Knicks Knotes

I always thought J Kidd would be a coach one day… but, didn’t think that would be today.

The Nets decided to move forward and hire Jason Kidd as their head coach… Jason Kidd, who is only a few weeks removed from actually playing in a basketball game.

I have a lot of love for Kidd, but I think this may be a bit too soon for him. The Nets better make sure he has a good staff around him because he’ll soon realize he may be in over his head.

I’m sure he’ll get the ego management part of the job right off the bat - but the X’s and O’s/Playing Time part may take a bit.

Good luck to him.. but not too much. Don’t want the Nets to actually be a better team now.

Options are few.

One of the biggest issues with the Knicks up until last season and this season has been stability in the roster.

We never really had a two or three guys to build around since the early 2000s. 

Isiah attempted this by building around Stephon, J Crawford and Eddy Curry. We all know how that went.

Grunwald’s plan is to build around Amare, Melo and Chandler. We have a young piece in Shumpert - but everything else is just filler. JR was great because he emerged as a second banana and he only made 3 million last season. But, he’s a free agent this year and most likely will be getting raise.

So here’s our team next season - players that are under contract:

Depth Chart:

PG: Felton, Kidd
SG: Shumpert
SF: Melo, Novak
PF: Amare
C: Tyson, Camby

Total Salaries: $73,831,215

To-Do List this Off-Season:

• Solidify Bench: With only eight players signed, we need to fill out our bench and it starts with JR Smith. He basically shot himself out of a big deal this summer, so the Knicks should be able to re-sign him at the $5 million for 4 seasons they can offer. Even if he gets a great deal from another team - I have a feeling he’ll opt for New York.
• Rebounding: HUGE weakness that was absolutely exposed by the Pacers. We need to get tougher inside. It’s either Tyson/Camby/STAT/Melo making a full time commitment to rebounding the basketball (not likely) or we get someone to do it for them. It would be great to have Kenyon back, but not sure that will happen. We have the mini-Mid Level Exception (about $3 million) to sign someone. If not, then will have to luck out again asking a veteran to come to the team and play for the minimum.
• Backup Point Guard: With no guarantee that Pablo is coming back to New York (the NBA yes, but he never said anything about the Knicks) and Jason Kidd being old as hell (yes, Pablo is old too), the Knicks need to look into a back up point guard to Ray Felton.
• The Draft: Do we fill a need (a big man or PG) via the draft or free agency? I’ll have a follow up post on who the Knicks should be targeting with the 24th pick this year.

The Knicks are fairly limited to what they can do since they are over the cap and near that tax apron of $74 million.

Unless Grunwald pulls off something crazy - (sign and trades get a bit complicated when over the tax apron)… we’re pretty much stuck with these eight guys and some filler players.

What do you guys think our biggest need is? Any potential free agents you wouldn’t mind seeing a Knick uniform?

Another season has closed and I wanted to take a moment and thank you guys for keeping up with the blog.

When I first started this thing, I was literally only writing to myself.

Somehow - and I’m still not really sure how - a lot of you guys started following.

Special shout out to:

therealbigs
blancita
tensionandthrill
iadoree-xb
steffierenee
thatrealish
marcusjohn
thenalu
rzepka
musicalgenius51

For being the first 10 to follow the blog.

If I had the attention span to individually call out all my followers.. trust me, I would!

The season didn’t end the way we all wanted to, but … that’s what next season is for.. and the season after that and after that.. and so on.

What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome?

Is being a fan of the Knicks a form of insanity?

Ha, probably.

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you to my followers on Tumblr and certainly to my readers outside of Tumblr.

I post as a result excitement, confusion, anger, distaste.. pretty much every emotion on the spectrum.

But, what has emerged as the main reason I post?

You guys.

Oh… as with every off-season, the frequency of posting will slow down a bit. I’ll figure out new things here and there over the next few months to keep things interesting.

I’ll start this by saying, I realize the Knicks are light years apart from the piece of crap squad James Dolan had running around on the Garden floor throughout the 2000s. The team this year was INFINITELY better.

But, with low expectations… it just doesn’t hurt as much when your season is over.

The 2012-2013 New York Knicks were built to win “now.”

I believed in the plan of surrounding our core guys (Melo, STAT, Chandler, Felton, JR, Shump) with veterans.

This year’s team was different. I expected them to perform well. In fact, they exceeded my expectation by winning the Atlantic Division and earning a two seed in the Eastern Conference.

Before the season started… I wanted just a first round win. Maybe I should have stuck with that expectation.

But along the way - I started believing. Things were just falling into place. There were key injuries (Rondo, Granger, Rose, Bynum) and key departures (Dwight Howard to LA, Joe Johnson to BK) that pretty much opened up the Eastern Conference for the Knicks.

As the season progressed, I truly felt we were on a collision course to face Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals. From that point, who knows what would have happened?

I know Miami would have beaten us, but deep down - I want to believe we had a shot … based solely on Miami one weakness - defending the three pointer - being our biggest strength. There is a reason why we went 3-1 against them in the regular season (granted key players were out for Miami that last game).

If the Knicks had any chance at winning a title in the near term… it was this year.

But that all came crashing down against the Pacers. The f*cking Indiana Pacers.

So what happened in that series? Pretty simple.

We had no answer for Roy Hibbert - yes Tyson was hurt, but… Kenyon couldn’t keep him out of the paint either. Makes you wonder where the hell was Camby?

Indiana OWNED the glass - they are the best rebounding team in the league and it showed. Each player on their team rebounds the ball well… and it annoyed the hell out of me that we couldn’t keep Lance Stephenson off the boards. Every rebound took so much effort from us. Nothing was easy.

Non-Existent Three Point Shooting - Indiana showed off why they were the best at defending the three ball. Yes, JR was in a slump… but the Pacers had something to do with it too.

When you look at it like that - our chances were pretty slim against Indy. They’re two biggest strengths - Rebounding and Perimeter Defense - is the formula for shutting our team down… and it worked big time.

So now what?

In short - we’re stuck with this team for the next two season. A lot of little things can happen to change the make-up… but for now - be prepared to go into next season with mostly the same squad.

My next post will take a look at our options in the off-season.

Till then, I’m going to go back to curling up in a little ball of sorrow that I came out of just to write this post.

Just kidding… not really, but.. you know.

One thing I’m looking forward to next season? Iman Shumpert.

Hibbert was just way too much, had no answer for him. Couldn’t get him out of the paint, couldn’t attack him.

Melo was huge this game, but faded at the most important time.

Can’t say enough about Iman. Gave us a shot.

Good luck against Miami, Indy.

Series: Indiana Leads 3-2
Betting Line: Pacers by 5.0 (O/U 178.5)

Let’s see if we can keep this momentum going… well, we kind of have to, don’t we?

Knicks are in full on survival mode.

JR Smith took a huge step forward last game in regaining his shot/confidence. He’s not all the way there yet.

We haven’t won a game in Indiana yet this series. It’s a tough place to play and the Pacers seems like a completely different team when they play at home… especially Hibbert. Appears his motor jams up when he is traveling.

I’m going through every single emotion you can right now waiting for this game to start.

I don’t want the season to end just yet.

Let’s bring this shit back to the Garden!

Game Note: Frank Vogel said he is preparing for the game as if George Hill is NOT playing. Won’t know for sure until we get closer to the game.