Watching The Knicks Is Difficult
(Note -- This was written a week ago. Since then the Knicks have had one good game and one poor one -- In the first, Toney Douglas was the hero; in the second, the goat -- even though he scored twenty-six points.)
I watched the Boston Celtics annihilate the New York Knickerbockers tonight. While the final score of 109-97 may give people reading the box score tomorrow morning the impression that it was a close game, it was far from that. The Celtics led by as many as 24 during the game and the score was only narrowed during “garbage time” (the time after the game is decided when the winning team “clears the bench” to let the little-used substitutes get some game-time).
I started following the Knicks in the years when they played such as the Minneapolis Lakers for the NBA Championship (that’s right – the Minneapolis Lakers – the precursor to the NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers). They never won the championship but they were good. Under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Joe Lapchick, their players, such as Dick McGuire, Vince Boyala, Carl Braun, Harry Gallatin, Max Zaslofsky, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, turned in quality performances every night.
After the Lapchick years, it was slow descendance to mediocrity with Richie Guerin and Willie Naulis serving as the only real stars until the advent of Red Holzman as the team’s coach. Under Hotzman, the team won its only NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973 with possibly the smartest team that ever played together (the only rivals for that appellation would be some Celtic teams) with Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBuscheure, Dick Barnett, Earl Monroe, Jerry Lucas, and the present coach of the LA Lakers, Phil Jackson, forming a strong nucleus.
From the glory days, it was downhill again. Players such as Bernard King and Michael Ray Richardson brought glimmers of hope but the teams were poor for years and stayed that way until the arrival in town of Pat Riley to bring respectability back to “the World’s Most Famous Arena,” Madison Square Garden. Riley’s teams with Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, and John Starks brought a toughness never seen before or since in Knickerbocker teams. Like the Lapchick teams, Riley’s Knicks made it to the NBA Championship Finals but could not “close the deal.”
After Riley, the team started again on the downhill slide until, under Isiah Thomas, it reached rock bottom with awful teams and a “salary cap” problem. When team owner Jim Dolan finally removed Thomas and brought in ex-Indiana Pacer president Donnie Walsh to run the team, things looked more promising. Walsh hired ex-Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni, known primarily for his “run-n’-gun” offense and began to reshape the team roster to get under that salary cap (getting under the salary gap was imperative if the Knicks were to have a chance at signing upcoming free agents such as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, or Rudy Gay).
Walsh has been very successful at re-shaping the team and seems to have amassed what should be a talented roster – All Star Center David Lee, Future Hall-of-Famer Tracy McGrady, young and promising Wilson Chandler, Billy Walker, Toney Douglas & Danilo Gallinari, and the high scoring Al Harrington. Yet, the team’s play is terribly erratic. When one is about to give up all hope, a ray comes through as the Knicks put together back-to-back wins – but, then, comes tonight’s debacle.
Pundits give a number of possible reasons for the poor play:
• D’Antoni has never stressed defense (as Holtzman and Riley did) and, unless the Knicks score a lot of points, they can’t win.
• The constant roster shuffling has made it difficult for the team to establish continuity.
• David Lee, although an All-Star and a quality player, is overmatched in size against most NBA centers and is not the shot blocker that a poor defensive team needs.
• Tracy McGrady, coming off inaction due to knee surgery, is only a shadow of his former self.
• The knowledge by most of the players that they probably won’t be back next year (only Chandler, Gallinari, and Douglas are under contract for 2010-2011), as the team looks to bring in some of the high level free agents, has to cause some morale problems and the temptation to play only for personal statistics.
• An apparent on-going lack of communication between D’Antoni and many of his players (the most reported examples of this have been with Harrington, the since-traded Nate Robinson, and the always injured Eddie Curry).
All of the above certainly play into such disasters as tonight’s game but they cannot be the sole reasons. At times, the ineptness seems to come from a lack of fundamentals and any cohesiveness – balls thrown away, silly infractions, bad fouls, etc. – things that good teams do not do.
If the team does dramatically upgrade the roster over the off-season, the frustration of this year may have been worth it. If, however, the ineptness of this season carries over into next, I don’t think the fans will tolerate it. After the terrible Thomas years, the fans have given the new regime a two-year pass. The pass is about to run out and, if significant upgrades are not made, the so-called “World’s Most Famous Arena” may have a lot of empty seats in 2010-2011.
I watched the Boston Celtics annihilate the New York Knickerbockers tonight. While the final score of 109-97 may give people reading the box score tomorrow morning the impression that it was a close game, it was far from that. The Celtics led by as many as 24 during the game and the score was only narrowed during “garbage time” (the time after the game is decided when the winning team “clears the bench” to let the little-used substitutes get some game-time).
I started following the Knicks in the years when they played such as the Minneapolis Lakers for the NBA Championship (that’s right – the Minneapolis Lakers – the precursor to the NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers). They never won the championship but they were good. Under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Joe Lapchick, their players, such as Dick McGuire, Vince Boyala, Carl Braun, Harry Gallatin, Max Zaslofsky, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, turned in quality performances every night.
After the Lapchick years, it was slow descendance to mediocrity with Richie Guerin and Willie Naulis serving as the only real stars until the advent of Red Holzman as the team’s coach. Under Hotzman, the team won its only NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973 with possibly the smartest team that ever played together (the only rivals for that appellation would be some Celtic teams) with Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBuscheure, Dick Barnett, Earl Monroe, Jerry Lucas, and the present coach of the LA Lakers, Phil Jackson, forming a strong nucleus.
From the glory days, it was downhill again. Players such as Bernard King and Michael Ray Richardson brought glimmers of hope but the teams were poor for years and stayed that way until the arrival in town of Pat Riley to bring respectability back to “the World’s Most Famous Arena,” Madison Square Garden. Riley’s teams with Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, and John Starks brought a toughness never seen before or since in Knickerbocker teams. Like the Lapchick teams, Riley’s Knicks made it to the NBA Championship Finals but could not “close the deal.”
After Riley, the team started again on the downhill slide until, under Isiah Thomas, it reached rock bottom with awful teams and a “salary cap” problem. When team owner Jim Dolan finally removed Thomas and brought in ex-Indiana Pacer president Donnie Walsh to run the team, things looked more promising. Walsh hired ex-Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni, known primarily for his “run-n’-gun” offense and began to reshape the team roster to get under that salary cap (getting under the salary gap was imperative if the Knicks were to have a chance at signing upcoming free agents such as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, or Rudy Gay).
Walsh has been very successful at re-shaping the team and seems to have amassed what should be a talented roster – All Star Center David Lee, Future Hall-of-Famer Tracy McGrady, young and promising Wilson Chandler, Billy Walker, Toney Douglas & Danilo Gallinari, and the high scoring Al Harrington. Yet, the team’s play is terribly erratic. When one is about to give up all hope, a ray comes through as the Knicks put together back-to-back wins – but, then, comes tonight’s debacle.
Pundits give a number of possible reasons for the poor play:
• D’Antoni has never stressed defense (as Holtzman and Riley did) and, unless the Knicks score a lot of points, they can’t win.
• The constant roster shuffling has made it difficult for the team to establish continuity.
• David Lee, although an All-Star and a quality player, is overmatched in size against most NBA centers and is not the shot blocker that a poor defensive team needs.
• Tracy McGrady, coming off inaction due to knee surgery, is only a shadow of his former self.
• The knowledge by most of the players that they probably won’t be back next year (only Chandler, Gallinari, and Douglas are under contract for 2010-2011), as the team looks to bring in some of the high level free agents, has to cause some morale problems and the temptation to play only for personal statistics.
• An apparent on-going lack of communication between D’Antoni and many of his players (the most reported examples of this have been with Harrington, the since-traded Nate Robinson, and the always injured Eddie Curry).
All of the above certainly play into such disasters as tonight’s game but they cannot be the sole reasons. At times, the ineptness seems to come from a lack of fundamentals and any cohesiveness – balls thrown away, silly infractions, bad fouls, etc. – things that good teams do not do.
If the team does dramatically upgrade the roster over the off-season, the frustration of this year may have been worth it. If, however, the ineptness of this season carries over into next, I don’t think the fans will tolerate it. After the terrible Thomas years, the fans have given the new regime a two-year pass. The pass is about to run out and, if significant upgrades are not made, the so-called “World’s Most Famous Arena” may have a lot of empty seats in 2010-2011.
posted by johnmac at
4:51 PM
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