Season 2006/2007

Record 33-49

Knicks didn’t surprise anyone. Everything happened just like most had expected – Marbury and Francis’ game didn’t go together, team had no defense. Fry’s injury opened gave more playing time to second year player David Lee, but he himself went down in February. On the positive side I should mention good offensive game from Eddie Curry and some sporadic signs of life from Quentin Richardson.

Offseason

Draft

Wilson Chandler. Another representative of ever popular in the NBA SF/PF mix. Obviously Knicks would love to see Chandler growing into a player similar to Bulls’ Tyrus Thomas, but this could be a long shot.
Jared Jordan. He led NCAA in assists during the past two seasons. He is short and not really fast. He’s not a scorer. Seeing the court and passing skills are his only trump cards. He’s not ready to defend against NBA players. If he makes it to the team, he’s most likely looking to play in some garbage time.

Key Trades

Acquired: Zach Randolph. Very gifted offensively, solid rebounder, not known for his defense and with damaged reputation. He’s going to have hard time maintaining his scoring average from Portland, but it is not a reason to say that Isaiah has made yet another bad move. Randolph is a very stable and solid player. He will have a noticeable impact on the Knicks’ frontcourt. In Portland Randolph was the first, and with Roy’s injury the only option on the offense. Knicks’ roster is set differently. He is probably going to be asked to move a bit further from the basket to give space to Eddie Curry to operate. He’s going to have to pass the ball more (not sure how this one is going to play out) and go after the boards since it is one of the Curry’s shortcomings.
Fred Jones also signed with Knicks and Allan Houston decided to come out of retirement and try to contribute to a team that paid him enormous amount of money for the injury-riddled career.
Left: Steve Francis and his huge contract and Channing Frye in Randolph deal.

Offseason grade: B

Season 2007/2008

Team’s problems:

• absence of defense
• no leader
• environment

• Jeffries and Balkman are solid defenders, but players of this caliber (and probably better) are on the roster of every NBA team. They cant defend for the rest of the guys. Crawford, and more so Marbury are not what you would call “defensive material”. Same thing could be said about Robinson who although being very strong with his size creates a noticeable hole in the defensive backcourt. The same can be said about the shorter guys in the NBA be it Boykins or Robinson, or anybody else. They are going to provide tons of energy, steals, and blocked shots. But they will always struggle in the defensive sets in the NBA where almost every guard has some sort of the back to the basket game. Curry and Randolph are also bad defensive players especially extremely slow and uncoordinated defensively Curry.
• Marbury lost some of his mojo during the last season. He spent game endings on the bench and his influence on the team decreased quite noticeably. There is not really a leadership material candidate on the team’s roster at this time. Curry is not a leader; same can be said for Crawford. The rest are too young and inexperienced. Randolph is a new kid on the block, and he’s not going to lead. Even in Portland he was the best player, but not a leader.
• For several years the teams has been a mess. It is under the enormous amount of stress: fans want wins, media wants Thomas fired, Thomas wants Brown fired, and team owner wants to see something other than huge financial losses. With all of this the team cannot avoid a negative influence on the court.

Looking to the brighter side. Knicks now have a group of very talented players. Isaiah can have a big frontcourt with Lee-Curry-Randolph or go small with Balkman-Richardson and Lee at center. He could play Robinson-Crawford or bring in Marbury-Q-Rich. The only thing they need is to learn to play together.

Knicks bench is set beginning with Jeffries and Balkman all the way to Lee and Robinson. Nate brings enormous energy to the court. Lee is a very good NBA forward.

Note of importance

David Lee. They guy can play 3-4-5; this type of a player can be described as a workhorse. He is truly like that: quiet and never seems to tire out. Put him out there against Shaq – he won’t bend. Ask him to chase after the small forwards – he’ll do everything in his power. This workmanlike attitude and discipline help him to stand out among his teammates. Last season Lee averaged under 30 minutes and still managed to average double-double. Hopefully with the addition of Randolph Lee’s playing time won’t get cut. The team needs this guy.

Bottom Line

The team can’t be eternally unlucky. (I mean look at the Lions). After Randolph joined the team’s frontline it cannot be viewed lightly by any of the NBA teams including NBA elite. Youth will help and Marbury probably still has something left. In the East it could be enough to make playoffs.

Playoffs – prentendent
Championship - no

__________________
I think the Washington Wizards have got to be the dumbest team in the history of civilization. - C.Barkley

Curry and Randolph together seems to me the same problem as Stevie Franchise and Starbury together - they basically play the same position. Randolph has more range than Curry, but for either of them to be effective, either scoring or rebounding, they have to be in the post.

And given that both of them have been blessed with the key attribute of a big man - a big butt, there ain't enough room on that block for both of them.

Maybe Arnie can figure out a way to remove Randolph's butt so then Joe D. could trade Nazr back to the Knicks, where he once played, for Randolph's butt and then Arnie or one of team doctors could surgically implant it on AJ.

This way the Knicks will have one player, Curry, with a big butt and another Nazr with "butt rot" and AJ could back Shaq down? Say what?

Took me a while to draw that whole scheme in my mind.