Friday, February 25, 2005

The Cautionary Tale of the GM who Cried Trade


Gather round the campfire children, as the Knickerblogger weaves a yarn full of terror, suspense, and daring-do......

There once was a land of winter and ice, where polar bears and east European hockey players roamed the tundra in search of penguins and their pucks. Then a magical film based on a more magical book spawned a renaissance of the Jurassic era which oddly enough brought a basketball team to the tundra. The polar bears rejoiced while the east Europeans were afraid. Would the people of Toronto, embrace Mr. Naismith's game from the south and shun their unshaven hockey heroes of old?

Well, it turns out that hockey players were to be safe, albeit only for a short spell, as the basketball team was entrusted to the most genial of GMs, a fantastical man who made his name displaying his most mesmerizing talents. Isiah was his name and he brought a smile that shown brighter than the Canadian sun. The reception for the Raptors was never far greater than luke-warm, but let us not forget that in those mountainous climes luke is as warm as it ever gets.

Now the future was bright, but all was not right. The basketball bounced, the nba on nbc pundits pronounced, and the Raptors were too frequently trounced. The team floundered, opportunities were squandered, and not even Marcus Camby could swat the trouble away.

In the darkest dark of the Candian night, Isiah strove south with suspicious speed as fast as he feets thought that they might....

(to be continued)

*I can't deal with Isiah right now, and by extension the team. The Knickerblogger will be back in section 302 tomorrow night for the Pacers game and Reggie Miller's last appearance on the Garden court. Actual coverage of the team, and what the recent trades have turned the team into will return to its regularly scheduled time after that. At present the depression and rage are too fresh to think objectively. So, stay tuned for the ongoing saga of The Tale of the GM Who Cried Trade.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Happy Deadline Day!

(someone please disable Isiah's cell-phone and buy this man a calculator)

Hot off the presses, the Knicks have traded away both backup point guards and two centers in exchange for more Malik Rose, San Antonio's first rounder, Maurice Taylor, both players' bad contracts, and the exclusive rights to the future bad contract that Knicks management will offer to the aformentioned draft pick. Happy Deadline Day, indeed.

developing....

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Knicks' Comeback Stalls in Motor City

Tough Game #1 of the second half is behind us. The Knicks are one loss closer to the lottery and another win shy of the playoffs. The final score of 97-88 does not convey the tone of the game as the Pistons led wire to wire and would intermittently pull ahead by 13-17 points. A quick, meaningless spurt during garbage time kept the final score respectable, and must have drawn the ire of those in attendance as the game was prolonged by a series of Knicks' timeouts. In the end, there was just bad news all-around as the Pistons threw one alley-oop to a backdoor cutter after another. The Knicks big men were as ineffectual as the Pistons were dominant. Oh, and the Pistons didn't even have their coach as Larry Brown was kept behind closed doors with the flu.

Marbury summed it up himself when he said, "right now, we're just not that good."

the news....
NY Times
NY Post
NY Daily News

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Knicker-Blogger's Second-Half Preview

For the sake of argument, for the sake of this website, and for the sake of rationalizing all the money that has been spent on ticket plans, souvenir cups, and throwback jerseys (purchased thankfully on ebay rather than at the Garden) let us say that the Knicks are going to pull themselves up by their high-top straps and make the playoffs. Let us talk about this with out a hint of cynicism, let us drink the kool-aid that they must have been serving at Knicks practice yesterday as everyone talked about the playoffs and second-half turnarounds.

The New York Knicks, currently with a record of 21 wins and 32 losses, will make the 2005 NBA playoffs if.....

1) The Knicks can make the playoffs IF they can stay healthy. Over the late stretch of horrible-ness they have been decimated by injury. For this team to turn it around they need Timmy Thomas' finger to heal, Nazr's groin to stay strong, Crawford's ankle to holdup, and the Junkyard Dog's foot to stay on the floor. And of course, it wouldn't hurt to have Houston's knees un-arthritic.

(and speaking of Houston....)

2) The Knicks can make the playoffs IF Allan Houston realizes that he is not going to get back to 100% this season. If Allan were to realize his current limitations and accept them, he could still play 15-20 minutes most nights. Even as he has dragged his knees around the court this season the majesty of his jumpshot is still unmistakable.

3) The Knicks can make the playoffs IF they play better down the stretch than every other team in the Atlantic and the Chicago Bulls. Not to just state the obvious, I've broken out the abacus, carried the 1, and done the math on this:

The teams that the Knicks currently trail in the Atlantic are Boston (-6 games), Philadelphia (-5) games and New Jersey (-2 games). Of these teams, only Boston and Philly would qualify for the playoffs if they started today. Boston would be the 3rd seed as the winner of the Atlantic Division and Philly would be the 8th seed. New Jersey should be mentioned along with these two as the old and newly-improved Vince Carter gives the Nets a puncher's chance to make a run. Lastly, the Chicago Bulls would be the 7th seed out of the central division.

How many of the Knicks remaining 29 games will they have to win to pass these teams for a playoff spot?

The crime lab down at Knicker-Blogger headquarters has come up with a formula to tabulate how these competing teams will likely finish the season.
Top-Secret Super Formula:
3 parts current winning pct. + 1 part winning pct. over last ten games

By this math (and be forewarned that the Knicker-Blogger has no love of math, and majored in English as a younger man), the teams will finish with the following records:
Boston: 46-36
Philly: 42-42 or 41-43
NJ: 39-43
Chicago: 45-37

Boston won't likely finish that well, but we must trust in the power of the formula (and least the knowledge that between Boston/Philly/NJ one of them will finish that well). So, if these records are approximately accurate then the Knicks need go at least 20-9 down the stretch which would put them at 41-43. Realistically (well, not really), they probably need to go 21-8 or 22-7, unless two of the teams above them collapse. Now, Philly or Boston collapsing seems about as likely as NJ making a good run (read: likely to quite likely), but that still leaves the Knicks outside looking in.

Looking at the remaining games it isn't out of the question (as long as the question is being answered by the type of folk reading this site) for the Knicks to actually do this. Giving them the wins they should have (against the likes of Atlanta, Charlotte, etc.) the team must win 6-8 of the "tough" games.

Tough Games:
Indiana (they play Indiana 3 more times and I have placed one of the two home games into the "should win" category), Washington (also 1 of the two home games against Washington is a "should win."), Seattle, Miami, San Antonio, @Detroit, @Orlando, @Miami, @Seattle, @Lakers (the home game versus the Lakers is a questionable "should win."), @NJ (home game versus NJ is in "should win" category, but is more of a "must win."). @Indiana, and @Cleveland.

Should the Knicks win 6-8 of these and win the easier games on the schedule they will be in contention to for a playoff spot in the last week of the season...

Tough Game #1 is tonight in Detroit. This game holds "tough game" status only because the Pistons are the defending champs (and because they walloped the Knicks last time the teams met). Still, the Pistons have been lackluster and inconsistent this season, and have shown themselves to be beatable.

Please pass the kool-aid, Maholo.