This is a bad mistake. December 27, 2007
Posted by mb in david lee, eddy curry, zach randolph.1 comment so far
Mark my words, if you think the answer to the Knicks’ woes is to avoid playing Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry together, you are mistaken.
This, with all due respect to Howard Beck of the New York Times, is horsecrap. When the Knicks have been at their best this year–think Utah, think Denver–it’s been because Randolph and Curry have been operating effectively simultaneously. The problem is that when Curry has retreated into his mental hole–and it’s only been Curry–the Knicks haven’t found ways to keep him involved, either within the offensive gameplan (such as it is) or within the confines of Curry’s own mind. To the extent that the duo has failed, it’s been because one of them has sort of sucked. It does not follow logically or factually that it’s Zach Randolph’s fault.
Observe. From the article:
A statistical analysis provided by 82games.com helped illustrate the problem — and pointed to Curry as the main culprit. Over the first 23 games of the season, the Knicks were, on average, outscored by 7.9 points (per 48 minutes) when Curry and Randolph shared the court. When Randolph played without Curry, the Knicks were outscored by only 2.3 points per 48 minutes.
Most striking is that Curry, the Knicks’ leading scorer last season, is a greater drag on the team. The Knicks are outscored by 16 points per 48 minutes when Curry plays without Randolph.
Read that again, and carefully. This essentially confirms everything I just said.
David Lee, who IS the other big man when Randolph sits, and whom I generally love, cannot play defense. Read that statement again, then watch him and him alone for a couple quarters. Hustles like a maven, but cannot guard anyone. Period. Playing him more will not solve the Knicks’ major problem. (Playing Balkman will, but of course no one’s complaining about that).
More foolishness:
It also seems clear that Randolph’s arrival has sent Curry into a funk. He is averaging 14.2 points and 5.2 rebounds this season, after averaging a career-best 19.5 points and 7 rebounds last season. His field-goal attempts and free-throw attempts have decreased.
This, of course, wasn’t the case at all over the first month of the season, when Curry’s numbers were perfectly fine. But Curry has, again, disappeared all of a sudden. Why is that Zach Randoloph’s fault?
For the last damn time: They are different players. Randolph plays an entirely different game than Curry. Watch the games and figure it out. To the extent that the interior passing of Curry has been poor, it’s not because Randolph is there (and a lot of the team’s ball movement problems generally are attributable to the backcourt players).
A case can be made that Randolph’s arrival has, in fact, hurt several Knicks. Lee, playing four fewer minutes a game than last season, has had declines in scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage. Quentin Richardson, who has also been benched lately, is averaging career lows in points a game (7.3) and field-goal percentage (.324). Jamal Crawford, a streak shooter, struggled for weeks until recently finding his rhythm.
This is idiotic. Of course when you get a 20-10 guy, he’s going to get more shots and others will get less. Considering that Crawford’s shot well under 40 percent for his Knick tenure, including about three ghastly shots per game prior to this season, I’m not sure this is a bad thing. Quentin Richardson is a poor fit on a non-running team to begin with. That David Lee cannot hit those shots he DOES get speaks volumes about the degree to which one can reasonably expect him to be the savior of the starting lineup.
Howard Beck: I like you, I do. But I don’t think any of the terrific beat writers to come before you at the Times (the divine Selena Roberts, Chris Broussard, Clifton Brown) would commit such a vacuous viewpoint of what afflicts this team to print.
And a Time to Die. November 22, 2007
Posted by mb in david lee, isiah thomas, stephon marbury.add a comment
I gave up on the Isiah Thomas era midway through the fourth quarter against Golden State. From my seat in the 400s, I had a moment of clarity that enabled me to see through the dense fog of Anucha and Stephs On A Plane to the true fatal aspect of the Knicks season. It nagged at me even through the Denver win and it was this: No one has taught this team to play any defense, at all.
It’s an acute enough problem to outshine the fact that Isiah lost the team after his failure to suspend Marbury for going AWOL despite the apparently unanimous desires of the rest of the team. Even mutiny can be overcome, can even spur a team to greater heights purely out of spite. But after getting the team to care about winning last year, his next charge for this season was clear: Get someone other than Renaldo Balkman to play defense. It is here that he has failed most profoundly.
Marbury’s perimeter defense is the stuff of tollbooth clerks. David Lee’s strengths and weaknesses become more clear with each game, and defense is among the latter. (Rare is the player who can rebound like crazy but not guard a lick. David is that player…). Curry’s defensive effort has improved drastically this year, but his knowledge of how to do it has evolved in like fashion. Zach Randolph’s much trumpeted liabilities in this respect has proven real. And so on.
For this reason alone, Isiah needs to leave. And for this reason alone, I continue to wish the Knicks hadn’t hired Lenny Wilkins instead of Mike Fratello when the opportunity was there years ago.
As for Marbury: I’m done with him, too. It’s not a matter of his ability. And I continue to think that he’s been underrated and unfairly maligned for happening to precede Jason Kidd and Steve Nash on his two previous teams. But it’s become clear that no one on his team likes him or much wants to play with him. Bill Simmons’ interview with Gus Johnson–who defends Marbury, but sees many reasons not to–was revelatory in this respect. From a personality standpoint, Marbury’s redeeming factor is that he came from nothing in order to get where he is. Unfortunately, as Simmons pointed out, that’s not enough to make it enjoyable to play with you. It makes you admirable, perhaps even a role model, but not a leader. And as Isiah has pointed out, the Knicks desperately need a leader.
I don’t see how we trade him. If we can get away with buying him out, we do it. We draft a point guard next year and start over.
I really didn’t think I’d be writing a white flag post this early. I may be done with this for a while.
