FanPost

so who was at the open practice at MSG today?

anyone? i sat courtside row D. practically had a front and center view of their practice session today. it was the first and probably only time i will ever have sat that close to the garden floor and possibly have sat in the same chair as the likes of ethan hawke, alicia keys, etc. but it was an amazing experience. in between the practice drills there the knicks city kids, the new york wheelchair basketball club, knicks city dancers and this really lame dunk squad. but all in all the practice drills were amazing to say the least.

my very generalized thoughts on all our recent acquisitions:

front line:

Amar'e, Ronny, and AR4 are all as advertised. amar'e with his insane menacing finishes (and when the hell did he learn how to shoot 3's?!), turiaf swatting at everything, and AR being a freak of nature.

timofey "no blood no foul" mozgov. need i say more? he needs to learn patience on D. but he has an amazing stroke with the ball. his mid range jump shot was butter from what i could tell.

the swingmen:

i think its safe to say that Jr. and Shawne Williams are in the race to futility on who will get cut. im hoping its not Ewing because he seemed incredibly nervous out on the floor. Landry Fields deserves some spot minutes. lots of 'em. the guy has a high basketball IQ and it goes to show what staying in college for 4 years to learn how to play basketball can do. less development time, more crunch time. he just needs more polish. Wilson Chandler was more of the same. watching him drive the lane gave me a basketball boner. i didnt really notice Bill Walker do much but at the end of the scrimmage they were trying to knock in half court shots. his bounced off the back of the rim.

the backcourt:

raymond felton needs to slow down. i didn't see a single PnR set. he brings the ball up so fast before the rest of the guys could spread the floor. toney douglas however did what he do, and he did it great. the pacing was on point and he had no problem finding the open man. roger mason and andy rautins were pretty identical. but rautins is what really surprised me. his floor vision is amazing, opening up those passing lanes with ease. speaking of passing lanes, houston was doing the play by play and pointed out that they're experimenting with the full court trap on D. it worked a couple of times for some stupid-easy lay-ins but then again they're playing each other so what do i know.

the coolest thing of the day:

the 90-second continuous 3 on 3 on 3 fast break drill. HOLY SHIT do these guys run fast... i dont know anyone who's dumb enough to take a charge with amar'e stoudemire or AR barreling down the lane.

funniest moment:

when they were doing the intro, a couple of us were chanting "Ed-dy Cur-ry!" it got a laugh or 2. then there was something i noticed between mase and DWTDD. maybe they were talking about what a proper hand check was, but from my vantage point all it seemed like they were doing was rubbing each other's bellies. i wish i got that on video.

cause for worry:

Gallo. he didn't have the touch tonight, settled for the 3 ball and didn't bother attacking the rim when he had the size advantage. he also didnt seem all that enthused in the warm-ups stretches. maybe he was all party-hardy the night before but who knows...

cause for hope:

right when the practice ended Amar'e and Raymond Felton stayed out to shoot a couple free throws. and Bouike was out on the floor doing dribble drills the length of the court with a trainer. he seemed pretty light on his feet.

we waited outside the garden exit to wait for the players to come out. there was a decent crowd. the Walsh was the first to leave and everybody was cheering for him like he just cured cancer or something. then there was about 10 minutes of an MSG paige trying to position a black Chevy Suburban out in front. turns out it was Toney Douglass'. then they all rolled out honking at stat for taking his sweet ass time out the parking lot. its funny to note that landry fields and andy rautins carpool.

oh, and amar'e stoudemire drives a wicked bentley.

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IMG00064-20101010-1455.jpg (via ren0vat0r)