The Good: The Starting Unit looked like a finely tuned machine. They appeared to be as
advertised by Nate McMillan. Prepared, focused, energetic. We jumped to an early lead and the starters
never faltered. In particular Vin Baker was amazing, Gary Payton possibly looked better than ever, and
Calvin Booth appeared to be the perfect compliment to our squad. He was very active on defense and
hitting the boards while not demanding the ball on offense. The two times they decided to leave him to
double another player, he made them pay by swishing a couple of pretty jump shots.
The Bad: Our bench looked (as expected) young. Radmanovic showed some real flair but had
trouble converting and Drobjnak needs to trade in his lead boots for a pair of Nikes. The dude is just slow.
He does seem to be a very heady and effective player and I think he’ll be a fine backup but physical
limitations may hold him back from being the player I thought may be.
Jerome James didn’t show much and Earl Watson didn’t play.
Now I’m not a professional NBA writer but I want to point out a few serious flaws in their logic.
1) In Avalon’s own words our management was unable to trash the roster and start over. While that hurts our rebuilding effort it does mean that we return Gary Payton and Vin Baker. In my mind that helps greatly with our win/loss record this season and any team with GP should be ahead of the Clips and Warriors in my book.
2) In the Dallas Mavs review they point out how sorely Calvin Booth will be missed and tout him as a big loss for the Mavs. Somebody please explain how he can be a huge loss for a playoff team but a lousy acquisition for an average contract by a rebuilding team?
3) Heres why I’m pissed: This same reputable publication that gives us a C- actually give the NY Knicks' off season a B+. They praise the acquisition of Clarence Weatherspoon at the same contract as Booth and seem to think that the acquisition of Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson will help the team. Seattle gets blasted for not addressing its weaknesses but somehow the Knicks come out golden when they still don’t have a true center, a high end PG, and managed to clear out their cluttered roster by winding up with 7 PF’s and 3 average PGs. Avalon lost all credibility with this one .…
Brent Barry may have a breakout season. He seems to be thriving in the “Double Post Offense” that Nate has implemented. The offense is basically this: Instead of having your PG at the top of the key orchestrating the offense with two players on the wings the team will have 2 guards (or even a guard and a forward) spaced off center at the top of the key. They will both set the offense and basically be interchangeable as PG/SG reacting to the defense. It should cater wonderfully to our team that has great jump shooters, a PG who plays great SG, and several SG’s who can distribute the ball. Barry and Payton together at the top of the key will be tough to defend and I look for big things from Bones this year.
As mentioned earlier I’m on the road. I haven’t had a lot of time for this column and do not have time to check statistics or proofread information. Future columns should be better but if the Knicks actually have 8 PF’s on their roster please don’t send me hatemail. It’s the preason anyway so none of this matters ….
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