I've been noticing for a long time that teams with a great rebounder at the power forward spot tend to compete every night.  And teams that add a great rebounder at the power forward position tend to get a lot better fast.

By 'Great Rebounder' I mean a guy who's capable of pulling down 20 rebounds in a game.

Looking at the Grizzlies the other night, they have Marc Gasol at center, who is a good rebounder.  Then they have Zach Randolph, who is actually a pretty great rebounder.  Voila, they are a pretty good team.

The Knicks used to have a similar situation with Ewing and Oakley.  I believe it was a bit part of why the Knicks stepped it up a level when they got Oakley.

But Oakley's rebounding prowess started to fade, and they traded him (this was actually a pretty good trade) for Marcus Camby, who is another guy who's a great rebounder.  Yes, those Knick teams had ways to score.  But they also barely ever got outrebounded.  And as a result, they were almost always in the game.

These Knicks?  They do have David Lee, who I think is somewhere between a good and great rebounder, and probably would be a better rebounder playing the power forward spot.  But other than that, they just don't have anyone.  Looking at Big C's game highlights, I see a lot of nice ball movement and skill on offense.  But I think the rest of the league knows the deal with the Knicks - keep Lee from the getting the rebound and more often than not, you'll get it.

This is the most frustrating thing about the Knicks this year, to me.  I'm actually looking forward to Curry playing again... because although he's a below average rebounder for a center, by virtue of his size and presence he's bound to get a few.  And though it seems D'antoni doesn't prize rebounding, I'm hoping that's not true, and that he just happened to have players that weren't great rebounders.  

I really miss those days when Ewing and Camby would play together down the stretch, pulling down everything.