Knicks opener tommorow, Delgado has second off-season surgery

Knicks:
21 hours away. The Knicks will open the season tommorow at the Pau Gasol-less Memphis Grizzlies. It appears that Quentin Richardson will be the starting small forward for the Knicks. Also, I have heard some rumors from various sources, including WFAN that Jared Jeffries may be having wrist surgery which could keep him out potentially another 6-8 weeks, which may turn Richardson into a key component for the Knicks success this season. In addition, if Richardson plays well in his role he may wind up locking down a starting job all season.
Mets:
Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado went under the knife for the second time this off-season. The first time it was for carpal tunnel syndrom, and most recently the surgery was to repair Delgado's tennis elbow. You may remember that over the past two spring trainings (once with the Marlins) Delgado has missed a couple of games because of tendonitis in his elbow, hopefully this stops the brief spring training lay offs.

Other surgeries that Mets players have had over the past couple of weeks are:
Pedro Martinez- Rotator Cuff Surgery
Chris Woodward- Torn Labrum
Paul LoDuca- Ligament Tear in Thumb

Knicks Buy Out Jalen Rose

According to the NY Times the Knicks have bought out the contract of shooting guard/small forward Jalen Rose. Rose finished the pre-season with no points and only two shots taken for about 10 minutes a game. Clearly Rose was not part of the future rotation for the Knicks, and Isiah decided to buy out the 33 year old's contract, in order to open up a potential roster space for the Knicks, and prevent Rose from becoming a distraction on the bench.

The Knicks roster now stands at 14, and it is not clear who will fill the 15th slot. Might I suggest a return of Qyntel Woods? He wasn't signed by any team for the pre-season, and I thought he showed some promise while playing sparingly last season with the Knicks. On the other hand, Woods is not a power forward or center, which is the Knicks biggest need at this point. Maybe Isiah has something else up his sleeve, like a potential trade.

With Rose's exit Quentin Richardson has become the odds on favorite for the nod at the small forward position for Wednesday night's opener against the Grizzlies. Richardson struggled mightily for most of last season, and he has been terrific this far in the pre-season, mixing hustle plays with solid shooting (although not from behind the arc), rebounding, and good defense. Richardson could turn out to be one of the Knicks un-sung heroes.

Knicks show fire against Nets

As this year's pre-season concluded the Knicks did not end with a win, but they may of shown a message to the division rival Nets. They won't back down. In the first half Eddy Curry plowed over his defender and dunked the ball. However, not only did he dunk the ball with emphasis but with his defender lying on the ground he appeared to be talkng a little trash. Maybe Curry is starting to listen to his coaches, something he seemed incapable of doing last season. Curry also had an impressive stat line for the night. Scoring 19 points on nine boards, and he even threw in four assists.

However, Curry was also one of three Knicks who fouled out. Richardson and Curry both played over 30 minutes before fouling out, but Channing Frye inexcusably fouled out after 11 minutes of work. Although, he did score 10 points while he was in the game, but Frye has now fouled out of three of the six pre-season games, and he is averaging only one more rebound than foul per-game. Not good.

The Knicks also threw in a couple of other plays that showed fire throughout the game. Such as Stephon Marbury talking smack to Vince Carter, while Carter was on the bench and Marbury was behind the three point line wide open. However, no event showed more pizazz then the pushing match between Mikki Moore and Steve Francis. Francis "swooped to the hoop" for an apparant tear drop but Moore met him in the air for a relativley forceful collision. However, Francis took exception and he got up from the floor, dusted himself off, and pushed Moore back. It seems like Isiah wants to institute some of what he did with the Pistons in the late 1980's. Isiah's Pistons were then notorious for starting brawls (after all, they did have Dennis Rodman) and they even upset some opponents. Isiah seemed to be pushing the Knicks to do the same against the Nets, and Isiah even admitted to the media he was almost telling his players to fight back. Saying

We're coming from a long way's down in this league. You've got to scratch and you've got to fight and you've got to claw, and when you play against the better teams in this league -- and they're one of them -- the better teams don't like when the teams at the bottom give them a hard time.

In fact, at the end of the game Lawrence Frank gave Isiah the cold shoulder when Isiah went to shake his hand.
I like it. I like it a lot. I have a feeling eventually it may be taken too far, and a suspension or two will be handed out, but it would be worth it to strike some fear into opponents. Think about it, would you want to play defense on Ron Artest, a player who can snap any minute? If the Knicks can play like they did on Friday, with the intensity not neccesarilly the results, we should be looking at a drastically improved team, and record.

Mr. Nice Guy

According to multiple (and I mean multiple) reports Isiah Thomas believes he has figured out how to fix Eddy Curry. "Push back." Isiah Thomas believes that if Curry can become a dominant and even a fearful presence in the post that defenders may be a bit fearful to try and stop Curry from scoring eight feet away, which is already a relativley tough feat, so long the 23 year old isn't called for an offensive foul.



You have to agree with Thomas' thinking here. If Curry can become someone that intimidates and strikes fear in defenders maybe he will one day live up to the title of "Baby Shaq." I can hear the chants at MSG now "Push back Baby Shaq *clap clap clap clap clap* push back Baby Shaq *clap clap clap clap clap*." On second though, maybe not.

By the way, I did make that picture, but admittedly my abillity to use paint is not very good. It was a try though.

With Jerome James on the shelf Knicks sign back-up center

Kelvin Cato is the next player to play for Isiah Thomas. The Knicks today announced the signing of the former first-round draft pick. Cato has played for Portland, Houston, Orlando and Detroit throughout his ten year career, and has earned a reputation as a player who does not try, and tends to get out of shape. Which is the exact opposite of what the Knicks need. However, Cato is still a solid signing considering there is no back-up center right now other than Channing Frye, who is more of a power forward. The 32 year old averages nearly six points and six boards for his career in only 20 minutes ago. Relativley solid numbers off of the bench. Although the Knicks have a policy to not release the terms of any free agent signings, Cato's deal is most likley around the veteran's minnimum. However, with Isiah at the helm you never know, Cato may be around for years to come.

Jerome James reported to camp in shape, and ready to play. However, much like the 04-05 season James became injured. Plantar fasciitis has prohibited James from playing in any pre-season games, and his return, to my knowledge, is unknown. James is more talented than Cato, and younger, and a better shot-blocker, and has a higher paying contract (hopefully). As a result, if James does return and is ready for the NBA Cato will probably move down a slot on the depth chart, and James will return to his back-up role of last season.

The Knicks not only signed Cato but they waived the four free agents they signed before Cato. Elton Brown and Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Milone Clark and center Paul Miller were all waived, and all four didn't stand much of a shot of making the roster, with the exception of center Paul Miller, however the signing of Cato negates his chances.

To conclude an eventful Knicks day for news, Isiah Thomas excercised the third year on the contracts of Nate Robinson, David Lee, and Channing Frye. Not much can be said here accept for good job Isiah.

True Fans Bleed Blue and Orange With Exciting News

As you probably have noticed, I have not made a post in nearly a month, and there are a multitude of reasons why. First, a friend of mine is making a new design for this site, so I have spent some time working on that with him. However, it is moving very slowly so I hope to have the new deisgn up shortly. Also, I have been under what I call "severe writer's block". I was not able to come up with any fresh ideas for articles, and I even wrote an article for SheaBaseball, and lets just sayit wasn't one of my better works. However, yesterday I wrote a piece on Tom Glavine which should be up by the very latest tommorow. I think that the Glavine piece may of fixed my disease, and I am ready for the hot stove, and the beginning of the season. You are probably saying "what?!? The beginning of the season is months away!" This is the exciting news. The title "True Fans Bleed Blue and Orange" also applys to another New York Team. The woeful Knicks, of course. The Knicks also don the blue and orange jerseys and after the prodding from some friends I decided to turn this site into a bi-sport blog. I'll keep you updated on the new design and hopefully we can get the Knicks season, and the Mets hot stove rolling on the right foot.