khandor’s sports blog

Q. How good can the New York Knicks become, if they get 100% healthy?

A. With the addition of a solid, good-sized, PG like Jeremy Lin, and a full line-up that looks like this:

OWNER – James Dolan

GENERAL MANAGER – Glen Grunwald

HEAD COACH – Mike D’Antoni

STARTERS

PG, Jeremy Lin [acquired December 27, 2012]
OG, Landry Fields
SF, Carmelo Anthony
PF, Amare Stoudemire
C, Tyson Chandler

KEY SUBS

PG, Baron Davis
OG, Iman Shumpert
SF, Bill Walker
PF, Jared Jeffries
C, Steve Novak

RESERVES/EXTRAS/OUTS

PG, Toney Douglas
PG, Mike Bibby
PF, Renaldo Balkman
PF/C, Josh Harrellson
C, Jerome Jordan

New York should be good enough to qualify for the playoffs and, perhaps, advance to the EC semi-finals.

In last night’s victory against the Detroit Pistons, embattled New York Knick’s head coach, Mike D’Antoni, unveiled a new Starting Line-up for the home team:

PG, Tracy McGrady [6-8, 223], 34:28/MP
OG, Bill Walker [6-6, 230], 36:27/MP
SF, Danilo Gallinari [6-10, 225], 37:24/MP
PF, Al Harrington [6-9, 250], 35:45/MP
C, David Lee [6-9, 250], 43:56/MP

and, then, chose to give only 2 other players a significant number of minutes coming off the bench:

PG, Sergio Rodriguez [6-3, 176], 29:44/MP
OG/PG, Eddie House [6-1, 180], 19:27/MP

in what turned out to be a very tight, and effective, 7-Man rotation:

Detroit Pistons 104
NEW YORK KNICKS 128
Boxscore 

During this game, the Knicks used the following 5-Man Units with the associated +/- results:

While some observers in the on-line hoops community might be scratching their heads today about the level of success which New York enjoyed last night, while playing without a “traditional” Point Guard in their Starting Unit, it should come as no surprise at all to regular readers of this blog.

If Mike D’Antoni elects to stick with this arrangement, which dramatically improves New York’s ability to REBOUND the ball for significant segments within a game, it will be very interesting, indeed, to see how this new 7-Man rotation holds up for the Knicks over their next 3 games:

at TORONTO RAPTORS [.500+; Tied for 24th in Rebounding Differential]
vs New Jersey
vs Atlanta [.500+; Tied for 24th in Rebounding Differential]

prior to heading out on the road for 5 consecutive games:

at SAN ANTONIO [.500+; 3rd in Rebounding Differential]
at MEMPHIS [.500+; 2nd in Rebounding Differential]
at DALLAS [.500+; 18th in Rebounding Differential]
at PHILADELPHIA
at BOSTON [.500+; 23rd in Rebounding Differential]

If any of New York’s upcoming opponents are asleep at the switch, during this late season stretch of games, it should not come as any sort of surprise to that team’s fans to see the Knicks rise up and steal more than 1 or 2 of these specific match-ups. 

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PS. Yours truly has advocated that Tracy McGrady be used at the Point Guard position, going back in time to his initial years in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors. Even after all these years, it is still gratifying to see him succeed when placed in this specific role by his head coach. Oh, what the Raptors could well have developed into, way back then, if the people responsible for running the franchise had truly known what they were doing, from a basketball acumen standpoint with the triumpherate of T-Mac/PG, Vince Carter/OG and Doug Christie/SF on their roster, in conjunction with a slew of solid Bigs that included the likes of Antonio Davis/PF, Kevin Willis/PF, Charles Oakley/PF, Jerome Williams/PF, Keon Clark/PF and Hakeem Olajuwon/C, over a series of years from 1998 to 2002. 

As a follow-up to yesterday’s take on the sorry state of the once-proud Detroit Pistons …

Detroit Pistons 104 [21-40]
NEW YORK KNICKS 128 [21-39]

Complete Game Info

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Coming off a tough loss on Tuesday night, at home against the Boston Celtics, Detroit played New York fairly even for the first 32 minutes of last night’s match-up at Madison Square Garden, and trailed by only 5 points at the 4:02 mark of the 3rd quarter, when John Kuester made the decision to replace Rodney Stuckey/PG with Will Bynum:

What others should be able to glean from the Pistons’ performance last night … throughout the contest and, specifically, at crunch time … is that WHEN their coach, John Kuester, chooses to:

1. Use Will Bynum [23 MP] as the primary Back-up to Rodney Stuckey [26 MP], at the PG position, instead of Ben Gordon [OG-PG, 23 MP];

2. Use Rip Hamilton [33 MP] at the SF position, from time to time, in a “going small” 5-man unit, rather than exclusively at the OG position;

3. Use Ben Gordon as the primary Back-up to Rip Hamilton, at the OG position, usually in conjunction with Will Bynum/PG, giving the Pistons one of the “smallest” and least effective guard combinations in the league when it comes to defense and rebounding;

4. Use Jason Maxiell [30 MP] as his Starting Center, rather than Kwame Brown [3 MP in garbage time] … while operating beside Stuckey, Hamilton, Prince [33 MP] and Jerebko [33 MP];

5. Use Jonas Jerebko as his Starting PF, rather than starting Jason Maxiell at that position and then bringing Charlie Villanueva [15 MP] off the bench as his primary Back-up;

6. Use Charlie Villanueva as his Back-up Center, rather than starting Kwame Brown at that position and then bringing Chris Wilcox [DNP-CD] off the bench as his primary Back-up;

7. Not use Austin Daye for more than 10 minutes, as a secondary Back-up at the OG & SF positions, in a game where he was the only member of the Pistons who generated a “positive” plus/minus number [i.e. +6], while shooting 43% from the floor, shooting 100% from the FT Line, with 3 Rebs, a positive Ast:TO and 1 St;

and,

8. Not use DeJaun Summers [6-8, 240] for more than 3 minutes, as a secondary Back-up at the SF & PF positions, in a game where their opponent chose to start [and give critical amounts of PT to] a “going big” 5-Man Unit that looked like this:

Option 1

PG, T-Mac [6-8, 223]
OG, Bill Walker [6-6, 230]
SF, Danilo Gallinari [6-10, 225]
PF, Al Harrington [6-9, 250]
C, David Lee [6-9, 250]

Option 2

PG, T-Mac [6-8, 223]
OG, Eddie House [6-1, 180] 
SF, Bill Walker [6-6, 230]
PF, Al Harrington [6-9, 250]
C, David Lee [6-9, 250];

then, the Pistons are unable to compete successfully on Offense, Defense and in terms of Rebounding.

While others in the on-line hoops community are certainly free to assign blame to whomever they think is most responsible for the current mess in Detroit, as far as these eyes are concerned, the Pistons’ main problem this season is rooted in the poor decision-making of their head coach, John Kuester … i.e. in terms of how he is choosing to use his personnel … which has consistently resulted in awful performances similar to last night’s atrocious display in the 4th quarter.

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PS. Those who have followed this blog for the better part of the last 2 years should be able to readily attest that a simple observation of:

“What Team X needs to do in order to turn around their fortunes is fire their head coach,” 

is not the usual reaction from yours truly. In this case, however, there’s a good deal of solid “NBA level talent” that is simply going to waste in Detroit.

The pertinent facts from this game?

1. The Raptors used their main rotation players for more minutes than the Celtics [Box Score].

2. The 3rd Quarter Play-By-Play.

3. Given the state of his physical condition at this stage of his recovery from off-season surgery on his right knee, expect to see Kevin Garnett check Andrea Bargnani this season … with Kendrick Perkins checking CB4 … when these teams face one another.

4. KPM’s for this game:

5. When they kick it into gear, the Celtics’ Rebounding [44-32] and Defensive/Offensive Efficiency [BOS: 0.99, 106 pts on 107 possessions; 0.99/Tor: 0.91, 90 pts on 99 possessions] numbers are superior to the Raptors. 

Yesterday’s action finished with the following results:

W-L: 2-2/.500
Units: -1.08

which are slightly better than Day 1 but not where they need to be … just yet. 

Overall, after Day 2:

W-L: 3-4/.429
Units: -3.37

Hopefully, the news will continue to get better today.  

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Mon Apr 20 2009

Game 1 – 2/Celtics vs 7/Bulls

As was said here two days ago … the strength of Derrick Rose’s individual game is a giant neutralizer of one Rajon Rondo for the defending champs. How Doc Rivers copes with this reality will be a key in this evening’s Game 2 of this series. It’s one thing knowing that your emotional center-piece is not going to be you your line-up in the playoffs and another thing altogether, lacing them up and taking the court without him, at the front of the line, wearing #5. The Celtics should be much better prepared for this evening’s tilt, from this standpoint alone. There is no Superman coming in from the Wings to save them. If they’re going to get to Round 2, they will a far better performance from both Jesus Shuttlesworth and Da Truth. Keep your eyes peeled, as well, for Bill Walker, as he presents one of the few options on the Celtics’ bench that can increase their size and athleticism at the Wings when Pierce and/or Allen-R need to rest. Can the Baby Bulls [i.e. Rose, Noah & Thomas-Ty] possibly perform as they did on Saturday afternoon, for a second consecutive game in the playoffs? 41-41/.500 suggests that it’s a stretch to think it likely. Expect the C’s to start much better this evening; then, ride the emotion of their home crowd through the balance of the 2nd half. The Bulls are young at key positions, and it will be difficult for them to maintain their concentration for 96 consecutive minutes, in enemy territory, with the champs at the ready and staring at 0-2.

Chicago +8.5/-102
BOSTON -8.5/-106
Call: BOSTON [1 unit]

Game 2 – 3/SPURS vs 6/Mavericks

Everything about the San Antonio organization says that they will find a way to square this series, somehow, this evening. But, 6.5 points is a lot to give up … without Manu Ginobili, completely, and Tim Duncan being far from 100%. Can Coach Popovich pull another rabbit from his hat? You bet, he can … especially if he goes retro with the deployment of his troops in this series, i.e. MAIN PLAYERS: Parker + Finley + Bowen + Oberto + Duncan; KEY SUBS: Mason, Hill, Udoka, Gooden & Thomas. Matt Bonner has had a good season, and has provided the Spurs with solid points production from the #4/PF spot beside the Big Fundamental … but, that will do them no good in this series when what they NEED is to DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE THEIR REBOUNDING, at positions #2/OG, #3/SF, and most importantly #4/PF. The Mavericks are a veteran outfit that many have a tendency to forget were good enough to put up 67 wins just two seasons ago and lost in the NBA Finals, to D-Wade & Co., the year before that. Dallas matches up exceptionally well with their opponent in this series [especially, given the absence of Ginobili, and Pops' questionable decisions to start Mason and give only reduced minutes to the Karate Kid]. Even if they go down to defeat this evening, Dallas should have the know-how to keep it close until the final minute of the 4th period.

Dallas +6/-105
SAN ANTONIO -6/-105
Call: Dallas [2 unit]