Just watched the Knicks-Rockets game and I have some thoughts:
1) Something still seems amiss with Houston. I know they won, but it was more of a result of New York's mishaps (more on that in a minute) than from their own gameplay.
2) James Harden is lucky they won. He missed a few huge free throws and relatively open shots.
3) Dwight ain't the same old Dwight.
4) Houston really needs to get Thornton and Capella more involved.
5) New York has a lot of young talent that plays like they are young. This includes Derek Fisher. A few bad playcalls out of timeouts, way too many turnovers, and way too many (pointless) fouls.
6) New York could not buy themselves a good shot come crunch time. Part of this was because of Beverly, but most of it was beyond-poor ball movement.
7) With that said, the Knicks were without arguably their best player. He could've really helped scoring the ball in crunch-time.
8) Porzingis is gonna be a stud. I've watched him a few times now and it is all too clear. I hope he can add on 15-20 pounds of muscle without losing too much athleticism. Right now he really is limited in offensive post ups, setting picks, defending physical bigs, and defending outside shooting. If he can bulk-up, three of those four will be solved. This guy really could become a more-athletic Dirk. If he doesn't bulk-up, though; or does bulk-up and looses a significant amount of athleticism, he will never reach his potential. It'll be best for him to treat this process slowly. Nonetheless, he understands how to best utilize his talent to win games.
9) I also think Jerian Grant is going to be a solid player. He's got to figure out how to distribute better and get open without the ball. He'll take a year or two but he's going to be a solid NBA player for a long time.
10) As much as I hate to say it, Knicks will have a very good team in the next two years. Maybe Phil Jackson isn't as goinking clueless as I thought he was as a GM.
