First, with Curry hurt again, we have to start Jordan Hill at Center and move Lee to PF. We are so undersized that it is ridiculous. The funny thing is that we have some size on the bench, but D'Antoni refuses to play them. Hill has played moderately well in his time and needs more run.
Second, Have Gallinari come off the bench. He is not ready for primetime. Let him come in and be the sharpshooter going after the tired guys. It would actually help him.
Keep Chandler at the 3. He does shoot the ball well enough or handle the ball well enough to play the 2. Let him develop at a position that he is comfortable at.
Start Douglas at the 2. Bring Hughes off the bench. Douglas is short, but tough. He is a great on the ball defender and strong enough to hold his own. At the 2, he is fast and quick and he knows how to get off a good shot. Kobe would abuse him, but Kobe abuses everybody.
With these changes, the Knicks might actually be worth watching because even if we lose, we can watch the young kids develop.
daglazer i differ on several points and i will try to explain why. now seeing as i hate smilies i am constrained to use one here:
. (i believe this symbol signifies that i am winking and employing irony tinged with faux humility). i'd appreciate your thoughts.
it should be either hill or milicic playing center. you have to see what each guy can do and d'antoni would be squandering a potential opportunity by playing only one of them. if anything platoon and see who meshes better.
lee at power forward, perhaps. let's revisit later. he and milicic/hill form two-thirds with chandler filling the other forward position. i agree with your assessment. he is what he is: a somewhat athletic but underskilled 3 not known for making good decisions with the ball.
this leaves the backcourt, which you recommended that douglas be playing the 2 position, and i assume you mean for duhon to continue to play the point guard position. (i hope that i have that right.)
first, let's consider douglas: yes he is good at the 2, like you said, though he's undersized yet tough as nails and he really hustles to cover his man-- i love that!
now let's consider gallinari. here i have to disagree: he's no energy guy, the kid has starting level skills and iq and needs to be part of a passing and rhythm offense to excel. he isn't playing with players that want to do that, so his skills are being masked. people have tried to compare him to kukoc, odom, nowitzki, turkoglu, bird even. outside of nowitzki none of these players with whom he has been compared thrived with an elite nash-like point guard. why? because they all are creative in their own fashion. all of them are more than just finishers or jumpshooters. they could do both and pass the ball too.
in fact when i think of a very successful duo i think of the celtics with rondo and pierce. and i would say that the rondo/pierce paradigm is a good one to model this team from, at least for the remainder of the season. and the two players i see occupying similar role is douglas playing at the point guard position, playing great defense, bringing the ball up, occasionally creating but also allowing another creative player to do his thing, ie create. i see gallinari much in a paul pierce mode. i am NOT saying he has anywhere NEAR the game that pierce has, but the fundamentals are there, including toughness and savvy.
i think toney douglas and gallinari should start in the backcourt together. toney will create his own shot some possessions but also share the ball with gallinari so gallinari has a chance to create.
this means that duhon is on the bench, something of a casualty. so douglas, gallinari, and chandler; then that leaves hill and milicic and lee.
who to bench of the three? well the obvious choice for me is lee because he is a proven hustle and energy guy. yes his passing has improved as has his shooting, but his greatest value may be the hustle plays/rebounding putback he provides ambidextrously in a fast-paced game. as a starter i am still not sold especially since his defense is atrocious, horrible, agonizing. in other words he is awfully close to being a zero-sum player, and fool's gold. but as a bench guy he'd be more. i don't think he got very good coaching in college at all.
so that would mean that hill and milcic would be the starting power forward and center. hill would get to exert his defensive skills and see what part of his game he wants to strenghen. as lean as he is he may be a shotblocker more than a guy who can body up wrestle for position. if he beefs up does he lose his shotblocking ability? either way he is a draftee and he should have just as much an opportunity as douglas, gallinari, and chandler to start. so far as milicic, from the little we've seen i saw a pretty good defensive post presence and a willingness to pass the ball. another euro but one with skills that belong in a half-court game. i have to believe milicic is the guy who is getting shortchanged the most by this frustrating situation.
let robinson, hughes, harrington, lee, and duhon go wild as a second unit, totally separate from the first unit and let them run and gun and have fun.
hey we may have only mediocrity at the end of the day so why not use our "depth of mediocrity" to fullest advantage?
we don't have an elite point guard, so yes this means that d'antoni will have to adjust his offensive style a bit.
. (i believe this symbol signifies that i am winking and employing irony tinged with faux humility). i'd appreciate your thoughts.
as a smile. The regular smiles are far too "cheeky" for me and the winkie icon for this board wears cool shades. I'm cool so.... 
