Knicks' Allan Houston to Retire

[putodelagoa]

Well, maybe the assumpsion on his skills are made based on team reports and scouting reports when he was playing in europe. And, of course, he played this summer giving a hint of what he can do. He was instructed by Larry Brown to play like Bill Russel and not Tony Kukoc. I guess if he had ever tried a 3 point shot in a game situation, made or missed, he would be demoted to ball boy role...

Darko Milicic was the easiest player to pick as a possible disappointment this summer. Instead though, Darko played like he should have been the past two seasons in the NBA. He went out and earned a spot on a very good Serbian roster, which is a great personal success.

Darko played in four European Championship games while averaging 10 minutes per game, about 4.5 points, 4 rebounds and over a block a game. These numbers aren’t lighting up the charts but to his defense, that can’t be expected with the role he was given. Coach Obradovic played his veteran players at all key points, which is very common practice in European basketball. What can’t be seen in Darko’s stats, is the pure fact that when he went into games, Serbia went on runs. When Darko went into the Israel game, he sparked a 20-point 4th quarter run, just the positive type of thing any Piston fan wants to see.

Darko showed he had been learning these past two seasons in the NBA. While he wasn’t playing much in those NBA games, he learned how to defend against NBA quality moves and players. Rasheed and Ben Wallace have rubbed off on him in many ways. Thankfully he hasn’t picked up Ben’s free throw shooting, but instead he learned how to play aggressive defense. In the Israel game, Yaniv Green, a former summer league Piston made an athletic move to the basketball in which Darko proceeded to block. This is the type of block we expect Ben Wallace but Darko made it look easy. After the play he flexed his biceps while poking and pointing at it, which would be more along the lines of a Rasheed Wallace move.

I can’t make any claims that Darko is ready to a be force in the NBA or ready to start, but we can now say everyone has had a chance to see those great skills that caused Darko to be a #2 overall pick in the first place. He played with great defense presence and was aggressive at all times. While many newspapers and writers chalk him up as a bust or as a horrible draft pick (by now seeing who was taken after him), I can stand here and say, we as fans deserve to give him more time to grow. Jermaine O’Neil took 3 years to develop and Darko deserves at least that.

[J@3]

He was the ball boy to begin with, he wouldn't exactly be losing out or anything. Irrelevant of that, he went 0/0 from 3 in the European Championships which would be the most recent acid test of his abilities. He's also 0/0 in the NBA pre-season, with a new coach, so take that as you will.

I think assumptions based on scouting reports are a dangerous thing, especially when the player in question gets no minutes at all. Besides, it was mostly scouting reports that got him taken at #2 in front of guys like Wade, Anthony and Bosh... but that's a whole nother matter.

[putodelagoa]

I think assumptions based on scouting reports are a dangerous thing, especially when the player in question gets no minutes at all.

You're very, very right... Thing is he ay have all the talent in the world, but he came to the league too soon. Let's hope he pans out.

[Matt]

But, he is that much better than you at it you really shouldnt say that. Its not like you're saying "carmelo is a below average nba defender", you're saying flat out he cant play defense.

the assumption is that people understand it's all relative...otherwise there would be too much typing involved to get out the obvious.

I said "shoots upto the 3 pointer", i didn't say INCLUDING. So basically he can make shots up to 22ft (?). Incidentally today he made a clutch 3 against Mavs.

The only difference is Jermaine made the most of his limited minutes.

fair point...although he didnt have Larry Brown to drive him nuts, haha

Its the pure truth. You can continue having your head up your ass and say its speculation, but then say Darko can shoot three's when he is yet to make one and thats a main reason why he has the potential to suceed, and not think thats a tad contradicting?

once again, i didnt say Darko can shoot 3's. Besides, the NBA isn't the only place he played basketball.

If somebody knocks your hat off your head, you are entitled to defend yourself. If someone throws a beer at you, im sure its the same.

yes, but the difference here is that Artest had to RUN after the guy. Is that defending yourself?

that superb passing ability has given him 14 assists in 71 games

passing abilities goes beyond assists. It's the accuracy of his passing that I'm talking about. Obviously if he had the ball in hands like KG does he'd rack up more assists. Assists also are variable to the number of dbl teams thrown your way, your team mates accuracy etc

I guess if he had ever tried a 3 point shot in a game situation, made or missed, he would be demoted to ball boy role...

like Brown would chuck a shit when Mehmet Okur throwed up a 3, instead of playing like Shaq.

What can’t be seen in Darko’s stats, is the pure fact that when he went into games, Serbia went on runs.

this has been happening in the preseason games too. He looks confident out there, blocking shots and doing some dunks.

[J@3]

And drawing 5 fouls within 10 minutes on the court.

[putodelagoa]

And drawing 5 fouls within 10 minutes on the court.

It's not like Eddy Curry is doing much better, eh?
Darko is playing with agression

[J@3]

Incidentally today he made a clutch 3 against Mavs.

Not according to any box scores I can find.

[air gordon]

putodelagoa's quotes:

Yes. The famous Phantom 4 point play with the inexistent foul being whistled on Antonio Davis...
Although I don't discuss his role in that knicks team, you must concede that his game was coming south when he joined the knicks... For all the heroics he could put on ocasionally, he averaged around 10pts at a 40% clip that year. He was half the player he was when he came to the league.

what matters is he was the one who was put in position to take the shot, then he hit the shot, and the consequent FT. has beens or whatever you're referring to him as wouldn't be out on the floor let alone have the ball in such a key situation.

and even his game was past his peak, he was still an important player for that team, you can't deny that

X-man played one year with the knicks. So I guess he was an one hit wonder Very Happy
He too was on the downside of his career. Besides, the numbers you refer to are playoff numbers, I guess.

what does it matter if he was on the team for 1 year or was on the downside of his career-he gave a productive year and thats what they asked from him

The trend here is that the knicks, instead of investing on young talent through rebuilding prefer to fetch worn out players with a great pedigree.

it wouldn't make any sense for the knicks in the early to mid 90's to be investing in young players- they were title contenders. they needed players who could contribute right away and that normally comes in the form of players with experience in the league

You hd to know it would go sour. See, the problem here is that they didn't trade Camby for MD, they traded Camby AND Nene Hilário for a player with iffy knees... Laughing
Guess they saw a potencial Mc Dyess type of player in Nenne but prefered to have the original one. Once again the Knicks trend: Young for Aged and Washed up.

hindsight is not 20/20, it's blinding. and there you go again with this mindreader business. no one knew mcdyess would blow out his knee in the knicks 1st exhibition game. now i'm not one to normally defend knicks managment moves, but knowing how the knicks are never in rebuilding mode, i could see why they wanted someone like mcdyess instead of the injury prone camby and a project in nene, who hasn't jusitfied his lottery selection yet

[air gordon]

matt's quotes

excuses excuses. So what, the Pistons were getting embarassed, big deal. Too bad that JO had a funny foot. If you can't play for whatever reason then don't, if you do play then don't use excuses.

this argument is ass backwards- the pacers were shorthanded but were blowing out the pistons anyway at the palace.

Artest backed off from the bigger and angry man who wanted to get at him, but charged at a fan that threw a cup of water on him. what a fucking tough guy!

this just illustrates how much of a coward wallace is. the pistons got beat by a shorthanded pacers team in detroit, which probably frustrated wallace even more. artest's foul on him was NOT even ruled as flagrant and he wasn't fined for that. he should have just shot his ft's (which he would have missed anyway lol) and let the game finish. then him deciding to throw a towel at artest was just stupid. ben wallace and the palace securtiy is to blame for this whole incident. and thanks to matthew for covering the rest of this issue

hmm, it's fact is it....show me some evidence then. Truth is, we already had a good small forward, and didn't need another offensive minded player.

Potential is a term teams draft on. The bigger the potential the bigger the chances of success.

lol pistons will go down fighting for darko, you're in denial if you're saying you wouldn't be defending them if they selected anthony

it's been a few years now since the draft, so as far as i'm concerned it's a security blanket for detroit piston fans

I'm loving this discussion. I'm assuming Matt watches Piston practices or something because his career three pointers are kinda... well, non existant and that superb passing ability has given him 14 assists in 71 games Laughing anyways, I'm off to go tell everyone Yinka Dare had a 45" vertical.

IIRC, Jermaine O'neal was one of the best players on that U.S team a few years back, the same summer he was entering his 1st year with INDY

[putodelagoa]

hindsight is not 20/20, it's blinding. and there you go again with this mindreader business. no one knew mcdyess would blow out his knee in the knicks 1st exhibition game. now i'm not one to normally defend knicks managment moves, but knowing how the knicks are never in rebuilding mode, i could see why they wanted someone like mcdyess instead of the injury prone camby and a project in nene, who hasn't jusitfied his lottery selection yet

You're right about the Knicks of the 90's needing help right away. But in doing so and trying to secure the services of helpfull players they made terrible moves and awfull contracts. And they were downright stubborn about playing their young guys. game 7 1994 Finals: Starks shoots bricks all night, and in the end Hubert Davis, a 44% 3 point shooter comes in and makes 2 threes in a row, but by then it was too late...

Mc Dyess was coming from two Knee surgeries. You don't need to be a mind reader to know that a player whose game lives on athleticism rarely bounces back from such injuries. Nene hasn't played according to his potencial and draft position, but he would have been a better player for the Knicks, and it's not like they were competing for anything back then...

[Jackal]

a player whose game lives on athleticism rarely bounces back from such injuries

Don't say that, I've got high hopes for Amare.

[putodelagoa]

So do I... So do I...
After what I saw in last year's playoffs, you bet I want to see him become the most dominating player of this decade. Let's hope his age will be a positive factor with his Injury and that Nash doesn't break down while trying to keep the Suns above the water. Man... to lose Stoudemire as we know him would be worse than losing both Penny and Hill, because we've never seen a player like Amare before...

[air gordon]

lol i'm a little tired of defending nyk's moves. i don't really like those 90's teams...

pigeon holing management regime with just 1 move- the hubert/starks thing

IIRC, mcdyess was coming off 1 knee surgery when he arrived to the knicks. and it was an ACL/mcl injury, no? many RB's in the nfl have sustained this type of injury and have bounced back. and in the nba, baron davis comes to mind and he still has the explosiveness

[Matt]

this just illustrates how much of a coward wallace is. the pistons got beat by a shorthanded pacers team in detroit, which probably frustrated wallace even more. artest's foul on him was NOT even ruled as flagrant and he wasn't fined for that. he should have just shot his ft's (which he would have missed anyway lol) and let the game finish. then him deciding to throw a towel at artest was just stupid. ben wallace and the palace securtiy is to blame for this whole incident. and thanks to matthew for covering the rest of this issue

Forget the result of the game for a minute. Wallace didn't like what Artest did so he confronted him but was unable to get to him. He wasn't running away, he was going after Artest.

lol pistons will go down fighting for darko, you're in denial if you're saying you wouldn't be defending them if they selected anthony

it's been a few years now since the draft, so as far as i'm concerned it's a security blanket for detroit piston fans

i didn't like Carmelo from the start. I didn't want anyone taking Prince's starting job, which was already guaranteed by Brown before the draft or season had started.

I wouldn't complain if we won the championship, but from what I've seen of Anthony, I'd still pick Darko simply because Prince is there.

[air gordon]

Forget the result of the game for a minute. Wallace didn't like what Artest did so he confronted him but was unable to get to him. He wasn't running away, he was going after Artest.

forget about the game? so forget about the rules then? wallace pushed him after the foul was called, grounds for at least a technical foul and probabaly an ejection given the bad blood between the teams. confront, matt- that's total bullshit.

i didn't like Carmelo from the start. I didn't want anyone taking Prince's starting job, which was already guaranteed by Brown before the draft or season had started

you're calling joe D a genius. any move he's made, you have supported him. you wouldn't act any different if the pistons selected anthony