Thursday, February 03, 2005

Jamal Crawford update

Still miss him?

Following the latest Knicks debacle, a 96-76 flogging at the hands of 'Melo, K-Mart, and the rest of the Denver Nuggets, Knicks forward Jerome Williams told reporters that the Knicks are struggling to “play team basketball.” As if we needed the Junkyard Dog to tell us that.

Anybody not named Stephon Marbury, Isiah Thomas, or James Dolan saw this coming in the off-season when the Knicks traded for high-scoring shooting guard Jamal Crawford. Renowned for busting out for 30 points one night only to throw that many bricks the next, Crawford is one of the NBA's most notorious freelancers, a player with a preternatural ability to singlehandedly throw an offense out of sync by ignoring plays to force up ill-timed shots. Being that the Knicks already had one player that does that , Starbury, who just happens to be their point guard and anointed franchise player, adding Crawford to the mix seemed, well, odd and a bit risky.

It's proved to be worse than even the most doomsday-inclined of NYC tabloid hacks could've imagined. The defensively disinterested duo has combined to form the NBA's most sieve-like backcourt while teaming to turn the Knicks offense into a series of “random possessions,” as coach Herb Williams put it. With the loses piling up faster than fourth quarter turnovers by Marbury, the Knicks situation has gotten so bad that team apologists are pointing to the return of do-nothing Tim Thomas as a potential turning point.

Yeah, it'll be a turning point alright. It'll be the point at which the Knicks 2004-05 season becomes an out-and-out farce.

I know this isn't exactly the best audience to relay such a message, but there were countless Bulls fans over the summer who bemoaned the loss of their leading scorer. And the Knicks incompatible backcourt wasn't completely surprising.

I fear for Knickerblogger's sanity when I read today that Isiah may not be reluctant to trade Michael Sweetney.

Note: Lots of new links are up, so browse around. As you can see, nearly everyone has a basketball blog. Why, I remember the old days, when it was just Me, Tim, and Scott. Just kidding new bloggers, I know I probably speak for everyone when saying that all of these new blogs is only a good thing for the basketball blogosphere.