The league he played wasn't the NBA. Far from it. Nobody in the NBA knocked down his door to give him grand theft money.
LOL it may be the opposite. He was given freedom to do whatever he wanted on his Chinese team, which will spell disaster for the Knicks if he continues that over there.
The NY Media is in full blown Linsanity mode. Hell they have Melo on notice not to screw with the karma. The Media would crush JR if he screws up too badly.
The latest out of China, on the eve of his departure, claims that he got fined by the club a total of $1.06 million for repeatedly missing practice, which is ~1/3 of his total income in China.
Knicks are doing what they're doing because of an incredible chemistry more than anything else. And now, they're about to add Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith to the mix. This will be interesting.
Let's see: Option A -- Play on a team that has the third best record in the Western Conference, the best PG in the NBA, a stud young PF that puts people in the stands, a really good defensive Center, and no SG. Option B -- Play on a team that has only recently fought it's way back to playoff contention in the Eastern Conference, a SF that dominates the ball, a PF that dominates the ball, a PG that has played very well but could easily fall back down to earth soon, and no defense to speak of. Yeah, Option B seems like the obvious choice to me.
Not only that, they're playing in New York- where everything gets blown out of proportion and all over ESPN. It's easier to start a fire when there's a stimulant, and the NY media is like gasoline. Plus, they don't have a strong coach (like Phil Jackson) or a veteran leader (Jeffries?) they could easily fall apart. Or, they could rise to the top 3 or 4 in the East. Should be fun to watch.
Until they start playing some defense, I don't see them rising anywhere. Lets not forget who they've played during this win streak... I'd like to see them do this against better competition. We all should know that looking good on paper doesn't equal success on the court, especially for the Knicks who already looked good on paper to begin the season.
While I agree that NY needs to play better defense, what nobody ever mentions is that the Knicks have improved dratically defensively over where they were last year. Last year they ranked 2nd to last in the league in opponent FG percentage. They currently rank 5th in defensive efficiency and 4th in defensive rebound percentage. Besides Lin that's what struck me about their games last week. They don't play 48 minutes of defense like Miami or Chicago but last week when they were trailing in the 4th when they put the clamps on against Minnesota and Toronto neither of those teams couldn't do anything against them. The key for NY will be if Melo and Amare buy in and are willing to do some dirty work and rebound. If those guys even give half an effort it'll make them better overall because NY has a couple of guys in Chandler and Shumpert who can really cause offensive problems. If they are willing to do that work then Miami is likely the only team in the east that can beat them in a 7 game series.
So as long as guys (Amare/Melo) do what they haven't focused on doing their entire careers then they can contend in the East?
Shumpert has been great at the 2 and I'd take Fields over JR Smith. Perhaps he can add some punch off the bench, but I don't like the fit.
