Stunts, Blunts & Basketball: The 2013-14 New York Knicks Season Thread

[Cory MBA]

Former Knick Marbury throws support behind Woodson

Marbury was in town rehabbing his left knee after tearing his meniscus for Beijing in a Chinese Basketball Association game three weeks ago.

“They have a pretty good coach — a straight shooter,’’ Marbury told The Post at halftime of the Knicks’ 29-point loss to the Thunder. “He’s not a B.S. type of coach. Players respect him. When you have that at the helm, it makes it easier, but it can’t fall all on Melo [Carmelo Anthony].’’

Marbury, who is returning to China on Thursday, came to the game with his son, Stephon Jr., who is a big Thunder fan.

“I told him we were going to the Garden for the circus,’’ Marbury cracked, referring to the Knicks turmoil he knows all too well. “He said he wanted to watch basketball.’’

Marbury, whom the Knicks bought out five years ago after he feuded with D’Antoni, said there’s still plenty of time for the team to turn it around.

“This team has more talent with Amar’e [Stoudemire] and Melo and they have to figure it out when they’re healthy,’’ Marbury said. “All they have to do is get into the playoffs, and the Garden atmosphere will carry them through.’’

Marbury recently a signed long-term deal with Beijing and said there’s no chance he’ll play in the NBA again.

It was his first time home for Christmas in five years. A few fans came up to him and kidded him that they wished he’d suit up in the second half.

“I love it in China,’’ said Marbury, who had a statue erected of him in front of the basketball arena in Beijing after the club won the title three years ago. “Living and playing in New York made me think globally.’’

Marbury, who has homes in Westchester County, Los Angeles and Beijing, calls himself “tri-coastal’’ and expects to return to action in three weeks.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/26/former-knick-marbury-throws-support-behind-woodson/

 

[Cory MBA]

No word on when Knicks’ injured Melo will return

Carmelo Anthony missed Christmas because of a sprained left ankle, and Mike Woodson can’t say if he’ll miss Canada, too.

Anthony had insisted he would show up for Christmas, but backed out an hour before tip-off and could be seen walking gingerly outside the locker room. He didn’t make himself available to reporters before or after the game.

If Anthony wasn’t willing to gut it out against the Thunder on national TV, it’s unclear if he will want to try a back-to-back set until he gets closer to 100 percent — even if his coach’s job could be imperiled.

“I don’t know, I really don’t,’’ Woodson said of Anthony after the 29-point rout. “We’ll assess it [Thursday] before practice and see where we are.’’

Anthony sprained his ankle in the third quarter Monday against the Magic.

Tyson Chandler defended Anthony’s decision.

“I kind of knew Melo wasn’t going to be able to go,’’ Chandler said. “He turned it good last game. I don’t know anything about X-rays, MRIs. I think he’ll be all right. I figured he’d be a little sore with only a day’s rest, and he flew back, and normally you get swelling.’’

http://nypost.com/2013/12/25/no-word-on-when-knicks-injured-melo-will-return/

 

[DPresidential]

Melo could play.

But he is probably getting advised at this point, that he should sit for as long as possible. And you know what, he should.

This team is like a corrupt computer program. You purchased it, reasonably expected it to be an efficient program and when you installed it...

This organization will never win under Dolan. I will still root for them, however crazy that sounds, but I'm so disenchanted by this shyt.

EDIT: I just realized the unintentional symbolism of the arrow for that corrupt file image pointing at the word Dolan.

Signs brehs...they are all around us

 

[nomoreneveragain]

Who read the WIndhorst Article stating that they'll offer the next coach full control; targeting Van Gundys or Phil

 

[DPresidential]

Who read the WIndhorst Article stating that they'll offer the next coach full control; targeting Van Gundys or Phil

Please Van Gundy. Please.
And Rondo...please force a trade please.

Celtics... Please take JR Smith please.

 

[CapitalOne]

they would rather rondo force a trade than sign him out right in the offseason

 

[RicanHavok]

Knicks suck. But anyone notice how much BS Durant gets away with? .

Those push offs are crazy, Melo'd get called in a heart beat for those.

 

[Hawaiian Punch]

Who read the WIndhorst Article stating that they'll offer the next coach full control; targeting Van Gundys or Phil

A link would be nice

 

[charmander]

aint neither van gundy and ESPECIALLY PHIL JACKSON tryna control this fukkin train wreck

 

[Wargames]

Marbury is showing woodson support.... That shyt right there is the kiss of death. Because Marbury only like to talk up aspects of the Knicks when they are failing.

Woodson might survive the season but he is basically

I believe the windhurst article. Steve Mills is a smoozer type GM who can coerce FA, but he isn't a planner. It was Ethering the Knicks though about how they keep looking for quick fixes but hopefully they just don't trade all the damn picks for Rondo like some dumbasses.

 

[K-Deini]

A link would be nice

Knicks keep grasping for answers


NEW YORK -- Even as the Oklahoma City Thunder were blasting the New York Knicks off their own floor Christmas afternoon, the Knicks' decision-makers were plotting a retrofit of the team.
This is good news for Knicks fans because until recently the team's owner felt this was close to a finished product. In a rare interview last month with the New York Post, James Dolan said, "I think this team can win a championship."
The 123-94 loss to the Thunder dropped the Knicks to 9-19 and 4-11 at home, an unpleasant fact that makes it hard to project a significant turnaround even if the Knicks are ever able to get healthy this season.

It has led to a reality check.

Even from Carmelo Anthony himself, who told NBA TV in an interview this week: "When I first got to New York, I always told myself it would be a three- to three-and-a-half-year plan just to rebuild. I knew we took a step backward as an organization for me to get here. So we had to rebuild."
Needless to say, that's quite the change of tune following last season's 54 victories. Now the franchise player is tossing around the "R" word.
If Anthony was so convinced the Knicks needed three and a half seasons to recover from the trade they executed to get him, why did he sign a contract that guaranteed he'd play only three full seasons in New York? Why was the team assembled last season the oldest in the history of the league if it was part of a rebuild?

Let's leave that alone for the moment because you don't need to forensically examine quotes to prove the case that the previous grand plan didn't mature. So on to the next grand plan!
Naturally, the Knicks are thinking very big when it comes to their coming makeover. That facet, however, should make Knicks fans nervous.
"They're one confident bunch," a league executive said this week. "To listen to them, they expect to have Carmelo re-signed and have another star with him in another year. They're so sure about it you'd think they already know what will happen."

Thinking big and whiffing big has been a Knicks problem for more than a decade now as Dolan and a procession of executives have chased huge and expensive names only to miss out on top targets or overpay both in money and in trades for players who aren't ultimately difference-makers.
Thinking small, slow and being measured, like the Thunder team that smashed the Knicks thanks to fantastic performances from four young players they've drafted and nurtured over the past six years, is not what the Knicks do.

And it looks like they're plotting to do it again.

Even as there has been growing speculation with Anthony's future, the Knicks seem to be quite sure he's going nowhere. And they've already got his help lined up.
According to league sources, the Knicks' first prong is to try to attract the Celtics' Rajon Rondo. This idea has been tossed around in various forms for a while now, it's not shocking. But the way the Knicks are hoping to get Rondo is a little unusual.
It's not in free agency in 2015 but later this season or next summer when he comes back from a torn ACL. The Knicks are hoping Rondo will be interested in making a maneuver similar to what Anthony did back in 2011 and eventually try to force a trade to the Knicks, sources said.

The Celtics have consistently denied they want to trade Rondo. But once this trade deadline passes, and it isn't clear if he will even play before February, Rondo will have only one guaranteed season left on his contract. Like with Anthony when he applied pressure to the Denver Nuggets by threatening to leave in free agency, the Knicks wonder if Rondo will be able to have a say in where he might be traded if the Celtics end up fearful he'll leave in free agency.

That may seem contrived, yes, but this isn't a made-up scenario. It is a genuine option. You have to give the Knicks this: It has worked before.
If that fails -- and who knows how Rondo will mesh with this Celtics team, it could work well and he could want to stay -- the Knicks fully believe they will get one or two of the following in free agency in 2015 when they expect to have large salary-cap space: Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Roy Hibbert, Marc Gasol, Tony Parker or Rondo when his contract is up. Under certain circumstances, James himself could be a free agent again that summer.

This is what the Knicks do. They did it when they traded for Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Zach Randolph during the disastrous Isiah Thomas era. They did it going into 2010 when they were sure they'd have LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh or Joe Johnson in New York. They ended up with Amar'e Stoudemire, the only player among that group whose previous team didn't offer him a guaranteed max contract.
Even as the rushed pairing of superstars has failed recently with the Los Angeles Lakers and, it currently appears, with the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks appear to want to continue their efforts to go that way.

Wednesday the polished and slowly-built Thunder got 29 points from Kevin Durant, 24 from Serge Ibaka, 18 points from Reggie Jackson and a triple-double from Russell Westbrook. The Thunder are 23-5 now, tied for the best record in the league with the Indiana Pacers and Portland Trail Blazers, all teams led primarily by players they drafted or acquired early in their careers and developed. All three of those teams have beautiful-looking futures.

Perhaps the Knicks shouldn't be blamed. Being a free-agent destination is a rare advantage, even if it is the era when the small-market majority has block voted to make it much tougher to assemble super teams. It's way more fun to hunt for big game, even when you plan the hunt for two years, than it is to gather and trap.
Even now the current team might as well swing for the fences and try to make the playoffs because there's no draft pick coming this season. That's why head coach Mike Woodson continues to stay on the sidelines. The Knicks don't have a good replacement for him available and next summer they can shoot for the stars and offer their coaching position to top names such as Jeff or Stan Van Gundy or use their vacant president position to go after Phil Jackson or something along those splash-worthy lines.

Wednesday, Woodson was once again let down as his team looked to lay down defensively, barely putting up a fight despite the Christmas stage.
"I'm a competitive guy and I want our guys to be competitive," Woodson said. "They weren't good enough, that's why the game was so lopsided."
"The game plan," J.R. Smith said, "was to take [Durant] out of it."

Durant scored nearly a point for every minute he was on the floor. The game plan, indeed, has failed. Many of them do, every season 29 teams' game plans eventually fail. The Knicks are usually among them.

When game plans fail, the prudent move usually is to change them and try something else. The Knicks will have that chance coming up.
But the signals the Knicks are sending is they're just going to change the names and rehash the same routine. One of these cycles, they might figure, it's bound to work.

 

[Carolina Slim]

 

[mvp_status]

I guess everybody is just overlooking the fact that maybe Rondo doesn't even want to play in NY

 

[Trip]

Good to see acquiring draft picks isnt part of the long term plan.

 

[The War Report]

The article just reassures me that this organization is run by a bunch of idiots. They're not thinking about making wise basketball decisions. All they want to do is put asses in seats and make money.