Friday Buru Racket-Tails

Good Friday, companions. I hope you are well and well-fed. While the Knicks get back to practicin', let us stroll through some links I've collected over the last day or two.

- Racket-tails are Southeast Asian birds in the genus Prioniturus that have, well, racket-shaped tails. The one I chose for us today lives only on the island of Buru in Indonesia. Handsome bird.

- Today's practice news: All the guys you'd expect to be out are out, but Rasheed Wallace is expected to scrimmage today, and it sounds like J.R. Smith should be up and running as well (his name wasn't on this morning's injury report).

- The Knickerbloggers do some predictin' regarding a few ex-Knicks.

- Chris Herring discusses the place of shooting coaches in the NBA. Obviously, Dave Hopla and the Knicks come up.

- I've watched Steve Novak snaggle rebounds during preseason, and I'm about ready to predict that he won't win (well, "win") Hickory High's "Matt Bullard Award".

- Gothic Ginobili's Kurt Thomas capsule is up.

- Speaking of which, I would pay good money to watch Kurt do yoga. Probably more than I would to watch him play basketball. I would change P&T to a Kurt Thomas yoga blog given the opportunity.

- I love J.R. Smith, even as someone who's long since departed #TeamNoSleep/#TeamVamp (explained here).

- Our friend Anthony Donahue is hosting a big Knicks fan get-together at Clyde's tonight. Clyde himself will be there. I wish I could be there,too. (Warning: That's a Facebook link.)

- Hey, how about all that David Stern stuff, eh? Eh?

- Hey, Bill Laimbeer just got hired as coach and general manager of the Liberty.

- Lott talk today about how Melo will/will not/should/should not look to score more this season, including during stretches when his fellow scorers are injured.

- Our friend Keith wonders which likely Knick cuts will find their way to the BayHawks. The D-League draft is coming up soon, though I've never quite figured out how that stuff works.

- I'm too young (I am 9) to have anything to say about this, but Howard Megdal reflects on Xavier McDaniel's value in the '92 Eastern Conference Finals against the Bulls.

Yeah! More after practice, perhaps.