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It has been one full year of having the pleasure of blogging with some of the sharpest basketball minds in cyberspace.  Thank you for reading and contributing to Knicks Defense.  It has been a blast.  I look forward to next season, which will hopefully–not definitely–bring improvement to our troubled Knicks.

In just one year, through a myriad of debates and opinions, we blogged in 223 posts and 23425 comments on our New York Knicks.  As passionate Knicks fans, we started the game day live blog that is now being copied by the others.   We even managed to offend Frank Isola, so we must have been doing something right.  Some of our best bloggers, through their innovation, invented great catch phrases that are now being used all over the net.

Again, thank you all for just bloggin’ here on Knicksdefense.com.

Just reading the reactions on some of the other blogs to the Renaldo trade.

Were we watching the same Renaldo?

Yes, Renaldo was the best shot-blocker on the team. That’s not saying much when you have Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph up front along with Quentin Richardson. Chandler could have duplicated, if not improved upon, Renaldo’s blocked shots had he gotten any burn.

Yes, Renaldo was a fan favorite at the Garden.   Renaldo is hustle player that will dive for the ball any chance he can get. But was Renaldo developing since we took him at #20 in 2006? What skills did he pick up since that first summer league in Vegas?

Renaldo has limited upside, especially because he can’t shoot. This is very important in D’Antoni’s system, and will be the reason why another fan favorite by the name of David Lee will eventually be shopped and quite possibly dealt for another piece to Walsh’s puzzle down the road.

I like Renaldo and I like Lee, but I realize that the Knicks have not been winning games so it is common sense to me that the makeup of the team should be altered.  It is a little difficult right now to move Q or Jeffries or Randolph, so you start with a Balkman or Lee because they’re still on their rookie contracts.

Walsh is going after team players with clearly developed basketball skills. Not raw athleticism like Trevor or Renaldo, not a guy like Crawford that did not play organized basketball until he was a junior in high school (Jamal is 28, when are people going to stop talking about what Jamal will be, and start to really focus on what Jamal is). Well-roundedness, basketball fundamentals, sharing the basketball, being a good teammate, those are the qualities D’Antoni is looking for, and that’s what Walsh is trying to supply despite the salary cap quagmire.

Over the next two or three years, nobody is safe on this roster.

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In other news, the beginning of August brings us a reminder of some revered people.

Happy Birthday to a few of my favorite people:

Robin : August 3rd

Louis Armstrong : August 4th

my mom : August 5th

Patrick Ewing : August 5th

and, we have a birthday coming up here on Knicks Defense in a few days :  August 6th 2007, our first post.

I apologize for the lack of posts towards the end of July. Not much happening in Knicks land right now, so I figure we might as well take inventory of just what we had at the end of 2007-2008 New York Knicks season, and what exactly we have as of right now, having just past the midpoint of the off-season.

Of course, this can all change at any minute. The powers that be continue to alter this well-documented losing roster. Considering the low stock value of some of our more expensive players, it may take some time to really put together a cohesive and competitive Knicks basketball team.

My barber is from Italy. He’s around 70 years old, an old-school guy named Pete. I don’t know how much Pete really knows about NBA basketball in the 21st century, but I was getting a cut the other day, and I was talking to Pete about D’Antoni and Gallinari and he said “watch them win the title next year.” I laughed, and respectfully replied, “I think it’s going to take a little more time before they can compete for a title.”

But I like the positive thinking. You have to aim high if you’re going to hit your mark. I hear that’s what D’Antoni is all about. I’m just glad they’re no longer pouring gasoline on the salary cap fire. Just because MSG has money to burn doesn’t mean they should literally burn it. We’ve had this problem since the days of Patrick Ewing, trying to get the quick fix. Someone finally stepped up, took the helm and decided to take on a new approach, hopefully the right approach to the problem.

Today MSG gets a new president, and his name is Scott O’Neal.  O’Neal joins the Knicks from across the Hudson River, where he had been a VP at NBA headquarters in Secaucus, New Jersey.  Mills gets bumped down a couple rungs on the ladder, and pulls an Isiah Thomas by unjustly surviving to live another day in New York, despite the atrocities that have been the MSG teams as of late.

No, it is not full accountability, yet, but at least it is slowly beginning to resemble some form of intelligence.

I give Mr. Dolan a little credit for giving these people so much time to fail, but I give him more credit for finally being able to admit mistakes and make long overdue performance-based changes.

If Walsh and D’Antoni don’t work out down the road, I wonder how much time they will be given to prove they are worthy of New York status.

…maybe 2011?

As far as I know, Walsh still reports only to Dolan, so O’Neal’s recent hiring has little effect on what direction Donnie wants to take the Knicks.

Glen Grunwald, you may be next, buddy.

Someone has to answer for the Zach Randolph trade.

I doubt these two former Denver players even made the trip to New York.

As for Renaldo Balkman, best of luck to TAZ in Denver and beyond.  As a rookie, his was the jersey I wanted to get, but last year he did little for the Knicks, so I understand why Walsh pulled the trigger on this deal.  If you’re going to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs.  Everyone knows we are fully stocked–if not overstocked–at the three.

Walsh isn’t finished making deals this summer. The roster is back down to 15 with this move, but you have to think it could easily be 12 or 13 if you consider the Summer ‘08 buyout candidates:  Malik Rose, Jerome James and Stephon Marbury.  Stay tuned for more on those possibilities.

Speaking of Starbury, I heard he has a deal in place with Amazon.com should Steve and Barry’s close their doors due to impending bankruptcy.  I’m hoping someone comes in and buys up Steve and Barry’s because I think they’re doing noble work offering low-cost clothing and shoes to those who don’t want to pay $140 for a pair of Nikes.  It would be a shame if they have to close their doors.

Who knows?  Maybe I’ll rock the Wilson Chandler Ponys in 2008-2009.  Just make sure they make them in Knicks Orange and Blue. Those start at about $60, I hear, or the price of 6.7 pairs of Starburys / Big Bens.

Randolph Morris doesn’t count due to the fact that he never got to play.

And as much as it pains me to write this, Isiah Thomas is still getting paid to be a Knick.

Drum roll, please.

So according to Ken Berger, the first Knick player voted off Donnie Walsh’s island may in fact be… Renaldo Balkman. Who are the Knicks looking to get back in any such rumored deal, you ask? If the Knicks deal to Denver, Berger speculates they’d cut whomever comes back, meaning the 2006 first round pick of Balkman was a complete waste by Walsh and D’Antoni’s standards.

I think Balkman had some really great moments as a Knick during his rookie campaign, but admit that he was basically MIA for a very large percentage of last season. That could be on Balkman for his play in practice (we will never know because those were off limits thanks to the Knicks’ policy the past four years), or on Isiah Thomas for not giving him PT.

If D’Antoni really insists on all of his players being able to shoot the rock, not only is Balkman’s future with the Knicks in doubt, but Mardy Collins, David Lee, Jared Jeffries, Malik Rose, Quentin Richardson and Jerome James should all put some thought into putting any Westchester property they may own on the real estate market to see what it could go for–in case they have a change of address in the months leading up to November, 2008.

If it comes to be true, somebody get ESPN to promote former Knick Greg Anthony. It may turn out afterall that it didn’t matter in the slightest bit what Isiah Thomas remembered about him as a player.

As Steady used to say,

Just bloggin’

After shooting the lights out in the first summer league game, the Knicks have signed Anthony Roberson to a two-year deal believed to be worth the league minimum. Good for Roberson. He looked like Starks a little bit out there with the bombs from downtown. I wonder if he and David Lee played together at all at University of Florida.

Initially shot down by Donnie Walsh in their efforts to get Zach Randolph for salary cap space, the L.A. Clippers went out and pulled the trigger on their second choice for Elton Brand’s replacement, the defensive 4/5 Marcus Camby. Denver took the cap space the Knicks would not. One less team we can trade Zach Randolph to if we are still looking to do that.

I’m not trying to second guess the summer league coaching staff, but if I were for some reason the coach yesterday, I would not have played Gallinari while Robert “Tractor” Traylor was in the game. Traylor comes from a line of NBA players with histories of creating chronic injury where there wasn’t any previously. Karl Malone is another guy that comes to mind.

Tracy McGrady basically was an entirely different player before Traylor tackled him in the air many years ago. Now McGrady has chronic back problems that have limited his ability to get to the rack.

You might say that’s the NBA, and Gallinari should get used to it, and I don’t think Gallinari backed down from Traylor. Gallinari is going to fill out in the years to come, but I think there is nothing to gain putting those two against each other right now, one has a future in this league and the other is just trying to get back in.

Wilson Chandler looked absolutely great in the first game, looking forward to seeing more from our “baby matrix” maybe he’ll earn his own knickname in orange and blue this season. Glad to see he still has his hops and a steady jumpshot from the top of the key.
Nate Robinson is supposed to join the summer league team today, no word yet on if he will be the starting PG for this afternoon’s contest against the Spurs.

“I think he’ll flourish,” said Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Duhon for four years at Duke. “My feeling is he’ll be one of the leaders in the league in assists in Mike’s system. That will make everybody better.”

“I think he’s the kind of guy that the New York Knicks always had,” Walsh said. “A guy that just goes out, plays hard, fits in with the team, has a role to play, will defend. Those are the kind of players we’d like to see on this team.”

So Donnie, care to elaborate as to which players you’d like to see leave this team?

I don’t know about you, but to lead the league in assists implies to me that you are a starting point guard.

Read the full Howard Beck written, New York Times article here.

Anybody see Spike Lee at the draft two weeks ago? That must have been the first time in years they didn’t cut to a close up reaction of Spike after Stern announced the Knicks’ pick. Maybe he’s on location shooting his next film. Or maybe Spike knew it was Gallinari and was boycotting the pick. It would have been interesting to see if he would have gas-faced Gallinari the way he gas-faced a then unknown David Lee back in 2006 at #30.

I think what happened recently with Gallinari and Knicks fans may mirror Spike’s initial reaction to David Lee. Nobody except for a few knew David Lee in 2006, just like right now, not a lot of Knicks fans have seen Gallinari play basketball. They haven’t seen him, but just because he’s a Euro, they think he’s weak, or not athletic enough, or too scared to come over (Fred Weis) to play in the NBA.

If any rookie comes to the garden, and shows he can play, the fans will change their minds, just like Spike changed his mind about David Lee.

Morris blocking rookie of the year, Kevin Durant, during summer league ‘07

Their chances are looking pretty bleak; it is almost a given that neither center Randolph Morris, nor guard Fred Jones, will be back as Knicks this November. Read here as Morris reflects on his time with the Knicks and, more recently, his experience in a Boston Celtics summer camp.

Despite poor effort and conditioning from Knick centers Eddy Curry and Jerome James, for some reason coach Isiah Thomas never seemed to have any use for Randolph Morris last season.

Similarly, for about 85% of the season, Wilson Chandler was wasting his talent riding the pine along with Morris instead of getting some PT ahead of obviously struggling players such as Quentin Richardson.

Despite the dust they each collected, neither player was ever sent to the NBA D-league for player development, or just to flat-out keep their rhythm as basketball players.

It was only when Morris’ former rival and current all-NBA first team selection Dwight Howard called out Isiah Thomas on not playing Morris during a road game in Orlando, that Morris began to see a little daylight from the prolonged solitary confinement. By then it was far too late, however.

Now unsigned, Morris is fighting just to stay in the league.