by Stop Mike Lupica on March 3 at 11:44AM
Real brief, for those of you who care about the Knicks. For the rest of ya'll, I'll have a few other posts coming up.
Frank Isola of the Daily News writes about Randolph Morris today, and how he is being wasted on the Knicks bench, not getting any playing time. I've agree he's being wasted. With the Knicks out of the playoff hunt, the rest of the season should be about giving the playing time to the younger players to develop.
Aside from Nate Robinson, who is getting increased playing time with the Stephon Marbury "injury", none of the young Knick players have really seen an increase in playing time as the season has gone on.
A sidenote on that: much like Steve Francis last season, it seems Marbury has been told to "stay away" from the Knick team, or so he told Marc Berman of the Post last week. Then today it seems that, after last week's article in the post about that "Marbury ban", tonight's game will, in fact, have our old friend Stephon on the bench. End sidenote.
The rest of the Knicks young players: David Lee has seen about the same playing time as last year, maybe a bit more now that Eddy Curry has fallen out of favor. He's still averaging less minutes per game (27:53) than he did last season (29:48). He's averaging about the same in points (10.1 vs. 10.7 last season), but two less rebounds a game this year (8.4 rpg). His game hasn't improved much this year. He's shooting the same number of FGAs, but hitting a bit fewer this year (57% vs. 60% last year). Defensively he's still a below-average player: he doesn't move very much, doesn't get his hands up, and his steal and block numbers are low. He has just to reliably knocked open 10-15 foot jumpers, though he has been working on that, supposedly. He has no reliable moves in terms of creating off the dribble, and though his turnover number is low (1.3 TO a game) he still gets blocked way too often. He leads the team in that category, and is probably in the top-5 of the NBA in getting blocked.
And he's probably the best player the Knicks have. Renaldo Balkman has also seen a decrease in his mpg from last season, and is unlikely to top the number of games played last season, either - despite not having been injured this season (he missed the last month of last year). His numbers are down across the board.
Forget Mardy Collins. He's also a forgotten man this year.
First-round draft pick Wilson Chandler? Only plays in garbage time. And Randolph Morris, as Isola points out, is purely a spectator.
I've mentioned before that my theory on Morris' playing time is that the Knicks don't want to showcase him too much right now, because technically he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. The Knicks hold his Larry Bird rights, meaning they can sign him to whatever they want to sign him to, but they obviously don't want other teams raising the price too much. If another team sees a young player with loads of potential available, they would have to offer him a contract of some sort. Randolph Morris' impending free agency is sort of an underappreciated offseason story that hasn't been discussed. The Knicks should sign him to a long-term contract after the season, for say 3-4 years at $4 million per. It's a great contract for a young player (normally would be on his rookie contract), and a good deal for a team that can't afford any more bad contracts, but can't afford to give up young talent either.
In the meanwhile, I don't expect Isiah Thomas to suddenly change his mindset on the young players for the rest of the season. The reason might make sense: most teams play young players in lost seasons to see what they can do. I think Isiah is pretty confident in his young players, and wants to play the veterans to see what they can do. Remember: at the end of the season, if he is still the GM (it would be a bit of an upset, but really... would anyone really be surprised if Dolan kept Isiah in charge?) he needs to decide what to do about the vets, not the kids. He'll have to decide whether to buy out Marbury (or trade his expiring contract), and whether to trade Curry and/or Randolph (he can't possible keep both). He has to figure out what to do with Q-Rich and Jared Jeffries (starter? deep bench?).
Of course, if the Knicks somehow let Randolph Morris slip through their hands without ever really giving him a chance, I reserve the right to declare war on the Garden....
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Frank Isola of the Daily News writes about Randolph Morris today, and how he is being wasted on the Knicks bench, not getting any playing time. I've agree he's being wasted. With the Knicks out of the playoff hunt, the rest of the season should be about giving the playing time to the younger players to develop.
Aside from Nate Robinson, who is getting increased playing time with the Stephon Marbury "injury", none of the young Knick players have really seen an increase in playing time as the season has gone on.
A sidenote on that: much like Steve Francis last season, it seems Marbury has been told to "stay away" from the Knick team, or so he told Marc Berman of the Post last week. Then today it seems that, after last week's article in the post about that "Marbury ban", tonight's game will, in fact, have our old friend Stephon on the bench. End sidenote.
The rest of the Knicks young players: David Lee has seen about the same playing time as last year, maybe a bit more now that Eddy Curry has fallen out of favor. He's still averaging less minutes per game (27:53) than he did last season (29:48). He's averaging about the same in points (10.1 vs. 10.7 last season), but two less rebounds a game this year (8.4 rpg). His game hasn't improved much this year. He's shooting the same number of FGAs, but hitting a bit fewer this year (57% vs. 60% last year). Defensively he's still a below-average player: he doesn't move very much, doesn't get his hands up, and his steal and block numbers are low. He has just to reliably knocked open 10-15 foot jumpers, though he has been working on that, supposedly. He has no reliable moves in terms of creating off the dribble, and though his turnover number is low (1.3 TO a game) he still gets blocked way too often. He leads the team in that category, and is probably in the top-5 of the NBA in getting blocked.
And he's probably the best player the Knicks have. Renaldo Balkman has also seen a decrease in his mpg from last season, and is unlikely to top the number of games played last season, either - despite not having been injured this season (he missed the last month of last year). His numbers are down across the board.
Forget Mardy Collins. He's also a forgotten man this year.
First-round draft pick Wilson Chandler? Only plays in garbage time. And Randolph Morris, as Isola points out, is purely a spectator.
I've mentioned before that my theory on Morris' playing time is that the Knicks don't want to showcase him too much right now, because technically he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. The Knicks hold his Larry Bird rights, meaning they can sign him to whatever they want to sign him to, but they obviously don't want other teams raising the price too much. If another team sees a young player with loads of potential available, they would have to offer him a contract of some sort. Randolph Morris' impending free agency is sort of an underappreciated offseason story that hasn't been discussed. The Knicks should sign him to a long-term contract after the season, for say 3-4 years at $4 million per. It's a great contract for a young player (normally would be on his rookie contract), and a good deal for a team that can't afford any more bad contracts, but can't afford to give up young talent either.
In the meanwhile, I don't expect Isiah Thomas to suddenly change his mindset on the young players for the rest of the season. The reason might make sense: most teams play young players in lost seasons to see what they can do. I think Isiah is pretty confident in his young players, and wants to play the veterans to see what they can do. Remember: at the end of the season, if he is still the GM (it would be a bit of an upset, but really... would anyone really be surprised if Dolan kept Isiah in charge?) he needs to decide what to do about the vets, not the kids. He'll have to decide whether to buy out Marbury (or trade his expiring contract), and whether to trade Curry and/or Randolph (he can't possible keep both). He has to figure out what to do with Q-Rich and Jared Jeffries (starter? deep bench?).
Of course, if the Knicks somehow let Randolph Morris slip through their hands without ever really giving him a chance, I reserve the right to declare war on the Garden....
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It's always disturbing when DWIGHT HOWARD is saying that a player could be good if he had more playing time. Just what can Morris do? He may have to leave the Knicks to find out.
He is MY HERO I LUV YOU