Tag Archives: Iman Shumpert

Waiver Wire: All-Star Questions

My biggest questions for All-Star Weekend are simple:

“Is there an average NBA fan that can name – without prompting – more than one participant in the Slam Dunk Contest? And if so, does he or she win a prize?”

And …

“Will the notoriously long-winded Alicia Keys finish her halftime performance in less than 60 minutes? Because I sort of suspect that she’ll still be singing in the middle of the third quarter.”

My questions for the second half of the season are a bit more complex, starting with …

Which NBA superstar is fading fastest?

For years, I’ve been avoiding Dwyane Wade in the first round of fantasy drafts, reasoning that, given his injury history, his production will inevitably drop off a cliff. It seems I’ve been fading the wrong All-Star guard.It wasn’t long ago that Deron Williams was just a hair behind Chris Paul in the fantasy point guard rankings. But we haven’t seen him produce at that level for years now. There have been plenty of plausible reasons for his sub-par numbers. He was unhappy in Utah, and then he was playing for an awful Nets team. This year he’s surrounded by talent, but didn’t like Avery Johnson’s offense … and he has dealt with a variety of injuries.

The injuries are most concerning, as they’re really starting to add up. Williams received platelet-rich plasma treatments on both ankles last week, which could indicate that his leg problems are both worse than we thought and not really getting better.

It will be very interesting to see how he plays for the rest of this season and in the playoffs, but as things stand, I won’t be in any rush to draft Williams next year.

How long does an ACL take to heal fully?

Adrian Peterson’s remarkable season – just months removed from a torn ACL – may have given us some funny ideas about how long it takes to recover from that injury. Iman Shumpert’s unimpressive return, and Derrick Rose’s struggles in rehab – should be major reality checks.

As a rookie, Shumpert impressed NBA fans with his quickness, perimeter defense, and ability to get to the rack off the dribble. Since his return from injury, though, he’s been more tentative on both ends of the floor. I’d argue that Mike Woodson’s awkward three-guard lineup, which puts Shump on the floor with both Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd, is part of the problem, but that’s an argument for another column. Is he completely healthy? Is he having trouble trusting the knee? Or did we overrate him based on an impressive debut in a big media market?

I know, that never happens with Knicks players. Hang on, I have to go get my Landry Fields jersey out of the dryer.

Of course, Shump is a marginal fantasy prospect in most formats, unlike Derrick Rose.Like Shumpert, Rose tore an ACL during the first round of the playoffs, but the Bulls’ All-Star guard has yet to make an appearance this season, and recently told reporters that he isn’t close to a return.Rose has even suggested that he’ll sit out the entire season to get the knee back to full strength.

What does this tell us?

1. If you’re one of the players holding on to Rose in a non-keeper league – Rose is 83% owned, so there are a lot of you out there – you might want to consider the possibility of using that roster spot more productively.

2. You’ll also want to be very conservative when considering players like Rajon Rondo or likely lottery pick Nerlens Noel in next year’s drafts.

via Waiver Wire: All-Star Questions – RotoWire.com.

Iman Shumpert is Not a Forward

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My man Jared Dubin (@jadubin5, to basketball Twitter) wrote this article a while back for my site on About.com.

It is still relevant today… but for different reasons.

Iman Shumpert is a shooting guard.

He may not be one right now due to the extenuating circumstances surrounding the Knicks and their lack of a true point guard, but that’s where he should spend the majority of his career. It’s better that we — and more importantly, the Knicks — recognize this now and proceed accordingly, because wasting precious minutes of his career playing out of position any more than he already has will harm and stunt his development.

via New York Knicks – Iman Shumpert is Not a Point Guard.

I’m not a doctor or an athletic trainer or even a basketball coach. I don’t know why Shump – and by extension, the Knicks – have been struggling of late. But to make an educated guess, I don’t think the three-guard lineups Mike Woodson has been using of late are helping matters. The Felton/Kidd/Shumpert grouping means:

Someone is guarding a much bigger player. (Felton on Rudy Gay? Really? On purpose?)
Shumpert is playing out of position on the offensive end. (Is he really the guy we want setting up for a corner three?)
And Jason Kidd is playing too much.

Not sure how to fix this… maybe shake the rust off of Ronnie Brewer and use him at the three more often. Or put Stoudemire back in the starting five and play Anthony at back at the three to start games. Or start Shump at the two and bring Kidd off the bench with JR Smith.

The Case for – and Against – Kostas Papanikolaou

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With the 48th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the New York Knicks select Kostas Papanikolaou. And before those words had fully emerged from Adam Silver’s mouth, Knick fans were in full chicken little mode.

(To be fair, “Papanikolaou” is a mouthful… but Silver can’t even pronounce “Azubuike,” and ol’ Kelenna has been in the league for years.)

Knicks fans, I feel your pain. I cringe whenever the Knicks draft a foreign player. After all, I lived through l’affaire Frederic Weis. But my objection to the Papanikolaou pick has nothing to do with him as a player. By all accounts, he projects as a quality rotation player, a hard worker on both ends of the floor with good size, an improving jump shot, and a knack for coming up big in key situations.

Sounds great. I’ll take him, and three or four more just like him.

Problem is, this Knick team has immediate holes to fill, and Papanikolaou is tied to his Greek team for at least one more season.

General manager Glen Grunwald explained the pick by saying there was no other player available at that spot that they thought could crack the Knicks’ rotation. I’ll buy that… to an extent. But there’s the rotation, and then there’s “the roster.” The latter still has some pretty significant holes. At this point, it appears Jeremy Lin, Steve Novak and J.R. Smith will be back next season, and a favorable ruling in the Waived Player Bird Rights arbitration will give the Knicks the flexibility to add a veteran free agent or two.

Let’s assume they land a veteran point guard from the group of free agents that includes Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Andre Miller and Raymond Felton. That’d give Mike Woodson a depth chart that looks something like this:

PG: Jeremy Lin, Veteran PG

SG: J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert (after January)

SF: Carmelo Anthony, Steve Novak

PF: Amar’e Stoudemire, Josh Harrellson

C: Tyson Chandler, Jerome Jordan

Maybe Landry Fields is back too. And maybe Jared Jeffries comes back, or is replaced by another veteran-minimum big. (I’d love to see Reggie Evans in a Knicks uniform.) That still leaves this team very thin in the backcourt, especially considering the fact that Lin hasn’t proven to be particularly durable, and Lin’s primary backup is almost certainly going to be an older player.

Let’s also consider the experience of last season. Grunwald tipped off the year with a depth chart that listed Baron Davis and Toney Douglas as the top two options at the point. In reality, their third (Shumpert), fourth (Bibby) and fifth (Lin) options at that position wound up playing very significant roles for extended stretches.

Oh, and did I mention… Iman Shumpert won’t be available until early 2013 or so.

I was hoping the Knicks would come out of last night’s draft with another shooter or a developmental point guard… someone like Ohio State’s William Buford, Kansas’ Tyshawn Taylor, Iona’s Scott Machado or Xavier’s Tu Holloway. Taylor went to the Nets (via Portland) with the 41st overall pick; the other three were available at 48.

In Grunwald’s defense, the other three are still available; Machado, Holloway and Buford went undrafted, as teams picking in the bottom of the second opted mostly for international players with “cat walking across the keyboard” names. (I’m pretty sure the Warriors now own the draft rights to Mr. Mxyzptlk.) One or more of the guys I wanted at 48 could still end up playing for the Knicks or the Erie Bayhawks this season.

And according to at least one report, Sam Presti – the current gold standard among NBA general managers – planned to draft Papanikolaou until Perry Jones fell in his lap at 28. He seems to be very well-regarded by people who know European basketball, and I defer to their better-informed opinions.

But if the Knicks go into another season without sufficient depth at the guard spots, we’re going to look back at this pick and scratch our heads.

Iman Shumpert as Tony Allen Redux

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A while back, when the Knick guard making us all giddy was still Iman Shumpert, I suggested that he might someday turn into a player similar to Tony Allen.

I took a fair amount of heat for that from other Knick bloggers and fans who thought I was setting the bar too low. But I considered the comparison to be a compliment – to me, Allen is the type of player that every real contender needs; a wing with the ability to lock down the opposition’s biggest perimeter threat and to hit a big shot on the offensive end when called upon. The more I see of Shump, the more I like the comparison.

Case in point – last night’s game against the Raptors. As well as Jeremy Lin played last night, he had very little luck defending Jose Calderon. Enter Shump…

That steal – and Shumpert’s on-ball defense in general – were keys to the Knicks comeback, as they ended the game on a 13-1 run.

I like where this is headed… by playoff time, the Knicks could have a very solid first unit featuring Lin, Stoudemire, Anthony, Chandler and Fields, with an absolute defensive nuisance of a second unit keyed by Shumpert on guards and wings, Jared Jeffries on bigger threes and fours and Josh Harrellson (a much better defender than we had any right to expect) on big men.

Knicks 111, Bobcats 78

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The Knicks ended a six-game losing streak in impressive fashion, pasting the Bobcats – in Charlotte – by a score of 111-78.

Yeah, you may be thinking… but it was the Bobcats. And I’ll grant you that. Charlotte bears very little resemblance to a good basketball team, and they were playing without starting point guard D.J. Augustin. That said, the Bobcats scored 118 points against the Knicks at MSG on January 4th. And it’s not like the Knicks have been dominant against other second and third-tier clubs of late. A win’s a win, and they needed this one badly.

Some interesting things happened during the game:

Carmelo Anthony scored just one point – and that came on a technical free throw. His previous career low was five. He was 0-7 from the field and 0-2 from three… the technical foul shot was his only trip to the line. But he still had a big impact on the game, with 11 rebounds and four assists.
‘Melo started the game in obvious pass-first mode, as if he was trying to prove that he’s willing to adjust after Saturday night’s debacle. It would have been very interesting to see if that attitude would have survived into the fourth quarter of a tight game.
Anthony also appeared to tweak his right hand or thumb in the third quarter, which might have had something to do with his poor shooting. And he’s already dealing with a sore left wrist and ankle.
Amar’e Stoudemire, on the other hand, played like last year’s version of STAT, scoring 10 points in the second quarter alone and 18 in the game. Mike Bibby helped matters; he seemed to be on a mission to get Stoudemire the ball in good scoring position every time down the floor.
Tyson Chandler just abused Charlotte’s small front line, finishing with 20 points and 17 boards.
Landry Fields stayed hot, scoring 18 points with four boards, five assists, two steals and two blocks. (Note – he’s available in far too many fantasy leagues – he’s one of my Working the Wire picks this week. He won’t be available for long if he keeps playing like this.)
Iman Shumpert – another Knick that has been accused of taking too many shots at times – had nine attempts but only one make. He did have five rebounds, helping the Knicks pad their 53-33 edge in that department.

For added fun, the Erie Bayhawks looked pretty good in garbage time. Jeremy Lin scored eight points in just six minutes, and Jerome Jordan displayed some pretty nice footwork on both ends of the floor.