I wish these NBA previews will be useful for your analysis for this NBA season. Feel free to comment and to share your thoughts with me! I will also later announce my plans and goals for my NBA season. Stay tune!
The Knicks are not thinking about this season, in fact they would
rather prefer to skip this season and immediately go to the summer of
2010. I'm not developing the Lebron James' soap in here (we are already
tired of hearing that and we're still one year far from that), but the
Knicks' plans are to collect two big fishes in the off season, however
GM Donnie Walsh will need to be more persuasive than he was in this off
season. I remember that the Knicks made a big push to sign free-agents
Jason Kidd and Grant Hill, but both decided to stay in their teams.
Then the Knicks flirted with Andre Miller, but Miller decided to sign
with Portland. Later, Walsh began the conversations with restricted FA
Ramon Sessions, but Sessions ended up signing an offer sheet from
Minnesota, so the Knicks have only in Darko Milicic (besides their
draft picks) their new addition and that is not good news for a team
that ended up last season with a 32-50 record and wants to have a
better season this year.
At least the Knicks were fun to watch, as they averaged over 105
points per game last season - only the Lakers, Warriors and Suns scored
more. New York also attempted a league-high 27.9 three-pointers each
night, but connected only 36% of them. They had 3 different 6-game
losing streaks in December, February and March that hurt them, but they
finished the season just seven games out of the playoffs.
It might sound a bit strange, but the Knicks' most important player
going into this season is Eddy Curry. We all know that the Knicks will
attack in the 2010 off season, but let's not forget that Curry is owed
$11,276,863.00 for the 2010-2011 season and this instantly hurts
Walsh's strategy. So Eddy Curry will need to bounce back from his
inconsistent career to became a vital piece for the Knicks future
because having an $11M albatross in their budget will not help them at
all to pursue the biggest stars in this league. The Knicks need Curry
to come into camp in shape (apparently Curry had weighed in at 317
pounds before the beginning of the training camp, which is about 40
pounds less than the nearly 360 he was tipping the scales at last year)
and start playing some minutes and having some production. Honestly, I
don't believe that in case he's playing well this season, a other team
will show interest in him and would be willing to trade for him due to
his problematic antics outside the court, but at least he can be a
serviceable center for the Knicks and play for some of the money that
he is currently earning.
Besides this problematic issue for the Knicks, the roster remains
practically the same as last season and this isn't good news for the
team. Mike D'Antoni's run and gun system requires their point guard to
be a true playmaker who makes smart decisions in running fast
defense-offense transitions. GM Donnie Walsh signed Chris Duhon last
year and Duhon had a solid season, but at the same he showed as well
that he cannot run the "show" alone in an 82-game marathon race. Over
the first 50 games of the season, Duhon averaged 12.5 points and 8
assists, but in the last 2 months of the competition Duhon slowed down
considerably averaging less than 9 points and only 5 assists per
contest. He simply can't be on the floor for almost 40 minutes per game
and that was the problem for him last season. The problem is that the
Knicks didn't solve this problematic, as they will only have Nate
Robinson and Gabe Pruitt as his backups, but neither are pure point
guards.
Nate Robinson is coming from a productive season, but it wasn't
enough for him to earn a long term contract. Donnie Walsh offered him
just a one season contract and Nate will have to prove that he belongs
inside the future of this franchise. However I can't ignore that
despite averaging 17.2 points per game, he attempted 13.9 shots per
game in just 29.9 minutes per contest! In other words, Nate can't carry
this team in his shoulders because he isn't a first pass player, rather
he prefers to shoot the ball. (Unless Gabe Pruitt shows a huge
improvement in this season, he will have a residual role in this
season.)
With a similar contract (one year deal), David Lee will have to
prove that he can help the team in the future. He is coming from a
career season with 16 points per game, while shooting 54.9 % (seventh
best in the league) and averaged 11.7 rebounds per game - third in the
NBA. He also led the NBA in double-doubles and during the season, he
accomplished 24 consecutive double-doubles. However, we cannot forget
he benefited from playing in Mike D'Antoni's free-wheeling offense that
boosts the overall stats for their players. Lee was the only player in
the past that did put some hustle and heart on the court for the
Knicks, but he still broke down many times defensively and he needs to
improve on his toughness.
For the center position, the Knicks signed free agent Darko
Milicic, whose career is known for being drafted before Dwayne Wade,
Chris Bosh or Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 draft but he is still a
decent player. This will be likely his last chance in the NBA to do
something useful. D'Antoni's offensive system will help him to put some
numbers in the scoreboard, but the Knicks are thinking more on his
supposedly defensive toughness than in his ability to score. The Knicks
drafted Jordan Hill (8th overall pick) and he has a legit NBA length
and has a solid frame to begin with, so he should adapt quickly to the
NBA. However, during summer league action in Las Vegas, he tended to
fade away from the basket firing jump shots, instead of going straight
up and drawing contact. The Knicks need badly to score easy points down
low and Hill has the potential to be one of those needed players, but
he needs to redefine his style.
The Knicks' leading scorer last season was Al Harrington. He played
68 games, averaging 20.7 points with 6.3 rebounds, but he fired away
16.8 shots per game (career high) and we are talking about a one
dimensional player. He simply can't defend his opponent and like Nate
Robinson, he is a player that constantly takes bad shots and makes
silly plays. I remember that last season the Knicks lost two games
against the Clippers thanks in part to a bizarre technical foul in the
last seconds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F32IdR62aI).
Only two players have their future locked in the Knicks
organization: Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. Chandler enjoyed a
solid season last year, despite being only his second season and he is
only 21 years. Chandler averaged 14.4 points and 5.4 boards, but lacked
consistency. He shot 47.6 % from the field in April, but only 38.5 % in
December, so the next step for him is to be consistent and productive
the whole season. Meanwhile, Danilo Gallinari didn't have many
opportunities last season due to back problems and played only 28
games, averaging just 14.8 minutes per game. His style is pretty
similar to Hedo Turkoglu, as he has good size (6-10), possess good
vision on the court (he may turn into a valuable point forward player
for the Knicks) and has a solid jump shot. However he needs first to be
100% healthy and then to compete against more physical players than him
in this league. This is going to be a pivotal season in his developing,
because the Knicks have a short rotation and he will get plenty of
minutes to play.
Finally the Knicks have in Larry Hughes their last dispensable
piece of their roster. Hughes is playing his last year of a lucrative
contract and surely the Knicks won't count on him in the future.
However Hughes needs to prove to other's teams that he can be a
valuable player and this will work favorably for the Knicks.
The Knicks will have their chances to fight for the playoffs this
season, because the Eastern Conference is plenty of contenders in the
bottom, but for a team that runs a run and gun system, they don't have
the properly offensive talent to handle their defensive weaknesses.