We are missing extremely important things, that's out of of question. We lack some defenders, gritty physical guys, we lack outside shooters and a backup PG (certainly only a minor weakness).
Now with that said of course our team isn't as bad as our record says. If you only look at our potential and keep in mind what thinsg went wrong for us this season, then you can put our record in persepective.
The tough thing now is to find the players you can count on and to find the players who aren't believing in the program. We need to keep some of these question mark players who were shaky this season because a total shakeup would just be wrong. We got young players and we got players who have a future in New York.
Larry Brown tried the right thing. In order to improve the team in the important areas he wanted to break everything down and built up a team that plays "the right way". Listen folks, this isn't any kind of phrase or stupid talk, this is winning basketball. Ask the Spurs, ask the Pistons, ask previous champions. Defense, team play, execution... that stuff will win in the end and it is the only way to go. You can play certain ways and win some games, get in the playoffs here and there but that's what we shouldn't be about. You can have an average record like Milwaukee, Philly or whatever teams are in the middle of the pack. But that won't help us in the long run and it won't help our players in the long run. Chicago is trying to do the same thing. That's the right way to start a team and the right philosophy to start off things. It's the best base for a winning club.
Certain circumstances made a turnaround this season impossible here in NY. First of all there is the structure of the roster. We have a lot of young kids who have to learn the NBA game first before thinking about others stuff. We had veterans who have never been held accountable for years. QRich came from a very special system. We had a lot of injuries to key players. Marbs isn't the same since the 6 game win streak. Curry had no offseason, Q had a bad back. Second, of course, Larry didn't do his best job. He said it numerous times and I'll give him this season in my book. No problem. Third there is the losing mentality we already had. Marbury for example felt a lot of pressure and expected things to change quicker than it was possible. A lot of stuff got hand in hand, LB and Steph clashed here, Ariza talk there, Isiah critic here, losses there. And there you have a situation which is tough to rebuild in.
I blame everyone on the team, some more, some less. Larry Brown and Marbury were supposed to lead but they didn't, they get some more blame. Our rookies deserve slim to none blame. Other guys did bad, others did a little better. Isiah has his part of the cake, too. Sure. The Francis trade was a desaster in my eyes. Didn't help us long term, short term, any term. But that's another story.
Now we got to be careful and not be detracted by all the critics and the phrase how we reached rock bottom and stuff. Who cares?? Look at the team, look at the pieces and find keepers and goners. Patience has to be one major goal for the offseason, not jumping the gun and we got to realize that not everything is as bad as it looks...
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