2015 Knicks Pre-season preview

[tiger0330]

Another Knicks season begins Tuesday Sep. 29 with the Knicks beginning training camp in West Point, NY. We've got 15 guaranteed contracts with the guys pictured above so there should be no surprises with the beginning season's roster. The Knicks do have a few training camp invites, they are Darion Atkins, Wes Saunders, Dejuan Summers and Travis Rice but they have little chance to make the team with the 15 guaranteed contracts so they'll be auditioning for other teams or for spots on the Knicks D-League team.

Despite the Knicks having spent almost $30M in FA, Phil Jackson and the Knicks go into the season with a lot of question marks and doubts about how well they'll do this season with this completely reconstructed roster from the start of the Phil Jackson era that PJ has put together. I said it a couple of months ago during the Knicks FA that this is Phils team now and we'll see if a requirement to win is that you have to be a model citizen to win in the NBA (not JR and Shump), this is a sentiment I often see written in the media headlines these days is that for better or worse, this is PJ's hand picked team of uncontroversial team players. I still see optimism from the blogs I've been reading about this bunch that goes counter to the ESPN and Bleacher Reports predictions that predict the Knicks win less than 30 games and I guess that's the definition of a fan that you think your home team is going to do better than expected.

But take this into consideration, the Knicks have 4 players that have been starters on NBA rosters, Affalo, Calderon, Lopez and Melo and Calderon would not start for any team in the NBA now, Lopez is just coming into his own but has not proven to be a force on the offensive side of the ball so you have Melo coming off of knee surgery and Affalo with questions about deteriorating skills coming from Denver and Portland. ESPN also ranked the 400 best players in the NBA and the Knicks were well represented in the bottom 200 with 5 players in the bottom 100 and 4 players ranked between 200-300, that's 9 players ranked in the bottom 200 so unless the ESPN rankings are egregiously wrong and the Knicks find some magic in chemistry I don't see the Knicks coming out of nowhere to win anymore than 35 games.

Despite my doubts, I will be happy as hell if the Knicks exceed expectations and I'll gladly eat crow if the Knicks make the playoffs even if they do it with a less than .500 record in a weak EC.

 

[Kiyaman]

No matter how u look at the Knicks above 15 man roster in strength, and weakness .. the Knicks success will all depend on coach Derek Fisher coaching ability to get six to nine of the 15 guaranteed players following his lead on offense/defense in Phil Jackson "Try-Angle-Offense".

Will the Knicks move the ball in a fast-pace offense or a slow-pace offense?
Or will Knicks move the ball both ways throughout each game?
Will the 15 guaranteed contracts players give the Knicks a full depth rotation to stay above or close to a .500 season?

I seen this article ...
Phil Jackson Says Carmelo Anthony May See Time At Power Forward

It didn’t take long for New York Knicks president Phil Jackson to talk about how the team may operate differently on both ends of the floor this season.
The most interesting tidbit of information Jackson dropped at the team’s media day on Friday is that Carmelo Anthony may see more time at the power forward spot this season, as reported by ESPN.com’s Ian Begley.
While speaking with the media, Jackson approached the idea of moving Anthony around the floor in order to give the team a different look on offense, all thanks to the team’s signing of center Robin Lopez.
With that being said, Jackson didn’t confirm Anthony’s primary position, as that has yet to be determined. In terms of what will allow Anthony to switch between small and power forward, it will all be based on the matchups the team sees.
The real question is do the Knicks have an advantage with playing Anthony at a bigger position?

What do u think?
Other than the Atlantic Division, what other division does the Knicks have the paint advantage by putting Melo at PF position?

 

[tiger0330]

That's PJ glorifying himself. Melo played PF the majority of the time in the 2013-2014 campaign and had a PER of .28 well above average for a PF and I think averaged over 8rbs that season. He's proven he's effective playing the 4 well before PJ or Lopez ever got here. The league has also gone to playing small ball and guys like Melo playing the 4 is becoming more widely used and I don't see that changing with the success GS had in the finals benching Bogut and going small.

The triangle is another interesting theme for the coming season. Last year the team struggled mastering it and imo contributed to the Knicks woes last year. I think there will be a less rigorous implementation of it this year but there are many new players so struggling with any system could be expected.

The key is the defense, I'm looking for immediate improvement in protecting the paint and improved perimeter defense that limits 3 pt scoring with this new group.

 

[tiger0330]

Off topic I started posting on NYKFP because the activity on KOL has been nil. Too bad and I hope this changes because this is still the best technical bbs around. For example, I couldn't post 2 images in a post over there, I only got one image and the link over at that BBS and posting Tweets here at KOL is a breeze with Rady's support doing coding for things like that. This site could be so much better with an admin like Rady and it's a shame but with the diminishing activity here I could see KOL going away soon.

 

[Weissenberg]

I think the reason behind the drop in forums activity is simply the fact that the Knicks were tanking the last season. The moves that PJ made in the offseason were nothing to get hyped about either, so I'm not surprised many regular posters lost interest in checking out the forums. On the other hand I'm really hyped about this season even though I don't recognize the majority of the Knicks roster.

 

[tiger0330]

I think the reason behind the drop in forums activity is simply the fact that the Knicks were tanking the last season. The moves that PJ made in the offseason were nothing to get hyped about either, so I'm not surprised many regular posters lost interest in checking out the forums. On the other hand I'm really hyped about this season even though I don't recognize the majority of the Knicks roster.

Good seeing you post Weissenberg. I think you are somewhat right, the Knicks poor play hasn't affected attendance at the games much but participation on Knicks web sites is down. I see Crazy 8's website has been shut down, I respected the work he put in as a member when he was here and if a guy like that couldn't make a go of his OBGlobal web site it speaks to the lack of interest in the Knicks.

Seeing you post makes me wonder what happened to Rady, I don't think he's posted anything since last year here.

 

[Broadway]

Good seeing you post Weissenberg. I think you are somewhat right, the Knicks poor play hasn't affected attendance at the games much but participation on Knicks web sites is down. I see Crazy 8's website has been shut down, I respected the work he put in as a member when he was here and if a guy like that couldn't make a go of his OBGlobal web site it speaks to the lack of interest in the Knicks.

Seeing you post makes me wonder what happened to Rady, I don't think he's posted anything since last year here.

I'm still around and I check in but just because the scoreboard says 0-0 sorry not hyped at all about this roster. I am excited about the league overall and the new blood entering this season. I think this draft class is going to be special. With Melo talking about playing the 4 and the way Phil constructed this roster and KPs passive personality with his place in this organization and impact overall, there's not too much to be giddy over other than the fact once again the scoreboard says 0-0. Our fanbase tends to frontrun more so than anything else. We'll be slightly better but not by much, the league got so much better through and through.

 

[tiger0330]

I'm still around and I check in but just because the scoreboard says 0-0 sorry not hyped at all about this roster. I am excited about the league overall and the new blood entering this draft. I think this draft class is going to be special. With Melo talking about playing the 4 and the way Phil constructed this roster and KPs passive personality with his place in this organization and impact overall, there's not too much to be giddy over other than the fact once again the scoreboard says 0-0. Our fanbase tends to frontrun more so than anything else. We'll be slightly better but not by much, the league got so much better through and through.

The mystery that is the Knicks is the most intriguing thing about the team. Even PJ, DFish and Melo don't have a clue how this team is going to do thus no predictions. I'll be surprised if they are any better than a bottom 10 team in scoring but there's no reason they should be a bottom 10 team defending esp. since the guys that PJ got were meant to shore up the defense. I really don't want to hear any excuses about you have to give the team time to gel after last season either, come out of the gate strong with hustle and effort and win some games from the get go.

 

[Kiyaman]

That's PJ glorifying himself. Melo played PF the majority of the time in the 2013-2014 campaign and had a PER of .28 well above average for a PF and I think averaged over 8rbs that season. He's proven he's effective playing the 4 well before PJ or Lopez ever got here. The league has also gone to playing small ball and guys like Melo playing the 4 is becoming more widely used and I don't see that changing with the success GS had in the finals benching Bogut and going small.

The triangle is another interesting theme for the coming season. Last year the team struggled mastering it and imo contributed to the Knicks woes last year. I think there will be a less rigorous implementation of it this year but there are many new players so struggling with any system could be expected.

The key is the defense, I'm looking for immediate improvement in protecting the paint and improved perimeter defense that limits 3 pt scoring with this new group.

The key will be defense, we need to stop opponents inside scoring to produce more wins than losses.
The success of Phil Jackson's Triangle-Offense system always start from a strong DEFENSE!
I rather Knicks opponents receive 70% of their made shots from the perimeter than inside-scoring.

The Knicks could use the type of defensive players it had on the roster in the 2012-13 season to win if Phil Jackson is going to let Melo play at the PF position.
We had a Defensive Guards rotation of Kidd, Brewer, Shump, Prigioni
And we had crazy depth from five defensive C/F BIGS Tyson, Camby, Kurt, Rasheed, and Kenyon Martin.
Carmelo Anthony had one role in the 2012-13 season .. The team high-scorer
Melo played 40 minutes a night, shooting 23 shots per game throughout the regular season.
The average minutes for a PF are 28 to 30 minute per game, because of fouls n bruises protecting the paint.

 

[Kiyaman]

I'm still around and I check in but just because the scoreboard says 0-0 sorry not hyped at all about this roster. I am excited about the league overall and the new blood entering this season. I think this draft class is going to be special. With Melo talking about playing the 4 and the way Phil constructed this roster and KPs passive personality with his place in this organization and impact overall, there's not too much to be giddy over other than the fact once again the scoreboard says 0-0. Our fanbase tends to frontrun more so than anything else. We'll be slightly better but not by much, the league got so much better through and through.

You still around bc u r a Knick fan .. plus u want to see if PJ selection of defensive-players in the offseason could win off of defense.
I don't see much defense by putting a (35 minute) Melo at the PF spot.

The Eastern conference still looks WEAK when u compare it to the Western conference blockbusters Spurs, Clippers, GS, Rockets, Grizz, and Thunder

 

[donchris]

Thinking back to last summer, I remember saying that the young players ran the triangle better than the starters did throughout the season. If you look on Youtube to see how the triangle is ran you'll notice that often the Knicks didn't run anything that even closely resembled the triangle offense. Instead players like JR Smith, Carmelo and Shmpert were forced to play a system that they didn't know, didn't understand and were not entirely interested in playing in.

Now we've got a ton of young players. The Knicks might be one of the youngest teams in the league. There are major pros and major cons to this. Inexperience is the biggiest cons. The pro is that the players are eager to learn and they seem to want to be here, so chemistry will be better.

With all that being said, I don't expect immediate results or a playoff birth. We're in the rebuilding stages now but we've taken a very important and good first step in acquiring the players we now have. If we stay at this level for the next two or three years I'd be fine with it, just as long as we develop players and acquire assets. Make trades that include future draft picks and become a more balanced team. No more quick fixes for a false championship dream.

 

[DontForgetDerekHarper]

44-38

and i am pumped about our off season moves


we finally got youthful prospects worth getting excited about

and a plethora of bodies that are willing to defend, block shots, set hard screens and bang down low

if melo can stay healthy, and if prizinger can give us 8-12 ppg

we will be a top 6 team in the east.

 

[htr10]

Only another week until we start having some preseason games. I'm very excited to start watching basketball on a regular basis again, even if I have tempered expectations at best for this season for us. News from training camp that I've read, as you would expect, is all about Porzingis' physicality, Melo's health, and Coach Fisher's attempts to be an independent entity from PJ. So far everyone seems to be saying the right thing and we have reason to be at least a little optimistic this season may be a new start for us in several ways.

 

[tiger0330]

44-38

and i am pumped about our off season moves


we finally got youthful prospects worth getting excited about

and a plethora of bodies that are willing to defend, block shots, set hard screens and bang down low

if melo can stay healthy, and if prizinger can give us 8-12 ppg

we will be a top 6 team in the east.

You left out rebounding, I guess you know Rolo was ranked 68th per 48mins in rebounding. Decent offensive rebounder but him and Zinger are going to get killed on the boards when they're paired together.

 

[Broadway]

You still around bc u r a Knick fan .. plus u want to see if PJ selection of defensive-players in the offseason could win off of defense.
I don't see much defense by putting a (35 minute) Melo at the PF spot.

The Eastern conference still looks WEAK when u compare it to the Western conference blockbusters Spurs, Clippers, GS, Rockets, Grizz, and Thunder

I don't look at the league talent comparing conferences. I strictly look at offseason additions in comparison to where each team was last year to this yr and ask myself an honest question....did each team improve and if so to what extent. I also don't look at our team in vacuum not considering much of what took place with other teams...I'll leave that for the HOMERS/LOVERS to do.

Having Melo here will always make it tough to be optimistic, for me that is. If our young players grow up really fast getting real opportunities from coach Fisher...cough I mean coach Phil there's a small chance we surprise but as currently constructed we're winning around 28, 29, games this year.

 

[Weissenberg]

Good seeing you post Weissenberg. I think you are somewhat right, the Knicks poor play hasn't affected attendance at the games much but participation on Knicks web sites is down. I see Crazy 8's website has been shut down, I respected the work he put in as a member when he was here and if a guy like that couldn't make a go of his OBGlobal web site it speaks to the lack of interest in the Knicks.

Seeing you post makes me wonder what happened to Rady, I don't think he's posted anything since last year here.

Weird, I was hanging out with CoolClyde a few months back and from what he said it seemed Crazy 8's board is rather active. Anyway, I can talk to Rady to see what's up, haven't heard from him in a while. Would be pretty cool if we got KOL going again.

edit: talked to Rady, he's motivated to get back to business. He's planning to launch the beta version of the new KOL website before the season starts.

 

[tiger0330]

Weird, I was hanging out with CoolClyde a few months back and from what he said it seemed Crazy 8's board is rather active. Anyway, I can talk to Rady to see what's up, haven't heard from him in a while. Would be pretty cool if we got KOL going again.

edit: talked to Rady, he's motivated to get back to business. He's planning to launch the beta version of the new KOL website before the season starts.

That's good news about the new beta version. The site needs more videos and pics, more news both NBA and Knicks, has to be a way to get automated news updates and tweets, maybe a member area with 1GB of cloud storage so members can have an area to keep videos and personal files. Maybe have a twitter channel with all the guys that follow the NBA, twitter seems to be the vehicle people get out breaking news. I log into twitter when I remember but if Rady could have twitter channel running that you click on in KOL I wouldn't have to login. KOL is an underrated web site, I can actually copy and paste an image directly into a post on KOL rather than having to have a url like on most web sites.

 

[Broadway]

That's good news about the new beta version. The site needs more videos and pics, more news both NBA and Knicks, has to be a way to get automated news updates and tweets, maybe a member area with 1GB of cloud storage so members can have an area to keep videos and personal files. Maybe have a twitter channel with all the guys that follow the NBA, twitter seems to be the vehicle people get out breaking news. I log into twitter when I remember but if Rady could have twitter channel running that you click on in KOL I wouldn't have to login. KOL is an underrated web site, I can actually copy and paste an image directly into a post on KOL rather than having to have a url like on most web sites.

Yeah I don't mind posting here at all, but we could use many of the added features you mentioned and I'll add Vine and maybe Instagram imbedded app to the site. Twitter is as you said News Machine...so having a live Twitter TL either on the side or tickering at the bottom would be kick butt. Will welcome the presence of Clyde and Rady anytime. I'll send a flyer to my guy TKF too and get him back on here. He's been busy lately but he'll contribute

 

[nixon7]

I may be being naive, but I am more excited about this team right now than I have been since the 54-win season.

While they may start out the season slow, given all the new faces, I really like the workman like role players they have acquired, the future prospects of the rookies and the other acquisitions. Will every gamble pay off? Probably not, but if only a handful of them exceed expectations, then there is legitimate reason to be excited, even beyond my delusional fandom.

I also like that Fish reached out to Jackson for more help, and that the new players seem to genuinely like playing for him.

Regardless of the early record, if they become a top-10 defensive team and the offense is a work in progress, I will still be happy. Happier than last year for sure, but happier than even the 54-win season, because unlike that season, they will be able to build upon this year in coming years, because they are mostly a young team now.

 

[tiger0330]

I may be being naive, but I am more excited about this team right now than I have been since the 54-win season.

While they may start out the season slow, given all the new faces, I really like the workman like role players they have acquired, the future prospects of the rookies and the other acquisitions. Will every gamble pay off? Probably not, but if only a handful of them exceed expectations, then there is legitimate reason to be excited, even beyond my delusional fandom.

I also like that Fish reached out to Jackson for more help, and that the new players seem to genuinely like playing for him.

Regardless of the early record, if they become a top-10 defensive team and the offense is a work in progress, I will still be happy, happier than last year for sure, but happier than even the 54-win season, because unlike that season, they will be able to build upon this year in coming years.

I see DFish answered some reporters question that he's the coach of the team not PJ so we'll see how far this goes. I am hoping he comes out of training camp with a starting lineup and rotations because his 36 starting lineups last season contributed to the abysmal record. I'd rather see him stick with a fixed starting lineup and make adjustments in minutes with the 2nd unit ie start Rolo at the 5 and if he's not rebounding, trim his minutes and give someone like Seraphin or O'Quinn more minutes if they're rebounding better.

We'll see about whether PJ can build with this team he's assembled, Zinger and Grant haven't done anything yet. Grant was projected as an NBA backup before the draft so we'll see if he can displace Calderon who I expect to start. Zinger has shown he's got a great personality but hasn't proved anything yet. Affalo and DWill are on essentially 1 year deals and may not be here next year esp if the Knicks have another miserable season. I see a lot of people have so much faith in O'Quinn but why would a bad team like Orlando give up on a restricted FA O'Quinn for a 4M contract if he was a world beating talent. Effort is good but Talent and Effort is 10 times better in the NBA.