Knicks Knacks

Let’s see, there must be a tryptophan joke that would apply to the Knicks.

Never mind.

I’m stuffed and ready for a nap. Anyway, the Knicks did manage to play well in Detroit for almost two quarters. They were actually impressive early on against the Pistons, but after six or seven minutes the confidence faded.

The second-unit played very well, Jared Jeffries, especially.

It was great to see Eddy Curry get involved right from the start, but there was no carryover and he got shut out in the third quarter while Rasheed Wallace sat on the bench with a sore knee.

Today was a day of rest for the Knicks. Tomorrow it’s back to work. Hope everyone had room for a slice of pie.

Stephon Marbury avoided making predictions in the last month, begging patience. He wanted to reserve judgement until the Knicks were 10 games into the season.

And here we are.

So what’s his evaluation of the Knicks, who go into tonight’s game against the Detroit Pistons with a 2-8 record.

“We have to revamp,” he said after last night’s crushing defeat at the hands of a more organized Golden State Warriors team. “We have to go back to the drawing board.”

I’ll tell you what, Marbury is at times misguided, but he’s brutally honest.

Knicks owner James Dolan took in the latest blowout from his baseline seat, and he’s clearly not pleased with the situation. Nobody knows how long the leash is. There’s way too much invested already to blow the roster up and start over.

Perhaps that will convince him to clean out the front office instead.

On the record, a majority of the players support the embattled Isiah Thomas. On the court, they don’t seem to embrace his philosophy. Thomas could bench a couple of guys who aren’t pulling their weight, namely Eddy Curry, but that’s not going to happen unless he gets a vote of confidence from ownership.

“It’s not on him,” Jamal Crawford said. “He can’t put on a uniform anymore. That’s why I’m here. That’s why Steph’s here. That’s why David Lee’s here. We have to get it done. He’s not the one throwing the ball away.”

The schedule is not providing any reason for optimism.

After the Knicks finish in Detroit, they come home for a matinee on Saturday against Chicago and host Utah on Tuesday. Next up is a back-to-back that starts in Boston and closes at home against Milwaukee.

This is how the Larry Brown era got under way.

“It feels the same,” Marbury said. “Losing isn’t fun.”

At this point, accepting the blame for a forgettable loss seems a desperate move.

There’s a chance Isiah Thomas won’t be around much longer unless the Knicks find a way to compete with the pack of upcoming contenders.

So naturally, he took responsibility for last night’s blowout loss to Golden State.

“They were right,” Thomas said of those patrons who chose to boo. “If I had paid my money to see this game, I would be upset also.”

And what about the chants?

“That comes with the territory, Thomas said. “I’m not afraid to come up and take responsibility for this display of basketball. Our fans didn’t deserve to see this. That’s on my desk. That’s on me. That’s not on Marbury. That’s not on Curry. That’s not on anybody but Isiah. My job is to make sure I fix it. This one’s on me tonight.”

Knicks owner James Dolan swung by the office afterward, but I doubt he’s ready to do anything until everyone’s sick of Thanksgiving leftovers.

I would be keeping an eye on the offense, though.

Right now, the Knicks do not seem to believe in the sets. There is no flow, no organization. Perhaps they are just freelancing. Either way, it’s an indictment of Thomas.

And we all know what happens when the offense struggles, the defense goes on hiatus.

• Golden State came at Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph with aggressive double teams and the Knicks never got around to making them pay. There isn’t much of a perimeter threat right now.

• I think Nate Robinson has grown impatient and morphed back into the player he was last season. He needs to get more time on the floor and go back to setting up teammates.

• Charles Oakley was sitting on celebrity row and never showed up on the big screen. Why not celebrate a former Knicks cornerstone who remains popular among the fans here? I suppose MSG officials didn’t want to remind anyone of the good old days.

• Stephon Marbury decided to head to Detroit with the Knicks instead of staying behind to attend his aunt’s funeral.

Not much is new in the last few hours, although Isiah Thomas did finally refer to the decision to bench Stephon Marbury as punishment.

“That’s what it is,” Thomas said. “It’s a punishment.”

Even so, the punishment was hardly a big deal. Thomas didn’t take away significant playing time. Marbury got 34 minutes in Los Angeles, 44 minutes in Sacramento and 16 minutes in the blowout against Denver.

Renaldo Balkman is not playing tonight. He’s still having trouble with the right ankle he sprained in Phoenix, and is listed as day-to-day. Quentin Richardson is still dealing with a sore right elbow, but he’s planning to play.

Can’t wait to see whether they introduce Marbury last, as usual. It would give the fans a great opportunity to make their feelings known so I suppose there’s a chance they’ll shuffle the order to muffle the reaction.

No word yet on whether Marbury is staying behind tonight when the Knicks fly to Detroit.

So we get into the gym this morning after shoot-around, and were met by Stephon Marbury.

He was smiling.

“Yes, I’m starting,” Marbury said.

The lineup change was confirmed by Isiah Thomas about 10 minutes later.

“I think he understands what we want from that position now, ” he said. “I think our message and our point has been clear, the leadership that we need from that position, the defense we need from that position.

“I think he needed a reminder. I don’t think it’s something he doesn’t know how to do. He definitely knows how to play the position. He has great skill, great talent. We needed to remind him of what we need and expect from that position for us to be successful.”

But wait, there’s more.

The latest controversy got a second wind when Marbury was asked to assess what he’s taking away from this mess.

“To be honest, not a whole lot came of it,” Marbury said. “There’s nothing good coming out of all of what went on, but for myself, being able to weather the storm, to have focus when I went back onto the court was something that was good for myself. And as far as what I had to deal with and as far as my teammates are concerned, I think everyone wants to get this past them and go forward.”

And when he was asked for a reaction to the sentiment, Thomas appeared to be mortified.

He even asked the omnipresent public relations official to confirm that Marbury had actually uttered those words before sidestepping the issue.

“I have to make sure,” Thomas said. “I don’t know. I think as a player, you never want to be benched. You always want to play. But from a team aspect, I think the things he’ll deliver are exactly what we need. And if he’s not delivering those things again, then the bench awaits him.â€?

And we also got confirmation that this squabble is personal.

Marbury acknowledged his actions contributed to an 0-4 road trip, but he indicated there was no intention to hurt teammates.

“Of course, it had something to do with it, but this was a personal issue,” he said. “This wasn’t between myself and my teammates. It was between Isiah and myself.”

We don’t know if Marbury will be in Detroit with the Knicks tomorrow. He found out yesterday before practice that his aunt passed away. It sounds like he’s uncomfortable leaving to be with family after what happened last week.

Isiah Thomas didn’t say much. Stephon Marbury didn’t say anything.

The questions are predictable when a struggling team comes back from an 0-4 road trip. Even more so when the starting point guard reacts badly to a demotion and leaves for home. I suppose they’ll have to wait for another day.

Maybury was off the court and into the locker room this afternoon before anyone could make eye contact. He was essentially unavailable. The questions aren’t going to go away.

And there’s a chance some of the disgruntled fans would’ve appreciated hearing some kind of apology.

Maybe he went home to write a heartfelt letter to season ticket holders, which no doubt will be delivered with a piece of hardwood autographed by a Knicks legend along with the opportunity to purchase tickets for the upcoming playoffs ahead of the general public.

(That’s marketing department humor).

So is Marbury starting or coming off the bench tomorrow against Golden State?

“We’ll see,” Thomas said.

Given a second chance, would you handle the situation differently?

“No,” Thomas said.

He called it necessary, then seemingly dumped the whole thing in Marbury’s lap.

“Again, what we need and what we want from him is great leadership and great defense and those are two things he is capable of delivering,” Thomas said. “And when those things aren’t delivered, he’ll hear from me. But from that point guard position, that’s what we need and that’s what we demand and sometimes it may not sit well, but those are the things we need. And if those things are delivered, I’m sure we’ll have a good season.”

Read that last sentance a couple of times. Did you catch it?

Right about know the Knicks are rolling into the MSG training facility to resume a season that is already slipping away.

I know there’s a long way to go.

Still, it’s never to early to post my favorite mathematical formula, so here it goes. If the Knicks are going to win 42 games this season, they have to go 40-33 the rest of the way. There’s just no way, unless they have some kind of epiphany.

It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s been a players meeting.

The little get togethers are normally useless, but they need to get everything out in the open before the bad feelings start to spill over and fill up another week of blogs. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

It was a busy weekend around my house, so I didn’t get much time with the blog. I did want to answer some questions that popped up, though.

I wrote that Stephon Marbury has to go if the Knicks decide to fire Isiah Thomas because of the past history. Getting rid of Thomas and letting Marbury go back to business as usual sends a terrible message to frustrated teammates who already believe the frustrated playmaker is getting special treatment.

Forget about Jeff Van Gundy as long as James Dolan is slumped over in a baseline seat. They are not exactly friendly anymore. I’m pretty sure Herb Williams gets a shot if the Knicks can’t regain some momentum and decide to make a change. And they would likely throw some money around to get a big name in the front office—Jerry West or Jerry Colangelo. But we’re getting a little ahead of the game, there.

Lastly, how old is EdF? King Midas in Reverse, very nice. I think way back in junior high I had a Hollies greatest hits cassette with that song on it. All weekend that stupid song has been playing in my head. Thanks a lot!

We’ll do this again when practice is over.

It’s not about to get any easier.

When the Knicks get home in the wee small hours of the morning, they probably won’t be resting easy knowing Golden State, Detroit, Chicago, Utah, Boston and Milwaukee are up next on the schedule.

Are you thinking 2-13 when the month finally ends?

I look at the box score, and see no hope right now. I watch the broadcast and see a deflated group that needs a change.

So what gives?

There’s no way to fire Isiah Thomas unless the Knicks are committed to also dumping Stephon Marbury because they are joined at the hip in good times and in bad.

A major trade is unlikely because the roster is stocked with overpaid players whose shortcomings have been on display over the last two weeks. Opposing teams can be greedy when they know desperate times are on the horizon.

Making another lineup change isn’t likely to help. Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford have not displayed much inspiration, but who’s better right now? Marbury still looks disconnected and doesn’t belong on the court for the opening tip.

I do have one idea.

Change the window dressing. Marbury no longer deserves to be the captain of the Knicks, so turn over the locker room to Malik Rose and Quentin Richardson.

Oh wait, it’s hard to establish credibility when you don’t play a lot of minutes.

Never mind.

So what are the Knicks going to do? They don’t have a single player on the roster who’s capable of being an effective leader right now. Isiah Thomas has claimed he would be the leader since he landed on the sidelines, but he’s apparently not a popular guy in the locker room, either.

And trading for a strong personality will not fill the void. Not this season. It takes at least a full season before a newcomer feels comfortable enough to put somebody on the spot.

I guess what I’m saying is, here we go again.

Just a couple of updates …

Zach Randolph is expected to rejoin the Knicks again in Denver tomorrow night after burying his grandmother.

Renaldo Balkman went for an MRI in Sacramento yesterday. Aside from the sprained right ankle, they didn’t find anything serious, just a bone bruise. He’s going to be day-to-day for a little while, but hasn’t been ruled out of tomorrow’s game.

Stephon Marbury answered questions after shoot-around this morning and MSG just played the interview back. Did he convince anybody that anything will change?

While the Knicks are sleeping in Sacramento, we’re going to start a new feature here.

I thought it would be fun to feature some of the frequent contributors we’ve all come to know over the last year with a short biography post. And since we all start the day at ultimateknicks.com I figured Andrew and Martin needed to be introduced first.

Here they are …

Andrew claims he’s the better looking one.

Yes, it’s an inside joke. Anyway, the brothers responsible for hooking us all up with links to our daily fix of Knicks news and information did answer most of my questions seriously.

Here’s the profile, compliments of Martin …

Names: Andrew & Martin
Ages: 34/36
Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.
Occupation: Computer Engineers – both of us build web sites for living.
Knicks fans since: Pat Riley joined.
All-time favorite Knicks players: Martin—L.J. He had it all: Skills, leadership, clutch play, teamwork, attitude. If I were watching during the 70’s: Clyde. Andrew: Patrick Ewing.

When did you start ultimateknicks.com?
Early 2001, just at the time when the Knicks started to slowly implode.

Why did you start the site?
We both felt there was not a good place for Knick fans to congregate and chat about the Knicks. Our front page with the news came out first and the forums and GamePicker came out shortly afterwards.

How much time do you invest in the site each week?
Less than 5 minutes a day to refresh the front page content; many, many minutes surfing and posting in our forums. We have most all of our content automated. Every couple of months we put in an hour or so tweaking the functionality of our site: hooking up the up-to-the-minute blog articles by the beat staff was one of our latest endeavors, our RecordPredictor was another. Both of us have been ultra busy with home life but we hope to roll out a new version of our site soon (any takers for joining the ultimateknicks dev team out there?).

What kind of traffic are you drawing, and does the success or failure of the Knicks affect the numbers?
Our site really took off around the time Isiah joined the Knicks, there was a lot of excitement and promise. When LB joined and started turning the screws on the whole organization we noticed that Knicks fans alike, both the die hard fans and the more fickle variety, started to get more anxious about the direction and likability of the team. When the Knicks win, we get a LOT more traffic, and when they lose, it’s endless debates about the team and organizational flaws, and that is when traffic and fan interest levels off. Day to day, we can literally tell by the hits if the Knicks have won or not.

Do you make money off the site?
No. We have minimal ads revenue coming our way (added only within the last year). Both of us have made the conscience decision to NOT bombard the site with ads or ask for donations. Right now it is just a hobby.

How far are the Knicks going to go this season?
Martin: 40 wins, out of playoffs.
Andrew: 42 wins, 8th seed (prediction made prior to StephGate).

Many thanks to you, Mike, and the rest of the beat for keeping in touch with us and providing excellent insight into the Knicks. It is always our pleasure to keep up with the fans and users who stop by our site. In fact, we have had a chance to meet many and go to games with many of the UltimateKnicks regulars. Thanks to all the online folks who have made UltimateKnicks their destination!