The Knicks were without Carmelo Anthony last night in Indianapolis and predictably the offense faltered. Tony Williams of the Star Ledger writes that that’s either glass being half empty or half full if you’re a Knicks fan. Frank Isola of the Daily News writes about the exercise in futility that was the Knick offense last night. George Willis of the Post writes that maybe the Knicks have lost their swagger entering a seven game home stand. Nate Taylor of the New York Times writes that it wasn’t just the missing Carmelo Anthony and his 29 points per game and his usual brilliant late game shooting, but it was just the Knicks missing in general. Jared Swerling of ESPNNY.com writes among his notes about Marcus Camby’s injury that sidelined him for most of the game.
There was a time in that game that the Knicks were capturing some of that momentum. They were up 4 after being down most of a very sloppy game, and then the Pacers went on a 13-2 run and it felt like a 28-2 run. It felt like an enormous lead that this team just could not overcome because they didn’t have their best player on the court. But let’s add on, that the Knicks haven’t had their best players on the court all season. Their best team is still sitting on the bench wearing tailored suits. Yes, Carmelo Anthony wasn’t in the building last night but also consider that primary point guard Raymond Felton is out for another four to five more weeks. The Knicks best perimeter defender Iman Shumpert is now only beginning live practices. Rasheed Wallace, another veteran center, was out because of a recurring foot issue that has him day to day. Amar’e Stoudemire is only beginning to round into form.
Last night people began wondering if the Knicks were as good as the early season start or if this recent rough stretch was in reality who the Knicks were. I am willing to say that the Knicks are somewhere in the middle. One thing I will say is that when healthy this team can go against anybody. They have the veteran leadership. They have the bigs to control the paint. They have the defensive mindset in a half court game. They play the style of basketball that wins in the postseason and in the end, that’s what this team’s ultimate goal is. To win in May and June. Playoff seeding be damned, had the Knicks not gotten off to that fast start, who knows where in the standings they would be. Thanks to Miami losing they didn’t lose any ground so they remain a half game back of number one seed Miami, but Indiana has to be a real threat. They added a ton of size to their team and the difference between last year’s team and this year’s team is Paul George.
It makes the alpha dog status of this team an interesting one when Danny Granger returns. The Pacers don’t have a top 10 player on their team but they have several excellent pieces. George is showing signs that he could be their go-to guy. He still doesn’t have a consistent enough shot, but his perimeter d and his otherworldly athleticism make him a candidate with further room to grow and improve. He’s the kind of guy that will only get better and oh by the way he’s only turning 23 this May.
A line up that I saw last night that worries me is the Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire, JR Smith and Steve Novak. While Novak isn’t a terrible defender, Amar’e has been a liability on that side of the ball and Kidd gets beat consistently by the quicker point guards. Its only his hands that make him a threat to poke the ball away from an offensive player running right by him. He still has the quickness and strength to poke balls away when they aren’t secured. I understand its to give the Knicks the most amount of shooters, but Amare and Tyson can’t create their own offense so teams play zone and never have to stray too far away from their guy. If you were to replace Novak or Smith with Prigioni, this gives you two ball handlers who can run dual pick and rolls. A play they may want to run is Pablo/Kidd coming from the top of the arc and working their way down while getting two screens from both Amar’e and Tyson, as soon as the bigs start to roll, only one big can rotate back to their original man leaving one guy with the point guard while allowing a big to have a mismatch. Either a lob to the open big to set up a roll to the basket or a bounce pass would suffice. Now, what happens if someone else rotates to the basket to prevent the easy dunk? You now have whomever was standing at the corner three locations running behind their man and the big can quickly pass it to him for the easy lay up. That line up needs as many ball handlers and offensive creators as possible due to the limitations of Chandler and Amar’e to create offensively.
Once Amar’e gets his stuff together (ie: his 15-18 footer that he was routinely knocking down in 2010), and gets more acclimated to the pace of the game (which he should be by now), the Knicks won’t feel as crippled by the fact that both are primarily pick and roll players. The Knicks just can’t let Amar’e play center and allow teams easy buckets in the paint and offensive rebounds by the dozens. Amar’e just does not box out well (he admitted he was never taught), and you can’t let a defensive liability to be left out there without any protection. Funny thing is, if Rasheed Wallace had been in both games, I think the Knicks win both. Not kidding you at all.
With the blank entry list to the Baseball Hall of Fame thanks to the suspicion of steroids use by many of the first timers on this year’s ballot, baseball followed that announcement with this: the Players Union and Major League Baseball agreed to expand HGH testing. Andy McCullough of the Star Ledger writes that the plan is to monitor testosterone levels to note any changes to them in players. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times writes that this is another way for baseball to argue that it has the strictest testing of all the four major sports. Both stories spoke of the NFL’s hesitation in blood tests for HGH in season. This comes a day after a story revealed that Junior Seau was in fact diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease named CTE that is caused by repeated blows to the head perhaps due to his years playing football. According to this NYTimes report, out of 34 cases that the researchers at Boston University have examined where the subject died, 33 were found to be linked to CTE.
It was an unusual day for science in the sports landscape. I wouldn’t describe baseball as reeling from the aftershock of not inducting anyone to the Hall of Fame, but the numerous empty ballots certainly created a buzz in the sporting community. Performance enhancing drugs are an ever changing market. One day its anabolic steroids, the next its something more subtle that alters a player’s ability. Tomorrow it will be a substance that is virtually untraceable. I’m willing to bet that every year we will read about two or three more athletes that continue to feel that they can cheat the system and get away with it. Until the sports world has universal Olympic testing prior to every competition, how can a team not feel they were cheated by somebody who came into a game all “juiced up”. Obviously that kind of testing will never happen but baseball will always have this stigma attached to it thanks to the almost two decades long period of not caring to do anything about the problem.
Football on the other hand has a very very serious problem. I’ve said for years now that Roger Goodell’s legacy will be linked to how he contains or doesn’t contain the concussion issue and player safety. Those who think that he’s not doing enough will ask for more measures of reeling in the violence. And there will always be those who feel he has done too much to risk the primal nature of the game that makes it what it is. I’m of those that believe that you play football knowing the risks. The hits just keep getting harder and tougher the bigger the players get and the faster they come to hit. But players continue to compete knowing the risks. There’s no place in the game for HGH considering how big these guys are and how physical this game is, but don’t try and convince me that Goodell’s stance on this issue isn’t driven by his fear that if he doesn’t do anything the lawsuit by former NFL players contending that the NFL does very little for its former players will make the NFL pay a huge hefty sum. Goodell has implemented rules and barriers to use in court to say that the NFL is doing its level best to not compromise player safety. One of the biggest issues that I saw in a report for HBO’s Real Sports series was a story done by Andrea Kremer in which the NFL was asking players to sign a waiver agreeing to free the NFL of any kind of lawsuit before taking a painkiller called Toradol which acts as a numbing agent. The Players Union is asking players NOT to sign the waiver which continues the back and forth of this issue. Neither side is willing to be fully on board with the player safety issue as the NFL is trying to lead everyone to believe and its being done with the intention of trying to avoid any further legal hassles in the future.
My opinion is, the NFL is a dangerous sport. Junior Seau’s case is one that will never change. Players play injured. Players go in when they aren’t supposed to, ask RGIII. The sport almost demands a player to play through and to show the teammates their individual toughness. The fact is, the risks aren’t being explored in game situations and are only being asked after the fact. After a game has been played and the player has taken a few extra lumps on top of the lump that caused the injury. Players do this all the time in the NFL but they do so under their own recognizance. That’s where team doctors or medical officials need to step in and be authoritative when they demand a player’s removal from a game. If Dr. James Andrews, the most renowned name in orthopedics, can’t have his professional opinion taken seriously enough then what shot does any other medical official have. Its a dilemma that won’t go away and good for the NFL that it doesnt!
Hal Steinbrenner calmed Yankees fans fears a little in this Ken Davidoff report saying that the $189 million figure is just a number and doesn’t represent an end all figure if the Yankees aren’t seriously contending for a World Series in 2014.
Sammy Sosa is just weird, on his Pinterest page.
John Clayton of ESPN.com writes that several teams will have a difficult time in reshaping their roster, especially the Jets who are currently $19.4 million over the cap and Dallas who are currently $18.2 million over. The Giants sit at $4.7 million over.
Gary Meyers of the Daily News writes that Tim Tebow doesn’t have a prayer of having a starting gig in the NFL.
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