Season Preview: New York Knicks

Quang: in order to avoid stealing the thunder of our resident knick-picker, my preview is going to be short and sweet. well, it'll be sweet. but let me first start off by saying that i really like the knicks. not ironically like some people do because they seem like they're in a perpetual state of turmoil, i actually like them. they have good players, they're fun to watch, and joe screams about them so much that on numerous occasions he has started avalanches. it's disappointing to me that the knicks have become such a punching bag by fans and media alike. i guess such is the life in new york, where they are quick to build you and up and quick to take you down. but hopefully, people realize sooner rather than later that while they're complaining about perceived mismanagement and people not giving a care about these white people, they're missing out on watching a very deep and talented team. and if you still want something to complain about, how about how this is all still larry brown's fault.

looking over the knicks' roster, i'm hard pressed to find a glaring weakness. oh wait. i must have missed jerome james. and jared jeffries. but jerome james is likely to miss the entire season due to a knee injury which seriously jeopardizes jerome james' chances of missing the entire season due to coaches decision. either way, jerome james was not going to make a difference. if the knicks were a lego set, jerome james was one of those extra pieces they give you just in case you lost some of the other pieces. however, jared jeffries is another story. he was signed to be a factor defensively, however had anyone in the knicks consulted me first, i would have told them that "jared jeffries stinks and has never made a lay up in the nba. and he also isn't a good defender, you twit." but once again my insight was unused, and jared jeffries is a knick. hopefully, someone realizes that there is a laundry list of players who should see the floor before jeffries so he can be relegated to his rightful role of sitting on the bench laughing at the kiss cam on the jumbotron.

as i was saying, the knicks have many good players. despite their defensive deficiencies, eddy curry and zach randolph are two of the best post players in the league. accordingly, the knicks should run a play where they have both curry and zach on the same block, pass one of them the ball, and have them both back down a defender. it'd be like the "flying v" except backwards. and not from a movie suitable for children. stephon marbury is great though it doesn't seem like he's been accepted by knick fans as i would have expected. he's still very gifted and seems willing to accept a secondary role on the team. also his shoes cost $15. he could buy over a million pairs of his shoes this year with his salary. what other player could say that? jamal crawford is returning after suffering a stress fracture last year. he is an incredibly effective scorer, though not a particularly efficient one. and that's why i love him. nearly every shot he takes is ill advised. hopefully, after his basketball career comes to an end, jamal becomes a guidance counselor. advice i imagine he'd give: "the sats? don't bother, colleges don't even look at them!", "your gpa is only 3.9? my assists per game was higher than that!", "why would i write you a recommendation when i could pull up from downtown!!"

other than those four, the knicks are expecting significant contributions from nate robinson, quentin richardson, fred jones, david lee, and renaldo balkman. robinson and fred jones can handle the backup guard duties, and whether quentin richardson is starting or coming off the bench he's going to fire away from downtown. lee and balkman provide relentless energy no matter when they play. any team would like two sparkplugs like this off the bench, especially one who fights crime in his spare time like renaldo blankman. anyways, i think the knicks are likely going to surprise most people. but that's mainly by virtue of most people being very low on their chances. this roster looks like it should be good enough to grab up at least a 7th or 8th seed, but things always seem to happen to the knicks. so i'm not sure anything is guaranteed other than isaiah thomas grinning on the sidelines throughout the season.

Dhivy: The Knicks off-season was one of the more interesting among all NBA teams. It involved some questionable workplace relationships, elicit activities, and a large cash payment. And that was just to get Zach Randolph!

The lawsuit against head coach and grinning ninny Isiah Thomas overshadowed the team itself. Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry provide a formidable (fat) front line that will draw double teams on a regular basis. I’d feel better about this if they weren’t kicking out to the likes of Quentin Richardson (fat), but an open shot is an open shot. The Knicks have some serious youth in the form of David Lee, Randolph Morris, and Nate Robinson. While I’m not enamored with the prospects of the latter two, Lee has a chance to become a Dennis Rodman type rebounder, hopefully without becoming a Dennis Rodman type person. The Knicks most recent draft picks consist of Renaldo Balkman, Wilson Chandler, and Mardy Collins. I couldn’t tell you the difference between these three, except that Mardy Collins is a goon. While three members of the Knicks have won televised dunk contests, the only one who truly deserved it was Fred Jones. Perhaps he’s been around too long to be considered a breakout player, but I have to support anyone who looks so much like Big Boi from Outkast.

Stephon Marbury has been very good for a very long time and I don’t think he gets enough recognition. He’s also the only person I can think of named Stephon, so it’s likely that he has a transformation chamber that allows him to turn back into his nerdy counterpart, Steven Q. Marbree. There are only ten people in NBA history who have a better assists per game average and among those ten players, only Oscar Robertson has a higher scoring average. He’s still a fairly young player and has an outside chance at the Hall of Fame with some playoff success. On the other hand, his backcourt running mate is an absolute clown. A few weeks ago, Joe passionately argued that Jamal Crawford is just as good at Gilbert Arenas. This may come as a shock, but Joe had been drinking at the time. Crawford is a 40% shooter who has never averaged 18 points a game, while Arenas throws his jersey into the crowd after games and cheats at Halo 3. Now you tell me, who is the better basketball player?

Joe: Shandon Anderson, Michael Doleac, Howard Eisley, Maciej Lampe, Moochie Norris, Bruno Sundov, Mike Sweetney, Keith Van Horn, Charlie Ward, Clarence Weatherspoon and Frank Williams. These were the players, along with Allan Houston that Isiah Thomas inherited when he took over the Knicks in the middle of the 2003-2004 season. I dont really care who you are, when you get dealt a hand that bad and are given the job of turning the team over without any salary cap flexibility, what are you supposed to do? If it were me - I would start weeping because obviously someone has went out of the way to try and screw me. Not Zeke, through a series of trades (more good ones than bad ones in my opinion) and savvy drafting he has turned that roster into one that features a borderline hall of fame point guard (based on the numbers)in Stephon Marbury; the most unstoppable inside scorer in the league outside of Tim Duncan and Yao Ming in Eddy Curry ;a fringe All-Star in Zach Randolph; one of the best pure rebounders in the game in David Lee; a consciousless and unbelievably clutch combo guard in Jamal Crawford, a leader and shotmaker in Quentin Richardson and the next Gerald Wallace in Renaldo Balkman. Granted the Knicks are still well over the salary cap, but the roster is 100 times better. This team is loaded with talent and everywhere I look pundits are saying that the Knicks are not going to be a playoff team. I say pundits are lame.

In my quest to find out why everyone thinks my beloved Knicks are a bunch of losers, I came up with a number of prevailing reasons: I will try to debunk these reasonings.

Stephon Marbury has had a very interesting summer. Even I, one of the most ardent Stephon fans had to scratch my head in disbelief when I saw his rambling, bizarre interview on Mike'd Up. Whatever the deal is, Stephon seems to be in a very happy place right now, and I think that will translate to solid results on the basketball court. What I AM interested in is what he was doing before he became Born Again this summer. Steph admitted during the sexual harassment trial that two years ago he had sexual relations with a Knicks intern in the back of his truck after she was celebrating her birthday at a strip-club. According to the testimony, he asked her "are you going to get in the truck?" and she did - simple as that. What's the big deal? Seems like an awesome story to me. The New York media tried to make Stephon Marbury look like some kind of sleazebag, saying that he lured her into the truck. I took a drive through Manhattan in my Pathfinder and asked sexy ladies if they would like to get in the truck, and I didn't get a single yes, I'm guessing the "luring" part consists of having a nicer truck or a better job. The papers also unfairly presented the story in such a way that made her seem innocent and underage - she was a college senior.

Many are saying that it will be difficult for Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph to share the ball down low, this would be a valid point if Zach's game was similar to Curry's. Curry dominates the low post, while Zach Randolph was tailor made for the high post. Zach has a velvety smooth jumper from 19-20 feet out, he can put the ball on the floor and most of his "big man moves" originate from 12 feet from the basket. Eddy Curry is a different type of beast. I saw Eddy Curry take 3 jumpshots last year, two were from 10 feet out and I screamed at my TV till my head hurt. The other was a perfect three pointer at the buzzer in a late season game against the Milwaukee Bucks to send the game into overtime that also resulted in me screaming till my head hurt then calling everyone I knew to tell them it was the most unbelievable thing Ive ever seen. The bottom line is that Eddy Curry operates extremely well from 10 feet or less and doesn't stray away from that area except when he wants to flaunt his 3-point stroke once per season. The best thing about the pairing is that they both command a double team which puts all sorts of pressure on defenses - opening things up for each other and for Quentin, Jamal and Steph out on the perimeter.

Others say the team has too many interchangeable pieces. Oh Really? I think that is called depth, and it seems like its only a bad thing when people are talking about the Knicks. Nate Robinson has looked unbelievable this postseason. He is seeing the court much better and it seems like he is finally reigning in his phenomenal athleticism. Renaldo Balkman got the words, "Hustle Harder" tattooed down his calves. I cant even imagine how someone could hustle harder that Renaldo already does. After an already impressive rookie season, this year is when all of the people that criticized Isiah's decision to pick "The Predator" with the 23rd pick will eat some serious crow. And lastly David Lee is universally praised and yet even he isn't good enough to start on this team. The Knicks probably have the best second unit in the league, a group that brings a high voltage change of pace that is completely different from the Knicks bread-and-butter inside game.

The rest of the team is a functional mix of players including Mardy Collins, rookie Wilson Chandler, Fred Jones, Malik Rose, Jared Jefferies, and some guy named Jerome James... lets just pretend James isn't on the team, its better for everyone that way.

Achilles Heel:

• Jared Jeffries (q)
• Quentin Richardson (d)
• Jared Jefferies (j)

Unsung Hero:

• Renaldo Balkman (q)
• Fred Jones (d)
• Jamal Crawford (j)

Bold Prediction:

• Spike Lee, fed up with the Knicks play of late, sells his season tickets. It isn't until it's too late that he realizes that he's been watching the New York Liberty play. (q)
• Tragedy strikes the Knicks when Nate Robinson is captured by Azrael and Gargamel uses him for a magic potion to make gold. (d)
• The Knicks drop the appeal of the Anucha Brown Sanders verdict and decide to pay her double the 11.6 million dollar figure if she agrees to replace Jerome James on the roster. (j)

Favorite Moment:

• In a tie game against the Nuggets with 28 seconds left, Jamal Crawford dribbles out the shot clock. With nine seconds to go, he gets caught in the air and his pass is easily picked off. With several Nuggets down the court, Najera attempts to pass it down for the winning points. Crawford swats the pass, grabs the ball, and with plenty of time for a closer shot, he shoots and makes a desperation three. (q)
• David Lee goes 14 for 14 from the field in the Rookie-Sophomore game. (d)
• In a tie game at Denver Jamal Crawford begins a wild sequence by throwing an errant pass directly to a defender, stealing the outlet pass, and launching a three-pointer while falling to give the Knicks the lead with less than four seconds left. Gus Johnson, calling the game, flipped his lid. (j)