Throughout the mess of the New York Knicks’ season thus far, one person who has remained essentially blameless is coach Mike Woodson. The Knicks – now 7-17 and 13th in the Leastern Conference – have fallen victim to poor roster construction, injuries, selfish play and bad luck, none of which could be pinned on Woodson. Not anymore. Monday’s 102-101 home loss to Washington gets dropped squarely in Woodson’s lap. And the next thing dropped in his lap may be a pink slip.
The New York Knicks have lost plenty of games this season in a variety of devastating ways, but Monday’s loss to the Washington Wizards at home may take the cake for the worst loss of the season. New York got off to a slow start and was down 53-42 at half time. John Wall went off in the first half with 19 points, but a determined Knicks team came out firing on all cylinders in the second half. They held Wall
Today is the day when the floodgates open and a whole bunch of NBA players can theoretically start changing addresses and re-assessing their prospects. Basically, just about any player in the league can now be traded, as Dec. 15 is the date when players who signed over the summer can be shipped elsewhere. There will be umpteen trade stories over the next two months, leading up to the actual deadline in February. A fraction of them will have any truth. Already we’ve seen
Every now and then I appear on the BBC World Service, which is broadcast in about 1,800 different countries — or something just short of that number. I aways enjoy explaining the NBA to the Brits, because their knowledge of basketball still trails their knowledge of cricket by something like 1,800 percent. In this appearance, we discussed the lack of rivalries in today’s NBA — which is astonishing to the British because teams can play each other as many as 11 times
Today’s news of the day centered (no pun intended) around the possibility of Houston’s Omer Asik being dealt by next Wednesday or Thursday. The Rockets have set a December 19th deadline, likely to heat up the bidding war for a very useful (and rare) piece. This is according to the NBA’s David Aldridge, one of the most credible sports journalists around:
Trade rumors were flowing Thursday like water going over Niagara Falls as the day when the dam can burst — Dec. 15 — drew closer by the hour. (For those unfamiliar with NBA rules, the vast majority of players who signed contracts over the summer cannot be dealt until Dec. 15.) Most years, Dec. 15 comes and goes with tons of trade speculation buildup and very, very little in terms of actual deals going down. But this season, with 13 teams more
Season-long unhappiness and the recent addition of Greivis Vasquez—who came in the Rudy Gay trade with the Sacramento Kings—to the Toronto Raptors backcourt now have point guard Kyle Lowry’s name being discussed in trade talks with the New York Knicks, among other potential suitors. The Knicks could use Lowry’s services with their leading point guard, Raymond Felton, having left hamstring problems that have lingered since the beginning of the season and now have him missing the next 2-3 weeks of action. Twitter
When the New York Knicks beat the Brooklyn Nets by 30 points last week, it appeared the team may be turning the corner on their disastrous season while waiting on the return of Tyson Chandler. It was further encouraging when they followed that impressive victory with an even better 38-point victory against the Orlando Magic. New York hit a combined 33 3-pointers in that two-game stretch. In the anemic Atlantic Division, all they really needed was to put a string of