Next up in the review of the 2005-06 NBA season is the New York Knicks. To date the Knicks have been the subject of at least three specific posts in this forum.
Pinning Your Hopes on Eddy Curry?
Isiah Thomas Discovers Role Players
Given all that has already been said, for this post let’s just note the productivity of each Knick player last season (see HERE), and repeat the observation made earlier: The cast of players the Knicks assembled last year – a collection dominated by scorers — should have been expected to win fewer than 30 games. In sum, it was not Larry Brown’s fault that this team failed.
The addition of two role players – Jared Jeffries and Renaldo Balkman – should help the Knicks in 2006-07. Although forecasting rookies is difficult, it is possible that Balkman may be the best decision Thomas ever made in his tenure in New York. Unfortunately, it is not clear at this point that either Jeffries or Balkman will actually make it on the floor all that often. For that to happen, some of the scorers the Knicks currently employ would have to sit.
If these players do play, will that be enough to save Thomas? Well, that seems unlikely. Other than these players, the Knicks are essentially bringing back the same team. Given the consistency we see in NBA performance across time, one should expect essentially the same outcome. Yes, Jeffries and Balkman might help some, but it is not likely that will be enough to keep Thomas employed beyond this year.
— DJ
Teams Analyzed Thus Far
KnickerBlogger
September 18, 2006
I have a hard time believing that Channing Frye is in the class of Malik Rose, Jalen Rose, and Jackie Butler (esp. the first two).
As for keeping Thomas employed, you never know what Dolan is going to do. I wonder if he’ll consider a 33 win season an improvement (it’s 10 games!)