HERE’S HOW KNICKS CAN COUNT ON SUCCESS — NY Post:  Mike Vaccaro

J.R. SMITH FOREVER CHANGED BY 2007 CAR ACCIDENT THAT KILLED FRIEND — NY Daily News:  Kevin Armstrong

REVISITING LIN AT THE 2010 PORTSMOUTH INVITATIONAL — The Knicks Blog:  Tommy Dee

It has been a wild season so far for the Knickerbockers, from the uncertainty over whether there would even BE an NBA season back in November to the Ben & Jerry’s “Linsanity” ice-cream (who on EARTH could’ve foreseen THAT back in December?) controversy of last week.

In between, we’ve witnessed Mike D’Antoni twisting in the wind during his extended stay on the hottest of hot-seats, a slew of injuries and missed games by superstar players, an underwhelming, and at times awful first third of the season by the Knicks, and the meteoric emergence of Jeremy Lin.

It’s now time to put all of that craziness in the rear-view and get down to business.

Sure, there are still questions to be answered.  Will Amar’e Stoudemire revert to form as the dominant player we saw last season?  Does Baron Davis have enough left in the tank to spark the Knicks and keep Jeremy Lin from logging too many minutes?  Will Iman Shumpert emerge as a consistent, reliable cog in the guard rotation?  Will Steve Novak continue to come off the bench and knock down threes at the same astonishing rate?

The time for distractions is over.  The Knicks need to start working for playoff position, and preparing for a possible Championship run.

Here is what we know:

Jeremy Lin is a legitimate NBA point-guard, and certainly good enough to navigate the Knicks through a deep playoff run.

Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin CAN co-exist.

Landry Fields is the same fill-up-the-boxscore player we saw last year in the first half of his rookie campaign.

Tyson Chandler is the best Knicks center since Patrick Ewing was last seen wearing the blue and orange.

The Knicks have a deep, talented, and versatile bench.

Mike D’Antoni can coach, and he isn’t going anywhere.

That said, it’s time for the Knicks, the fans, and the media to focus on one thing: playoff position.  No better time to start than tomorrow, when the Knicks invade Boston.  A win moves the Knickerbockers to the position of 7th seed in the East, and into second place in the division.

An NBA Championship?  Time will tell.

Stay tuned.

Can’t stand the prosperity, huh, Knicks fans?  Understood.  Been a long stretch of really bad basketball around these parts, and all of this lin-sanity does seem a little surreal.

Silly though that we’re now hearing questions about whether Carmelo Anthony can co-exist with Jeremy Lin on the basketball floor.

Let me remind you of, well, the entire 2011-2012 season BEFORE Jeremy Lin entered the Nets game a couple of weeks ago.  The constant, steady complaint was that the Knicks were struggling because they needed a point guard, a guy to run the offense, a guy to distribute the rock so that Carmelo wouldn’t have to shoulder all of that himself.

Enter Jeremy Lin, who has exceeded everyone’s expectations.  He’s set the basketball world on fire.

Now, Knicks fans and the media are wondering whether Melo and Jeremy Lin can co-exist?

Why don’t we wait until Melo returns to action and gets a couple of games under his belt with the Knicks new floor general before we ask that question?  Carmelo Anthony is offended by the questions, and both his current coach in Mike D’Antoni, and his college coach at Syracuse, Jim Boeheim, have said it’s a ridiculous thing to worry about as well.

So keep worrying and questioning because you don’t have enough of a positive outlook about how they’ll play together, but know that you’ll sound like someone who just can’t stand the prosperity the Knicks are currently enjoying.

You’ll sound like a Knicks fan.

Understood.

What’s your take?  Like it or hate it?

Point us to one that’s worse, and we’ll post it here in the coming days.

Mike D’Antoni said it.

In the aftermath of the Knicks third consecutive win, after the third straight game that Jeremy Lin orchestrated a Knicks victory, D’Antoni made a significant statement.

Jeremy Lin was “for real”, in the eyes of the Knicks coach — and Mike D’Antoni knows a thing or three about point guard play.  ”He has the court vision, which isn’t going to go away, he has the speed, which isn’t going to go away,”  D’Antoni continued.

Well, the speed will eventually go away, but Lin is 23, so let’s not worry about that just yet.

It is a big moment in Jeremy Lin’s career that should not go unnoticed. Because last night, Jeremy Lin made his bones as an NBA player.

The media, and those of us in the blogosphere all have our opinions, opinions that are based on a lot less experience in the game of basketball than Mike D’Antoni has.  D’Antoni played professionally in Italy for many years for Olimpia Milano, and was honored as the Italian league’s best point guard of all time in 1990.  No, it’s not the NBA, but it’s not small potatoes, either.

D’Antoni then built his reputation as an NBA coach with the Phoenix Suns where he had someone by the name of Steve Nash running the point — a guy that you just might have heard of.

So yes, Mike D’Antoni knows what it means to BE a point guard, and what it means for a team to HAVE a skilled point guard.  When Mike D’Antoni describes a point guard as “for real”, it means something.  The rest of us are just blowing smoke.

Now to be fair, D’Antoni himself was slow to recognize what Jeremy Lin had to offer.

Lin was sent to Erie in mid-January to play for the D-League’s Bayhawks.  In fact, he and Jerome Jordan were the first two Knicks EVER sent down to the D-League.  Lin posted a triple-double against the Maine Red Claws, and was quickly recalled — primarily because the Knicks needed someone to scrimmage with Baron Davis during Davis’ rehabilitation from a back injury.

It wasn’t until more than a third of the season had expired that D’Antoni gave Lin some burn, against the New Jersey Nets.  This is significant to note because other than Mike Bibby, who looks washed up as an NBA player, the Knicks have not had a true point guard on the 2011-2012 roster that was NOT named Jeremy Lin.

So in game twenty-four of this 66 game season, Jeremy Lin checked in and immediately ignited the Knicks offense.  The Knicks played with a fire and fluidity that had not even been hinted at in any of the previous twenty-three contests.

The very next game against Utah, the Madison Square Garden PA announcer formally introduced Jeremy Lin as the Knicks starting point guard, for all the world to see.

We all know what happened that night, and what happened again last night against the Washington Wizards. If your neighbors know that a basketball is round and that the teams play five a side, they probably know as well.

Jeremy Lin is an internet sensation, a fan favorite, and a media darling.

More important than all of that?  He is “for real”.

Just ask Mike D’Antoni.

Knicks fans are caught up in the recent Lin-sanity, and who can blame them?

Jeremy Lin has not only come in and filled a serious roster need for the Knicks at the point guard position, but he’s also almost single-handedly led the Knicks to two straight victories in front of the home faithful at Madison Square Garden. And if you can make it there, you can make it — well, you know the line.

So go out and buy your Knicks #17 Jeremy Lin jersey — I’m sure someone is selling them by now.  It’s a great story, on many levels.  An NBA player of Asian heritage who played his collegiate ball at Hah-vahd, of all places, has taken the Knicks, the city of New York, and much of the national NBA reporting universe by storm.

Let’s take a look at the Knicks new point guard with a critical eye:

SIZE:  Lin is listed as 6-3, 200 lbs.  Good size for an NBA point guard.  For comparison purposes, the Clippers’ Chris Paul is 6-0, 175 lbs.

BASKETBALL IQ:  High.  The kid went to Harvard.  Makes good decisions in distributing the ball, and doesn’t take bad shots.  Adept at running the pick-and-roll.

AGGRESSIVENESS:  Excellent.  Has really attacked the tin, and finishes from multiple delivery angles.  His “and-one” rate is very high for a point guard.

DEFENSE:  Active on the defensive end, and has good hands.  High steal rate per minutes played.

REBOUNDING:  Very good rebounding rate for a point guard per minutes played.

RANGE:  Not great.  Needs to develop his perimeter shooting, but did nail a dagger three against Utah late on Monday.  Always good to see a guy who has the dagger in his arsenal.

COURT VISION:  Sees the court very well, and is an excellent alley-oop passer — just ask Tyson Chandler.  Finds cutters, and consistently puts teammates in a position to score with his passes.  Against the Jazz in his first NBA start, Lin consistently found an open catch-and-shoot bomber in Steve Novak, even though the two had not played many minutes together.

HANDLE:  Not amazing, but not bad.  Much better going to his right than his left, and has had trouble with the handle late in games, perhaps due to fatigue. Seems like most of his turnovers are off the dribble, and not off his passing.

CONDITIONING:  He’s looked gassed at times late in the two games he’s played significant minutes in – understandable, as he hasn’t played this much under game conditions since his college days.  His conditioning should improve as he gets accustomed to the grind of being an NBA starting player.

INTANGIBLES:  Excellent, so far.  Looks like he’s having fun out there on the floor, perhaps even a little bit amazed at his own success at times.  Has played extremely well under a bright spotlight, in front of supportive, but very demanding fans.  Impressive to see an unheralded, relatively inexperienced player  step in and comfortably assume the floor general role.

WARNING:

There’s a danger in drawing too many concrete conclusions on Jeremy Lin based on either raw statistics, OR the eyeball test.

He just hasn’t played enough at the NBA level (Hollinger’s PER on Lin is 25.05 this year!), and the sample size is way too small to be conclusive.  He’s played only a TOTAL of 136 minutes for the Knicks, with 114 of those coming in the last 6 games.

This is not to say that the numbers lie, just that it is too early to tell.

COLLEGIATE CAREER:

For the purpose of providing some context to his NBA numbers, here are Jeremy Lin’s collegiate stats, where he was a three-year starter at Harvard:

For the most part, Lin’s numbers in college are similar to his NBA numbers.  This is a good sign, considering that he’s obviously stepped way up in class in terms of level of competition, and hasn’t seen his statistical productivity decrease.

At Harvard, his FG% was .480 (a number that got better each year there), presumably thanks to aggressive play and ability to finish at the rack more than his perimeter shooting. He also had good rebounds (4.3) and steals (2.0) rates. His Assists Per Game for the Crimson was 3.5, which is relatively low for a point guard, but this likely speaks more about his supporting cast than his ability to facilitate an offense.  He shot 73 percent from the free-throw line.

All-in-all, good collegiate numbers, but nothing that necessarily makes you sit up and take notice.

Lin was not heavily recruited coming out of high school in Northern California and was undrafted out of Harvard.  He appears to play with a chip on his shoulder in response to either this perceived or actual lack of respect.

KEEP AN EYE ON:

There are some things Knicks fans should watch for from Lin going forward, and the next chance comes tonight in Washington against the Wizards.  The game will be broadcast on MSG Network.

Does Lin struggle going to his left?  As teams get more of a book on him, they’ll take advantage of his inability to do this, if it really is an issue.

Is he too turnover prone to be effective?  Lin had eight turnovers to go along with eight assists on Monday against the Jazz.  He’ll need to maintain a much higher assist-to-turnover ratio to keep his starting job with the Knicks.

Lin has a tendency to pick up his dribble too quickly at times.  He’s managed to get away with it for the most part without getting trapped, but it’s something to keep an eye on.  You know that with each passing night, Knicks’ opponents will be more and more aware of this tendency.

Does he have enough of a jump-shot to keep defenses honest?  He doesn’t need to be a sharpshooter, but look for his effective range and his shot selection from the perimeter.

BOTTOM LINE:

Jeremy Lin has shown more than enough in the last two games to warrant everyone’s enthusiasm.  Can he sustain his level of productivity going forward?

We’ll see.

Hopefully, Clyde Frazier is working the game tonight on MSG — who better to break down Jeremy Lin’s play at the point for the Knickerbockers?

Yeah.

But last night was different.  Whether you were on your couch watching it and listening to the great Clyde Frazier’s mellifluous color commentary, or you were one of the 19,000 plus at The World’s Most Famous Arena, you knew you were witnessing something special.

It started in somber fashion with a hear-a-pin-drop moment of silence for fan favorite Amar’e Stodemire’s older brother Hazell Stoudemire, Jr., who was tragically killed in a car crash in the early morning hours on Monday.

The game started, and there was little energy in the building.

Six minutes in, the Knicks, already missing one of their two superstars in Stoudemire, lost Carmelo Anthony, who limped off the court with what appeared to be a groin injury.  He did not return.

There was a palpable sense in the building that this season of high expectations was just not meant to be for the Knickerbockers.

The Knicks obviously didn’t feel that way.

Jeremy Lin, who had wowed the Garden crowd on Saturday with a dazzling performance against the Nets, brought the same bag of tricks last night.  He finished with 28 points and 8 assists, and looked very comfortable as the Knicks’ Floor General.  Sure, there were 8 turnovers as well, some of which could be chalked up to sheer exhaustion, as the former benchwarmer played nearly the entire game, willing the Knicks to victory on wobbly legs.

Tyson Chandler, limited to only 22 minutes due to foul trouble, provided a veteran presence the depleted Knicks desperately needed, as well as 10 points and seven boards.

Steve Novak was brought out of mothballs, and played some very effective catch-and-shoot with Lin, finishing 5 of 8 from behind the arc.

Jared Jeffries, starting in place of Stoudemire, attacked the rack often, but couldn’t finish, spending a lot of the evening on the free-throw stripe.  He finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, and drew five charging calls on the defensive end. He was booed by the Knicks faithful, mostly in remembrance of bad days gone by.

And Iman Shumpert, whose early season coming out party has fizzled to something between uninspiring and puzzling, chipped in six rebounds and six assists.

Now this wasn’t Rocky Balboa toppling Apollo Creed — it was the Knicks beating the Utah Jazz, a club that nobody with any sense in their head would confuse for a championship contender, invading the Garden with a respectable but not eye-popping 13-9 record.

But in this confusing, more down than up season for the Knicks, no opponent can be taken for granted, especially with a rotation that looked more Summer League than Opening Night as the game wore on, when tired legs needed reinforcements.

The score when the final buzzer sounded:  Knicks 99, Jazz 88.

Was it the gutsiest Knicks’ victory in the Mike D’Antoni era?  Maybe.  Was it because the undermanned Knicks brought something extra to honor a grieving teammate?  Perhaps.  Did they play like they couldn’t afford to lose, which may or may not be a reality in this quickly evaporating season?  Could be.

Whatever the reason, it was something special to watch.

On a Monday night in early February, against the Utah Jazz.

No kidding.

They’ve played well in three consecutive games,  but have only one win to show for it.  That said, the signs are encouraging going forward.  They’ve looked like as cohesive a unit as they have all season long, and might have found someone to run the offense, at least for the time being, in Jeremy Lin.

The Knicks have dug themselves a hole, however, and it won’t be an easy one to get out of.  They are more than one-third of the way through this shortened 66 game season, and they are 6 games under .500 at 9-15.  An underwhelming start to the season that finds them in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings, one and a half games behind the 8th place Bucks.

There is still time to turn their season around and maybe even make something special out of it, but they have little room for error.  Seven of the Knicks next ten games are at home.  It’s time for them to dial up the intensity and play every night like it’s a playoff game.  They don’t have any other choice, as they’ve put themselves high up on a tightrope — without any net.

Baron Davis should return some time during the next ten games, and there will be an adjustment period there, but they have a guy in Jeremy Lin they can comfortably keep in the guard rotation to help keep the offense flowing.

Baron Davis will help if he’s healthy — there’s no doubt about that.  But the Knicks can’t count on his return to save their season.  They need to save their OWN season.  The same group of guys who built this failed early season now have to work twice as hard to tear it down.

Football season is over.  The bright glare of New York’s attention now turns to the Knickerbockers, with only pitchers and catchers on the horizon to distract them. Preseason baseball won’t take the Knicks off the hook.  Only playing with a sense of urgency every night will.

It starts tonight at Madison Square Garden against the Jazz.  Don’t be late.

The Knicks definitely cannot afford to be.  The time is NOW.

A quote from Mike D’Antoni after last night’s win over the Nets, talking about Jeremy Lin: “He played really well.  The biggest thing is, he’s got a point guard mentality.”

D’Antoni’s quote is telling, and a little troubling at the same time.  It almost sounds as if the Knicks Head Coach just figured out that Jeremy Lin is the only TRUE point guard that puts on the blue-and-orange every night these days.  At least until Baron Davis is sufficiently healed to start contributing whatever he has left to the Knicks.

We all understand that loyalty is a big thing in sports, and it works both ways — players are loyal to their coaches, and coaches are loyal to their players.  They HAVE to be, as there are many ups and downs during the course of an NBA season, and players’ and coaches performances must be looked at in light of their body of work as opposed to last night’s box score alone.

Mike D’Antoni has been loyal to his players, there’s no doubt about that, and to a fault at times.  His loyalty to Landry Fields appears to have paid off, as Fields has shaken off whatever it is that was bothering him between the time of the Carmelo Anthony trade and the Suns game about three weeks ago.

The loyalty to Toney Douglas, however, has drawn the ire of a lot of Knicks fans, and a lot of questions in the media and the blogosphere.  Douglas has been terrible. There’s no kinder way to put it without being dishonest.  His shot is not falling with any regularity, and he’s just not proven that he can be the kind of facilitator of the offense that the Knicks have desperately needed this season.

He’s banged up, yes, and maybe the shoulder injury is hurting his shot, but it doesn’t explain Toney’s lack of a “pass-first” mindset, a mindset that the Knicks need in whoever it is that’s playing the point.

Everyone has been waiting for Baron Davis to declare himself healthy enough to play, but in the interim, it seems D’Antoni was slow to give Jeremy Lin any kind of burn in an effort to get the offense clicking at the direction of someone who reflexively THINKS like a point guard.

Jeremy Lin’s performance last night might ultimately turn out to be a mirage, but one thing we DO know:  it was good to see a true point guard playing point guard for the Knickerbockers last night.  Let’s hope we see more of it starting Monday night against the Jazz.

It’s a shame that it took this long.

Let’s start with this premise:  Mike D’Antoni does NOT deserve to be fired.

That said, it’s starting to feel like it’s time for D’Antoni to be fired.

Sounds ridiculous, right?  Well, that’s the position the Knicks find themselves in after back-to-back good performances against the Bulls and Celtics.  The problem?  They resulted in ZERO wins.

Compounding things is the fact that the Knickerbockers are now more than a third of the way through the season, and their record stands at an embarrassing 8-15.

You can talk about chemistry all you want.  Talk about how multiple superstar players have to figure out how to play together.  Talk about how it takes time for multiple superstars to figure out how they can all get their shots and their points so their egos are stroked and they all receive enough adulation from fans and media alike.

The bottom line, though, is that the Miami Heat went through this last year, and were NEVER as bad as the Knicks are now.

Granted, that comparison is somewhat unfair, as the Heat actually HAVE a point guard and the Knicks do not.  They also have LeBron James, and the Knicks do not. Additionally, the Heat had a full preseason in which to get themselves at least somewhat comfortable before the “chemistry experiment” season started, and the Knicks did not.

It’s not Mike D’Antoni’s fault that he has not been given a point guard to run an offense that he’d like to install, an offensive system that has made him a top coach in this league.  An offensive system that was at least part of the reason that Dolan and Co. brought D’Antoni to New York in the first place.

And D’Antoni has been a good soldier, never pointing a finger at anyone but himself for the Knicks struggles.

Sports, however, is a bottom line business.  At the end of the day, it’s all about the wins and losses.

The Knicks put Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Tyson Chandler on the floor every night.  They do not have the luxury of talking in terms of moral victories, or hoping for any patience from their now restless fans, or from the New York media – a buzzard that is beginning to circle over the Knickerbockers and their 2011-2012 campaign.

If D’Antoni is fired, as many feel he will be, it will be unjust, to at least a certain extent.  The problem is, bringing in another head coach with the current point guard-free roster isn’t likely to produce better results, only change.

Sometimes, though, change is exactly what is needed.

It’s starting to feel like that time.