This Column was written by Columnist CowBoy George C., Life Long Knicks fan, and Knicks Season ticket holder.
The Knicks lost a game on the road to the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, 109-94, dropping their record to 5-15. The Knicks had lost 15 games last year as well, the difference was that they reached 15 losses on January 26th, a month and a half later. The locker room interviews were a collection of seemingly shell-shocked Knicks players (Besides for Carmelo remaining his jovial self) being unable to provide answers for the team’s poor start. Below are five reasons that have caused this demoralizing start…
5. Adjustments (Or lack thereof)
After the game tonight, Woodson stated, “The third quarter caught us again.” For a coach, those are dangerous words. Great coaches are known for coming up with a game plan that maximizes their player’s strengths while attempting to hide their weaknesses. Another area in which coaches can have an impact on the game is making halftime adjustments. For a coach to state that his team is having difficulties in the third quarter is an indictment of his own coaching job in a way. Coaches such as Phil Jackson were famous for their teams coming out of the locker room and making third quarter runs which shifted the momentum of games. Woodson has watched his team get outscored by 51 points by teams in the third quarter (84 points if you don’t count the two blowout wins last week). This is hardly a winning formula for a team.
4. Defense
For a team that has hyped up the defensive attributes of their players such as Shumpert, Chandler, Martin, World Peace, etc. and the defense first mid-set of Woodson, they sure do seem to be confused by the concept of defending the pick and roll. Woodson has stubbornly stuck to this policy of switching on all picks, leaving men open for easy jumpers of creating defensive mismatches all over the court. I’m not sure if it is due to the low basketball I.Q. that many of his players demonstrate, but he rarely, if ever throws new defensive wrinkles like matchup zones or aggressive traps on pick and rolls that could possibly confuse the opposition. I understand how the Knicks have problems rebounding and rotating on defense, but at this point an adjustment might have to be made out of desperation. The Cavs were ranked the worst offense in the NBA and they dropped 109 points tonight. Teams have to salivate seeing this team on the upcoming schedule.
3. Rotations
When this team was being constructed during the season, it seemed like it was being put together by a fantasy basketball manager from 2006. Having a front line with basically three max contracts limits the options for the Knicks, and they are forced to sign veteran players to minimum contracts to try to create depth, but the pieces were going to be a tough fit. Besides for the garbage time players, most of the Knicks starters and backups are shoot first players, with the exception of Chandler, Prigioni and Felton (sometimes). Of the 14 players on the active roster, the only players who have not started this year are Aldrich, Murry and Stoudemire. The main issue is that Woodson is 20 games into the season and it seems like he is still trying to get a feel for this team. Players are sat or left in games with no logical explanation for the move. There is no way that the team can build offensive and defensive chemistry when different players are shuffled in and out of the lineup. I understand trying to shake things up once in a while and getting an energy guy in there, but there has to be a smaller rotation with defined roles set. Great teams use their strengths to make their opponents adjust, yet Woodson has repeatedly shuffled lineups to adjust to the opponent, rather than making them have to change their game-plan.
2. Urgency
After the loss tonight, Carmelo Anthony was quoted as saying that, “Losing is becoming unacceptable.” When was losing ever acceptable?????? I understand that losing is part of the game, just like winning, but when you demand a trade to an organization and state that your goal is to bring the Knicks a championship, losing should be unacceptable every day. This team seems to be coasting at various points of every game, giving up runs that put them behind with large deficits. You don’t want the team to be so tight that it affects their game, but being ten games under .500 twenty games into the season, maybe it is time for the “leaders” on this team to start upping the ante. Carmelo, stop telling the press about how much fun you want to have, and show the fan base that losing is now unacceptable.
1. Accountability
This was the buzzword Woodson started throwing around in his first full season to the point one began to think that he was a member of the Bloomberg administration. Players were to be held accountable for their actions on and off the court. Yet, one of the first things Woodson had to do in order to get his contract was to fire his agent and hire CAA to represent him. CAA also represents Carmelo Anthony, director of player personnel Mark Warkentien, Assistant to the GM Allan Houston, head coach Mike Woodson, and J.R. Smith (And his little brother Chris Smith). One has to wonder is Woodson is afraid to hold his two top gunners accountable for poor decision making, effort on the court, defensive lapses, etc. when they share representation and also have the ear of James Dolan. Many people have started to call for Woodson to be fired, but that is problematic for the organization. Woodson has a good rapport with the players on the team, partly due to his relationship with the stars on the team. Traditionally, when teams fire a coach, the team goes in the opposite direction as the previous coach. In this scenario, a coach that would come in would have to be a disciplinarian that would stress defense and limit the freelancing that many of the players do on offense in the current “system”. With Carmelo being able to opt out of his contract at the end of the season, I doubt he would be thrilled to sign the extension with a team that fired a coach that he got along with and endorsed in order to bring a coach in that would limit his isolation plays and hold him accountable for defense. Sadly, the Dolan appeasement strategy that he uses with his stars will probably continue.
Get ready Knicks fans, this season is going to be one of highs and lows, unfortunately, it seems the lows will far exceed the highs.
Best regards,
George C
Jeff and George with the JYD(Junk Yard Dog) Jerome Williams
“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
-Peter Drucker
This article is written by Podcast Contributor and Website Columnist Big StevieLew/Stev-O “Steve” Lewis. Life Long RedSox Fan and professional wierd-O
Going back to April, no one except for true-blue, diehard fans thought the 2013 Boston Red Sox had a chance of making the playoffs. After back-to-back disappointing and embarrassing seasons, Sox fans and the rest of the MLB had no idea what to expect from this club. John Farrell had been brought on to replace that buffoon Bobby Valentine, and the Farrell trade was considered a move in the positive direction by the majority of Red Sox fans and talking heads around the league. He had great success as a pitching coach under Terry Francona and already had that bond with several of the veteran pitchers on the squad.
During the offseason the team made several moves that seemed innocuous at the time…and some that were even mocked (Victorino), but they brought in a certain type of guy. They picked up David Ross who has been known to be your typical “club-house” type of player. With a positive attitude, and an “always kidding around nature”, he kept the clubhouse on it’s toes. I actually had a video of him singing Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel Like a Woman” while sitting in the dugout as the cameras came back from commercials. I need to see if I can pull that out of the archives. They picked up Jonny Gomes, another “teammates teammate”. I think back to 2008 when Coco Crisp charged the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays after being plunked. Gomes was the first one on top of Coco in the pile, as he came to defend his pitcher. He’s the kind of guy that you hate…until he’s on your team (think Kevin Youkilis of old). Mike Napoli and Koji Uehara rounded of that list of important offseason acquisitions.
Out of desperation, the Sox gave Koji a try at the closer slot. Andrew Bailey and Joel Hanrahan both crapped out early in the season, and Koji was their third option. The 38 year old Japanese right handed reliever did a stellar job during the second half of the season, and at one point put away 37 consecutive batters.
So, all these moves didn’t seem to amount to much at the time, but something in the cosmos brought these pieces together to win a World Series championship in 2013 (or maybe it was Ben Cherington…aka Theo Jr).
American’s have a short attention span. It shrinks everyday. It was only this past April when we had the tragic Boston Marathon Bombings. The bombing itself actually happened shortly after the Red Sox traditional Patriots Day game let out. The bombs were set off in Kenmore Square, not far at all from Fenway Park. My family and I have been to that game before, so it was really sad to know that some scumbag out there would be so insane to do something as diabolical as stuffing a pressure cooker full of nails and explosives.
The Red Sox responded. We had the now infamous Big Papi, “This is OUR F*CKING CITY” speech, and that seemed to really help distract the city, at least for a few hours as the Red Sox pulled off one of many come from behind victories that afternoon. The Red Sox players were a constant sight to see at the area hospitals, visiting the victims, and Fenway park paid tribute to those affected and the first responders at the beginning and 7th inning of every home game. Although I don’t live in Boston, watching everyday reminded me of how NY baseball helped New York City/Tri-state residents cope post 9/11 (obviously not as extreme a situation, but similar).
To me, that’s another intangible that the Sox had going for them. They had a special “617” Boston Strong Jersey hanging in the dugout all season. Even Neil Diamond came out in the bottom of the 8th to sing “Sweet Caroline” live for the fans (with the call and response part too, of course).
So fast forward to the end of the season, they ran off with 97 wins, and were the best team in the AL, securing an important home field advantage the whole way through, since the AL won the All Star game. Home field advantage is big for Boston in the traditional sense that you get last licks, and the Fenway faithful really know how to scream their heads off. On the night they clinched the World Series, more specifically, once they took a 6-0 lead, the jovial crowd broke into song, and belted out every chorus in unison with the PA at the stadium between batters and innings.
They started the playoffs with the hated Tampa Rays, a team that they had cleared the benches with several times in the past with, including this season. You have crazy Joe Madden over there with his team trips to the aquarium and other oddl team building exercises. Tampa was out matched and Madden even went as far as pitching every single pitcher he had available in the 4th game of that series. I personally had never seen anything like that before. It reeked of desperation. The Sox closed that series up and Detroit and Oakland went on to finish up their series. If you asked me then, I would have rather faced Detroit. They had seemed to be a little beat up and really had to fight to win over Oakland. Well, let me tell you, I was wrong. Shurzer had already started several times, Miguel Cabrera didn’t seem himself. Verlander had just thrown a near perfect game his last outing, no way he could do it again, right? WRONG. Detroit came out with some of the most dominating pitching to come from a starting corps since maybe the Atlanta Braves of the 90’s?
That series was the definition of heart attack baseball! Unstoppable pitching, low scoring, late inning heroics. Let me tell you, I was ready to jump off the ledge several times, but they always came back and rallied. The team definitely reminds me of the 2004 Idiots. We used to have the Idiots, now we have the Bieard-o’s. The team had that aggressive nature, which you have to give credit to John Farrell for. He got his guys to respond and to buy into his philosophy. The Red Sox played small ball in spots, which is something they don’t traditionally do. Detroit couldn’t match that, and the bullpen also just couldn’t get it done for them.
There were several magical moments in that series: the Big Papi grand slam (sending Torii Hunter into the Red Sox bullpen and a BPD officer’s hands into the air,) the Mike Napoli homer off of Verlander, and Shane Victorino’s grand slam to basically put the nail in the coffin for Detroit. I almost feel bad for them. Those guys could pitch on my team any day. Verlander, Sherzer, Sanchez, come to Boston! Please! We’ll win a few more….back-to-back, possibly threepeat?
The Cardinal’s had the best overall record in the NL in 2013, and the Red Sox were best in the AL. In the wild card era, this occurrence is becoming more and more rare. Game 1 of the 2013 World Series will be known for a, now much overshadowed, error/blown call and subsequent reversal. In the bottom of the first, St. Louis shortstop Pete Kozma could not handle a ball flipped to him on the front end of a double play. Initially the umpire inexplicably called Dustin Pedroia out at second on the force out. John Farrell immediately came barrelling out of the dugout, spit flying and neck veins popping. He was able to convince the crew to get together and see if anyone had seen the play differently (which is strange being that the umpire closest to the call was the only one who didn’t see Kozma drop the ball.) After the game, the Cardinals organization and fans seemed to agree that the right call was made. The Red Sox scored three runs immediately after this controversy on a Mike Napoli double. I actually went ahead and made an edit to Pete Kozma’s wikipedia page to make sure he never forgets how huge that was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Kozma
Game 2 featured a great pitching matchup pitting John Lackey against the Cardinals pitching phenom Michael Wacha. The game stayed tight until the 7th inning when the Red Sox slipped mentally in the field, and a Craig Breslow throwing error allowed St. Louis to score and put together a rally strong enough to hold off the Red Sox.
As mentioned before, the overturned call in the bottom of the 1st of the first game would surprisingly not be the most controversial call of the series. Game 3 saw the Cards get ahead early, only to watch Boston crawl back. The Cards then took another lead in the bottom of the 7th, only to see the Red Sox answer again in the top of the 8th, to even the score once again. At that point, you knew you were watching something special, one of those traditional “Fall Classics”, but anyone who saw a game ending obstruction call coming is full of sh*t! I won’t get into detail as to what exactly happened (what a bunch of horsesh*t), or what my initial reaction was (almost got arrested), because the play was so widely covered by sports media outlets that I’m sure you’ve seen the play by now. To see both teams storm the field, and a crowd stunned and silent while their team had just scored the winning run was very unusual.
Coming out of this game, it was my opinion, which was shared by many other diehard Boston fans, and St. Louis fans alike that, this series would eventually hinge on how Boston responded to the obstruction call. Would they adopt the “Why me? We were screwed,” stance, or would they come out with a chip on their shoulder and continue to work counts and swing smart…a tactic they had been practicing all year successfully? The largest crowd in Cardinal history came out that night to watch the Cards lose another tight game. The Red Sox got a humongous lift from a Jonny Gomes 3-run homer in the 6th inning that featured Gomes signature bat flip as he stared a hole through the ball as it cleared the wall. If it weren’t the World Series, with everything on the line, I’d imagine that Gomes would have had one thrown high and tight his next at bat, but that never happened. Maybe Gomes was doing his best Big Papi impersonation, a guy who has actually earned the right to stare at the moon shot home runs he is known for. As an old school guy, I’m not a fan of that stuff, even when it’s my own team doing it. I never liked the way Papelbon reacted when he recorded a save. My pops used to say, “Act like you’ve been there before, no need for showboating.” I also must add that the weirdness continued, as the game ended on a successful pickoff play. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th and Carlos Beltran up at the plate (arguably one of the most prolific post season hitters in the wild card era) the Cards brought in a rookie, Kolten Wong, to pinch run because of his speed. Well, the rookie made a ……uuuummm…rookie mistake and Koji Uehara caught him sleeping. This was the first time a World Series game ended with a pickoff, a night after the game ended on an obstruction call for the first time, making this the first World Series where back to back games ended with a “first time” for the first time. 😉 Tim McCarver and Cardinal’s play by play announcer Michael Shannon both questioned why the Red Sox would hold the runner on in that situation, only to be shown why immediately. Happy trails Tim McCarver…enjoy your retirement. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of you. This link has a great vid of all 3 calls (it doesn’t include the McCarver comment, but does feature the Cards call…pretty funny)…
As the fans exited Busch Stadium, there was a slight sense of defeat that hung in the air. The Cards and their fans knew that Game 5 was going to be somewhat “do or die”. If they were to lose Game 5, they would need to go back to Boston and win two games in a row in the unfriendly confines of Fenway Park. St. Louis could not rise to the challenge, and they floundered by giving up crucial hits to David Ross and Jacoby Ellsbury, two players that were struggling mightily at the plate leading up to those moments. The big star of the game would have to be the Red Sox pitcher and cancer survivor, Jon Lester. With that win, Lester’s World Series record improved to 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA, the stuff legends are made of.
The Sox came home to Fenway for game 6 knowing they only had one more to win, and needed to avoid a game 7 at all costs. In Game 6 they put a 3 spot on the board in the bottom of the 3rd and 4th. Shane Victorino, who had sat out the previous two games with an injury delivered the first of several nails in the coffin with a three run double in the third. The Flyin’ Hawaiian, or the Maui Wowie, as I like to refer to him as, really personified the toughness, the unwillingness to give in and grittiness that the 2013 Red Sox team displayed all year. After all that Red Sox fans had been through the past 2 and a half seasons, and the tragedy that the town experienced, the Red Sox faithful were ready to party late into the evening as the town took to the streets. They held a parade on that Saturday and broke out the famous duck boats.
And Boston celebrated the only way they know how….drunkenly kick the sh*t out of each other.
Bonus,added by jeff.
Steve testing hiss crackpot theories in a livery cab in the bx/inwood
