Deja Rubio

It has become abundantly clear this summer that the lost opportunity to sign Ricky Rubio is the biggest Knick blunder since over-paying Allan Houston.

Minnesota sportswriters are already speculating that both Walsh and Kahn can save face bu scratching each others backs. Rubio continues to be a perfect fit in NY and even Europeans are advocating such an obvious match.

While local sportswriters continue to scoff at the idea, the acquisition of Rubio takes enormous pressure off Walsh and the Knicks should "the plan" implode in the coming year. With Rubio in tow, Walsh would need but one major signing and still have change in his pocket.

A resigned Nate Robinson and Jordan Hill should do it.

Breath of Fresh Air

Brooklyn judge actually follows the law when it comes to foreclosures!

From Michael Powell, the NYTimes, A ‘Little Judge’ Who Rejects Foreclosures, Brooklyn Style:

Every week, the nation’s mightiest banks come to his court seeking to take the homes of New Yorkers who cannot pay their mortgages. And nearly as often, the judge says, they file foreclosure papers speckled with errors.

He plucks out one motion and leafs through: a Deutsche Bank representative signed an affidavit claiming to be the vice president of two different banks. His office was in Kansas City, Mo., but the signature was notarized in Texas. And the bank did not even own the mortgage when it began to foreclose on the homeowner.

The judge’s lips pucker as if he had inhaled a pickle; he rejected this one.

“I’m a little guy in Brooklyn who doesn’t belong to their country clubs, what can I tell you?” he says, adding a shrug for punctuation. “I won’t accept their comedy of errors.”

The judge, Arthur M. Schack, 64, fashions himself a judicial Don Quixote, tilting at the phalanxes of bankers, foreclosure facilitators and lawyers who file motions by the bale. While national debate focuses on bank bailouts and federal aid for homeowners that has been slow in coming, the hard reckonings of the foreclosure crisis are being made in courts like his, and Justice Schack’s sympathies are clear.

He has tossed out 46 of the 102 foreclosure motions that have come before him in the last two years. And his often scathing decisions, peppered with allusions to the Croesus-like wealth of bank presidents, have attracted the respectful attention of judges and lawyers from Florida to Ohio to California. At recent judicial conferences in Chicago and Arizona, several panelists praised his rulings as a possible national model.

His opinions, too, have been greeted by a cry of affront from a bank official or two, who say this judge stands in the way of what is rightfully theirs. HSBC bank appealed a recent ruling, saying he had set a “dangerous precedent” by acting as “both judge and jury,” throwing out cases even when homeowners had not responded to foreclosure motions.

Justice Schack, like a handful of state and federal judges, has taken a magnifying glass to the mortgage industry. In the gilded haste of the past decade, bankers handed out millions of mortgages — with terms good, bad and exotically ugly — then repackaged those loans for sale to investors from Connecticut to Singapore. Sloppiness reigned. So many papers have been lost, signatures misplaced and documents dated inaccurately that it is often not clear which bank owns the mortgage.

Justice Schack’s take is straightforward, and sends a tremor through some bank suites: If a bank cannot prove ownership, it cannot foreclose.

“If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” he said. “I’m a strange guy — I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”

Insulting

Bruce Jennings in his SF Chronicle blog has nothing good to say about the Knicks in analyzing Stephen Jackson's remarks:

So Stephen Jackson wants out of Oakland. There's a story to that effect on the wire this morning, quoting Jackson in Dime Magazine, generally a decent source for NBA gossip. Jackson said he "loved" playing in Don Nelson's system, because "it gave me a chance to show everything I could do on the court. It was great for me, but at this point, I'm 31 years old. I have four or five years left. I want to be in a situation where I can continually be in the playoffs and get another ring [he won one with San Antonio in 2003]. So that's where my mind is at right now."

Jackson didn't want to take it much further than that. "It's not about a decision I made, it's just things are in the air right now. I really can't get too much into it right now."

(Update: On his "Inside the Warriors" blog, Bay Area News Group writer Marcus Thompson II said a club source confirmed Jackson's demand, and that Jackson has hired an agent to help find him a deal.)

I have no doubt Jackson is exasperated with the Warriors' recent malaise, but I'd also bet he gives an entirely different interview the next time around. Jackson speaks from the heart, and he does it honestly, but his opinions often depend on his mood. When Jackson appeared on KNBR a few weeks ago, he sounded excited to get back with Monta Ellis and the rest of his teammates. Now he wants out? Oakland became a safe haven for Jackson when he arrived from Indiana, the place where he resurrected an unsavory reputation. He should take a moment to realize that without Nelson, Baron Davis and the enviable mood surrounding the 2006-07 Warriors, his career might have continued to spiral downhill.

Jackson spoke with the magazine during a visit to New York for a promotional event, and he was hanging out with former Warrior teammate Al Harrington. Later, as Jackson mingled with fans, someone asked him about the Warriors' playoff chances. "I don't think I'll be a Warrior next year," he responded. "I'm looking to leave."

According to the wire report, Jackson said he would welcome a trade to Cleveland, Dallas or Houston, and with Harrington standing by, he also mentioned the New York Knicks. "I'm just looking to go somewhere where I can go and win a championship."

As valuable as Jackson is to the Warriors, his absurd contract ($36 million owed through 2013) is a burden to their salary-cap situation and a testament to unbelievably rockheaded strategy. In these difficult financial times, other teams are looking to acquire expiring contracts (readily dismissed from the books), not anything in Jackson's range. So I'm not sure a trade could be worked out with anyone. Tell you one thing, though: If Jackson wants out, the Warriors should try to accommodate him. We've all seen what a tough-minded player he is, but if you get on his bad side, you're in for a nightmare.

I'm sure Harrington got in Jackson's ear about getting as far away from Nelson as he could. The two of them probably talked about building a championship team in New York, a comically misguided prospect just now. Harrington seems to think he's a lock to survive the summer of 2010, when the Knicks attempt to clear the decks to make room for a high-priced free agent, but he's no favorite of coach Mike D'Antoni. The ugly financial climate, in tandem with a major drop in the salary-cap limit, is likely to restrict the Knicks' flexibility. There's no way they would take on a player with Jackson's contract, and the way their roster stands right now, the big available stars -- LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh -- would be crazy to go there.

All in all, it's just another ugly episode along the road for the Golden State Warriors. Given that Jackson and Ellis are so close, you wonder what Monta's feeling right now. None of it bodes well for the coming season.

*This* Is Dribbling!

NESN on the Knicks

NESN's Liam Martin has written an interesting analysis of the Knicks:

All that said, much about the system remains broken.

New York, for one, is in danger of losing Lee, its leading rebounder, and Robinson, who punched in 17.2 points per game in 2008-09. Foregoing Lee would leave the Knicks without a leader; foregoing Robinson would leave them thin at the point.

More worrisome is New York’s defense, or lack thereof. The club ranked 28th in the league last season on defense, ceding 107.8 points a game, and were out-rebounded by four boards per contest, the NBA’s fourth-worst differential.

And the offense, for all its standout numbers, was incredibly inefficient. The Knicks ranked 28th in field-goal rate at 44.5 percent -- a function of a fast-paced approach that had New York attempting 86.5 shots per game, the most in the league.

Even scarier? Twenty-eight of them were 3-pointers, also the NBA’s highest mark.

Adding Milicic, Curry -- even Lee and Robinson -- to that mix certainly won’t completely fill those holes. But better than 32 wins? Even Nate Robinson can’t screw that up.

When it comes to questions like "Is there any way for the Knicks to be worse?", Knicks fans know too well:

Way?

Wayyyyy!

Lee Like Nash

There's a quote that's getting some attention on REALGM that comes from this Arizona Republic column.

On Mark Cuban letting him go from Dallas: "It was strange to me after all the contracts he had overpaid that the buck would stop with me."

Considering the stalemate David Lee is in one has to wonder if Lee will not someday also be scratching his head and asking why he is where the Knicks suddenly decide "to draw the line".

Alice in MeccaLand

Let's make a list of everything that would have to go right for the Knicks this year to make the playoffs.

1. At the point guard position, Duhon will need to play the best basketball he played last year, ALL YEAR. Duhon, while no all-star, *can be* as good as any of the second-tier talent in the league.

But for Duhon to accomplish such a feat, he will need a more than capable back-up. Nate Robinson will need to get serious and Douglas Toney will need to mature quickly to provide quality rest minutes for Duhon.

With all of that being said, the Knicks still need a starting point guard. Should Walsh sign Ramon Sessions, he will be a minor upgrade from Duhon. But the true value in such a signing will be that Duhon, in a back-up role, will be a seamless second-option that few NBA teams enjoy and it frees Nate to be a spark-plug scorer off the bench instead of a cool-headed ball-handler.

As for the speculation that Sessions has potential, doubtful. If Milwaukee is willing to let him walk then they've seen something we're missing. And quite frankly, Rubio remains a prize the Knicks need to pursue as aggressively as the LeBron fantasies.

Ideally, the T-Wolves make a playoff run but need a critical player that the Knicks can provide come Feb. That discussion needs to involve acquiring Rubio's rights.

2.) Larry Hughes *may be* the most under-rated key to a successful Knicks season. Hughes plays 'D' and *can play* inspired basketball. He needs to play consistently great. In a fantasy year, Hughes would have to bring a Duane-Wade-ish season to his career.

If the PG position can be resolved without involving Toney, then Toney may find the best opportunity for playing time behind Hughes and N8 at the two with far less pressure to bring an 'A' game every night.

In D'Antoni's system Chandler is mentioned as a two. But what D'Antoni s really proposing is playing dual small forwards who bring a very different look to the game. It could morph the traditional two spot into a more freakish, physical, athletic, and aggressive presence.

Such an experiment can either succeed or fail spectacularly. Should it succeed, watch out.

3.) Dark City - Eddy Curry (eCity) is losing weight and *looking* more physically fit. The fantasy that Knick fans refuse to speak aloud is that if the weight loss is matched by a return of quickness and skill around the basket, then Curry finally becomes the elite center he has always been projected and expected to be.

Darko Milicic, like eCity, has been a disappointment for years. Like Curry, there's still an unspeakable hope that Darko under D'Antoni's wing can mature into the player he can be. That is, a shot-blocking and junkman scorer under the basket - a complement to Curry.

If both players fulfill the fantasy expectation, D'Antoni will be able to play arguably the most intimidating dual tower twosome since Robinson and Duncan patrolled the basket in San Antonio.

The Dark City fantasy is as extreme as it gets in basketball, yet both players have the unteachable tools. Should the will and desire follow suit, things get interesting.

4.) The final arrival of Gallinari. Should Dani Gallinari and Al Harrington provide a consistent source of scoring from the 3, eCity will have a kick-out option worth exercising and the inside/outside game *can become* deep-playoff worthy.

Gallo has a lot to prove and not everyone believes he'll stick around the NBA long. Does he have what it takes?

5.) Last year, a Celtics commentator discussed Doc Rivers' philosophy for winning. He said Rivers treated EVERY GAME like a necessary win and that early wins when lots of teams are still goofing around provided the easiest wins. Such padding insulated the Celtics from losing too much ground later in the season should they experience a drought. It also made mid season experimentation a little less painful.

The Knicks need to treat every game like a playoff game. WIN. Learn to win. Take no loss as inevitable or acceptable.

The ultimate fantasy - win every game.

It's Like Watching Grass Grow

The Knicks are not very exciting in the off-season. I hope it's not indicative of the rest of the year. It's become a hard act to care about.

While waiting for LeBron, here's some grass you can watch instead of the Knicks.