Results tagged “mauricetaylor”

Filling the "It's so ridiculous," "It's true" and "You certainly didn't get what you paid for" categories is news that the combined salary for the New York Knickerbockers for the 2006-07 season was a whopping $139,381,526. While the astronomical payroll of the Knicks isn't new news, it's always fun to look at the payrolls of teams that didn't make the NBA Playoffs.

In his infinite wisdom, James Dolan has declared that Isiah Thomas must show “measurable” progress to keep his job after this season. What exactly that means hasn’t been defined, but the question is; how can this team not improve on last season? The Knicks managed only 23 wins last year and seemed to use a different lineup every night. Larry Brown ruined his reputation as a great coach by sniping at his players in the media and failing to set a rotation. In short, there is no possible scenario where this team plays worse than it did last year.

The 2005-06 Knicks’ season will go down as the worst in team history. For approximately $125 million New York finished with the second-worst record in the league and embarrassed themselves and the franchise almost nightly. The coach fought with the players, the players quit on the coach and the GM got accused of sexual harassment.

The best thing Isiah Thomas could do right now is put on a uniform. That would prevent him from making anymore dumb trades and give the Knicks the point guard they so desperately need. Saturday, the Knicks fell to the Hornets 109-98 with Stephon Marbury missing his third consecutive game.

Ben Gordon beat the Knicks again last night. Gordon hit a jumper over Trevor Ariza as time expired in overtime to give the Bulls a 106-104 victory. Stephon Marbury did not play for the Knicks ending his consecutive game streak and the date of his return to the lineup is unknown.

The Knicks fought back from a 19-point deficit midway through the third quarter to make it a two-point game with thirty seconds remaining, but they couldn’t stop Troy Hudson when it mattered. Hudson hit a three as the shot clock expired to clinch the victory for Minnesota.

Let’s not get too excited by the fact that Larry Brown won his 1.000th game last night. Sure it is a nice achievement for him, but the other coaches who have reached it, Lenny Wilkens, Don Nelson and Pat Riley, all coached the Knicks and never won a championship. Instead, let’s focus on the fact that the Knicks have won six in a row, the latest a 105-94 victory over the Hawks.

The Knicks won again Sunday with Stephon Marbury leading the way. Marbury had 23 points, 15 assists and only one turnover as the Knicks beat Seattle 120-116. Once again, the Knicks shot over 50% from the field, exploiting the right matchups and getting mostly good looks at the basket.

Forget for a second that Isiah just added another $20 million in salaries after this year with the addition of Taylor and Rose. By trading away his only true center, and helping the Spurs beef up their frontline, the Knicks roster now consists of one point guard (two if you count Jamal Crawford), three shooting guards, two small forwards, five power forwards and Bruno Sundov. In fact, the little used Sundov is the only player on the roster taller than Tim Thomas. As Peter Vescey rightfully opined today, remember when Isiah said that getting Mohammed was they key to the three way trade that sent Keith Van Horn out and also brought in Tim Thomas. And how does this affect the playing time of Mike Sweetney?