After a recent Miami Heat practice in Washington, Ray Allen told the coaching staff he was skipping the bus ride and running back to the hotel.

So, the Knicks are looking pretty good this year really. As of 12/07/2012, they have the best record in the Eastern Conference. Led by stellar play from the superstar/leader, Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks have defied every expectation set on them by being a team that creates victories through defense, an idea that was not strong in the Knicks individual players, nor in previous coach Mike D’Antoni. Last year, no-one could deny the offensive fire power of the Knicks. Stoudemire, Anthony, J.R. Smith, Novak.. all players who could go for 25+ on any given night, but playing defense? Unlikely. However, the introduction of Tyson Chandler went some way to filling the gap in the Knicks defense. Anyone who said he didn’t deserve Defensive Player of the Year isn’t fully aware of the criteria for the award. Yes, Dwight Howard was a much better defensive player, but compare the Knicks before and after Tyson Chandler, compare them with, and without him on the floor. Last season, Tyson Chandler turned the Knicks into a team capable of actually defending the basket. Before him, the Knicks defense was just one big gap, really. So, they had the paint locked up, so teams would just burn them with 3’s. Carmelo showed no interest in defense, J.R. Smith was too busy concentrating on his next contested jump shot, and Amar’e Stoudemire.. who knows what he was doing. So, the Knicks GM got smart, and made the acquisition of the summer by bringing back J.R. Smith. But, hang on. This is not old JR, this JR will hustle on defense, create turnovers, and burn you in transition. Team him up with new all-defense forward Carmelo Anthony, DPOY Tyson Chandler, and the top-10 perimeter defender Ronnie Brewer, as well as the respectable Raymond Felton, and all of a sudden the Knicks are by far and away the best defensive team in the league. They may not necessarily lead the league in certain categories, but no team can defend the perimeter and the rim like the Knicks can. Seriously, check the stats. In terms of defense, the Knicks are truly the real deal. Credit to Mike Woodson for building a team built on defense.

Oh, and this team can turn it’s defense into offense pretty efficiently as well. J.R. Smith can dunk from pretty much anywhere on the court, and if the big man is cutting, you can guarantee Ray Felton will find him. Their offense is unselfish, a tag that had been labelled on almost no Knicks player since the beginning of the D’Antoni era. In fact, the only thing this team might love more than defense could be open shots, and by god do the Knicks get a lot of them. Trust me, the Knicks offense is absolutely the real deal. Carmelo Anthony really is this good, JR Smith really can shoot this good, and Steve Novak is, well, Steve Novak.

The team’s bench is also a strong point. Jason Kidd, Rasheed Wallace, Pablo Prigioni, Marcus Camby.. all passable NBA starters in their own rights. Oh, and did I mention that Iman Shumpert and Amar’e Stoudemire are currently injured? That’s right, 2 of the Knicks starting 5 aren’t even in the team yet. And they’re still the best team in the East right now. That sounds like a deep team to me.

However, there is one really horrible and glaring weakness with this roster. Despite it’s obvious, blatant strengths, it’s impossible to avoid the fact that this team is incredibly old. One or two injuries could turn this team from arguably the best in the East to a mid-Playoff team. It’s not necessarily a thought that the Knicks will have to entertain, they could get lucky and pass through the season with only a handful of minor injuries. But in the long term, I worry how much of the slack could be picked up by the other players if Carmelo Anthony was injured for more than a few weeks. I mean, sure, every team has a player like this. The Heat without LeBron, Lakers without Kobe, but the age of the Knicks makes it a bigger problem as what NBA analysts refer to as “mileage” begins to take effect. The Knicks have got 5 players who were born in the 1970’s, and all of them minus Pablo Prigioni have been in the NBA for the past 15 or so years. As we go further into the season, the depth will begin to tire. It is a fact. The Knicks cannot maintain this rotation for the whole season. Players will tire, get injured, go on cold streaks. This really applies to the players with high mileage rather than the others. For the record, I think J.R. Smith will be a Sixth Man of the Year candidate, and that Carmelo Anthony will end up 3rd in the MVP race. I believe this team is a big deal, it is a fantastic team that could easily go the whole way, I just don’t believe that they’re truly this good.

I hope I am wrong though.

(Source: nba-4-life)

Underrated players to trade for

• Andrei Kirilenko: Kirilenko is a rare breed of player who is able to do absolutely anything on the Basketball court. He’ll give you 13+ points, 8+ rebounds, 3+ assists, 1+ steals, and 1+ blocks per game. And he’ll do all of this while shooting 51% from the field. Add in just under 1 3-Pointer per game, and you’re starting to see that it all adds up. None of Kirilenko’s stats particularly jump out at you. 13ppg isn’t special, nor are any of his numbers. It’s the unique combination of so many valuable stats that make him a commodity  but also an extremely undervalued one. Many Fantasy users are extremely risky with trades, so if you have someone who is playing at a unsustainable level, such as an OJ Mayo, then it will likely be accepted, and you’ll have yourself the 27th most valuable Fantasy Player.

• Metta World Peace:  After being one of the most criticised NBA players ever last season, the player formerly known as Ron Artest worked hard during the off-season and came into the 2012-13 season noticeably slimmed down. With so many superstars on his Los Angeles Lakers, many would avoid World Peace due to the heavy scoring load carried by Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and Pau Gasol. However, these are 3 players who do the majority of their work inside the arc, and all 3 are evidently going to be respected by opposing defenses. Like Fantasy Basketballers this season, many a defense has ignored the relatively-less talent Metta to hang outside the 3-Point arc, where he has been deadly this year. He’ll give you 2.3 3-Pointers, per game. Add in a respectable 5 rebounds, and an extremely helpful 1.7 steals per game, and you have yourself someone who absolutely everyone will overlook, and many people will under-appreciate. Trade him away for a high volume scorer, and your team will flourish.

• Larry Sanders:  Did you know that Larry Sanders is currently 4th in the NBA in blocks? I bet you didn’t. Some of you might not even know who Larry Sanders is. He plays in Milwaukee, which might have something to do with it. Anyway, Larry Sanders is a beast. He gives you 7 points and 7 rebounds a game, which isn’t much to shout about, but over 2.5 blocks a game, in one of the weaker categories of 2012 makes him a hidden gem for any team that is well built. Trade him away for a Utility big man who puts up better scoring numbers and watch your team take over the league’s block category. 

(Source: nba-4-life)

There is a lot of talk about great players, and for an obvious reason. They’re the guys that people pay to see. They’re “box-office.” Unless you consider yourself to be quite the joker, you weren’t buying 2006 Lakers @ Raptors tickets to go and see Kwame Brown, you paid to see The Black Mamba drop 81 points. You don’t come back from a Heat game and tell anyone “Oh, it was great, we saw Joel Anthony blow a wide open dunk!” unless you are either 6 years old, extremely sarcastic, or extremely stupid. However, when LeBron James throws down a 360.. now you’ve got something to tell your friends.

So the reason players become big, is because they do spectacular things more often than other players. But Gerald Green isn’t anywhere near the top 100 NBA players, despite the fact that he’s become pretty big on YouTube.  Another thing that you must take into account is a player’s market. Al Jefferson is hugely overlooked because he plays in Utah. If he was doing that in New York everyone would be talking about how he should be in the All-Star chase. Almost 20-10 numbers aren’t easy to come about these days, yet he does it consistently and with ease.

So when we talk about “Greatness,” do we perhaps overlook certain players because of who they are, or where they play and how they play? Think about it, despite the fact that nobody has ever really talked about it, Tim Duncan has QUIETLY become the greatest Power Forward of all time. By far the greatest. And yet nobody talks about him in the same vain as LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. LeBron has a shot at the best SF of all time but Larry Bird will obviously have something to say about that, and as for Kobe.. well, anyone who thinks he’s better than Jordan is just delusional. (He’s still great though).

So, because he can’t knock down a 3 at the end of 2OT to win the game like The Black Mamba, or throw down windmills like King James, Tim Duncan is less great?

That’s why Tim Duncan is the player of my lifetime. Not because he’s necessarily statistically the greatest, or because he’s the flashiest,  but because it’s the least he deserves. Someone has to say it, if only as a homage to a great career. When you think about Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Dirk Nowitzki.. all superb players, two of them even represented the ‘92 Dream Team.

And then realise that Duncan is just.. better. Sure he can’t shoot like Dirk or throw it down like Karl Malone, but he could defend. And unfortunately great footwork and low post game, combined with unseen defense from a big man, just aren’t going to get you recognition. Perhaps it is fitting for the quiet demeanour of Tim Duncan, a man who goes about his business, works hard, and avoids the spotlight.

But as a homage to him, and because if I had to name an all time NBA starting 5, he’d damn well be there, I’m calling Tim Duncan the best player of my lifetime.

(A like and a reblog mean so much to me, just looking at the notes and knowing that people enjoyed my article. I’m an aspiring NBA writer, so any comments you have to make below about it would be really helpful. Obviously I love being told that the article is great, but if there’s anything I could change please don’t be afraid to tell me. Thank you so much for your continued support. :) )

(Source: nba-4-life)

Okay so extremely recently I’ve noticed a culture of hatred developing towards LA Clipper PF Blake Griffin, and I’m not really sure why really. He hasn’t drawn guns on his teammates (not that that’s ever happened before), he hasn’t done drugs, he isn’t rude to fans, he doesn’t swear in press conferences, he makes comedic TV appearances and never attacks the media for doing their job. It made me wonder why everyone started hating the 2011 Rookie of the Year so much.

Obviously one of the big arguments is that he’s one-dimensional, “all he does is dunk.” Well, to an extent that’s true. But he was also top 5 in field goals made from 3 to 9 feet from the basket. He has a hook shot that goes in at a rate of 58%, he averages double digit rebounds for his career, 3.5 assists (which for a PF is really impressive). In the entire history of the NBA, only 5 players (including Griffin) have averaged 20ppg, 10rpg and 3apg in their first two seasons. Three of those four were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor (the other was Sidney Wicks, for those interested). So, the guy obviously isn’t a scrub, and he’s obviously not one dimensional. It’s like saying Ray Allen is a bad player because he just sits behind the three point line. Completely preposterous. Since when did a Blake Griffin tomahawk become worth less than a Kevin Garnett mid-range shot? And I think anyone reading this knows which one they’d rather see. The “all he does is dunk” argument is completely invalidated when you realise that there isn’t a shot in the NBA that is more efficient than the dunk- when you’re 6’11” it’s pretty much impossible to miss. Really, all he does is play to his strengths and consistently take and make the most efficient shot in the whole of Basketball.

People say his defense is weak. Okay, agreed, it’s not great. But it’s not like he’s the main problem in the LA Clippers D. DeAndre Jordan trying to swat 3pt shots, and the fact that I could write up a more efficient and effective defensive scheme than Vinny Del Negro means that people look to Griffin as a scapegoat despite the fact that if you just watch one Clippers game you’ll realise that they’re far better off with him on the floor than off it. His determination to block NOTHING means that he does something that only one guy in the league does better (Kevin Love) and that’s box out opponents. While DeAndre Jordan is trying to put the orange into the 2nd tier of seats, Griffin is getting in front of the biggest man on the opponent team. You don’t just stumble onto 12 rebounds a game. You’ve got to be good at getting them. Just because he has a great vertical doesn’t mean you should be on his back for not getting blocks. And for the record, the Clips were 2.8 points better off per 100 possessions last season with Griffin on the floor than they were with him benchwarming.

Sure, he flops and moans- so does every other player in the league. It was especially apparent in the Memphis series because he’s playing against one of the biggest bullies in the league in Zach Randolph. But does that make Manu Ginobili a bad player? No. Not at all. 

It’s time for the critics to stop nitpicking with his game and to start enjoying it. He’s only just finished his sophomore season. It’s not like he’s reaching the end of his career any time soon. Just remember that if you’re inside the arc, it’s two points. Regardless of how you get it.

(Thanks for reading the article, if you enjoyed reading it then you can leave a comment below. A like and a reblog goes a long way to helping my writing spread around tumblr, and perhaps one day fulfilling my dream of being able to write for a living. I’ll put a question mark at the end of the post so you can leave views and thoughts and opinions. If you have something you’d like to read about then send it to me at the blog and I’d be happy to write an article about it. Thank you so much for your support of the blog, it means a lot.)

?

(Source: nba-4-life)