New York Knicks' Season Opener Game Thread...and on

[SMC]

The win against the Thunder is a great comparison point to last season.

Last year the Knicks lost a last minute thriller to the Thunder (Tracey McGrady's 1st game) and this year the Knicks lost a last minute thriller to the best team in the NBA (the Celtics) and blew out the Thunder. In other words, last year's team's best games were against the 2nd tier good teams, but now its against the 1st tier. These Knicks are a playoff contender for sure this year.

I agree with Broadway and Gallo on Gallo and Fields. I like Broadway's suggestion about Verajo, but I side with Hector on this because Verajo has an awful contract. Walsh has done a remarkable job with the Knicks cap, saving star money for a star player and paying other players on par with their value. Walsh isn't signing Curry contracts or Jeffries contracts like Isaiah did. Verajo has a Jeffries' contract. If Verajo was making what he was actually worth then I'd want him on the team with a quickness.

[Blackout]

Uhm the reason the Celtics were missing them is because they're old and broken down, dick.

lol @ calling me a dick.

SMC, must stand for "Sucks Many Cocks"

[SMC]

lol @ calling me a dick.

SMC, must stand for "Sucks Many Cocks"

It took you 8 days to come up with that? LOL

[RutgersJetFan]

Just left MSG. First time seeing Derrick Rose in person. Without question one of the best players in the league to see live.

[Bergen Jet]

Just left MSG. First time seeing Derrick Rose in person. Without question one of the best players in the league to see live.

That is a damn good Bulls team that we have beaten twice.

[SMC]

Great win. The Knicks are 3-2 in their last 5 games against winning teams.

That's a must to make the playoffs as a mid seed

[RutgersJetFan]

That is a damn good Bulls team that we have beaten twice.

In their house and in ours. But you have to remember that we haven't played their full squad yet (Boozer was out in the first game). They're a totally different team w/o Noah. They had Boozer playing C most of the night and he's just not suited to play there. He's slow in the paint and he went 11-25 when the majority of those shots were taken very close to the rim. The good news is that neither of them can stop Amare and Felton sure as sh*t holds his own against Rose, so I do think we match up well with them for the playoffs.

The even better news is that the Knicks shops all were 40% off at the Garden today and I landed an Oakley throwback for 50 bucks.

[RutgersJetFan]

I'm as much on the MVP train for Amare as anyone, but I thought this was interesting. You know it's funny, but he's outplayed almost every elite PG in the league in head-to-heads since they snapped out of that early season funk (Westbrook, Paul, Rondo, Rose yesterday...etc.).

Saturday also marked Felton’s ninth 20-point, 10-assist game of the year. He entered play today second in the league behind Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams, who has 12 20-and-10 games. The Knicks are 12-3 when Felton records a double-double.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/1678/felton-is-ray-of-light-for-knicks

[BroadwayJoe12]

I'm as much on the MVP train for Amare as anyone, but I thought this was interesting. You know it's funny, but he's outplayed almost every elite PG in the league in head-to-heads since they snapped out of that early season funk (Westbrook, Paul, Rondo, Rose yesterday...etc.).

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/1678/felton-is-ray-of-light-for-knicks

I think it's safe to say that this is the type of player Felton truly is and that Larry Brown's offensive system was stifling his play-making ability. He is up in every single advanced stat (PER, TS%, eFG%) while his usage percentage is only up a little. *Quick note, is PER and TS% took pretty significant jumps, his play has just been outstanding. Traditional stats; he is averaging 18 pts and 9 assists, to go along with 2 steals per game.

Looking past that; he's been an absolute leader and pitbull when driving to the hole and has really found a great chemistry with STAT. I love teh CP3 and Deron Williams, but if I'm the new york knicks and felton keeps this up for this year and next, I lock him up.

[RutgersJetFan]

I think it's safe to say that this is the type of player Felton truly is and that Larry Brown's offensive system was stifling his play-making ability. He is up in every single advanced stat (PER, TS%, eFG%) while his usage percentage is only up a little. *Quick note, is PER and TS% took pretty significant jumps, his play has just been outstanding. Traditional stats; he is averaging 18 pts and 9 assists, to go along with 2 steals per game.

Looking past that; he's been an absolute leader and pitbull when driving to the hole and has really found a great chemistry with STAT. I love teh CP3 and Deron Williams, but if I'm the new york knicks and felton keeps this up for this year and next, I lock him up.

Brown was clearly the problem. It's not like he's never showed he could play like this; the guy was one of the best secondary break-PG's of the past few decades at UNC. I do think Donnie has to start considering extending him. At this point it just seems kind of wrong to give off the impression that this is still a tryout for him.

[Aten]

That was the first Knicks game I've watched with my dad in ten years. Seeing Amare swat six in the first game we've watched since they traded the guy whose shotblocking made us Knicks fans in the first place was unbelievable.

[RutgersJetFan]

That was the first Knicks game I've watched with my dad in ten years. Seeing Amare swat six in the first game we've watched since they traded the guy whose shotblocking made us Knicks fans in the first place was unbelievable.

Thunderous blocks too dude. My favorite thing this year at Knick games has been the crowd's reactions to Amare's blocks. Dude's such a beast.

[SMC]

That was the first Knicks game I've watched with my dad in ten years. Seeing Amare swat six in the first game we've watched since they traded the guy whose shotblocking made us Knicks fans in the first place was unbelievable.

Wow, that's very cool.

Thunderous blocks too dude. My favorite thing this year at Knick games has been the crowd's reactions to Amare's blocks. Dude's such a beast.

The crowd has been amazing. They've been desperate to have a reason to cheer and Amare has given it to them from his scoring and the blocks.

Although only of anecdotal value, I have been surprised at how many fast-break and easy layup shots the Knicks have blocked. Those have really gotten the Garden crown (and me watching on TV) fired up.

[RutgersJetFan]

The crowd has been amazing. They've been desperate to have a reason to cheer and Amare has given it to them from his scoring and the blocks.

Although only of anecdotal value, I have been surprised at how many fast-break and easy layup shots the Knicks have blocked. Those have really gotten the Garden crown (and me watching on TV) fired up.

I'm telling you man, it's like one big collective "you got knocked the **** out man" moment. Never seen random people high-five each other at such a high rate before like when it happens.

[RutgersJetFan]

These new NBA commercials are pretty awesome. The one with Durant is cool, but this one is obviously the best:

And Durant's:

[InstantClassic]

Knicks made it interesting..Orlando has too many snipers.

[RutgersJetFan]

Cross your fingers for Gallo. Turiaf was huge today. Tuesday night is going to be tough. SA has really been rolling the past month, I don't think we match up well with them at all but they're due for a slump at some point.

[jason423]

Cross your fingers for Gallo. Turiaf was huge today. Tuesday night is going to be tough. SA has really been rolling the past month, I don't think we match up well with them at all but they're due for a slump at some point.

I think the hope is that you can force them to run similar to what they did against the Celtics a few weeks back. I dont trust the Spurs at all in any kind of game where they have to really pick up the pace. They also have the Celts the next night which could be a look ahead game, especially if they have a led in the 4th and they ease up. Stoudemire usually plays well against the Spurs but losing Gallinari hurts. The Kicks rotation is so thin that the loss of one part might be a killer. I just hope the Knicks get a few more over this next month of tough games. As long as they stay a few games above .500 basketball will stay hot in the city and will sure make the winter months of sports much more fun. No NBA talk for the last decade (and even why my Nets were hot the sport was not) has really been murder for those of us who love the sport.

[RutgersJetFan]

I think the hope is that you can force them to run similar to what they did against the Celtics a few weeks back. I dont trust the Spurs at all in any kind of game where they have to really pick up the pace.

That's the problem though. They've had trouble getting teams to run early in games and are falling behind. By the time they can actually get the opposing squad to run, the Knicks are usually gassed to make that final push. It's the rotation. At this point I think we just need more players. An 8-man rotation was hurting us so badly already, losing Gallo at this point before Donnie's made a move it such a killer. I'm sick of trading for trade pieces though. Enough is enough. The team's defined itself and you know what style they play, bring some guys in already before we start a heavy skid Donnie.

[JohnnyHector]

If Randolph doesn't get any run now, then he's never cracking D'Antoni's rotation.

[Matt39]

Wow, biggest win in ages. Pop pretty much gave up with two minutes left. Felton has been amazing.

[BroadwayJoe12]

If Randolph doesn't get any run now, then he's never cracking D'Antoni's rotation.

He will, once he earns his playing time in practice. I'm a huge LSU fan for every sport and the kid really has absolutely zero basketball IQ. He just was never coached, because he sheer athleticism always prevailed. Hopefully he can learn to harness it and put in the work, instead of pressing too hard. He reminds me a ton of Camby at that age, which would be amazing.

The huge win over the spurs tonight basically shows that you need a williams or walker, a similar player to gallo, to take more of those minutes and keep with the continuity. I for one hope AR can crack the rotation, because he is a tremendous talent and has the upside of a KG type of player, I for one want to see him develop on our team, instead of some other team as it always seems to happen.

[BroadwayJoe12]

Wow, biggest win in ages. Pop pretty much gave up with two minutes left. Felton has been amazing.

Chandler finally realizes when he wants to score, he can score. When he decides to get his, there's really not too many players in the nba that attack the rim as well as he does. He has been simply fantastic the last few games and if he keeps it up, you're gonna see the rumors turn more and more to a backup pg and C and less about melo.

The whole melo deal to me is a philosophical one to me, i personally don't see how adding him takes us to the elite level. It's not our scoring or timely scoring that's losing us games, it's lacking a backup pg to run the floor when felton is getting a rest and someone to keep STAT out of foul trouble and to body up the other bigs. Our help and weakside defense have been fantastic this year, but we still do not have someone to body up the kendrick perkins' and dwight howards' of the league. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Also, we're finally starting to gain our homecourt advantage, the garden is getting loud.

[RutgersJetFan]

REVERSE JINX FTW

[SMC]

REVERSE JINX FTW

LOL

The Knicks are close to .500 now against winning teams and have dominated losing teams since their poor start. That's the textbook method to being a 4th-6th seed playoff team.

Fantastic win last night and as Rutgers mentioned earlier, the Knicks finally got a top team to run early. The interesting thing for me this season is how revealing the 1st quarter is for the Knicks. If they're shooting a high % in the 1st (regardless of Amare), then the Knicks have a good chance to win. In their loses to the Heat, Magic, and even Cleveland, the Knicks did not shoot well early and that led to their loses, especially on trying to comeback in the 2nd Heat game and against the Magic.

Against the Bulls, Celtics, Nuggets, Thunder, and Spurs they Knicks shot a high percentage in the 1st and they won 4 of those games and loss the Celtics game in the final seconds. If they can score early against the Heat and Magic then the Knicks will have a shot to beat those teams.

BTW, FINALLY, a West Coast trip that I don't dread. Every year over the last decade it seems that a West Coast trip snuffed out any hopes of squeaking into the playoffs. The Knicks should go 2-2 on this trip, if not 3-1.

[RutgersJetFan]

LOL

The Knicks are close to .500 now against winning teams and have dominated losing teams since their poor start. That's the textbook method to being a 4th-6th seed playoff team.

Fantastic win last night and as Rutgers mentioned earlier, the Knicks finally got a top team to run early.

You know, I get that people bitch about the lack of D with D'Antoni, but you can't deny that these barnburners like last night aren't every bit as exciting as those old defensive standoffs. Biggest win for the Knicks in ages, and how they won it really made it. Just domination.

From Pop after the game on basically giving up with 3 minutes to go.

"We have a game tomorrow, and it's a long season. The chances of winning that game were not good," said Popovich, whose team had held its previous four opponents to 80, 82, 93 and 74 points. "There's not going to be a line outside of the arena to buy any one of our defensive playbooks. If there is a line, they're a bunch of wackos."

Also anyone who thinks Chandler isn't going to be a pretty awesome player within the next year or two is ****ed in the head. What a performance. Been saying it all year, kid's a future All-Star.

[RutgersJetFan]

Chandler finally realizes when he wants to score, he can score. When he decides to get his, there's really not too many players in the nba that attack the rim as well as he does. He has been simply fantastic the last few games and if he keeps it up, you're gonna see the rumors turn more and more to a backup pg and C and less about melo.

He's just made so many improvements in his game. I don't think you can just attribute it to Amare. His 3-pt percentage is up over 100 points with over double the attempts being made per game.

[Aten]

It's great that Donnie wants to resign Chandler but I have no idea how the hell he intends to do it. We can get an expiring backup point guard for Randolph right now, there's interest in Turiaf, and I can even see moving Douglas (provided we stop showcasing the fact that he's a ball-handler with no apparent inclination either to pass or to shoot the ball; seriously, what the hell?) and Walker (pls to lay off chzburgers), but it basically comes down to (1) doing all of this plus trading Mozgov for an expiring to sign Melo while keeping the starting lineup intact or (2) snuffing the rooster.

[JohnnyHector]

It's great that Donnie wants to resign Chandler but I have no idea how the hell he intends to do it. We can get an expiring backup point guard for Randolph right now, there's interest in Turiaf, and I can even see moving Douglas (provided we stop showcasing the fact that he's a ball-handler with no apparent inclination either to pass or to shoot the ball; seriously, what the hell?) and Walker (pls to lay off chzburgers), but it basically comes down to (1) doing all of this plus trading Mozgov for an expiring to sign Melo while keeping the starting lineup intact or (2) snuffing the rooster.

They would need almost $24.5m in available cap space to account for Chandler's cap hold ($6.4m) and Melo's max number (~$18m). Obviously, by not having to renounce Chandler, they retain his Bird rights and can give him a long-term deal with a starting number of $10m+ per year once Melo is signed.

Mozgov would be definitely one of the key pieces to move, but they should be able to move his $3.3m contract for next year (3rd year non-guaranteed) and $3m to a team for even a 2nd Rd pick.

Since they won't deal him before the deadline, they can hope that Turiaf to decline his option, which he would be likely to, if not for the possibility of the MLE disappearing as part of a new CBA. Regardless, he's a big and there's always at least one team waiting to throw stupid money around, so he may opt out and look for a long-term deal elsewhere. It's a gamble that he might not be willing to take though and his $4.1m cap number would make all of this nearly impossible.

They'd also probably have to move their 2011 1st Rounder to avoid needing to sign him by doing a draft-and-deal, as they're prohibited from trading it beforehand.

They'd be right around $56m with a roster of:

Stat

Melo

Chandler's cap hold

Felton

Gallo

Fields

Add in two 2nd Rd picks that add another $1m, add roster fillers, and you're at the cap, at which point Chandler's Bird rights can be exercised to sign him long-term. As an aside, this is where Felton's contract looks great, since the Knicks hold an option for the 3rd year, leaving themselves holding all of the cards. They'd have gotten a good look at him (and early indications are positive) and now if they decide to keep him, gain his Bird rights (after 3 years) and can extend him if they're above the cap.

Utlimately, the biggest problem is that in building a capped-out roster with no size (no Randolph, Turiaf, or Mozgov), they'll be looking at vet-minimum guys (like Miami) with the possibility of not having the MLE to use the following year. Their only path to a big would be to hit a homerun on a (presumably) late-1st Rd pick, which highly improbable, unless it's a semi-unheralded foreigner who is 2+ years away.

[Aten]

Right. This all shakes down to that trying to sign Melo without losing a piece is untenable, but doesn't putting Gallo into play alleviate the concerns with the roster that the beloved wait-and-see plan would have produced?

[JohnnyHector]

Right. This all shakes down to that trying to sign Melo without losing a piece is untenable, but doesn't putting Gallo into play alleviate the concerns with the roster that the beloved wait-and-see plan would have produced?

Agreed, but there are two things working against trading for Melo before the deadline - Chandler playing well enough for Denver to want to center a trade around him and Gallo getting hurt and missing roughly half of the time between now and the deadline - during which time he could potentially (though not likely) convince Denver that he's a better commodity.

If the Knicks are truly intent on keeping Chandler beyond this season in addition to making a play for Melo, then they need to pull off a deal (or deals) before the deadline that puts them over the cap going into the offseason, even if it means taking on long money on a big. If they cap-out before the offseason, they'll be able to use Chandler's Bird rights and have access to the MLE for this upcoming offseason (provided that it still exists). If they can swing a Melo deal and make the numbers work without needing Curry's expiring (entirely possible), they could turn around and use that contract to take on a longer-term deal for a center from a team that needs cap relief - think Okafor (though the ownership situation makes a deal difficult, although shedding salary makes them more attractive to a potential buyer).

Ultimately, they might not have the chips to pull off a deal, but there's no way that you can't do everything possible to make it happen before the deadline, since it would lead to a far better roster than trying to sign both Melo and Chandler in the offseason, which requires considerable purging and limits their options.

[Thor99]

This Gortat fellow seems like quite the player. I would say he's top 5 in the league.

[SMC]

And to think that there were people (fans & media) who were saying that the Knicks should've just re-signed David Lee because they would have gotten the same out of him as Amare but for less money.

[RutgersJetFan]

And to think that there were people (fans & media) who were saying that the Knicks should've just re-signed David Lee because they would have gotten the same out of him as Amare but for less money.

And last night really showed the difference between a dude like Amare and one like Lebron. When Amare left Phoenix he took out a one page spread in the paper and wrote a pretty heartfelt thank-you letter to the city. He received a huge ovation last night. The more the season goes on, the more you see his character. Anyone who doesn't think he's a $100 million player at this point is deranged. God I love him.

[Bergen Jet]

And last night really showed the difference between a dude like Amare and one like Lebron. When Amare left Phoenix he took out a one page spread in the paper and wrote a pretty heartfelt thank-you letter to the city. He received a huge ovation last night. The more the season goes on, the more you see his character. Anyone who doesn't think he's a $100 million player at this point is deranged. God I love him.

Worth every penny and then some.