Game recap

Another spirited loss for the Knicks last night against the Raptors.  I actual felt my excitement and anxiety levels budge while watching the second half.  What did I take away from it all?

  • The Knicks need a true floor general or leader.  I’ve said it before, but there needs to be someone asserting his will on the game and team.  Coach D didn’t even bother with a lifeless Duhon in the 4th, and instead went with Nate, and let Nate be Nate.  Which meant some great one on one play by Nate and even a few good passes, but a gradual deteriation in the offensive flow.  Like last season, what other options does Mike have but to let his players be themselves?
  • Speaking of deteriorating offensive flow…  Al Harrington.  Kudos on trying to tough it out, especially with Jared Jeffries injured, but Al also managed to pour a vat of glue into the Knick offensive machine.  And having him as the fall back option on the last play was not what I’d have drawn up.  Why not get the ball to Lee as the fall back on that play?
  • We missed Jared Jeffries in the second half defensively.  JJ would’ve been able to double down more effectively on Bosh and also would’ve defended the 3 at the top of the circle.  If he’s out for long, that’ll be the final nail in the playoff coffin.
  • As for Bosh, his battle with Lee was great.  That was some old school, nasty basketball going on.  It was almost like Bosh had had enough of Lee besting him in previous games and decided he was going to show Lee what a real max player is all about.  Lee more than held his own, though Bosh made some great blocks and defensive plays in the fourth to win the battle.  Last night might have been one of the first games where I thought, “wow, maybe Chris Bosh is on ‘that’ level.”

The very different implications for the Knicks if the Nets or Twolves win the John Wall Sweepstakes

As of last night, the Knicks hold the 9th worst record in the league.  Or, we could say the Jazz are holders of the 9th pick in the 2010 draft.  Knicks fans can feel pretty comfortable that our squandered pick, the last remnant of the Isiah/Marbury era (Jeffries and Curry contracts aside), will not turn into John Wall.  Unfortunately, there is a real good chance (25% of the pingpong balls) that the Nets may win the Wall lottery.  And, if that happens, the Knicks may be truly screwed.

Imagine this absolute horror scenerio (for Knicks fans).  The Nets concede they are going nowhere fast and decide they are sellers leading up to the trade deadline.  The obvious bait is Devon Harris, who amazingly has a somewhat untarnished reputation despite how terrible the Nets are.  At 9 mil per thru 2013, Harris might be enticing enough to a team that realizes they aren’t getting in on any game-changing free agents this summer.  Somehow the Nets pull a “Suns trading the Knicks Marbury” and trade Harris for expiring contracts.  By doing this the Nets will have roughly $34 mil in cap space this summer (whereas the Knicks will have about $24 mil).   They’ll be the only team that can lock up 2 completely maxed out players.

Fast forward.  The Nets (with 25% of the ping pong balls) win the lottery.  John Wall is the clear pick.  Maybe the most obvious number one pick since… Lebron James.  Oh boy.  Is John Wall enough of a foundation for Lebron and a BFF to come to the Nets.  I think it just might.   Here is the Nets potential starting line-up in 2010:  Wall / James / Yi / Bosh / Lopez.  That’s pretty frightening.

And what if the Timberwolves win the John Wall lottery?  This could be a dream for the Knicks.  Since they’d HAVE to pick Wall, they’d be forced to trade Flynn, Rubio, or Sessions — Rubio being the most likely candidate.  I imagine the Knicks chances of landing Rubio improves greatly if Wall lands on the Twolves.  And, effectively, landing Rubio may make it easier to attract the free agents we are making space for.