FanPost

Why Shump isn't overrated & we should be pretty optimistic for our team.


Hi all this my 1st time posting, but I felt that I had to point out a few things that I think always get over looked in regards to the Knicks. I'm a life long Knicks fan and admittedly pretty biased, but I feel last season gave me several reasons to be so and I'll list them for you.

1. In response to another post, Shump is not over-rated. Don't count me in the group that was willing to lose this guy for Nash, although I really wanted Nash. Shump was an overlooked rookie, who was thrown into an important role, on a big time team, and he completely embraced that role. He did it EVEN though he had NO training camp. Yes his offense was completely aggrevating most times, but there are many examples throughout the history of the league of raw guys developing major skills. This guy showed enough on that side of the ball to leave us optimistic on where he can be in a few years, provided he works his tail off. There were several occasions that I remember commentators raving about how this guy can eventually become the top talent on our team. Besides he already has lock down defense, which is where we really need him. Tyson was the key cog in our defense, but we weren't the same on that side of the ball once Shump went down. That dude was a shark on that end, and he completely has no fear no matter the stage or the assignment.

2. So many people are down nationally about us, but I'm like 'WHY'?? Between the last season and a half we've fielded like 275 different line ups, and we've barely had 10 practices along with 0 training camps. If I can remember correctly the Heat didn't look too great in the beginning of year 1 with their new faces, and they had a training camp. It took a ton of time for them to mess correctly. So, why are people assumming the Knicks can't do the same? Last I checked you need (no matter what A.I. says) PRACTICE, which is what we didn't have last season and what we will have this upcoming season. I'm not saying that we'd be super cohesive, but I am saying give us an opportunity to see what this team looks like once they get a full training camp, a real practice schedule, and hopefully not too much lineup changes throughout the season again.

3. Bad match up in the playoffs. People are down on us b/c we got beat by the eventual champs in 5 games. But let's examine all of our potential matchups had luck been on our side. To be real, the Heat totally had our number last year, no excuses there. But other than that who else in the east would you really have given a great shot to beat us, let alone do it in 4 or 5 games? Boston? I'm not saying we would have beaten them, but there's no way that series would've gone less than 6. I think we would've had a 50/50 shot at beating them based on how we played them in the season. Indiana? We completely wiped the floor with them in those supposedly 'very winnable games' for them. We also beat them down for 3 qtrs in the last game, until we took our foot off of the pedal. There's no reason to believe we wouldn't have done it again in a 7 game series. Atlanta? We had their number in the season. Orlando? Please, next. Philly? We whipped them when they were still good, and we were on our way to firing D'antoni (before Linsanity saved him for a few extra games). Chicago? We were pretty good against them when they were at full strength, just imagine how we would have treated them had we tanked for the 8th seed.

4. We did fairly good against Miami considering all of our injuries! I know everybody has injuries that time of year (well Miami was actually in pretty good health when they smacked us around), but C'MON SON! Lin down, Shump down, Baron down, Tyson has the flu, Jeffries hobbled, and Amare decides too exlplore what his tendons looks like. I mean c'mon, Old man Bibby was our starting point guard! This is the same guy who getting cheered a few months earlier when he finally got on the court of a blowout and scored a point! And we still managed to avoid a sweep to the eventual champs!

I'm just saying, I don't for a second believe we're as bad off as everybody believes we are. Melo hears the criticism and is showing that he's willing to work on things (he's lost 12 lbs. already), he's not as selfish as everybody wants to make him out as. Yes Stat has lost some explosiveness, but he hears the criticism and is also showing that he's willing to work on it (going to train extensively on his post game from 'The Dream'). Lin was basically a rookie who came out of nowhere to do what he did, he'll have a full offseason to tune up his holes. Kidd will help Lin grow, and will be able to get everybody is the correct positions. Hopefully Shump progresses in year 2, even without another offseason. We might have Camby back, which would be outstanding. Woody will have a full offseason to work on his his team that he saw lose only 7 games(you'll have to double check me on that, I'm too lazy to google the actual numbers) on his watch. We'll actually have a full offseason to gel as a team. And hopefully (fingers extra crossed) we don't have nearly the amount of injuries that we had last year. If that happens then I'm optimistic on where we can go next season.