question is a good one. I don’t know how many games they have to lose. There are no more “moral” victories. I can’t find solace in the fact that they were “in” last night’s game the whole time. That’s even more depressing to me. Because they had SO many chances to win it. Yet they were never able to put it away.

Hopefully the Nuggets run up the score and completely embarass this organization., specificially Isiah. Dolan is a moron!

Damn.........er...um.......Da..........mn. ..........er....

rumor mill in BK is flying that alan houston is being signaled for the head coaching position to relieve thomas---

it is unclear whether Zeke will be retained as b-ball ops pres

PATIENCE! I find it funny how fast the panic button gets hit around here. 9 games in and one losing streak and all of a sudden the team has no chance, no talent and we need to blow things up. If this happened later in the year it wouldn't be the end of the world, just a normal bad stretch and MANY teams go thru in the course of a season. However since fans are so tired of losing they assume that this is a sign that the team is going to lose big again. I'm not going down that road.

We should always evalute teams by taking the season in qtrs. 20 game stretches at a time instead of micro evaluating the team after 5 or even 10 games. If you look around the league a lot of teams are inexplicably doing bad to start the year. Don't expect that to remain the case all year.

Flybanjo,

Reason I brought it up is because all I read from some parts is that Eddy Curry is the best center in the East, an All-Star, and a guy to lead the Knicks to the playoffs.

Great centers score. They rebound, too. And play defense. And take care of the basketball.

Isiah got us a guy, Curry, with a fat salary and the ability to do only one of those things. Score. Sometimes. If he feels like it, I guess.

Just another mistake we have to live with as Knicks fans.

I don't care what ANYONE will say....Until this team cuts ties with Stephon Marbury they will struggle....What he did on this road trip is inexcusable and set this team back at least 10 games...

Look was it handled right? Maybe not! But if Isiah had informed him at the team shootaround or at the team hotel would it have been any better? There is no excuse for abandoning the team like that and to compound it he claims to have "dirt" on the coach. I don't think the team can or will recover from this unless they get rid of Marbury!

It looks like Dolan, once again is sticking it to the Knicks fan base.
He will not fire Isiah. He will not trade Marbury. He will not take responsibility for the sickness that is MSG.

Thus, Knick fans, you can expect more of the same.

The Knicks won 33 games last year. It is likely they will win about the same number of games this year.

Only bright spot, Isiah has not traded his first round pick (YET!) so there is hope for a high pick.

Another year rooting for a high pick. Wonderful.

Is anybody up for picketting outside MSG for the removal of Jim Dolan?

DAN:
JDolan knew that he is inept and incompetent on b.ball matter. Hence, he hired a b.ball guy. Unfortunately, he hired an inept and incompetent GM by the name of Isiah Lord Thomas.

Give Dolan credit. He has demonstrated that he'll spend the money to have a winning team in NY. Conversely, as a businessman, he should know when to cut the cord. He is ill-equipped to recognize that it's time to stop the bleeding. Of course he is accountable for this mess as well. His mistake was hiring the wrong basketball guy to run the show.

With more than 70 more games to go, can Zeke still right this ship? One would hope so. Everyone is tired of the losing and the finger-pointing.

It seems from the beat down Denver gave them last nite, the knicks have offically quit on Thomas. Any other NBA team would fire Thomas as soon as the game was over, but not Dolan.

So much drama, and its only the 8th game of the season. My viewpoint is to take it 10 games at a time. So, I am going to remain hopeful that they turn it around. I agree with giving the kid Chandler some burn, or even possibly extending the rotation to 10 people at this point, with Lee, JJ, Balkman/ Chandler, Jones, and Robinson, they can cause some havoc on the defensive end.

Speaking of Jared Jeffries, I've seen him on the stat line playing a little hear and there, but the guy is 6'10 and long. Sure, he is limited offensively, but so was Tayshaun Prince when he first entered the league, and was more known for defense when he first started playing.

This is just a series of unfortunate events. If you think aout it its really crazy what happened to the Knicks. I think Zach's grandmother is clearly to be blamed for this whole meltdown, god bless her soul! :)

If Zach doesn't leave we beat Miami and there is no shakeup, further more we probably win two on the road and everybody are happy like pigs in sh!t. Imagine how it all could have been. Amazing

Trane,

You’ve mentioned the inexplicable Isiah loyalty on this site a few times now, and I don’t get it either. I wonder if a lot of his supporters never watch other teams (except when playing the Knicks, of course) or only started following the Knicks a few seasons ago – if so, they may consider this acceptable. Isiah has been here for years now, the Knicks are still losing more than they’re winning, and for the same reasons as last year (lack of defensive intensity, way too many turn-overs, lack of cohesion/team concept, etc. – all the crap we see night after night).

The thing with Isiah is not that he’s been terrible at everything he’s tried after retiring as a player – that is a b.s. generalization that gets repeated too often by people who don’t know any better. It’s that he just hasn’t been very good. I was in Toronto for the first years of the Raptors, and I remember his big promises followed by front office mediocrity and a quick, sketchy exit. I remember his as an utterly unremarkable commentator – not terrible, but not good either. He wasn’t a disaster as the coach of the
Pacers, but his team underachieved, he was badly outcoached in the play-offs and the team improved greatly once he was replaced. It may be true that he had a plan to turn the CBA into a D-League and Stern wouldn’t go for it, but a good executive would have looked into that before taking over that league. All along, he’s been a mediocrity, but just good enough that someone can always make an excuse for him.

Why people want to do this is beyond me. 38, 32 or 3 (don’t remember), 23, 23, 2-7 so far – those are the win totals for the last four seasons. That is simply poor. I agree with the posters who say you have to consider a season in big chunks to make judgments – there’s a 4+ season chunk. That isn’t good enough, and the only haters I can see are the people who are cool with the Knicks being mediocre year after year. I’m sick of excuses and justifications that don’t include WINS as the ultimate measure of organizational success. A team 1) lacks talent, 2) is poorly coached and/or put together or 3) it wins a lot of games. The Knicks don’t do number 3, so one of the other two is the problem.

Sorry for the long post. I started the season optimistic, but watching this ongoing circus, and the team losing for the SAME REASONS as last year is driving me crazy. The current group is not getting it done. We need someone who can.

I went into this year assuming Isiah should have the season to show what he could do with this team. I didn’t think even he could oversee a total meltdown in just 5 or 6 games. It’s true that not all the problems currently plaguing the Knicks are his direct responsibility. But coaches and GMs have been fired for a LOT less. Maybe he can regain the support of the roster he compiled. The only difference, however, is that we can no longer squander an entire season to find out. If things can get this bad, this quickly, we have to find out in a hurry if they’re going to start getting better soon . . . or keep getting worse. With every passing day, it seems, he “deserves” less and less time. Because, frankly, with the team already in chaos . . . how much more disruptive would a coaching change be? If he can’t “get them back” in a hurry . . . let’s cut our losses early enough in the season so the new GM and coach have virtually an entire season to work with.

And while I believe Stephon was a huge mistake, he's also just a metaphor. Hence, benching him -- even buying him out - only begins to address the problems. He can't become the scapegoat, for Isiah, and the excuse Dolan uses not to change the management team. ("See, we dealt with the problem.") I'm glad Lupica stole a line I blogged yesterday: Does this mean Collins is now our starting point guard? Is he ready? Is that what all the roster changes have come down to? Collins and Nate at point guard? Wow.

Pete – you won’t get any argument out of me. I agree that Isiah hasn’t been a TOTAL disaster. Clearly, the team is more talented now than it was when he arrived. (Could it be LESS talented?) Yet he also did a good job rallying the team behind him last year. Those are the only reasons I thought he deserved this season to see what he could do, and why I thought a coaching change over the summer would be more disruptive than it was worth. It’s also why we went into this year more optimistic. On most teams, he wouldn’t have lasted nearly this long, to be having this conversation. And while, yes, there’s some talent here, look around the league. It’s not as though this is an elite team. When was the last time one of the Knicks played in the all-star game? Maybe Zach this year? Maybe? He’s got a legitimate shot. Last year Isiah was able to improve the team to mediocrity. He’s got to do a lot better, in a big hurry . . . or get out of the way and let someone else spend Dolan’s money for a while.

Trane,

You’re right – there were some positives last year and I thought there might be a nucleus there that could be tweaked and built on, but could be the basis of a solid team. I admit I’ve always been skeptical of Isiah, but thought maybe he’s developing and figuring things out with more experience. I don’t think that is the case now. This team is not well coached or managed compared to good (i.e. ones that win more than they lose) franchises.

I also agree on the talent issue. Is there a team in the league that would swap starters with us at the 1, 2 or 3 spots? None over .500 anyhow. I like Zach – he plays hard, and I know I’m critical of people making excuses, but I can see how his personal loss would mess with his game at the moment. But we don’t have a single really good two-way player. Not one. I’m repeating my last post, but I think people just look at only the Knicks too much, and with the recent history here (the Layden years, the Larry Clown debacle), the bar for roster and coaching is pretty low. The thing is, no other team’s fans are looking enviously at our line up. And lots of other teams’ fans are enjoying competitive, well-constructed teams that play hard and cohesively on both ends of the floor. I think I, and the rest of the excellent New York fan base deserve the same.

On point with Marbury too – the blame lies at the top. Shuffling him out will make no more difference than the huge buyouts/amnesties for Williams, Anderson, Rose, and all the other horrible acquisitions.

Pete – last year, our best two-way player was Q . . . until he got hurt. (That’s also why I’ve been clamoring for Artest.) I don’t know what’s up with Q. Is he finished? I guess that’s possible. But he was supposedly the great medical success story of last summer. (Don’t get me started on the Knicks’ medical staff.) All we heard was how great the surgery went . . . better than new . . . feels wonderful. We know he’s got the talent. The only question is, will his body still perform? Maybe he’ll still surprise us . . .

Re: the roster. I keep thinking back to draft night. First the Celtics make a move, and Isiah seems to trump it. We go to bed that night thinking we’d improved significantly in the Atlantic/East. Then Orlando and the Celtics keep improving with even bigger deals and leave us in their dust. I figured Isiah was being a LITTLE conservative for the first time in his life, but I was convinced he was still going to make another move before training camp. Shows you how much I know.

Dolan sell the team!!!

Better yet . . . give it to me.

pete,

at Indiana, Thomas had a very young team in the playoffs 3 years in a row. Jermaine O'Neal resigned with the Pacers only because Bird told him Thomas would return. Rick Carlisle was so good as Thomas's replacement he was fired 2 years later and the Pacers still suck. They did improve for a while after Thomas but they lied to their best player who wanted Thomas back and totally failed trying to control Artest which is why Bird claimed he fired Thomas. Thomas did a pretty decent job in Indiana and he needs a shot with a roster that includes his best player. I would love to see how well Orlando or the Celts would do wit their best player in and out as well as a trip out west like the Knicks have had to deal with.

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