Ever since Carmelo Anthony came to New York, people said that a team with him and Amare Stoudemire would never work, including myself. So how does a team fix a problem like this. One way is to start training and working out nearly a month early. Well the New York Knicks have decided that going to work early was the right thing to do. Steve Novak told ESPNNewYork.com yesterday that the Knicks have organized a 'pre-training camp' and that most of the team will attend. The camp will run all the way til media day, October 1. As a Knicks fan, there is nothing not to like about this announcement, except the name (pre-training camp? really?).
The idea came from head coach Mike Woodson and will consist of at least seven players. Novak, Anthony, and Stoudemire will be joined by Tyson Chandler and new additions Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd, and Pablo Prigioni. JR Smith's younger brother and new Knick, Chris Smith, also may be there. It is unclear if JR or any other Knicks will be attending the camp. Woodson had the idea because the lockout prevented training camp last season and the team had to gel during games, which didn't really get to happen due to injuries. So this pre-training camp is making up for lost time. Getting the team to gel is crucial as it stands as the only thing holding the Knicks back. They certainly acquired enough talent to compete, and so that is a non-issue.
The reason the Knicks need to gel is because they kind of have a logjam up front. Anthony, Stoudemire, and Chandler all work the same area of the floor, just about, and so they tend to mess each other up. Chandler is not so much the problem as Anthony and Stoudemire interfering with each other, though. As well all know, Anthony and Stoudemire are going to be the primary scorers for the Knicks, and they need to be comfortable with each other on the court. You want both of your scorers to be able to get to their spots on the floor, as they will be the easiest spots to finish from. If your scorer is the slightest bit uncomfortable, then they will start to miss shots and be out of rhythm. Anthony and Stoudemire both saw their field goal percentages drop significantly last season, which was attributed to both injury and discomfort on the court. Jeremy Lin was also a factor in messing up the two stars.
Lin is gone now though, and he has been replaced by Felton, Kidd, and Prigioni. Felton played on the Knicks in 2010 with Stoudemire and had the best year of his career. He will not have to do as much with the Knicks this year, but his chemistry with Stoudemire on the pick and roll is very important. Kidd has made a career out being an excellent passer and should help set up Anthony and Stoudemire for easy buckets. Prigioni has never played in the NBA before, playing his entire career in his native country of Argentina, but he is also known for his flashy passes and serves as a good guy to have around if Felton or Kidd go down with injury. All three of these guards do not need to score often either, which also bodes well for Anthony and Stoudemire.
The Knicks team in general looks very good and could be poised for a deep playoff run if they can mesh. The starting five most likely will be: Felton at point, former Bull Ronnie Brewer at the 2, Anthony at small forward, Stoudemire at power forward, and Chandler at center. I say most likely because it has not been announced who will hold down the shooting guard position while Iman Shumpert recovers from his torn ACL. Woodson had announced that JR Smith will be the starter but that was before the team signed Ronnie Brewer and it is widely known that JR would prefer to be the sixth man. The bench has been completely revamped with the additions of Kidd, Prigioni, Marcus Camby, and Kurt Thomas. The team also added overseas veterans James White and Chris Copeland, who both had excellent numbers in the summer league. Throw in Novak, the only remaining member of last year's bench, and you have a bench full of veteran basketball players. This means that the expectation will be that this team will keep the turnover numbers down.
A potential problem for the Knicks will be the age of the bench. Kidd, Camby, Thomas, and Prigioni are all 35 years old or older. Yes, the experience is great, but if an injury happens to a starter, will one of the older backups be able to play consistent starters' minutes? It's one thing to be a bench player and play half the game tops, but it's a completely different animal when you are on the court for the majority of the game. Anthony, Stoudemire, and Chandler were all injured at various points last season, but it was a shortened season due to the lockout and the hope is that with a regular schedule they should be able to play nearly every game. I think the Knicks should be fine though as Kidd and Camby have played big time minutes in recent years. As for Thomas, he has averaged 15-25 minutes per year the past five seasons and started 107 games over that span.
Even though most of the excitement in New York has been over the Brooklyn Nets, there is a lot of excitement around the New York Knicks as well. They had a busy offseason and it shows management has gone into title mode. The players agreeing to start work a month early shows that they too are in title mode. This NBA offseason has brought a lot of change around the league and a lot of teams have become vastly better than last year. But I haven't heard of another team going off to train together this early, and remember, it's the early bird that gets the worm. Could the Knicks be the bird and a title be the worm? We'll find out soon enough.
References
http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/8341668/new-york-knicks-organize-early-training-camp-september-10
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/1975/carmelo-anthony
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/1727/amare-stoudemire
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/2753/raymond-felton
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/429/jason-kidd
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/depth/_/name/ny/new-york-knicks
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/125/marcus-camby
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/846/kurt-thomas
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