Gang's all here
Zach Randolph arrived on Tuesday to join a majority of the roster that has come together this week to begin voluntary workouts to prep for training camp, which opens in two weeks. Z-Bo's presence was a bit of a surprise considering his name is very prominent in trade talks (that Memphis thing ain't dead yet) and there are many people -- himself included -- who never expected he'd still be a Knick when camp opened in Saratoga Springs on the 30th.
Credit Z-Bo for at least showing up (you still renting, right homey?). Stephon Marbury, the other name on the list of anticipated departees, hasn't come by as of yet to run with the rest of the crew. No word of a sneaker tour this year.
Marbury has been at the facility to work out on his own, however.
Part of me wants to see him there on Media Day, just so Starberman gets him to say something crazy about, say, Barack Obama.
Um, Stephon, you, uh, have, uh, supported Obama. Do you, uh, think he will, uh, be, uh, presi-uh-dent?
Oh hell yeah. Barack is my man. He balls, you know. And I respect his views and the way how he plans to change our country for the better.
So, uh, you are uh OK with his uh plans to raise uh taxes for wealthy people up to uh 30 percent and uh possibly uh more?
What?
I can hear the TV guys among me, whispering to their cameramen: "You're rolling, right?"
"Oh yeah," comes the reply.
But if Berman was really on his game that day, it could be special. By the time we arrive at the hotel in Saratoga, we could see Obama on CNN quickly denouncing his relationship with Stephon as if he were Rev. Wright.
[Bloghost note: I joke! I joke! I keeeed, I keeeed!]
When I said this is the time for change in America," Obama said, "I was including the Knicks point guard position."
I can hear the Garden faithful now, echoing the well-worn refrain from the Democratic National Convention, if Marbury is announced as a Knick on opening night:
"That's not change, that's more of the same!"
Right now the roll call, as far as I understand it, includes everyone. Eddy Curry is there, but no one will say a word about what kind of shape he appears to be in.
At this point, would you accept anything less than "the best shape of his life"?
Note to Tim Grover: Eddy shouldn't be allowed to use the video game room at ATTACK anymore. Supple wrists are only useful in the sport of pinball wizardry.
Programming note: We'll be doing a Live Chat tomorrow here, Fixers. Plenty to discuss.
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Comments (35)
LOL I love how you make fun of Bermanbury.
Sorry Alan but I'll be VERY depressed if Stephon Marbury is allowed at media day and training camp and into the season. It shows me Donnie Walsh has no clue what is to run a professional and respected basketball team. You don't revive a franchise with people like Crackbury around.
Alan, Killa post! Hilarious stuff my man. Thanks again.
Good stuff Alan. Is Danilo at the camp too?
And when it comes to media day, and if Starbury and ZBo are both in camp, you must ask D Walsh, how he expects the fans to support the same team that has won an average of 25 games over the past four years?
I like Walsh. I like D'Antoni, but I'm afraid they are taking Knick fans for saps . . .telling us that they are talented, and that "we need to see what we have." Knick fans have seen what we have, and it stinks!
@david - Yes, Gallo is here with the rest of the guys. Not playing, but here.
David,
This is Zach's 2nd year with the team.
Can we stop mentioning zach and marbrury in the same breath. Atleast zach plays with heart.
I can't tell if your mocking Barack or Marbury either way not funny. Steph really hasn't been the problem but bad coaching and bad karma, I also think Zach is a talent and is going to prove a lot of people wrong this season, whether he play for us or another team. I really don't see what his sin has been but once again same way we ran Patricks 20/10 out of town we're doing it again with Zach.
@ Jabba
Don't you EVER disrespect a warrior and Hall of Famer like Patrick Ewing by comparing him a stat padding loser like Zach Randolph. And Crackbury made his own bed with his lazy play, drugs and fighting with teammates and coaches. He has nobody to blame but himself.
knicksmyteam,
Zach has been a key cog on losing teams for his entire career. When he left Portland they improved immeasurably despite the fact that they lost their top pick to injury. He doesn't pass. He doesn't pay defense. He is not a player a winning team wants on their roster.
Zbo showed up, sure. But the real scoop would be when is he leaving to meet some distant relative that fell sick and "He has to go see family". Or maybe it's Mama Randolph's birthday and "he has to attend this year".
I'm gonna have to back Sergio on this one...
Where do you think that Bad Karma is coming from Jabba? Straight from the mouth of Stephon. Isiah's bad coaching started with (among many other flaws) his inability to get Marbury to put his bad karma aside.
Every team he's left has done better.
Every coach that's come in, he's despised.
The entire team voted for him not to play after he fled Phoenix, and Isiah played him anyway.
He threatened to blackmail Isiah with god-knows-what...
What more proof do you need?
Alan - Can we get a real diagnosis of Gallo's back condition? If Claudio is correct and it is sciatica, that is a symptom of an impingement on the nerve that results from a misalignment of the spine, bulging disc, spasm of the back muscle resulting from some other trauma... or other nasty things. The fact that he still has it is not good as it means the cause of it has not been remediated. Have their been MRI's, xrays, anything?
Hey Alan I always like your blog. I always understand why you take some shots at Marc Berman previous reporting BUT when you start taking too many cheap shots at some of our players I think you start lowering yourself to Bermans level. The power of the press should not be abused.
The ignorance and stubborness amazes me around here.
1. We are not making the playoffs this year. Anyone who thinks we are playing for a chip RIGHT NOW is delusional at best.
2. Comparing shedding Zach to caving in to Pat's trade demands, is assanine. They should never be mentioned in the same post again ( Jabba you should be exiled for the blasphemy!)
3. The 2010 plan is valid. How many years have we been saying that the Knicks lack a plan ? Now that we have one some of you want to crap all over it.
4. Jared Bayless is not Chris Paul. He's too short and doesn't play great D. Stop saying we made a mistake w/ the Gallo pick. There just isnt enough info to make that judgement right now ( By the way, y'all who are saying he's made of glass, I'd like to see you get beat up by Tractor all day and walk away unscathed).
5. I love it when some of you say just get rid of (fill in name here) and we'll be fine. Do any of you calling for heads have a plan on how to get rid of them ?
Give Donnie some time guys. He should be judged on whether the 2010 plan works not on what he did in 2008 during the off season.
Why is no one talking about Jill Martin lack of knowledge about the Knicks? Yesterday, she appeared on the Howard Stern show with Stern's fiancé, Beth Ostrosky, to promote a segment on the Tyra Banks show.
Long story short, Artie Lange started asking BASIC Knicks trivia and she couldn't answer anything. She didn't even know the years in which the Knicks have won the NBA championship! She also wasn't sure where Stephon Marbury was from. Of course, Artie started mocking her lack of Knicks knowledge.
Anyway, last night Snapple sent out a release - offering her a new job and $5,000 to write up five Snapple Cap facts about the Knicks.
I just saw the release on the fox business website:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/retail/fact-snapple-offers-nba-reporter-new-career-season-514532604/
Matthew:13:57, A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR EXCEPT IN HIS OWN COUNTRY AND IN HIS OWN HOUSE! Remember children it is better to be thick skinned than to be thick headed. Explained this to your followers Alan for the Kingdom is at hand!
David,
He doesn't pass. He doesn't pay defense. He is not a player a winning team wants on their roster.
Funny that he had more assist then any of the knicks big men.
Rebound is a part of defence right? and the guy averaged 9 defensive rebounds a game.
In the NBA you really can't pad your stats. The guy shoots about 47% from the field and he does most of this without dunking the ball. Thats remarkable.
Also Portland was in a rebuild stage after they traded Sheed. If you look at their roster Zach was the only player. People forget the Miles was injured. Stoudamire was injured. Vax Exel was old.
LOOK AT THE ROSTER BELOW!!!
People called KG a loser too.
== ====== === == == === === ====
1 Derek Anderson
3 Damon Stoudamire
5 Ha Seung-Jin
10 Joel Przybilla
14 Richie Frahm
19 I-Nick Van Exel
21 Ruben Patterson
23 Darius Miles .
25 Travis Outlaw
31 Sebastian Telfair
33 Shareef Abdur-Rahim
38 Viktor Khryapa
42 Theo Ratliff
The Knicks are not even worthy of a conversation anymore. This is going to be a 4-5 year process at best.
They are horrible. They have a bunch of overrated and overpaid players that even on their best day are pretty much nothing but scorers (and not even efficient ones).
We have one player that is worth anything - David Lee
We have one player that is a prospect - Wilson Chandler
We have one player that might not be another total disaster, but only because we haven't see enough - Gallinari (as of now, he looks like another no rebound, no defense, no assist waste with a bad back).
Obama merely wants to bring the top tax rate to the level it was at under Clinton, when, you know, the financial system wasn't falling apart, and middle class and rich people were doing well.
Italian Stallion,
"We have one player that is worth anything - David Lee"
Don't fool yourself.!!!!
He's an average player at best.
If you ever played the sport you would know this.
They're two different types of player.
One type is a hustle player that makes everything look hard. These guys always look like they are going at a different speed then the other people. Constant motion!!! LEE
Then you have players that will make everything look to easy. As if they're not even working for it. It's almost like the game comes to easy for these guys. Since they're not going as fast people tend to call them lazy. But when you look at the stats these types of players are very consistant. Randolph!!!!
Randolph plays at a hire level and your fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
you can't pad 20 10
Please look at the following links. At the bottom you will find the ratings for power forwards.
for Lee
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/new-york-knicks/players/david-lee/rankings/08/20/288
for Zach
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/new-york-knicks/players/zach-randolph/rankings/08/20/291
here you can see for yourself. Its not even close
@kicksmyteam
I've seen a very sophisticated statistical analysis of all the Knicks players at:
http://dberri.wordpress.com/
According to "WINS" Lee contibutes a lot more than Randolph. ZBO is a slightly above average player that gets paid like a star.
Subjectively, I would agree that Randolph has some skills that David Lee does not. He has a better outside shot for one. However, David Lee makes much better decisions and as a result is a massively more efficient scorer with fewer turnovers. That counts for a lot. That doesn't make Lee a star, but he's a very solid player.
Knicks Analysis
http://dberri.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/managing-expectations-in-new-york/
http://www.wagesofwins.com/Knicks0708.html
yo alan,
MAD props on this blog, it is truly awesome. i used to read and follow bermans blog and articles. he ain't got nuffin on you son!!!!!!!
yo alan,
MAD props on this blog, it is truly awesome. i used to read and follow bermans blog and articles. he ain't got nuffin on you son!!!!!!!
If y'all haven't seen it, blacksportsonline put together
The 50 greatest Charles Barkley quotes:
http://blacksportsonline.com/index/2008/09/rl50charlesbarkley.html
Absolutely hysterical.
So John Q we should wait 3 years and then turn around and say you know that Danillo kid we drafted at 6, he has back issues and can't give us more than 60 games and we can't play him in the post, lets trade him for nothing like Detroit did for Darko. Can Knick fans wait three more years to be competitive and start all over with rebuilding. And please stop making it seem like Traylor is Shaq, or Dwight Howard. The guy stinks, period.
As for being critical of the 2010 plan, I agree that we need a plan. I have said that from day 1. However, it is the execution of the plan that I am criticizing. Your team desperately needs a PG and you have 6 SFs so you pass on two potential PGs (Bayless, Augustine) and draft another SF. You also could have drafted Bayless and he could even be a scoring PG, because if LBJ comes here he is going to want to dominate the ball anyway. You pass on Dorsey (i.e. don't try to get another second round pick) when your team is soft as toilet paper inside. You move no salary you just add it exponentially with a terrible Duhon signing. Don't buy out Marburry or James. We have done nothing, other than bring in a coach who is a genius on offense (I still don't know who is coaching defense and I don't beleive it will be H. Williams). And to everyone saying forget about a championship, what the hell am I watching the Knicks and buying tickets for then. Of course we should be working for a championship and if you can't do it, you gut the team and rebuild full-time.
As you can see the Mets collapse and our government's complete abandonment of laizze-faire economic principles which has further weakened consumer confidence in the dollar and stock market and increased the national debt astronimically (we are running the government like Dolan runs the Knicks) have left me in a sour, sour mood. Alan taking shots at my man Obama is not helping either.
So John Q we should wait 3 years and then turn around and say you know that Danillo kid we drafted at 6, he has back issues and can't give us more than 60 games and we can't play him in the post, lets trade him for nothing like Detroit did for Darko. Can Knick fans wait three more years to be competitive and start all over with rebuilding. And please stop making it seem like Traylor is Shaq, or Dwight Howard. The guy stinks, period.
As for being critical of the 2010 plan, I agree that we need a plan. I have said that from day 1. However, it is the execution of the plan that I am criticizing. Your team desperately needs a PG and you have 6 SFs so you pass on two potential PGs (Bayless, Augustine) and draft another SF. You also could have drafted Bayless and he could even be a scoring PG, because if LBJ comes here he is going to want to dominate the ball anyway. You pass on Dorsey (i.e. don't try to get another second round pick) when your team is soft as toilet paper inside. You move no salary you just add it exponentially with a terrible Duhon signing. Don't buy out Marburry or James. We have done nothing, other than bring in a coach who is a genius on offense (I still don't know who is coaching defense and I don't beleive it will be H. Williams). And to everyone saying forget about a championship, what the hell am I watching the Knicks and buying tickets for then. Of course we should be working for a championship and if you can't do it, you gut the team and rebuild full-time.
As you can see the Mets collapse and our government's complete abandonment of laizze-faire economic principles which has further weakened consumer confidence in the dollar and stock market and increased the national debt astronimically (we are running the government like Dolan runs the Knicks) have left me in a sour, sour mood. Alan taking shots at my man Obama is not helping either.
Speaking of 2010:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=LeBronFuture-080916
I'd rather watch paint dry than be updated on the status of these losers. I don't care if they showed up to camp 2 months early, they still suck.
@ Knicks4life,
Don't let John Q-less get to you bruh.
If you put lipstick on a Pig, he'd think it was Sarah Palin.
His quote "Jared Bayless is not Chris Paul. He's too short and doesn't play great D." reveals ignorance to the 10th power.
Bayless is much taller than Paul, has an NBA body, and plays in your face D, and is a much better scorer than Paul.
Jerryd Bayless
Height/Weight: 6-3 / 200
Strengths: Combines quickness and athleticism with a good feel for the game. Scores effectively and efficiently in a variety of ways and is solid on the defensive end.
Chris Paul ( All Star, yeah we Know)
Height: 6-0 Weight: 175 lbs.
This has to be the one of the most racist article I have ever seen written by a major newspaper, but then again it is Newsday. How about mentioniong some of the racial stereotyping of white people.
I forgot, only black people collect welfare while white people work hard and pay taxes. Total bunk, what does Obama raising taxes have to do with basketball players.
FREDRIC WEIS MOVE DWARFED BY D. WALSH
"So, uh, you are uh OK with his (obama's) uh plans to raise uh taxes for wealthy people up to uh 30 percent and uh possibly uh more?"
where do you come up with this dribble alan? disseminating outrageous disinformation like this is neither witty or intelligent (if it was your intent to make berman sound stupid, you failed miserably, to the extent that you come across as snotty and ignorant).
stick to basketball and writing, something you actually have the skill set to handle.
i'm starting to feel some simpatico with our old friend anonymous.
(not) just bloggin' dude!
ok so it's camp time now. who's gonna play defense on this team......?? WHO ?? chandler thats it...n maybe if pat ew gets some burn. we have friggin' NON-FACTORS defensively at the PF/C positions. again this team will average 1.5 blks per game. stevie wonder could see that but somehow donnie walsh can't. smfh....
marbury is still the best player on the team. more of the same is Isiah. More of the same is clueless knick fans that confuse who is and who isn't worth having on the team. I've never seen any of the other knicks in the playoffs, ever. Only Marbury. I dont know what you call winning player or losing player, but I know I've never seen Crawford in a playoff game. I've seen Marbury. I'm glad I'm of the Minority on this, cuz I'd love to be the only one to not have to jump back on the Marbury bandwagon. Knick fans lose more credibility by the day when they let young writers coach them on who hot and who's not. Marbury is better than any knick you name. and I know d'antoni is a far better coach than zeke. I don't think a good coach would let marbury go. you guys can repeat the same knocks on him all you want, I've seen him competing in a playoff game. For two different teams. No knick can say that.