Well, it's been quite some time since the last entry on the blog. The season is now over, the playoffs are having their fun without us and the offseason talk is not far away. I would have loved a playoff seed for us, even though 3 of the 4 matchups resulted in sweeps, i think with a little luck, we might have won at least one game. It's been some time since the last one, huh? 2001.. that's over 6 years of suffering and a tragic 0-4 playoff record.
Now, many people blame Dolan for extending Isiah's contract after the win against the Wizards, at 29-34. Can't say that was a smart move by Jimmy, especially if you look at the post extension record: 4-15. Awfull. But let's think this through a bit. Without wanting to have Isiah's back, i cannot be that blind and not see all the injuries that hit us in the last month.
I should start with David Lee, who has been terrific all year long and became a fan-favorite sooner than anyone imagined. His great defense made him one of the top rebounders in the league and his scoring wasn't bad at all. He had double-doubles in 29 games, plus an MVP award in the rookie challenge at the all star game. He missed 24 of the last 28 games.
After a weaker start, Stephon Marbury finally stepped up and played as he once used to. He was one of Knicks' best players this season. He got injured at the Wolves game and missed the last 7 games.
Steve Francis was sidelined for almost half of the season. Ok, i know people didn't expect much from him, but he did had some good games and who knows how many other he would have had, if he could have played the rest of those 38 games.
33 is the number of games Quentin Richardson was out. Nobody can deny the fact that while he was healthy, he played damn good, unlike under Brown when probably the tragic loss of his brother was still haunting him.
Since the february 26th game against the Heat, Jamal Crawford has played only one minute, in the last game at the Garden against the Nets. That's 23 games for him too.
I won't count Frye's 10 absences from mid-season because he was pretty much a dissapointment for many fans. Same with Jeffries, who started to play only in mid-december but he was mostly a ghost.
That leaves Eddy Curry, Nate Robinson (who also missed 18 games), Renaldo Balkman (absent as well in the last 6 games), Mardy Collins (who still needs experience), Malik Rose and some other guys to make a competitive team. Even if your name is Red Holzman, you probably still couldn't have done a better job and take the Knicks into the playoffs..
What can we expect in 2007/08? I don't know, the most important thing is to get a healthy team. If we have that, there's no doubt the end of the season would be much happier then the current one. Add a significant trade, maybe two and the success would be guarenteed.
That's all for now. Don't really feel like blogging.
