Monday, September 27, 2010

The Way To Early Look at the Knicks

For this way to early look at the Knicks, I will not weight player performance based on the last three years of a player. Rather this post will only focus on the WP48s and wins produced from the last season. I will also not forecast minutes or take a guess at starters/reserves yet (that will come closer to the start of the regular season.

Kelenna Azubuike (2009 numbers due to injury) WP48: .104 Wins 5.15
Wilson Chandler- WP48: -.032 Wins -1.55
Eddy Curry- WP48: -.249 Wins -.75
Toney Douglas- WP48: .076 Wins 1.72
Patrick Ewing Jr. (did not play)
Raymond Felton- WP48: .163 Wins 8.97
Landry Fields (Rookie)
Danilo Galinari- WP48: .101 Wins 5.78
Roger Mason- WP48: .051 Wins 1.61
Timofey Mozgov (Rookie)
Anthony Randolph- WP48: .095 Wins 1.48
Andy Rautins (Rookie)
Amare Stoudemire- WP48: .154 Wins 9.11
Ronny Turiaf- WP48: .067 Wins 1.22
Bill Walker- WP48: .135 Wins 2.08

Without projecting the rookies at this time, the biggest strength that the Knicks have with this team is that they are a young team. Knowing that players generally get better until the age of 25 in which the peak, the Knicks have a slew of players under 25 who have been around average players and could out-perform last year's numbers.

So the way to early look at the Knicks sees them winning 34 games. I think that this number has an excellent chance of being far below what will actually happen seeing as rookies have not been factored in. Also, Gallo, Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Anthony Randolph, among others should improve on the performance they put together last year. Hopefully the Knicks can make a charge for a winning record for the first time since I think Nixon went on trial for Watergate.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Actually a Nets post about Carmelo

Let me start by saying I agree with everything Jeff Pearlman says...about everything but sports. He and I have battled before about the Yankees and the greatness of A-Rod. But hey, that is what makes sports so great, you can go back anf forth all day with both people thinking the other one is completely clueless. This time I have to disagree with his proposal for the New Jersey/Brooklyn/Jay-Z/Prokarov Nets. Via his facebook since we are friends....

"If the New Jersey Nets can snag Carmelo Anthony from Denver for No. 3 overall pick Derrick Favors, the expiring deals of Troy Murphy and Kris Humphries plus at least one future first-round pick, they’re money. Real money. Carmelo is a Top-five talent; a guy I’d want on my roster were I moving to a new location in the coming years. He’d be an ideal face of the Brooklyn [FILL IN THE BLANK WITH THEIR NEW NAME], and the thought of teaming Anthony with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris is pretty damn appealing."

While true he may be an appealing face of the franchise when the team moves to Brooklyn, the bottom line is this trade is disastrous for the Nets. Troy Murphy has posted the following WP48s in the last three years: .281, .331, .149. and produced this amount of wins: 13.7, 17.1, 6.5.

Carmelo on the other hand has done the following: .109, .100, .131. wins of 6.0, 4.7, 7.6.

The other thing I don't understand is how are Brook Lopez and Devin Harris considered a good core group of players? The Nets won 12 games last year. Troy Murphy himself produced more wins than the Nets actually won. If those two were true "cornerstones", than the Nets would not have won 12 games last year. Earlier on the Wages of Wins site a post was offered how this years Wizards might be the worst team ever. A trade of Carmelo for Troy Murphy and the no.3 pick Derrick Favors may push the Nets over the top for worst team ever.

In other news: A-Rod hit one of his patented meaningless homeruns the other night to beat Baltimore.