LJ4ptplay
Starter
Al Harrington has been our best player since the trade and he fits D'Antoni's system perfectly. Should we resign him in 2010? If we do, what position should he play if we get Lebron and Bosh?
If we keep Harrington and sign Lebron and Bosh our lineup may look like this:
PG-Duhon
SG-??? maybe Chandler?
SF-Harrington
PF-Lebron
C-Bosh
I like Harrington and think we should resign him, but if we do, someone is going to get left out of the lineup..possibly both Chandler and Lee. What should we do??
http://www.nj.com/knicks/index.ssf/2008/12/harrington_loves_the_knicks_wa.html
If we keep Harrington and sign Lebron and Bosh our lineup may look like this:
PG-Duhon
SG-??? maybe Chandler?
SF-Harrington
PF-Lebron
C-Bosh
I like Harrington and think we should resign him, but if we do, someone is going to get left out of the lineup..possibly both Chandler and Lee. What should we do??
http://www.nj.com/knicks/index.ssf/2008/12/harrington_loves_the_knicks_wa.html
Harrington loves the Knicks; wants to stay with the team past 2010
by David Waldstein/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday December 10, 2008, 10:39 PM
Just before Al Harrington went to the foul line with a chance to match his career high of 40 points with under a minute to play, Tim Thomas warned him that the pressure was now on, and both men laughed.
The Knicks, well on their way to sealing an easy 121-109 victory thanks mostly to the all-Jersey duo that combined for 65 points, had plenty to laugh about last night. Even Harrington, whose missed free throws left him with 39 points, one shy of his career best, (to go with 13 rebounds) could shrug off the lost opportunity.
"It's okay," he said afterward, his head nodding knowingly, "playing in this system, I'm going to have plenty of 40-point nights."
It is within "this system" -- Mike D'Antoni's fast-paced, ball-moving, high-volume shoot-a-thon -- that Harrington believes he can now resurrect his career after months of inaction in Golden State, and even do more.
It has long been Harrington's dream to play for the Knicks, but playing for D'Antoni has been far better than he ever could have dreamed when he was a 14-year-old Knicks fan growing up in Orange, or even as an 18-year-old, first-round draft pick by the Pacers out of St. Patrick's in Elizabeth 10 years ago.
Playing under D'Antoni, Harrington believes, could unlock the key to all those high expectations people had for him when he first entered the NBA.
"I wish I had played under this system when I was young," Harrington said before last night's triumphant debut at the Meadowlands as a Knick. "If I could have played in this system when I was 20 or 22, who knows what I would be?
"I think it's an opportunity where I can show a lot of the promise I had when I was young."
In nine games since being traded by Golden State to the Knicks on Nov. 21, Harrington has averaged 24.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, and that includes his 13-point clunker in his first night in the new uniform, where he barely knew where to go on the floor, and only spent 27 befuddled minutes out there trying to figure it out.
Since that first night he has spent extra time in assistant coach Dan D'Antoni's study hall, going over game tapes to better learn the system. Now that he has figured what to do and when -- run the floor, post up and shoot from almost anywhere -- Harrington says the fast paced offensive system that D'Antoni employs has been a revelation to him.
Donnie Walsh, who acquired Harrington for the third time in a trade for Jamal Crawford, also hopes that Harrington may have found the perfect niche in which to carry his career forward again.
"I want him to grow into a top NBA player," Walsh said, "and certainly in Mike's system he's got the opportunity to do that."
So the uniform fits him, and the coach is a dream. Now the task is to hang on and remain on the team after the summer of 2010 when his contract expires and the Knicks look to sign LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh or whomever they can.
Two years is an extremely long time in the NBA, where players and coaches can fall in and out of love with one another in a matter of weeks. But as of now, Harrington says he wants to spend the next two years convincing the Knicks that he should be a part of the team when it could turn the corner in 2010 and beyond.
So far he's convincing a lot of people, and with each passing game, D'Antoni is making Harrington even more of a focal point. Last night he ran more pick-and-roll sets for him, and Harrington responded with his biggest night as a Knick, still so thankful that Walsh rescued him from purgatory in California.
"It pretty much saved my career," he said. "I was pretty down on myself in Golden State over the last year. Being here and playing with these guys and for a coach that's so upbeat and positive at all times, no matter how bad you're doing, it's just huge. It's a blessing in my life."
