Midseason Report Part 1: The Team

What We Know:

The Knicks can win basketball games. Staring off the season with a 3-8 record and a 6 game losing streak including losses to Philly, Golden State, and Minnesota might have been the best thing that happened to this team. With the exception of the 2003-04 season (when he was a sophomore) Amar’e Stoudemire has never been on a team with a loosing record, and he brought that swagger to New York, a city whose basketball team desperately needed some swag. Amar’e exerted his leadership potential and along with Derrick Rose has become a favorite for MVP. He proved that he was not simply a product of Steve Nash. The Kicks are now

a team with warriors. STAT, Felton, and Turiaf are guys who go to war every night. The play hard and expect to win every night. Gallo, Douglas, Fields, and Chandler are all under 24 years old and given the right environment can keep growing. The Thunder have formed a core of young talent that are growing together as a team. The Knicks don’t have the raw talent of the Thunder, but if they aren’t broken up they could become the East Coast Diet Thunder. They are more or less a lock for the 6^th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and with the shellacking they gave the best-record-having Spurs, they showed they are going to be a hard out for any team in June.

What We Think:

The Knicks might be better off not trading for Carmelo. Donnie Walsh has made a few missteps (whiffing on Brandon Jennings, giving up to much for T-Mac) but on the whole he has been a really terrific GM. He has stated multiple times that he isn’t going to gut the team for Melo, which seems to be the right move. The Knicks have no trouble scoring the ball, which is basically the only thing Melo can do. With an Amar’e-Melo frontcourt the Knicks are going to

have trouble stopping penetration for even the most rudimentary slash-and-kick guards. Defense wins championships and when your two best players are defensive sieves your team isn’t going very deep in the playoffs. Landry Fields and Wilson Chandler, the two players most likely to be shipped out in any Melo deal, are exactly the kinds of role players needed to win championships. This summer Kendrick Perkins, Marc Gasol, Tyson Chandler, Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, and Samuel Dalembert are all going to be restricted or unrestricted free agents and any one of them would make a nice defensive frontcourt complement to Amar’e. Blowing all of the Knicks depth recruiting Melo when we can wait and build a team that makes championship sense isn’t smart. Which Core Would you rather have in the long run: A STAT, Melo, Gallo scoring trifecta or a STAT, Fields, Gallo, Gasol, CP3 staring 5?

The NBA Bio Pic Game

The winter season means a few things for movies fans. The icy wind of winter usually brings with it a wonderful Nicolas Cage movie that a studio is dumping into theaters in January hoping no one will notice, but it also means awards season, and nothing says awards season like a prestigious bio pic. This year the front runner for most bio pic-y of the awards season is The Kings Speech, which also has the advantage of beinga period piece starring English people (three things the Academy Awards voters get huge boners for). There are, however, a few Biographical filmsflying under the radar sure to be dark horse candidates in theoscar race.

1. Il Mago: The Andrea Bargnani Story starring The Situation as Andrea Bargnani

2. Rockin' Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool THE MOVIE starring Wyatt Cenac as Walt Frazier

3. Raj Hour Starring Chris Tucker as Rajon Rondo

4. Filp Fest starring That guy from Beerfest as Flip Saunders

5. Avatar starring Chris Bosh as Himself

Recap-Game 1, 10/27/10-Knicks 98, Raptors 93

The return of Knicks basketball was like that hot cup of cocoa you sip on after all the presents have been opened on a snowy Christmas morning. Except this cup of cocoa is actually cocoa and not Marbury-brand vinegar or Isiah's morning urination. This first victory was the marshmellows.

Mr. Sub Starting Lineup
PG-Raymond Felton
SG-Landry Fields
SF-Danilo Gallinari
PF-Amar'e Stoudemire
C-Timofey Mosgov

Actual Game Notes:
-Mosgov showed flashes of his quickness here and there, but his brief time on the floor was mostly characterized by fouls, getting boxed out, and looking generally confused. He's a long term project, so I won't fault him for Game 1 troubles. But he's got to find a way to go 5 minutes with getting 2 quick personals.

-The Nate Robinson role agrees with Wilson Chandler. Chandler had a team-high 22 points coming off the bench, and scored effectively from both the perimeter and at the basket. The good thing about Mosgov hacking everything that moves is Chandler replacing him in the lineup and instantly increasing the speed on the D'antonimeter. He led a great second unit effort that was the difference in the game.

-Felton didn't shoot that well, but it was so refreshing to see a point guard that enhances the speed of D'antoni's system insteading of strapping a Winebago to it (I'm looking at you Duhon).

-Amar'e played ok with a 19-10, but also had 9 turnovers. That's not going to fly against most other non-dinosaur teams. Same for Danilo, who got his points but didn't shoot all that effectively.

-Ronny Turiaf was solid tonight, including a nice bounding whale rebound and putback. There were points tonight where it looked like Bill Walker forgot how to dribble.

-Overall, a pretty solid opening. Some things definitely need improvement, such as beefing up a nonexistent interior defense, but they'll get there.

Drink the cocoa, eat the marshmellows.

Yes!

NBA opening night has come, and we are one day away from the start of a new Knicks season. Get friggin excited!

Who's Gonna Be Right? Take 2

The second take in our series of point-counterpoint. Today, we discuss:

Which is the Player You're Super Psyched to Watch This Season?

Blake Griffin (Bach)

Sure, I'm excited to see Kevin Durant take that next explosive step in his development and, yeah, I'm really, really looking forward to Amare Stoudemire bringing the Knicks from the "Bring back Oakley!" column over towards "Hey, I can watch this team without hugging my tear bucket!" But no player's potential gets me more excited than Griffin. He was even more of a no-brainer #1 pick than John Wall was coming into this season, dominating the college game in his last season at Oklahoma. His skills are incredibly dynamic; he's 6'10'', yet can handle the ball like a point guard and run the floor like a caffeinated Looney Toon. He's lighting it up during the preseason with a 17-12 average through the first 6 games, showing few ill effects from the injury that cost him his first attempt at a rookie season. Most importantly, he's got the rest of his teammates excited to be Clippers. Of course, that may also have something to do with Vampire Mike Dunleavy removing his life sucking fangs from Chris Kamen's neck, but still. Blake Griffin is going to be awesome.

Kevin Love (Matt)

While Blake Griffin, John Wall, and Kevin Durant are all going be super fun to watch this season, they are all more or less sure things. They are all going to be great, but we know what we are going to see. Durant is going to score on anyone. Griffin is going to fly around the court like a wild man. Wall is going to run circles around slower guards. Minnesota PF Kevin Love is a bit more of a mystery. Because of injuries and lack of playing time I still don’t know what his ceiling is. He might lead the league in rebounds this season. He might grab 14 rebounds a game while leading all centers in three-pointers made this season. I don’t know and that is why I’m more psyched to see him than any other player.

The Douchebaggary Rankings: Week 1

Many sports blogs and websites employ a system of ranking teams based on their performance and prospective performance. Most sites call this system “Power Rankings.” We here at Knickerbocker Nation employ a similar system, only our ranking system is not put in place to value the competence or talent level of a certain team, but to measure the levels of douchebaggary in and around the NBA as a whole. So without further ado we present the first ever Douchbaggary Rankings. (This is how they fall during the first week of play of the regular season)

10. Carmelo Anthony
Don’t get me wrong, I am super excited about the inevitable sight of Melo in a Knicks jersey. I just don’t like any superstar who thinks he can force his way out of a city. Forcing trades is bad for the league, and the small market teams need to stay successful for the league to be.

9. Gilbert Arenas
He was saying all the right things, what happened? Even if you were faking an injury to get your buddy more playing time, why the hell would you announce it to the world? Are you that insane to think that that might not have been a great idea? Gilbert, you don’t have to act on every impulse that shoots through your head. (Forget I said shoot)

8. Sports Illustrated’s NBA preview Issue
Are you serious Ian Thomsen? The 76ers, Nets, Bobcats, and Pistons are better than the Knicks? The Pistons? Really?

7. Chris Bosh
I just don’t like followers. Bosh is like the kid being extra mean to the nerds just so the popular kids will accept him. He pretends he’s a superstar yet has never won a playoff series. Toronto is a cool city, way cooler than Cleveland, and I feel bad for them.

6. ESPN.com
Never have I been so addicted to a website that is so repetitive and redundant. I need help.

5. Sasha Vujacic
How the hell is THIS guy married to Sharapova?

4. The Haters
More specifically the racist haters. There’s a lot to be upset about regarding “The Decision.” If you have to resort to tweeting racial slurs at Lebron, then not only are you racist but also cowardly and more then a little bit of a huge loser. Tech racism is the lowest form of racism there is. Other racists think you’re lame.

3. Rudy Fernandez
Never has a player sunk his trade value so low so fast without using a firearm before.

2. Lebron James
Four words… Nationally Televised Cleveland Steamer.
And our number 1 douchebag is…

1.James Dolan!!!
Who else would it be? He will remain number 1 until he dies, sells the Knicks, or both.

Sneaky Signings

Everyone's talking about the Amar'e and Felton signings and the spoils of the David Lee trade. Rightfully so, those three things helped change our fate, but a signing that flew under the radar is the Roger Mason signing.

Last year he completely lost his shot and his 3P% dropped from 42% to 33%. If he can get back to the form of his last season in Washington or his first season with San Antonio. This will prove to be the sneaky good signing of the Summer.