This is the fifth interview in the Knicks writers series. For other interviews on Alan Hahn, Tommy Dee and Anthony Donahue, check here.
Knicks Fan Blog does an excellent job at doing one specific thing: analysis. Sure, the site’s not going to give you your latest news, but it’s obvious there is depth in every post. The two men behind those posts are Dan (@KnicksFanBlog) and Jon (@JonKnicksFan), the former being our interviewee here today.
This was fun for me to do because I look up to these guys as writers and as Knicks fans. They always bring well-thought out posts to the forefront and it was an honor to add this guest post onto the site.
Dan is a great-all around guy, pick his brain sometime on Twitter about what he thinks about the Knicks if the interview didn’t fully do it for you.
-How did you get your start at the Knicks Fan Blog?
The idea behind the blog had been a long time coming. Really the origin was in the constant conversations that Jon (@jonknicksfan) and myself had over the course of many years. We would come up with countless scenarios, and tons of analysis. We would discuss how poor we thought some of the local coverage was, particularly out of the New York Post. Often we would say to ourselves “we should have our own blog”. One day in the dregs of 2008 we decided there wasn’t anything stopping us and we finally did it. It costs about $40 a year and it let’s us interact with so many Knicks fans. Well worth the price.
-What are some of the Knicks blogs you follow yourself?
Obviously Knicks Vision. But also all of the beat blogs. Posting and Toasting is great. Tommy Dee and the other guys at The Knicks Blog are indispensable. And I check in on many others all the time like Knicker Blogger and Knicks Tweets. There are some that I’m leaving out but they’re all listed on the links section of my site.
-How much faith do you have in the Knicks win forty games this season?
I have faith that barring injury, the Knicks will be MUCH better this year. Certainly playoff worthy. Look, I was a David Lee fan, but let’s be real. Amar’e is world’s better than Lee is. I don’t care what some egg-head with his fancy math tells me about stats. When I watch the game, I can tell who has a bigger impact. The fact is that during the All-Star game last year (which Lee made due to someone else’s injury), Lee looked like a boy among men. Amar’e looked like he belonged. Amar’e is going to bring star power, leadership and accountability to the locker room.
Add to that a real point guard, another year under the young players’ belts, and better defensive players, and the Knicks are on their way.
If anything can derail them, it’s that I think they may have too much depth, as I wrote here.
-Who is your “breakout” player this season for New York?
Danilo Gallinari and Anthony Randolph have to be the obvious choices if only because they are still very young and have the most room to improve over say a veteran. They both have dynamic skill sets and are tantalizing talents. If they grow as players the Knicks can be dangerous.
I also think Toney Douglas, if he continues to improve and learns to run an offense, can be a very special player.
-What is the most hopeful thing you see out of the organization in the last ten years?
I have to go with the hiring of Donnie Walsh. The prior to GMs, Layden and Thomas were inexperienced and amateurish. It didn’t go well for us Knicks fans. When Stern persuaded (forced?) Dolan to hire Walsh, I knew that the new GM was going to be an old, steady hand, responsible for teams with remarkably sustained runs of dominance.
Donnie came in and did what was logical and obvious to most everyone except those who ran the Knicks for the better part of a decade: clean house and start over.
-If you could make the Knicks front office like one other in the NBA, which would you choose?
The Thunder are really the gold standard aren’t they? They managed their cap better than anyone and then used their cap space remarkably well to accumulate draft picks and young players. For example, they had cap space when the Suns were looking to slash payroll. They got first round picks out of Phoenix just to take on Kurt Thomas’ salary. Similarly, they got Eric Maynor simply by agreeing to take the final year of Matt Harpring’s contract. None of that happens without cap space.
Of course, luck helps too. They did get the second pick and this guy named Durant…
San Antonio built multiple titles managing the cap and retaining (until recently) tons of flexibility by not overpaying anyone, and paying large salaries only to the guys on their squad that really deserved it. Again, luck factors into the equation since none of it is possible without drafting Tim Duncan.
Portland employed a plan similar to Oklahoma City’s. They stockpiled draft picks and got a lot of young talent. Of course, they were able to draft Brandon Roy (or, more accurately trick the Celtics into trading them Brandon Roy for Randy Foye).
-If you knew the Knicks were not going to get LeBron James in free agency this year, how would you have changed the events that started in 2008?
If I knew they wouldn’t…hmm. No. Because I’d still be pretty stoked about Amar’e, Randolph, and the prospect of ‘Melo. In the darkest days of Isiah’s tenure, I would’ve jumped at that.
People who think Donnie is a failure because he didn’t land LeBron never point to a feasible alternative except doing nothing. Well if the Knicks did nothing they’d be going into this season with Z-Bo and Crawford and (since these folks presume the Knicks would’ve made the playoffs the last two years), a mid round draft pick from 2009 (though they always like to have it both ways and say the Knicks would’ve made the playoffs and would have drafted Brandon Jennings, even Peter Vecsey fell into this trap).
-What’s the best thing about being a Knick fan?
That’s an easy question for me to answer. Going to a Knicks’ playoff game. The electricity in the Garden is really an indescribable feeling and it really is an enthralling, electric buzz. If there’s anything some of the young fans are missing out on it’s that electric feel. I suspect that will change this year.
**
That’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed that interview from Dan and come back for more every Wednesday!
Pingback: Did Someone Just Knock Walsh’s Decisions? at Knicks Vision