Going to be a new world, Fixers. Mike D'Antoni has already said he doesn't mind the media watching practice. In fact, he said this season he'd allow it if we wanted to attend.
Has the thaw officially begun?
As Ho-Beck said, "It's Glasnost."
The media was invited back tonight to watch the second practice, which was mostly scrimmaging and working on 5-on-5 situations.
First thing I have to say is Anthony Roberson's got a clip.
Dude missed one shot all day. He got off the bus on Friday and has done nothing but hit shots. While you're watching Gallo tomorrow, keep an eye out for No. 2, that's Roberson, a 6-2 guard from Florida. Had bids with Memphis, Golden State and Denver. Just couldn't stick. Might at the very least get himself an invite to training camp if he carries this over into games.
Can't stop being impressed with Gallinari. Summer League practice MVP. I mean we tawkin' practice! Berman's already got him as his early favorite for Rookie of the Year. But in all seriousness, he's definitely tougher than the usual Euro. Big Brandon Hunter, at 6-7 and 266, was banging him hard during the scrimmage and Gallinari kept going back at him. Foul. Foul. Foul.
Andiamo, Gallo!
Yeah, I know, it's not like he's being D'd up by Ron Artest. Just bloggin.....
Wilson Chandler is scraping paint off the ceiling. He had one ridiculous dunk on poor Paul Miller that started around the box with the ball way behind Will's head. Windmilled it through in traffic.
No N8 the Gr8 tomorrow for the game. The reigning MVP will show up tomorrow but won't play until probably Wednesday. Donnie Walsh arrived today and watched the second practice.
I tell you what I've had enough of seeing Danny Gans' face and Barry Manilow is always staring back at me outside my hotel window from this gigantic billboard hanging off the Las Vegas Hilton. But what is perhaps the most disturbing trend of ubiquity in this town is a girl named Sheri. She's on these little cards littered on the streets, on car windshields and she even has her own moving ad on the back of this truck that goes up and down The Strip.
Sheri or one of her friends can apparently be at your place in 10 minutes.
Apparently, Sheri needs you to donate clothes or something because she and her friends don't seem to have any.
Just bloggin....
Can't go out like that. i'll leave you with this anecdote:
Quentin Richardson took the mic for MSG Network yesterday and interviewed Gallinari. Some of you may remember I posted a video of Q-Rich's hilarious spot on Jimmy Kimmel from his Clipper years, when he rated his teammates' rides. If you haven't seen it, get yourself to YouTube and find it.
So anyway, Q sits down next to Gallo and asks him about this kissing routine the young Italian seems to have when he greets people he knows.
"Everybody I meet, I kiss them on each cheek," Danilo says.
Richardson seemed quite uncomfortable with this fact. "Really?"
Gallinari then quickly added, "But only the women."
"You and I will get along well then," Richardson replied.
Comments (15)
I don't know what the upcoming season will look like (I'm always optimistic before the start of the season - even was last year), but I like this media access thing. Its nice just to be able to read about what actual members of the Knicks organization are doing on and around the court instead of only the scraps, rumors and b.s. that slipped out of the Garden in past years. Keep it coming.
I think the "Just Bloggin" thing is almost as played out as "fixers", Now KB wants to call his blogers sixers and our trip to the dark side will be complete. F the Sixers. BRand will not a championship make. I will not be defined by the name of my adversary.
Maybe we could call ourselves the Meltics, or the Netters or Heaters. How about the bockers
Alan,
We can assume from Chandlers air walking that the knee is ok. We never got a report on what the issue was originally. The injury looked like a standard hyper extension, but these things can be nothing but sprains or turn out to have a bone bruise, meniscus tear, or other complications. Now that the commentariat has opened to inquiries from the little people, can you get us an injury report?
@ Willis
You beat me to the punch. I was going to ask the same question.
Also is Chandler wearing a Knee Brace the likes of Shaun Elliot?
I do know I was told Chandler underwent a proceedure at the
Hospital for Special Surgery by a reliable MD. I will be emphatically happy if he's 100%...but somehow I think we should all be afraid......Chandler should take it easy for a while!
Good news for those working for the Man that can't catch the summer league games live:
MSG is showing a "rewind" at 8 PM and 10:30 PM!
Keepin' it Old School...
Some people say these summer league games are meaningless.
I disagree. I think to have a winnig Culture...you try to win even practice games. Don't get me wrong, I would love for the Rooster
to be all that Alan and others are hyping him up to be, But for self presevation I will be suspect until he proves he is worthy of a
#6 pick! "Fire Walsh" chants immediately rang out following the pick, although you could barely hear anything above the deafening boos.
Welcome to New York, Danilo Gallinari.
It is easy to knock the pick. The track record for recent European imports in the draft has been spotty, at best. Darko was a bust. Ditto for Nikoloz Tskitishvili. And Andrea Bargnani, a fellow Italian who the first overall pick in the 2006 draft, has been less than spectacular thus far as well.
Moreover, the worst pick in Knicks history was Fredrick Weis, who was selected one spot ahead of Ron Artest back in 1999.
Nothing would make me more happy than for Danilo Gallinari
to be the real deal...in a Knick uniform!!!!! So today at 4:00PM
on MSG......he better bring his "A" game because the Excuse that it's Summer League don't work in NY!
Wilson is wearing a compression sleeve but no big contraption. He recovered well. Good to be young, man.
Peaceman - Good point. Summer league games are only meaningless if someone thinks playing well in them means that player will play well in the regular season. Tskitishvili averaged 20+ one summer. They mean a lot if a player looks lost in them though - if you can't get it done in the summer...
The value of a winning culture cannot be stressed enough - that's what Cuban emphasized when he transformed the Mavs. The emphasis on excellence in the little things has been missing around here for too long.
Re. my post above - "around here" refers to the Knicks, not this blog - I like to think we've all shown excellence in the little things on this site all along :)
I'm tired.
Apparently, some immature individuals have been posting using my name here, and I'm not surprised to see Peaceman responding to them with his 8th grade wit. I have only made one post here early yesterday, all others are by imposters.
As I said before, only ignorant idiots would boo a player, or pre-judge a player they've never seen play, and then further yell 'Fire Walsh', one of the most respected GMs in the league, based on that pick. But unfortunately, lots of alleged Knicks fans are ignorant idiots.
And only a moronic bigot would somehow judge Gallo based on other subpar European draft picks, especially Weiss. Just like only a fool would judge the Derrick Rose pick based on how Kwame Brown or Michael Olowokandi worked out as Number 1 picks.
Last I checked, we had a top ten draft pick from the USA, who played at Georgetown, named Michael Sweetney. He's no longer in the league. Last I checked, we had another top 10 ten draft pick from the USA, a senior from UCLA, named Channing Frye, who is also a major bust and no longer on the team. And we've got lots of other first round draft picks on the Knicks, like Jeffries, Balkman and Collins who can't hit a wide open 20 footer to save their lives.
So I'm willing to judge Gallo on how he PLAYS, on his SKILLS and what contributions he makes to the TEAM in games that COUNT...not on where he's from, or what color his skin is, or some wierd bug up some nitwit's butt about Frederick Weiss being drafted ahead of his favorite St. John's pyscho.
LGM:
* "I'm not surprised to see Peaceman responding to them with his 8th grade wit." - Amen to that BOY!
* Wasn't C. Frye a product of Arizona? You said UCLA.
Speaking of which..... Frye did not have a good summer league in his rook yr. Got pushed around a lot and seemed afraid of the paint. Then had a very good, solid rook yr. Thereafter, vaporized in his soph. yr.
D. LEE?
What's the latest? I heard on the radio that D'Antoni has informed DLee that he is being actively shopped around. No details given.
I don't think anyone thinks Summer League games are meaningless. Practice is VERY important, despite what Allen Iverson would have you believe. And you're 100% correct that creating a winning culture begins with what takes place during practice, the work ethic, and good habits that are established there, etc.
However, what Summer League games do NOT do is allow you to project accurate numbers for ACTUAL league play based on those performances. The level of competition simply isn't anywhere close to what these players will face in the NBA.
(By the way, I only use all caps because I can't figure out how to write in Italics. I'm not angry!)
Yes Mak...you are right...Frye was from Arizona, it was Ariza who was from UCLA...in any case, all these recent American Knick draft picks haven't amounted to much...but my point was we shouldn't judge future American draft picks on them....just like no one should judge Gallo based on Frederick Weiss or Tony Parker...just because they are both Europeans.
It would be a shame to lose D Lee after how hard he has worked and produced for the Knicks, but he is in a contract year, his trade value is higher than most Knicks , and if we could package him with some of our other deadwood, and get a good defensive big man/rebounder in return, with a reasonable contract, it would make sense.
The reason the Knicks of the 90s were great, is because we had two warriors in lane, and people had to think twice on driving that lane with Oakley and Ewing waiting for them.
Not only do opposing 6 foot guards no longer fear our interior defense, they know if they happen to miss their shot, they can always get the rebound over Curry and the putback.
I'm less concerned about Chandler's health, and more concerned if Fat Eddy is going to want to play basketball this year or hit the buffet line with Big Snacks.
Seems like only DLee has any trade value from a talent/playing standpoint.
To DLee doubters,
He's the only coveted player on the Knicks by other teams if you remove the salary cap. mgt. equation.
I've read argument that DLee is only productive in a bad team.
What the heck does that mean?
So if DLee plays with the Lakers and let's say he gets similar minutes, won't he be playing against the same frontline players? Or will these opposing frontline players now have 8 arms each once he's in a good team.
Nice pick-up on Roberson!!