HoopWatch

After a 59-loss season, Isiah Thomas has been given the most arduous task: Show improvement or get fired! Despite the abundance of talents in New York, the Knicks have failed to get past the regular season even under the guidance of two great and legendary NBA coaches. Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens failed the previous year, and Larry Brown, employing a horrendous NBA-record 42 different starting line-ups, failed again last season. The Knicks do not lack talent, they need team chemistry. They just haven’t coexisted well, especially in a city where the demands are high.

They are also overloaded in almost every position. All-Stars Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Steve Francis and Jalen Rose have to battle for minutes against promising upstarts and reliable veterans in Nate Robinson, Quentin Richardson, newly-acquired Jared Jeffries and sensational rookie Renaldo Balkman. Now that’s just the back court. And if you notice, most of these guards and wingmen are shoot-first-defend-later players.

There is also a similar positional battle going on at the front court. Thomas has to find ample and “satisfiable” minutes for reliable-when-healthy Eddy Curry, guy-who-broke-out-in-Seattle Jerome James, hard working Malik Rose, promising Channing Frye and hustling David Lee. Thomas needs to define their roles. Some players need to accept that they are going to get limited minutes this season, especially with Thomas promising to have a regular rotation.

Word around is Thomas will employ a run-and-gun offense similar to that of the Phoenix Suns. The problem though, his point guard isn’t named Steve Nash, it’s shoot-first-pass-when-in-trouble Marbury. But Thomas has remarked that he will leave the running and scoring to his All-Star guards, Marbury and Francis. Thomas brought them in New York for a reason, and he has trust in these players. We’ll see how things will work out.

I see them running, but they won’t be running like the Suns. There is just a bad mix here. Let’s consider their starting five. Curry has to start at center, and they need him to grab those rebounds so they may start their fast break. In this running style, I don’t see Curry scoring that much. He is a good low post player, he may be one of two resorts when they need a score from the post, the other being James. But James won’t be fielded in unless they need to bang against Shaq.

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Frye showed his athleticism last year. He could be a running power forward, and he’s gonna start. Jeffries has my nod over the aging Rose at small forward. Jeffries has the difficult task to guard the other team’s biggest scoring threat like Lebron James, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. He is just long and quick, plus he can play at both forward positions. And with this running game, he may play at four with Frye at five, then three guards up front. Jeffries’ job could be in jeopardy as well, with the promise and hustle of 6-8 rookie Renaldo Balkman. The kid has shown toughness and hustle. He is a good defender and is sooooo long. He scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds against Boston in a pre-season game.

Francis and Marbury will start at both guard positions. These two are formidable at the open floor, but they need to help each other out if they want to improve New York’s league’s second worst record at only 23 wins. It would be great though if we see them cuffing the passing lanes for steals and easy lay-ups.

With the Knicks’ new running style, I won’t be surprised if you see Crawford, Balkman, Malik Rose, Richardson and Robinson off the bench and on the floor at the same time. Oh boy, these guys can run and they will definitely run. Richardson has to lessen his three-point attempts. He ain’t that effective from the outside anyway, averaging just a shade over 32 percent for his career from beyond the arc. He is athletic and he could slash to the basket. Veteran Jalen Rose, who at 33, could see less minutes this season despite averaging 12.3 points per game last season. He is a prime candidate for a trade within the season.

Clearly, New York has a lot of guns and firepower, but they have to jell. They need to play as a unit for them to be able to save Isiah’s job. But, as I see them, it’s still going to be a long season for the Knicks. They will miss the playoffs once again.