dan on Danilo
-
- July
- 15
Here’s the first guest blog from dan … I’m heading back to the beach.
All the other suckers have their eyes on the home run derby tonight, but not I my friends. I’ll let others be electrified by Uggla. Is Uggla really a participant or am I seeing things? I’m not even bothering to check. I have my eyes on the one truly relevant story of the night. Yes boys, while some listen to Berman do that, “back, back, back”, joke again, and while others gorge on fried clams, I take in the advent of DANILLO ON TIVO! It’s summer league basketball, your New York Knicks, coming off back to back NBA championships (writers embellishment), lining up against their arch rivals of the eastern conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The game started with the Knicks first round draft pick Danilo Gallinari, the reason for all the buzz surrounding this game, jumping center! Was this the good news, this guy has such superior hops that he wins this tip, or the bad, we have no inside presence at all on this team? Well, he lost the tip. The most hilarious thing was one of his first defensive assignments was Robert “Tractor” Traylor. He got pushed around a little in the first half, especially on an “and 1” for the Tractor. So, I guess it’s fair to say that someone else is going to be primarily responsible for Dwight Howard.
Anyway, with 2:18 left in the 3rd quarter the kid started to show the form that made him the sixth pick in the draft. It started with a jump shot, then a great put back jam, a three on a feed from Collins, and a nice between the legs dribble pull up jumper. He initiated the offense on a number of occasions and made an incredible quick crossover to his left and was at the hoop getting fouled in, like, two huge steps. 4-4 on free throws. Nice moments from Danilo who left the game with what appeared to be cramping with about 5:00 minutes to go and the K’s down by 5, 85-80.
The Knicks put them away anyway, I’ll let you look up the stats (I’m on summer vacation, too). Wilson Chandler was the best player on the floor for either team. He was on another level and obviously felt very confident against the competition. He looks too good to be playing in this tournament. Same for Mardy Collins who iced the game with penetrating moves and free throws at the end. Balkman looks healthy physically and he even had success against Traylor down low.
Anyway, the Cavaliers were without their star player, Lebron James, and anyone else, seemingly, who played on their team last season. Kudos to their first round pick J.J. Hickson and to guard Clay Tucker who kept them in the game until the end. The Knicks, had the better personnel tonight, they played hard, mostly played smart, and they won by three.
If anybody else wants to take a turn, let me know.
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on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 7:30 am by Mike Dougherty.
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For those that want more insight from Vegas Summer League, let me make a plug.
http://www.nbadraft.net/node/1491
My boy Danny Hoops, who leaves the occasional comment on this blog, has been sent to Vegas to cover the summer league for nbadraft.net. Yes, we can all be jealous now. He’s writing the daily recaps for the site, and had this to say about the Knicks-Cavs game:
Knicks 97 Cavs 94
Boxscore
The New York Knicks won their first summer league game today at Cox Pavilion in a well played and hard fought contest, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers, 97-94. Danilo Gallinari, the Knicks draft pick, showed some early jitters but remained aggressive in the 2nd half, scoring 9 points in the 3rd quarter en route to 14 overall. The Knicks were led by Wilson Chandler’s 26 points on 11 for 21 shooting to go along with 8 rebounds, and guard Anthony Roberson’s 22. A late pair of free throws by Mardy Collins, who had 17 for the night, sealed the deal for the Knicks.
For the Cavaliers, North Carolina State guard J.J. Hickson had a monster game, posting 26 points of his own on 11 for 15 shooting, providing an intriguing matchup between him and Chandler, who went back and forth against one another for much of the game. Clay Tucker added 17 for the Cavs, and everybody’s favorite tractor, veteran Robert Traylor showed up, chipping in 8 points and 3 boards.
The big question leading into the game was what the Knicks would get from their newest member, the Italian, Gallinari. Nicknamed “the Rooster,†he clucked and clawed his way to respectability in the 2nd displaying his various weapons, Gallinari showed us the long range 3 ball, an effective dribble drive to the hoop from the 3 point line, a soft mid range jumper, and a follow up dunk that got the crowd out of their seats. Knicks fans have a lot to be excited about in this 19 year old upcoming rookie. At least here in the summer league. It will take him some time to adjust to the NBA game coming from Europe, but once he learns how and where to pick his spots, he will be a solid pro, if not a go-to scorer. Credit him for not allowing his early misses to affect his confidence and effort level.
JJ Hickson was very impressive for the Cavs. He was getting some nasty putback dunks (the guy tried to jam basically everything), hitting jumpers from everywhere (including 3PT range), and grabbing boards. For the Knicks, Chandler and…yes… Mardy Collins were the two best players. As usual, Balkman’s game won’t show up in the stat sheet, and it only lists him having 2 blocks, but anyone who watched the game knows he definitely had more than 2. Chandler also was blocking shots left and right, and it just looked so effortless for him on both ends. Like Dan said, he is clearly dominating these SL scrubs.
Oh and Roberson is a black hole. The guy never stopped shooting. He’d come off a screen and have Chandler or Gallinari wide open behind him, and instead of kicking it back he’d shoot it with 2 guys in his face.
One thing I think is important is that going into next summer I do not want to be in the position we are in now. Last year Robinson, Balkman, and Chandler showed great promise at summer league and once the season started, Isiah, rather than seeing what they could truly accomplish, proceeded to YOYO their minutes and here we are with the same basic question marks. Collins never got off the bench last year.
It seems like the Knicks are two teams. They are a veteran squad with Q, Zbo, Steph and Jamal and they are a young hustling squad with the afore-mentioned summer league all stars and D Lee. I don’t really know which group Eddy fits with.
We know the veterans got us no where last year. I just hope next year at this time we have a clearer picture of what our young players can do.
I heard on 1050 ESPN Radio NY that the Nuggets will be sending Marcus Camby to the Clippers for salary cap relief.
WTF
Still Donny could still work a trade with LA (the Lakers) to get rid of Z-Bo but it might have to include a third team- ala my suggested three way trade with the Kings, Knicks, and Lakers.
Darn!
As I’d stated in a previous post, the Clippers would have been doing the Knicks a huge favor taking Randolph off our team while leaving us with Lee. That way, he could either be used as a chip in another trade, or as a valuable bench player this coming season.
Instead, they’ll do the same thing for Denver by taking Camby. I’d rather have Camby on my team anyway, and I think that’s a better deal for the Clippers.
IMHO, Walsh blew it on this one.