Denver Nuggets - All For One

It's been around three weeks since the trade deadline, and the new pieces that were roughly reshuffled on Feb 24 are now starting to show some shape with adjusting to their new teams. But out of all the teams involved in major trades at the deadline - Hawks, Celtics, Cavs, Nets, Knicks, Thunder, Blazers, Jazz, and Wizards, it has been the Denver Nuggets who have shown the most improvement, winning nine of their 11 games since.

Before the trade, it had been a season full of 'Melo'Drama for the Denver Nuggets and their coach George Karl. Trade rumours were lurking for their superstar forward, and the Nuggets, who have been one of the best teams in the West for Carmelo Anthony's seven-year era, were on a slightly slower pace this season. True, they were still winning more games than they lost, but there was a tension in the air.

And then Carmelo and Chauncey Billups were sent to New York Knicks for four lesser-known players. Now, a lot of people compared Carmelo bolstering out of Denver to LeBron James' exit from Cleveland, but this is far from a fair comparison. LeBron left the Cavs as a free agent, leaving his former team with nothing in return. Cavs lost LeBron, Shaq, Ilgauskas, and Delonte West to free agency, getting nothing in return but large cap space to use on players who didn't want to go there in the first place.

Anthony was also reaching his free-agency at the end of this season, so instead of leaving Denver with nothing, his trade to New York mid-season at least brought the Nuggets some value for him. And oh my, have the Nuggets struck gold.

This was the original trade: The Nuggets gave up Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman, and Anthony Carter. Melo is a multiple time all star in his prime and one of the league's best scorers. Billups is a multiple time all star from the past and a Finals MVP. Melo and Chauncey were their top two scorers. The other three guys are solid backups.

In return, they got Wilson Chanlder, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, and Timofey Mozgov from the Knicks, and Kosta Koufos from the Timberwolves. No all stars, no championships, not even a 20 point average - just four or five guys who are willing to fit into the system.

And the trade has worked miracles! Before the trade, Denver were a respectable 32-25. Since the trade? They are 41-27. Conversely, look at the Knicks, who have seemingly gotten the better of the trade - Knicks were 28-26 before Melo, and have been 7-6 since.

Everyone expected Denver to free fall without their two leaders. Instead, this team has figured out a way to stay relevant and even get better. The Nuggets now share their offense between Nene, Chandler, Arron Afflalo, JR Smith, Ty Lawson, Felton, Al Harrington, Kenyon Martin, Chris Anderson, and Gallinari, who is currently injured. In a team full of support-guys, players amongst whom near is no real star, they have figured out a way to be incredibly efficient.

A lot of credit for this needs to go to Coach Karl. Without Anthony's lack of defensive ability, the Nuggets are now a much better team on the defensive end. And on offense, since the ball doesn't need to go through one player alone, they are a lot more efficient, sharing, assisting, and actually scoring more points.

Of course, the true test of this team will come in the playoffs. If the playoffs started today, the Nuggets would be fifth in the West, and they would play their first round against the Thunder. If they keep playing balanced basketball the way they are, the Thunder have a right to be quiet worried.

But does all this mean that, despite all his abilities, Carmelo Anthony is a negative player? Well, yes and no. Of course, his problems on defense and sometimes his one-trackedness can hinder a team, but every successful squad needs someone to turn to when the going got tough, and Anthony is one of the best in the league at that. At this point, the Nuggets may be enjoying life without their former best player. But the Knicks shouldn't feel despair about getting a lethal scorer like him: it will take time for him and Billups to settle in their new team, and once the playoffs start, we will see Anthony's real value.

As of now though, the Denver Nuggets are definitely the winners of the trade deadline.

Winning and Grinning

It doesn't take much time in getting to know me to know that I'm a New York Knicks fan. I tweet about them all the time, I relentlessly read about on Knick box scores, recaps, news, scouting reports, rumours, everything, even ex-Knicks stuff (shout-out to Starbury), most of the basketball gear I own is in Knicks orange-white-blue (Marbury jersey, Knicks T-Shirt, cap, hoodie, even shoes), and the very first NBA game I watched in person was Knicks vs. the Warriors, in the mecca of basketball, the Madison Square Garden, the Knicks' home-court.

Through the good years and the bad years (mostly bad years), I have stuck with them for the past decade, ever since the Allan Houston-Latrell Sprewell-Marcus Camby squad battled their way to the NBA final in 1999. And ever since then, life as a Knick fan has been mostly depressing. After winning 50 and 48 games respectively in the 2000 and 2001 seasons, the Knicks have been a below .500 team, winning 30, 37, 39, 33, 23, 33, 23, 32, 29.

Worse than those dismal win numbers was the dismal management of the team. Knicks became the laughingstock of the league, thanks to failed owners (Scott Layden, Isiah Thomas), under performing coaches (Lenny Wilkens, Herb Williams, Larry Brown, and yes, Isiah Thomas again), a lot of players who were overpaid, underperformed, bad draft picks, bad trades, or plain and simple, sucked - Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley, Stephon Marbury, Keith Van Horn, Tim Thomas, Jerome James, Michael Sweetney, Jalen Rose, Steve Francis, Penny Hardaway, Renaldo Balkman, Zach Randolph, Larry Hughes, Darko Milicic, and Eddy Curry.

No wonder, despite being a team with passionate fans in a major city, no one could take the Knickerbockers too seriously.

But things have changed this season - I was skeptical of the 2010-11 Knicks roster when I first saw it, something looked incomplete about it. Knicks missed out on the LeBron, Wade, Bosh sweepstakes, and managed to rope in Amar'e Stoudemire and Raymond Felton. They missed out on trading for Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, but traded away their only recent all star (David Lee) for three players who are either injured (Kelenna Azubuike), barely getting any minutes (Anthony Randolph) and didn't impress me, at first (Ronny Turiaf).

But oh, have they made proved me wrong! For the first time in nearly a decade, the Knicks stand 6 games over .500, with a 15-9 record after yesterday's win over the Wizards. They are amongst the hottest teams in the league right now, after having won 12 of their last 13 and currently, on a seven game winning streak. Like 'Clyde' Frazier, Knicks legend and announcer said in one of his famous linguistic alliterations, "The Knicks are winning and grinning"!

Felton is looking like the bargain of the summer, Stoudemire is getting MVP consideration, and rookie Landry Fields, the 39th pick has been the team's surprise glue-guy, and was rewarded for his efforts by being named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month in November.

So what went right? Well, a host of things. To start off with the top, Stoudemire has been an absolute beast this season, capitalising on the opportunity to play with old Suns' coach Mike D'Antoni again. He has become the most dominant Knick since Patrick Ewing, and has had a stretch of seven straight games of 30 or more points. Currently averaging 26.1 ppg and 9.1 rpg, Amar'e has become the star that he always wanted to be, the star that the Knicks needed, and an attractive piece for the Knicks to have when other stars consider joining the squad. He is also a true a bonafide MVP candidate in the NBA so far.

There was a lot of talk about the Knicks needing serious point guard help, but Raymond Felton, an off-season free-agent acquisition from the Bobcats, has put that talk to rest. Felton has perfected the pick-and-roll with Stoudemire and has been putting up a career high in scoring (18.3) and assists (8.4). Plus, he has been a steady hand at times of trouble, and shot this clutch, super clutch 3-pointer to win the game against the Raptors a few days ago.

He was supposed to be a piece for the Carmelo trade, but for now, it seems that Danilo Gallinari will remain and Knick and remain shooting the lights out. To be honest, despite averaging a career-high 'Gallo' hasn't been wholly consistent or convincing this season, but there are few better shooters of the 3-ball in the league, and as the youngster gains confidence, he is sure to find his stroke again.

Whether he's starting or coming off the bench, Wilson Chandler remains an enigma and an x-factor for the Knicks team. He is not brilliant in any one thing, but does a host of things well enough to clock big minutes in each game. Chandler has been the team's third-highest scorer and a force on D. No matter what trade comes calling, it is unlikely that the Knicks will let him go.

The surprise addition to the starting lineup has been rookie Landry Fields. Barely known in the draft, Fields, a shooting guard, has become a rock for the Knicks this season. He's averaging an impressive 10.3 ppg and 7.5 rpg, while shooting at a blistering 51.4 % from the field.

Off the bench, the Knicks feature Ronny Turiaf, who I now admit is an important defensive piece to the puzzle, energizer bunny Toney Douglas, Russian giant Timofey Mozgov, who has been underwhelming so far, but carries a lot of potential, Shawne Williams and Bill Walker. With the return of do-it-all shooting guard Azubuike, the Knicks will have another important weapon in their arsenal.

Now, I admit that the Knicks haven't really been challenged by the league's best in the 12 out of 13 run. The 12 wins have come against the Kings, Warriors, Clippers, Bobcats (twice), Pistons, Nets, Hornets, Raptors (twice), Timberwolves, and Wizards. That is one hell of an easy schedule: the only team above .500 in that group were the Hornets, who themselves have been an overachieving surprise so far this season.

But this is when the real test starts. From now until the end of December, the Knicks will face the Nuggets, Celtics, Heat (twice), Thunder, Bulls, and Magic, and their only 'easy' game will come against the Cavaliers. The next week will be especially testing, as the Knicks will host Nuggets, Celtics, and Heat at the MSG.

The Knicks will only be considered a good team if they can get some decent results against these squads. For Amar's push to remain in the MVP race, and maybe for D'Antoni's push to put himself in the Coach of the Year talk, the Knicks have to perform well against the quality teams.

For now though, one thing is for certain, like the Knicks' teams from previous years, this one, if not a great team, has finally pulled away and separated itself from the bad ones. For too many years have I seen my team battle for decency amongst the worst teams in the league. The Knicks will make the playoffs this year, and probably not do much else, but hey, it's all about baby steps, right?

After all, a certain Denver Nugget can't be too far away, can he?

A Clockwork Blue, White, and Orange

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The date was January 8, 2010, when in foolish optimism, I thought that it would be a good idea to talk about how much my New York Knicks had been improving. I had woken up that morning to watch the then 9th place Knicks take on the then 8th place Bobcats. Knicks won the game 97-93, and thus closed the distance between the two teams, inching closer to a playoff spot. I named the post I wrote that morning Knix Jinx because I believed that either the Knicks were going to continue playing positively and up to their potential to make the playoffs, or I would jinx them and watch them settle back into their decade-long seat of poor performances and go fishing in early April.

I had written:

If you believe in jinxes, and the Knicks crash and burn and fail to make the playoffs, and Gallo breaks both his legs and David Lee snubs the team demanding a trade and Nate Robinson starts to worship Stephon Marbury, and our starting lineup next season features Larry Hughes instead of LeBron James, then this is the article to blame.
Until then, I'm gonna stay hopeful.

And guess what? I did end up jinxing my favourite team. Soon after those early glimmers of hope, the Knicks became the Knicks again. The team's record was 15-20 on January 8th, and they finished 29-53, only managing to win 14 of the next 47 games of the season. A clockwork blue, white, and orange, like most years in this miserable decade, the Knicks failed to make the playoffs and ended the season a forgotten team. Hell, we don't even have any first round draft picks come June - thanks a lot, Utah.

The positives: David Lee became an All Star. Gallinari managed to grow himself a pair. Toney Douglas and Bill Walker realised that they weren't awful. Earl Barron turned out to be a surprise. And Wilson Chandler kept up his good work.

The negatives: The Knicks still don't know how to play defense. Defense, as you may know, apparently wins championships. And it is apparently 50% of everything on a basketball court (the other 50% in this pie is something called 'offence', that Coach D'Antoni may be familiar with). The T-Mac experiment gave mixed, if uninspiring, results. Oh, and the Knicks still have Eddy fatass Curry.

So Nate Robinson got traded for Eddie House, and I would say now that despite Nate's inconsistencies, that was probably a dumb move.

We now enter the most important part of the Knick season... the Great Summer of 2010, where everyone from LeBron James to Dwyane Wade to Chris Bosh to Lionel Messi to Sachin Tendulkar to Genghis Khan will apparently become free agents. Okay, so maybe not ALL of those guys, but it is the most impressive list of free agents ever. Here are the top 10, in the opinion of someone over at Scoresreport.com:

LeBron James
Dwyane Wade
Chris Bosh
Chris Bosh
Amar'''e Stoudemire
Joe Johnson
Dirk Nowitzki
Carlos Boozer
Manu Ginobili
David Lee

Look at the last name on the list. David Lee. The Knicks seem to have enough money now to sign two big name guys. What do we do with Lee though, who has been the heart and soul of the team for so many years, giving his all and improving his own play? The worst-case scenario would be that we end up without any of the top three or four big name guys and Lee walks away, too. The best-case would be that the top players in the list suddenly end their thirst for money and decide to accept peanuts to play for the same team. The chances that a) this would ever happen or b) this would ever happen for New York, are ranging somewhere between minimal to none.

Come transfer window time, the league is going to see a techtonic shift, especially considering the news that the agents for the top three guys now work together. Let's hope that 2010-11 is a much better season for the Knickerbockers. Until then, I'll be drying my eyes with my Stephon Marbury jersey.

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Breaking News: The Knicks have a second fan in India

I may not be alone. During the Lakers-Knicks game last night (this morning in India), popular Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor was found by Desi Hits, chillin courtside at the Garden. Ranbir had this to say:

"I did a lot of basketball when I was in school back in India, but I never really got to see a game. I followed the Knicks when I was in school out here but that was seven years back so I'm a bit out of touch with the new players and stuff, but now I'm on the floor at Madison Square Garden and it's great."
But if Ranbir used to watch the Knicks back in the days, he is now a Lakers fan and his favorite player is Kobe Bryant: "I am a big New York Yankees fan but I think I will root for the Lakers today."

Wow. Another Laker/Kobe fan. Shocking.



You need to officially return to your Knick roots, Ranbir. Until then, I will always have your photo with Nate Robinson to console me.

This isn't the first time Bollywood invaded the NBA. Dino Morea and Lara Dutta were found courtside at the Staples a couple of years ago. In a strange coincidence, they too, supported the Lakers.

Hell, if Bollywood doesn't get Indians to watch the NBA, nothing will. Except for Sachin, maybe.

In other news, this was a very Laker-filled weekend for NBA fans in India, with ESPN deciding to show back-to-back Laker games on Friday and Saturday mornings, against the Cavaliers and the Knicks respectively. The Cavs and LeBron were too good in the clutch for the Lakers.

On Saturday, ESPN showed what would be the 2nd and last Knick game on Indian TV this season (unless, of course, they make the playoffs). Ranbir was in attendance but ESPN didn't care.



Knicks have been going through a tough stretch ever since I jinxed them two weeks ago. Kobe and Gasol took over in the 4th against the Knicks to get an undeserved victory. Despite soon to be all star David Lee's awesome 31 and 17 night and a career high 28 by Wilson Chandler, one of the Knicks best efforts this season went to waste.

Knix Jinx

Two months ago, I was in New Delhi, and I had lunch with coach and talent scout JD Walsh, a New Yorker. While talking about several topics, I professed by undying love for the Knicks, started off back when I first followed a full NBA season in 1998-99 (ironic, yes, because that was the shortened NBA Lockout year!), and the Knickerbockers made the NBA finals improbably behind the efforts of Houstan, Sprewell, Camby, LJ, etc, only to go down 4-1 to the Twin Tower-ed Spurs. Ever since, I've suffered stubbornly through all the bullshit - through the Allan Houstan contract and the Larry Brown, Donnie Walsh, Stephon Marbury, Jerome James, Eddy Curry, and the losses, and Isiah and etcetra, etcetra, etcetra...



I told JD that I might be the only Knick fan in India. He joked that, and that given time, I might be the only one in the World!
That was then... Knicks started this season with a franchise-worst 1-9 record, and I had grown cold and disillusioned to checking the box-score and seeing a loss every morning.
But how things change! The Knicks have since gone 14-10, winning 11 of their last 16 games, and growing tremendously in confidence in the process. I've been tempted to write about their improving form (and playoff hopes - goddamn!!) for a while, but I was worried that I might jinx it. But screw all that - the Knicks are playing well and I'm gonna celebrate (with words)!



The reason that this is specifically the best time for me to comment on them is actually extremely simple. ESPN/Star Sports in India, my only outlet to NBA games here, is showing a grateful handful of TWO Knick games this season. The first of them happened to be Friday morning (Thursday night in America). It also happened to be the only game on the NBA calender that day, so ESPN/Star Sports had no choice but to deviate from their Laker/Celtic/Cavs/Magic worship and to (alas!) show us the Charlotte Bobcats play the New York Knicks.
I was up, 6 in the morning, eager to catch a rare chance to watch my team, and the first half left me extremely impressed. Coach D'Antoni has the Knicks running and gunning: They were coming off of a near-record 132-99 win over the Pacers four days ago and another one over the Hawks on Friday night.
Gallinari has developed nicely - hitting clutch 3's and oh, he's got a hell of a killer pump fake, which fooled the D every single time.



David Lee is my favourite Knick and our best chance to All-Star-Dom (it's not happening, I know, but I can wish, can't I?) He's not just a hustle-rebounder guy anymore - Lee is looking like a potent scorer, and at several times, played PG in half-court set-ups, creating shots for his teammates and himself.
Speaking of PG, Duhon is okay, but I'm cringe to think that he's my team's starting Point Guard. Seriously. He played well but come on, seriously? Chris Duhon?
Which brings us to his "back-up": Nate 'The Great' Robinson: brilliant, but occasionally retarded. Nate has the ability to romanticize you with his big plays and minutes later, leave you contemplating suicide with consecutive dumbass turnovers.
Wilson Chandler is developing nicely, and I see him being one to really shake things up in the future. He had a career high 27 in the game, adding seven rebounds and six assists.



I'm not ready to eat up my words about the Jonathan Bender signing yet, but he isn't playing badly...
... And Jared Jefferies... ya, he defends well, sometimes. And he wears Allan Houstan's # 20. And ya...
The Knicks played the Bobcats without their second leading scorer, Al Harrington, and were mostly in control the game. Bobcats took a lead in the 3rd, but a Nate-led run in the 4th quarter, capped by clutch 3-pointers by Duhon and Gallinari took us home safe to a 97-93 win. D'antoni is doing his thing - offence - to full effect, but I read in the Yahoo! Sports recap of this game that the Knicks have now held their opponents below 100 points for the 13th time in the last 15th games. Not bad for a team which was atrociously awful defensively last season.
The Knicks are now half a game behind the 8th playoff seed in the East (which belongs to who else, the Bobcats!) This win brings them closer to that spot, and helps them improve their head-to-head advantage against the Bobcats too. And yes, I know that the very possibility that the Bobcats are a playoff team doesn't exactly flatter the Eastern Conference.
But the Knicks ARE improving and looking hungry right now. They are starting to look (with low expectations, relatively) more like a team that some people might want to play for - someone whose names starts with a LeB and ends with a Ron. Or a Dwyane Wade, or a Chris Bosh. Are you guys listening? There is actually a basketball team in New York.
I may be one of the only Knick fans in India, but I'm hoping that this season will be able to convert a few more before a lot more join the bandwagon next season if we sign a James or a Wade. If you believe in jinxes, and the Knicks crash and burn and fail to make the playoffs, and Gallo breaks both his legs and David Lee snubs the team demanding a trade and Nate Robinson starts to worship Stephon Marbury, and our starting lineup next season features Larry Hughes instead of LeBron James, then this is the article to blame.
Until then, I'm gonna stay hopeful.

P.S.: I'm biased, but I still think that the Knicks should have signed Iverson.