The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets will have to put their rivalry on hold for a few days when the teams will join together to co-host the 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend in New York City.
The Knicks’ home, Madison Square Garden, will host the actual game, set to take place on Sunday February 15, 2015. The Nets home area, the Barclays Center, will handle all the preceding Saturday events, including the 3-point and Slam Dunk Contest.
Knicks owner James Dolan and members of the Nets hierarchy held a joint press conference yesterday to express their solidarity.
“The All-Star Game [is an opportunity] to take a timeout from the rhetoric to promote basketball,” stated Dolan. “[Rivalries] are nothing but good, they’re nothing but fun for the fans and they are great for business.”
The last All-Star game played in NYC took place in 1998.
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No complaints, here — now if we didn’t get the game at MSG, I’d have a few comments. Sorry little brothers, we have seniority. All jokes aside, this will be great for NYC and I’m sure both sides will go all out with perks and extras to win over new fans and have bragging rights. I’m already planning my weekend trip.
JR Smith has been suspended five games without pay for the 2013-2014 season after violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
League sources have disclosed Smith was cited for marijuana, which warrants a five-game minimum.
Smith had a breakout season last year for the Knicks, notching Sixth Man of the Year honors after averaging 18.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. His performance earned him a three-year, 17 million dollar deal with New York earlier this summer.
Smith is expected to miss the first month of the season after undergoing knee surgery in July. The suspension will begin with his first eligible game of the season.
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JR…JR…JR. I guess this should be expected with him having way too much idle time on his hands. I’m not going to flip out about weed, if that’s indeed what he tested positive for, but actually getting caught? JR damn well isn’t the only one in the league that has a recreational puff every now and then, but as a league vet he should know all the tricks to ensure he doesn’t embarrass the team. Leave that fuckery to guys like Michael Beasley.
With that said, I have another concern with whether this is the only drug JR is indulging in. There were rumors in the last few games of the Celtics series, and second round with the Pacers, that it wasn’t just Rihanna’s vagina that had JR playing badly. JR was linked with coke-filled wild parties and that would explain his horrid 33% shooting in the post-season.
What’s done is done. Knicks fans know by now that JR is a knucklehead. But he’s OUR knucklehead, and the man will rightly get a standing ovation at his first home game back.
Backup foward/center Jeremy Tyler will sit out the next 8-10 weeks after undergoing stress fracture surgery on his right foot, the Knicks announced yesterday.
The 6’10, 22-year-old Tyler was signed to a two-year deal last month after a strong showing in the team’s summer league, averaging 12.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
The latest Tyler is expected to return is late November.
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Let’s get all the long-term injuries out of the way now, because I don’t want to be hearing stories like this all season long like last year. On the surface, this looks bad to see another guy hurting, especially with what happened with JR Smith’s injury.
This makes it all the more important that we try to get a decent big (for the little money left, if possible), for our last roster spot. I doubt the Knicks panic and cut Tyler, so we can expect him back just in time to make sure too much wear and tear doesn’t fall on Amar’e and Tyson.
Since everyone is treating Kendrick Lamarlike Roxanne Shante with the answer records, the Knicks’ very own Iman Shumpert has his say on this new track entitled “Dear Kendrick.” The track is produced by J-Muzick.
It’ll be hard for anyone to top Joell Ortizand Lupe’soffering, but this is nice. Shump’s bars are getting better with every track.
No Metta World Peace on this? Iman Shumpert returns to the booth for a freestyle over the Migos underground hit. Among the topics covered is his interaction with Knicks fans on social media, and last season’s return from ACL surgery. Maybe we’ll get a new Shump mixtape before the year is out.
The Knicks have been a roll this week and sewed up one of their last remaining depth roles in signing 9-year point guard Beno Udrih to a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal.
The Knicks have been vigorously pursuing Udrih for the past few weeks. According to undisclosed sources close to Udrih, his main reason for joining the Knicks was a chance to play for a contender.
Udrih averaged 8.2 points and 4.6 assists last season for the Bucks and Magic. Over the last 27 games of the year, Udrih increased his numbers to 10 points per game and six assists while shooting 40% from the field and 39% from three-point range.
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This is a very good pickup, especially at the veteran’s minimum. When Felton went down on Christmas Day last year, the Knicks backcourt suffered greatly with the increased burden on the old legs of Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni. Udrih not only works the pick n’ roll well, but he has a solid mid-range jumper which will be essential in keeping the floor spaced.
The other point guard option was Bobby Brown, who from what I’ve seen is an aggressive point guard with a scorer’s mentality. I wouldn’t have been mad at picking him up, but Udrih’s NBA experience was likely the deciding the factor in NY choosing him.
Considering the limitations we had on the financial end, we’ve made some excellent moves this summer in improving nearly every position.
The Knicks have added much-needed relief to their forecourt depth with the announcement yesterday of signing 6’10 Jeremy Tyler to a reported two-year deal.
The 22-year-old Tyler was the 39th pick in the 2011 draft. Selected by Golden State and later playing for the Hawks, he averaged 3.6 points and 2.5 rebounds over 63 games.
Over the summer league, Tyler showed marked improvement in his rebounding and interior offense, being a surprise standout averaging 12.8 points and 6.4 rebounds over 17 minutes per game.
Tyler is expected to provide backup minutes for Tyson Chandler and also at his natural power forward position.
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This is an excellent signing. Tyson Chandler is not had a legit backup at the center position since he’s been a Knick. Yes, Tyler is billed as a power forward, but at 6’10, 260 pounds, he can definitely be a solid contributor at center in today’s league. Tyler has shown he can be aggressive, has no signs of being injury-prone, and most importantly, is young. He’s certainly a project, but his game and mentality will benefit greatly by being surrounded with veterans like Kenyon Martin, Chandler and Metta World Peace (yes, I included Metta’s crazy ass…).
View the clip below and get familiar with our latest signing.
With Carmelo Anthony potentially hitting the free agent market before the 2014-2015 season, everything the Knicks star says about the team will be dissected. In many cases, the dissection will be result in over-analysis, as evidenced by Melo’s recent statement over the weekend at his Queens youth camp that his window for a title is “closing.”
Below is the quote in its entirety courtesy of the New York Post.
My window is closing. I’m trying to bring a championship to New York ASAP.
He clarified that he was not speaking about his specific time with the Knicks, and addressed that he’s not considered the possibility of leaving.
As far as ruling anything out, I haven’t thought about anything beyond today. My mind is not thinking about next offseason right now. I’m trying to do what I do this offseason, get right, work out, train and prepare myself for this season. When that time comes, I’ll deal with that. It’s not something I’m thinking about right now.
New York is the greatest city to play in the world.
I think I’m in better shape than at the Olympics. I’ve been doing what I’m supposed to be doing. At this point, I feel I’m in that [Team] USA shape right now.
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If this conversation had been held in private, I believe Anthony would have further clarified that the window for this team with himself, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler as the focal points is closing. This team is in the last year of a “win-now” 3-year title plan and it’s clear that while the Knicks have definitely improved over the previous 10 years of ineptitude, the organization is still well short of being a title contender. That won’t change until Amar’e’s big contract comes off the books and the team has the ability to sign a legit second option for Melo. The current team was a gamble with Stat’s injury history and unfortunately it didn’t pay off. Nonetheless, unless the team completely crashes and burns this season, it’s difficult to imagine Melo walking away from a team that’s given him the keys to the city and made it clear he’ll have a huge say in determining the new big signings in 2015.
This off-season saw some hopeful additions with Metta World Peace and Andrea Bargnani, and resigning key contributors from last season in JR Smith and Kenyon Martin. Not to mention there’s still a few rosters spots left to strengthen our point guard and center/forward positions. Rest easy, Knicks fans — I think Melo will be with us well past next year.
An MRI on Wednesday (May 22) revealed that Carmelo Anthony played the last two months of the season with a partially torn labrum.
Had the injury been a full tear, Anthony would have been required to undergo surgery and a 3-5 month recovery period. The Knicks medical staff is hopeful Anthony can make a full recovery via 3-4 weeks of rest. He will be reevaluated in late July.
Anthony originally suffered the labrum tear during a collision with Indiana Pacer David West during a regular season game on April 14. Anthony played all 12 Knick playoff games before the team was eliminated last week.
Anthony shot 45% during the regular season but saw his efficiency dip to 40% during the playoffs.
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All things considered, Melo had a great year and one of the best of his career. He secured his first scoring title, lead the Knicks to 54 wins (a first in 13 years) and a decent playoff run. Nonetheless, I believe this injury, and the other ones he suffered throughout the season, is a clear indicator a major change needs to happen regarding Anthony’s “role.”
What role am I speaking of? The one that’s required Anthony to play the power forward position for most of this past season. Melo’s a strong small forward who should only play the four in spots. Banging with bruisers inside like David West on the regular is too much over the long haul of a season. We can only hope Amar’e Stoudemire actually stays healthy for once and pulls his weight at his natural position.
Not in our house! Who do you think we are, the Brooklyn Nets? The Knicks dug deep and took advantage of the Pacers missing their point guard George Hill to stay alive with a 85-75 win at Madison Square Garden. The motto is take it one game at a time, and New York made some improvements that we’ll hopefully see in Indiana on Saturday.
DEFENSIVE ADJUSTMENTS: It only took us being sent to the brink of elimination for Coach Mike Woodson to realize the constant post double-teaming and defensive switching was a death sentence against Indiana. Chandler didn’t score much (2 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks), but in the first half he played Hibbert straight up and protected the paint. This killed Indy’s ability to find open treys and forced everyone else to become playmakers, resulting in them shooting 27% in the first quarter and 29% for the half.
The Knicks weren’t exactly on fire themselves, but JR Smith was slowly finding his shot (9 points on 3/5 first half shooting) and Melo kept the team in front with 15 first half points. Melo contributed to Roy Hibbert getting in foul trouble which opened up the paint. Unfortunately, he Knicks didn’t close the first and second quarters particularly strong and had to settle for a 40-34 halftimelead.
THE DEFINING PLAY: The 3rd quarter looked shaky early on with the Pacers hitting back to back threes to pull within two (42-40). To make matters worse, Tyson Chandler picked up a bad fourth foul sending him to the bench. But from there, Raymond Felton (12 points) came alive and began working smooth pick n’ rolls with K-Mart (7 points) that lead to layups and a key fourth foul on Hibbert. Chris Copeland’s three-point offense lead to some breathing room (53-44) and set the stage for the biggest sequence of the game.
JR Smith turned the ball over leading to a 2-on-1 Indy fast break. DJ Augstin blew the layup, but Paul George recovered on the perimeter and drove right back to the basket to miss his own contested layup. The Knicks raced back and Felton found Copeland open for a three. He missed, but Felton secured a hard rebound and kicked it to an open JR, who also missed. This time, Copeland snatched the offensive rebound inside and nailed a baby hook to extend the lead to 59-48, the largest of the game for the Knicks to cap a 12-4 run.
From that point on, I felt highly confident the Knicks would keep their poise.
COPELAND ARRIVES: After his bad play against the Celtics, Woodson have lost all faith in Copeland. This was the reason he only looked Cope’s way again out of the desperation of avoiding elimination. We saw last night that was probably Woody’s biggest mistake of the series.
The Pacers had been able to focus on Melo and JR since our lineups were composed of guys who weren’t offensive threats (Jason Kidd glaringly stands out). With Cope out there draining threes (13 points, 3/4 from downtown), the floor opened up and it allowed Melo and even JR to work better without multiple Pacers being so quick to collapse on them.
The biggest Copeland moment for me was seeing him barking at Amar’e Stoudemire about a missed defensive assignment. That let everyone know he wasn’t deferring to anyone not pulling their weight.
STAT’S CONTRIBUTIONS: Speaking of Stat (2 points, 2 rebounds), it seems most people are realizing there isn’t much he’s going to be able to do unless we make it do the conference finals. It took him close to the 10 games to get back to form in January after the first injury. For now, all I hope for is that he’s not a defensive liability in his limited minutes.
JR IMPROVES: Our Sixth Man of the Year isn’t completely himself yet, but he helped way more than he hurt last night. JR went 4/11 for 13 points.We got a few bad shots, but he kept his head in the game. The public Rihanna dis may be just the wake-up call he needed.
MELO THE CLOSER: Melo had 28 points on 12-28 shooting. Not spectacular on paper, but he did what we always want of him, and that’s close the show in the fourth. He went MIA in games three and four, but this time he was an active on both sides of the ball. He took Paul George in the post, drew fouls (a 5th on Hibbert) and hit clutch fadeaways. In addition, he got a jump ball, adding to three consecutive Indy turnovers in crunch time. Over the final 2-3 minutes, the Knicks were able to ice this game behind a 10-4 run.
HOW ABOUT OUR DEFENSE?: We’ve been hearing all series about Indy’s great D. Last night, the Knicks held them to 36% shooting and 19 turnovers. And remember Woody, all these from minimal double teams and switching!
BRING THAT POISE TO INDIANA: In the huddle, Pacers coach Frank Vogel was heard saying once the game got to around 2-4 points, we would start feeling the pressure. Well, the Pacers were never able to secure the lead, showing that when focused and relying on each other, the Knicks are a match for any team in this league.
A bigger test happens on Saturday when we return to Indiana. We haven’t won there all year, but our chances are very good if George Hill sits again with his concussion. If he plays, the challenge is much more daunting. Either way, the Knicks will have to play again with the passion of knowing their playoff lives are on the line.
NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST 