The 2016-17 Knicks Starter Lineup

Everyone does not believe the Knicks will be a below 40 win team in the 2016-17 season
http://dailyknicks.com/2016/09/05/kn...arting-lineup/
Nice read

Noah vs Lopez ... Joakim Noah Bigman leadership calling-shots in the Chicago Bulls ex-coach Thibs lineup gave the Bulls a successful season throughout coach Thibs era with the Bulls .. I would have like to have both Noah leadership and Lopez athleticism in Knicks uniforms in the 2016-17 season to dominate the eastern conference. Noah advantage over Lopez are Noah's complimentary skills make his teammates skills better.
If Phil Jackson were really looking-out for the NBA growth of 2nd season KP big-man skills, than Phil would have kept Robin Lopez this upcoming season, plus add Joakim Noah to the roster to have a TRIO of big men for the Knicks rotation.

KP vs rookie KP ... rookie KP mid-season performance were the PITS .. everyone blamed coach Rambis.

Carmelo Anthony vs Melo ... Well, the USA Olympic showed Melo need 8 star-role-player teammates in the rotation to be an elite scorer in the 4th quarter of a game.

Lee vs Afflalo ... Lee's athleticism and IQ plays hard on both sides of the court, Lee's skills are 10 times better than Afflalo .. Great addition to the starter lineup.

D.Rose vs Jose Calderon ... A healthy D.Rose could be our first or second option on offense as a Starter/Finisher .. the comparison of a D.Rose exciting skills as a starter PG vs Calderon tier-2 backup PG skills are like a race between a Grey hound dog vs a poodle dog .. not close

Yes our Starter lineup is better than last season ...
The Bench-DEPTH also controls a teams WIN / LOSS record ...

Jeff Van Gundy: Knicks a 50-win team unless Derrick Rose nukes it
By Jonathan Lehman September 23, 2016 | 12:27pm

The Knicks have had just one 50-game winner since Jeff Van Gundy roamed their sideline.
But the former coach-turned-ESPN analyst thinks this season?s dramatically revamped Knicks roster has a good chance to hit that formidable benchmark.
?I think they?re going to be 45 to 50 [wins], low 50s, in that range,? Van Gundy said this week on Stashed Media?s ?33rd and 7th? podcast with Anthony Donahue.
?I certainly believe their starting lineup has the potential to be a 50-game winner, without question.?
Van Gundy ticked off what he called the sure things in that starting lineup: Carmelo Anthony, free-agent additions Joakim Noah and Courtney Lee, and sophomore phenom Kristaps Porzingis, who Van Gundy said is ?set up to be an absolute star.?
What worries him is the bench and the bust potential with point guard Derrick Rose, the former MVP acquired in a blockbuster offseason trade with the Bulls. Rose, who turns 28 in early October, has had a litany of problems with his knees. More troubling, he is the defendant in a civil case, set to go to trial on Oct. 4 in Los Angeles, in which an ex-girlfriend alleges Rose and two friends gang-raped her while she was incapacitated after a night of drinking in 2013. The lawsuit seeks $21.5 million.
?Rose, to me, is the wild card,? Van Gundy said. ?I have no idea what to expect of Rose: health standpoint, game standpoint, fit standpoint and then legal standpoint, how that impacts him. To me, they have a lot of known quantities. The big unknown is Rose.?

Still, Van Gundy concluded he expects Rose to play better than he did last season ? ?and I thought he was pretty good last year.? In 66 games in 2015-16, Rose averaged 16.4 points on 42.7 percent shooting and 4.7 assists.
Van Gundy, who last coached with the Rockets in 2007 and was in the mix for a number of openings (including Houston and Minnesota) this summer, was most effusive in his praise for Porzingis and his ?massive potential.?
?His versatility showed how good he can be and I just loved how he took accountability for his play [last season], good and bad, how he was as a teammate,? Van Gundy said. ?I just love his whole approach, to getting better, to accepting of coaching.?
Jeff Hornacek ? JVG?s review: ?I like his demeanor. I like the fit for New York? ? is the new coach, tasked by Phil Jackson with elevating a brand-new mix of talent back to instant playoff contention.
?Certainly the Knicks are a more interesting team today than they were at any point last year,? Van Gundy said. ?That does not mean necessarily that they?re a better team. I think they will be better. I think they are a playoff team.?
http://nypost.com/2016/09/23/jeff-van-gundy-knicks-a-50-win-team-unless-derrick-rose-nukes-it/

It looks like JVG are putting the Knicks 2016-17 season success on winning 41 to 50 games on Derek Rose performance ..
Is that Good or Bad for us Knicks fans?
I like Derek Rose experience as a starter over Calderon every day of any week .. but Derek Rose performance are not the leadership PG skills like former players Allen Iverson, Billups, or HOF Jason Kidd that carried Melo to have 50 win seasons.
I still feel like Phil Jackson gave the Chicago Bulls the pieces to be a EC contender for the next few seasons for what in return .. a one year contract question mark player Derek Rose? Didn't Phil give the Cavs the missing pieces to be a EC contender for blank-blank in return?

JVG need to take notes from ex-Bulls coach Thibs who had several winning seasons without Derek Rose in the rotation.

Bleacher Report came out with their predictions and has the Knicks winning 37 games and finishing 11th in EC. Wide range of opinions about this team because of the star power of players like Rose, Noah and Melo, if you believe in them you're optimistic but most don't esp. DRose. DRose didn't even make the ESPN top 100 player list this year and neither did Noah and Melo was only ranked the 25th best player.

Knicks pre-season presser with PJ, Mills and Hornacek. Hornacek answered a question of mine whether DRose and Jennings would be on the floor at the same time, Horn seems to like the idea in a small ball lineup with KP at the 5. PJ likes what he sees in Kuz, says he's a good shooter and could play at guard or SF, should help the bench which is one of the question marks for this season.

tiger0330 said:

Bleacher Report came out with their predictions and has the Knicks winning 37 games and finishing 11th in EC. Wide range of opinions about this team because of the star power of players like Rose, Noah and Melo, if you believe in them you're optimistic but most don't esp. DRose. DRose didn't even make the ESPN top 100 player list this year and neither did Noah and Melo was only ranked the 25th best player.

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For what its worth .. i got a little faith in Derek Rose stepping up his game in a Knicks uniform, how much? I cant say.
For the Knicks to win above 41 games .. all Derek Rose has to do are turn his passing game into the famous Knicks Earl the Pearl Monroe to feed Lee/Melo/KP throughout the season, Noah points will come from his offensive rebounding once he learn how his teammates shoot.

Virtually impossible to predict the win number for a team that has a new head coach, 3 new major pieces in its starting lineup, and a 2nd year player who could have a 'bust' sophomore season or a 'bust out' sophomore season. If everything goes right for us, I still don't think we win 50 games, but mid to high 40s seems possible. If one or multiple major things go wrong for us, including this lineup just not being able to play together, we likely won't even hit 37 wins. I'll say this much, I'm glad we're going into this season with our 2017 1st round pick in our own hands just in case a meltdown comes.

htr10 said:

Virtually impossible to predict the win number for a team that has a new head coach, 3 new major pieces in its starting lineup, and a 2nd year player who could have a 'bust' sophomore season or a 'bust out' sophomore season. If everything goes right for us, I still don't think we win 50 games, but mid to high 40s seems possible. If one or multiple major things go wrong for us, including this lineup just not being able to play together, we likely won't even hit 37 wins. I'll say this much, I'm glad we're going into this season with our 2017 1st round pick in our own hands just in case a meltdown comes.

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That's one good thing about PJ and Mills they haven't traded first round picks like all of our past GM's.

I wonder what would constitute enough of a meltdown for PJ to throw in the towel, I'm not buying a 37 win season even if it is an improvement from last year. I'll be calling for PJ's head if the Knicks win less than 40 games and miss the playoffs again.

Melo arguably had one of his best overall seasons as a pro last season (his most complete performance at least - passing, rebounding, defense)...

The NYK PG situation is vastly improved.... You almost can't even compare JC, LG, and a rookie JG to what we now have in DR & BJ.

I think Lee v Affalo is a wash, but since AA sacrificed his overall game to earn himself another contract (he totally ball hogged it most nights).... We might have an advantage with Lee.

KP will be better.

Lopez was a quality and consistent presence in the paint.
Noah will be a downgrade offensively.... And we're not sure about the health... But we might get lucky for 1 season.

I think our bench is deeper....
Our 6th man is a big upgrade.... And if LT is anything like he was the first half.... We should be fine.

I think we should be a much better team this season than the previous 2.... Health will be a big factor.... But.... I just think this squad has a nice mix of vets and youth.... The chemistry should be big bc I think the personalities gel.

Rose, Noah, Lee, BJ will surround and protect Melo and KP with the leadership they'll provide.... And, most importantly, the ability to penetrate (DR/BJ) and knock Down 3s (Lee) will force defenses to make a decision....

The days of tripling Melo and forcing somebody else to beat them is over.... We have PGs now.... And KP is coming.

Mafra I would add Hornacek to the list of positives for the Knicks this season. I like what I'm hearing from him re: analytics and him wanting to get the eFG% of the team up from last year when they were ranked 28th. I think we see an offense light years ahead of what DFish and Rambis ran even considering the talent upgrade this off season.

I see DRose commented about the difficulty of running the triangle so it will still be around unfortunately.

I agree.... Huge upgrade to go from DF to JH.... We actually have a coach instead of an aging player who wants to play cling on to his playing days or date the ex-wife of a former teammate. Having Rose & BJ with JH's version of the triangle.... Gonna be fun.

john21wall said:

[FONT="]Jackson was hired (in my opinion) to put players around Carmelo in order for the Knicks to compete for an NBA championship. I will give him some credit but I give Melo more credit because he has weathered the storm of missing the playoffs over the last three years and now it is time for fun to return to the garden. His commitment can not be questioned because he loves N.Y. We have a "BIG THREE" and a new coach who will allow us to compete. Let the fun begin![/FONT]

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Yep thats the absolute (only) reason Phil were hired as a GM to put players around Melo to WIN
...so far Phil has put players on Cleveland Cavs to win, and now the Chicago Bulls to win.
The past two seasons Phil could not find a young Camby and Miller to put with Melo to play .500 ball.
This is Phils 3rd crazy-roster put together over 3 offseason for Melo to win ..
this season we will get to see does Noah and Rose all-around talent equal up to Camby and Miller's all-round talent to play .500 ball?
Putting players around Melo to win has not been a easy task for any General Manager .. I recall Denver ex-GM Kiki Van had to get three experience FINALS players (Camby, Iverson and K.Martin) to put in a lineup with Melo to win.
However .. there has to be something questionable about Melo's career (personality) that make Melo's teammates stop putting forth effort to win during postseason games .. We seen no effort performance and DNP in several Knicks postseason games from ex-Knicks players Chauncey Billups/Amare/Chandler/Shumpert/K.Martin/K.Thomas/Rasheed/Camby/and HOF Jason Kidd.

[FONT=&quot]Nobody is talking about the interior defense that a Noah and Porzingus tandem projects.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Looking at tape of Porzingus it's going to be something.[/FONT]

john21wall said:

[FONT="]Nobody is talking about the interior defense that a Noah and Porzingus tandem projects.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#2A2E2E][FONT="]Looking at tape of Porzingus it's going to be something.[/FONT]

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It would be nice to see a tandem of Noah n KP create a tough interior defense for the Knicks to provide STOPS in the 2nd half of the game. Yep, we should have hired coach Thibs to make it happen.

For a 2nd season KP and 9 year experience Noah to click downlow to give us a tough interior defense ...then KP n Noah playing-time minutes (30) would have to be in the same lineup throughout each of the next 10 games.
To keep the KP and Noah tandem improving throughout the season coach Horn would have to challenge them by building a 2nd-unit backup tandem of Quinn n Willie off the bench receiving playing-time minutes (18) in the same lineup each game.
I havnt seen a 2nd unit bench lineup from coach Horn in the preseason games to force our starter lineup to click.

I have not seen any type of chemistry formed by any of the tandem guards we had on the court throughout the preseason games. You would think with Rose out of the lineup throughout the preseason games coach Horn wouldve took a lot of interest in the opportunity at getting Jennings and C.Lee compatible in the back-court.