Lane Violation

Sessions to Knicks Unlikely

by Charlie on February 1, 2012

The Knicks like Ramon Sessions. It is known.

Sessions is on the trading block. And New York needs help at the point. Match made in heaven, right? Marc Berman seems to think so. He suggested that Glen Grunwald might be able to acquire Sessions for Toney Douglas:

If the Knicks ever got Sessions from Cleveland, it would be a boon for D’Antoni’s job security. Toney Douglas’ option for next year was picked up at $2 million, so he could be of interest to the Cavaliers.

via NYPost.com – Knicks could pursue Cavaliers guard Sessions.

There are a couple of problems with that scenario. The biggest? Sessions’ salary. According to Hoopshype, he’ll make $4.2 million this season. Douglas is making just $1.1 million. With the Knicks over the salary cap, they’d need to match the incoming and outgoing salaries to make the deal.

That brings us to the second problem. The Knicks’ current salary structure looks like this: Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler are making a whole lot of money, while the rest of the team makes practically nothing. To match the salaries, Glen Grunwald would need to include, say, Renaldo Balkman ($1.6 million) and Bill Walker ($900k). That’d still be a pretty good deal… if Cleveland wanted any part of Balkman.

Landry Fields is playing very well – what about using him in a deal? He makes even less than Douglas – just $788k this season. Jerome Jordan might generate some interest, but he makes just $473k. And the players signed as free agents this year – Baron Davis, Mike Bibby, Steve Novak, Jared Jeffries and Jeremy Lin – can’t be traded until March. (And none of them make very much money either.)

Now, unlikely doesn’t mean impossible. Grunwald could enlist the help of a third team that’s under the cap and willing to absorb some of the excess salary. But those teams are usually compensated with draft picks, and the Knicks don’t have a lot of those to throw around either.

Tagged as: marc berman, Ramon Sessions, toney douglas

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No Such Thing as Garbage Time for These Knicks

by Charlie on February 1, 2012

The Knicks got a much-needed win last night, pasting the Detroit Pistons 113-86.

Given the lopsided score, quite a few fans took to Twitter wondering why Mike D’Antoni didn’t pull Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire or Tyson Chandler until the mid-way point of the fourth quarter – especially with three games in three nights looming on the schedule later this week.

To me, the answer is pretty simple: practice. It’s obvious – often painfully so – that the Knicks’ key players have yet to figure out how to get the best out of each other. That comfort level comes from familiarity, from repetition. And with this season’s schedule compressed like ten pounds of… uh… excrement in a five-pound bag… practice time is in very short supply. So why not give Amar’e and ‘Melo and Chandler a little extra run in a laugher, and treat it as a scrimmage?

It also doesn’t hurt to use the time to build the Knicks’ confidence – another thing that’s been in short supply of late.

Tagged as: Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Mike D'Antoni, Tyson Chandler

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Working the Wire: Morrow Pays Immediate Dividends

by Charlie on January 31, 2012

Posted this week’s NBA waiver recommendations earlier this afternoon. One of them is already looking pretty good…

Anthony Morrow (69%/90.2%) – Appears that MarShon Brooks (broken toe) will be out for a while, which means Morrow will have to pick up the slack.

Morrow scored 28 points and was 5-8 from three in the Nets’ 106-99 loss to the Pacers Tuesday night.

The rest of this week’s picks – most of which probably didn’t pay immediate dividends – as well as some educated guesses as to Dwight Howard’s next move are live at Working the Wire: Could Dwight Join Dirk in Dallas? – RotoWire.com. (Subscription required)

Tagged as: Anthony Morrow

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The Play Everyone’s Talking About…

by Charlie on January 31, 2012

I wouldn’t want this to be the only basketball blog on the Web without a clip of Blake Griffin posterizing Kendrick Perkins, so here goes:

Couple of thoughts on the play:

Holy codfish that man can jump.
The fact that Griffin is the size of a sport-utility vehicle makes his vertical all the more impressive.
The “it wasn’t a dunk, it was a throw-down” discussion that surfaced on Twitter afterwards was among the least interesting sports discussions in the history of sports discussions. And coming, as it did, on Super Bowl media day, that’s an accomplishment unto itself.

But perhaps most importantly… the Clippers were up 19 when Griffin hit the shot, 21 after. At some point, isn’t a tear-down-the-rim dunk attempt considered taunting? The basketball equivalent of admiring a home run too long, or an elaborately-choreographed touchdown dance?

Some time soon, Griffin is going to go up for another poster-dunk… and someone is going to lay him out.

Greatest Dunk Ever?

As for that dunk’s place in history… it was awfully impressive, but it was just two points in a Monday night game in late January. As far as I’m concerned, the greatest dunks are the ones that come at a crucial, momentum-changing moment in an important game. Like, say, this one:

I may be biased.

Tagged as: blake griffin, john starks, kendrick perkins

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Looks a Little Bit Like Shaq…

by Charlie on January 26, 2012

Happened upon this on a stock photo site. Had to share, as it is awesome.

Photo: John Grech via stock.xchng

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Carmelo Anthony and Quality vs. Quantity

by Charlie on January 25, 2012

Interesting piece from Art Rondeau regarding Carmelo Anthony and his role in the offense.

If Melo’s going to shoot fewer shots, it should be because he gets the ball less often. Let the point guard (whose position requires more conscious thought anyway), pass to others to balance the load. When Melo gets the ball, he still doesn’t have to jack it up. If he does shoot, the load is being balanced for him. If he doesn’t shoot, it should be because he sees an open teammate, not because he’s taken the time to think about whether he should shoot this time or not.

By all means, read the whole thing here: Melo – Shooting Less w/out Limiting His Shots « Game Time at the Garden of Good and Evil.

I agree with the premise completely… the fact that ‘Melo was forced into a “point forward” role to which he seems ill-suited is a big reason why he was shooting so often.

Running the point means getting the best shot for your team. In Carmelo’s eyes, the “best” shot is whatever shot he can create for himself. And as we saw in the fourth quarter and first overtime of the Denver game, ‘Melo can get a shot off against just about any defender and hit a pretty fair number of them. He’s an excellent passer, but he doesn’t look to pass the same way a LeBron James or Steve Nash does – and at this stage of his career, he’s not going to start.

It’s also worth noting that, for stretches of this season, Anthony’s ball-hoggery was actually warranted. When Landry Fields and Toney Douglas were struggling and Amar’e Stoudemire was nursing a bum ankle, ‘Melo shooting over a double-team was still one of the Knicks’ better options.

I’m not making excuses for Anthony. But I can see how we got here.

I’m sort of rooting for a tighter game tonight, so we can see if Anthony’s new commitment to sharing the ball extends into the fourth quarter of a close one.

Tagged as: Art Rondeau, Carmelo Anthony

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