Kiyaman

List your 8-best Knick players this season to see if Isiah Thomas have them in his 9-Man rotation:


1) Marbury (whenever he wants to be)
2) Francis (anytime he wants to be)
3) Lee (Dont be suprise he is a WINNER)
4) Frye (is his confidence back)
5) Jefferies (he will do his thang)
6) Curry (has he learned he is THE MAN)
7) Crawford (Best Pure SG on the Roster)
8) Nate (his will to play BIG is HUGE)

9) Jalen (he is the Point-Foward on this Roster)
10) Taylor & James (Capabilities are there, the lazyness is holding them back)
11) Malik (Assistant Coach like Avery Johnson)

Sorry but Q.Richardson has fooled alot of people in his one season tenure with Nash, Joe, Marion, Amare, and Jim Jackson. Phoenix Suns gave away their first round pick to get Q.Rich off their team weeks after the season ended. Call it injured Back if you like, but the Clippers was right Q.Rich is only MLE.

USSKittyHawk

Good topic, and I like that list. I'm not a Q Rich fan either after last season he was Larry Brown's favorite. I would have expected him to play lot better since he was the teacher's pet. I guess you say the Suns knew what they were doing. I'm not sure about Nate Robinson, he seems erratic and IMO I don't think he is really that good. I love the hype, and the energy but he isn't someone I would get my hopes up for. He looks like a show boater and nothing more. Curry is a huge question mark. I'm a give him a pass last season due to the fact that he wasn't able to work out like he should due to the medical issues. If he doesn't come in camp in shape and improve his overall basketball IQ then we are screwed. I think the season rests on his shoulder more than any other Knick. Francis has the talent no question, but he just have to have the desire and listen to direction from Isiah and stop acting like you don't want to be in New York. Jamal Crawford is a very streaky shooter, but I saw a drastic improvement last year under LB. I hope he can keep it up and play well for us this season. Steph will bring on the court that's not an issue, let's just see if he can follow Isiah's direction and if things go bad how will he respond. This is going to be the most anticipated season in a long time.

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cpawfan

I'd put Q and both first picks above Mo Taylor. Calling him lazy is being nice.

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TwinkieFoot

My Ronald Balkman/Quentin Richardson/Ime Udoka...SG/SF starting lineup would be:
Stephon Marbury...PG
Steve Francis...SG
Jared Jefferies...SF
Channing Frye...PF
Eddy Curry...C

My bench rotation would be:
Jamal Crawford...G (creating a breather for both Steph and Steve)
Ronald Balkman/Quentin Richardson/Ime Udoka...SG/SF (the purpose of having anyone of these 3 in the lineup is to create a physical defensive player to compliment a finesse defender like Jefferies in the back-court)
[b]David Lee[/B]...PF (Although I'd only play him at this one position, he'd be able to sub in for both Frye and Curry because either one of those two could play the 5)

I like this lineup because it has the ability to go both defensive and offensive simultaneously or exclusive. If Curry is out of shape, I'd pull him in the first quarter quicker and sub in David Lee for extended minutes. I mentioned using Richardson in the lineup because although he isn't the player we all thought him to be, last year he proved to be a pretty solid physical defender. By physical defender, I mean a guy that can put a body on a guy on the perimeter. When you play guys like the Paul Pierce's and Lebron James' of the league you especially need that because they will post you up all day if you don't have someone that can at least attempt to distract them. Richardson has proven he is capable of doing that against both guys so I believe he may have an advantage over both Balkman and Ime (if he's even on the team) because of his rebounding ability and range to the 3. The next best thing Ime does is handle the ball besides defense and we already have that in the lineup with Jefferies and Crawford besides Marbury and Francis. Balkman rebounds and blocks shots but Jefferies does both as well so I think Richardson would be my guy. It would have been nice just to have a shot blocker off the bench but I think we'd be solid just working this 8 man rotation which provides alot.

An interesting lineup I'd like to see would be Marbury, Francis, Richardson, Jefferies and Frye. Although this is amazingly small from what I first thought, I think we would be able to run guys out of the building during certain stretches of the game and still be able to rebound. If you guys care why, I'll explain in a later post why I also like this lineup.

P.S., I know I raised some eyebrows not including Robinson in the lineup but I just feel he doesn't add dimensions to the team that we already don't have. He's a scoring but we can score already as well as handle the ball from multiple positions and PG's. He's young right now so he can have a seat on the bench a continue to developing lacking PG skills.

kconn61686

1. Francis
2. Frye
3. Crawford
4. Rose
5. Marbury
6. Quentin Richardson
7. Jared Jeffries
8. Eddy Curry

EwingStarksOakley94

One questions... is everyone listing their 8 in order? 1 being the, um, "bestest" and 8 being the 8th best player? If that's the case, let the disagreements fly! LOL!

Anywho, here's mine...

1) Marbury
2) Francis
3) Crawford
4) Curry
5) Frye
6) J. Rose (like I needed to specify the J! Just kidding Malik! ...not really)
7) Richardson
8) Jeffries

yup, waaaaay to many guards.

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Ruff Draft

My list is the same as his.

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Da Grinch

1. marbury
2. francis
3 crawford
4. frye
5. curry
6. nate
7.jalen
8 Qrich

but in reality its way too many guards in this group so i think richardson and jalen wont even play much just because you aren't going to take the ball from francis , marbury and crawford just to give it to them, you need guys who do other things like play D and rebound and those guys like jeffries , balkman, jerome james and david lee will get time ahead of them.

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EwingStarksOakley94

I agree with you Grinch. There just ain't that many balls to go around! Especially if we're gonna look to get Curry involved more with the scoring. That's why QRich should get traded.

But I don't think Balkman and Lee will play that much, especially Balkman. Unfortunately I think Malik and Taylor will gobble up the minutes that would be better used by a young stud like Lee. Balkman will be on the IR or the NBDL to start the season. Unless Zeke wants to eat some contracts.

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Da Grinch

malik possibly because he can actually play defense , but if Mo t is playing ahead of david lee i may have an issue with that .

i really wouldn't have too big a problem with balkman and collins in the nbdl if they aren't getting time in the big leagues especially balkman who talents are duplicated basically by jeffries and some parts of his game need tightening up.

collins just needs to adjust to the nba and he'll be fine, but the worst things for young players is to just sit around and let their skills erode.

i like Q rich , i agree he is not really needed but i dont mind him on the roster as insurance in case some1 goes down, most teams have marginal nba players in that role and when some1 gets hurt they go in the toilet, with richardson an injury to a 2 guard or a small forward wont be so severe.

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EwingStarksOakley94

Grinch, my friend, you are a wise man. Great post.

I'll be right with you when Mo gets playing time over Lee. I'd much rather see Lee out there. I just think that Zeke is gonna play the boys making the bucks. Plus he may want to showcase (yikes) Mo in order to trade him by the deadline. Although I would rather see him let his contract expire.

Good point about Q. I hear where you're coming from.

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Gotham2krazy

1. Stephon Marbury (I don't like it, but Isiah loves it)
2. Steve Francis
3. Jamal Crawford
4. Channing Frye
5. Eddy Curry (Can I get a kick out?)
6. David Lee
7. Quentin Richardson
8. Mardy Collins (I should be known as the delirious knick fan =D)

TwinkieFoot

Last year, Richardson often played off the ball and seemed willingly to sacrifice for whatever he thought Larry Brown wanted. Whether he is willing to accept a backseat in the future for the long haul in his mid 20's is a different story but at least it appears he's open to trying new things. If he continues this trend then I could see him not necessarily hurting team chemistry next to Marbury or Francis since he's never been big on holding the ball in the past. I think more importantly is that Richardson is much more than a scorer which he has proven since being in the league. He rebounds the ball quite well, commits to defense and has shown the willingness to step up and lead a team vocally in the locker room. I say keep him in the rotation till he proves himself not worthy or we find someone better.