When Lin is not on the floor, who should be initiating the offense?

I voted Royce because Toney Douglas is not a PG. He's better off ball. Unfortunately, I don't think Royce is ready for NBA games yet.

 

Right now, Douglas. I just feel that Machado, like all the other rooks, should be allowed to take his lumps.

 

Who is your choice?

 

As a Knicks fan, I'm not a huge fan of TD or Machado.

TD is a decent passer, above average defender, with suspect shooting. He shot well his rookie year with the Knicks, but was awful last year. He was recovering from shoulder surgery so that counts for something, but still leaves a big question mark in terms of how well he'll shoot this year.

Machado is a good passer, but weak defender and poor shooter.

Neither of them are ideal choices for a back up PG. If you could blend the two you would have a very nice back up PG.

That said, it should probably be TD. Decent passing/suspect shooting is good enough playing against bench players or 2nd string as long as you have decent defense.

At this point, until he shows more Machado is a serious liability on the defensive end. In the SAS and the OKC games, Machado failed to box out, was slow on defensive switches, lost track of the ball on multiple plays, and was very poor in terms of recovering once a player beat him off the dribble.

Given that multiple players can score, it's probably the wiser choice to go with Tony Douglas... and that's speaking as a guy who thinks TD should still be a 3rd string PG.

Machado needs time to develop his defensive instincts and work on his shooting. This is probably best done in the D-League where he can get significant burn time.

As for Royce White, he's got good passing skills... but I suspect the other aspects of his game would suffer if you shoehorn him into primarily a point forward role. Maybe have him as a support PF (kind of like a combo forward) but I still think the initiation of the offense should come from whoever is the back up PG (TD or Machado).

Either way, going to be a long year for the back up PG position... at least until the all star break.

 

I would like to see Royce give it a go.

 

Can the people that voted "other" please comment? Have no one in mind that is capable of running the offense outside of the poll options.

 

I think Royce could be used to create a consistant matchup problem on the perimeter. It will be interesting to see what opposing coaches do with this. Typically a coach will live with the matchup problem or create a different one trying fix one that is hurting his team.

Should be fun to watch if our coaches can utilize Royce well and if they can keep Royce on the court with his defensive problems.

 

Have you guys been watching the same games? TD was adequate running p&r - just cause the 2nd string bigs can't properly set picks and get confused if they're doing pick and pop or pick and roll (DMo!) doesn't mean it's TD's fault. Yea yesterday was a bad game and TD looked terrible but so did EVERYONE. I haven't seen enough of Royce to say he should be initiating the offense - I liked the two times he rebounded and pushed it up the floor yesterday. But I've seen a more consistent string of plays from TD.

I know the grass is always greener on the other side and we haven't yet seen Royce initiating the offense. But that green stuff might be astroturf as well. I'm all for trying it out w/ Royce but he shouldn't be our go-to option on the 2nd string until much later in the season when he's gained more comfort just being on the court.

 

I voted other(Parsons).Maybe Asik like Chuck Hayes used to in the high post.

 

Reality: Douglas (by process of elimination). With Douglas, Lamb, Jones, and Delfino that's already a 9-man rotation. I doubt McHale goes 10-11 deep which leaves Machado and Royce with little/no court time.

Fantasy: Other (Chris Paul, D-Will, Westbrook, Parker, etc.)

 

Okay, but I assumed this thread is about the 2nd ballhandler, the guy playing with the 2nd unit. Parsons and Lin will play together and sit on the bench together for most of the game, so Parsons would maybe be a five minute option.

 

Douglas is quite bad at making decisions and can't really run an offense very well. He is, however, good at D and can shoot the ball well at times. Machado is a great passer, but gives up too many points at the other end and this negates his effectiveness.

For now, I'd still prefer to see Douglas running the offense behind Lin.

As for Royce and Livingston, don't think we've seen enough of them running an offense with this young team to really comment. Would love to see more of them though.

 

I have a hard time seeing White being in rotation over Jones any time soon. Machado...his lack of defense will keep him off the floor for a while as well. I don't know if Livingstone makes the team. Douglas seems to be the only option. It isn't a great option, but it is better than getting toasted on defense.

 

When Lin is not on the floor, forget offense and play some decent defense first!

 

GF0 has some point forward experience and is far more game ready than Royce. I'm completely stoked for when he gets to that point, though.

 

I voted parsons...decent ball handling, good size, good passer

 

Not voted parsons but choose parsons