There have not been many positives thus far in the season for the New York Knicks. They have lost starting center Tyson Chandler with a broken leg, JR Smith has already gotten fined, and Iman Shumpert’s name has been floated around in trade rumors. How can it get any worse? The Knicks have lost 5 straight games at Madison Square Garden. Finding a bright spot in this awful season is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. That bright spot, surprisingly, has been Andrea Bargnani who was acquired this offseason in a deal for Steve Novak, Marcus Camby, Quentin Richardson, and draft picks. The Knicks were taking somewhat of a risk making this trade because Bargnani’s play has declined since being drafted number 1 overall by Toronto. There was also the concern of amount of injuries Bargnani suffered over the past couple season. Not to mention, he gets paid $12 million over the next two seasons.
Courtesy: NY Post
This deal, however, has paid off already as Bargnani has played an enormous role since Tyson Chandler went down. Bargnani has served as the second option to Carmelo, displaying his excellent shooting ability and his outstanding shot fake. He has shown he is not only a spot up shooter as many had expected him to be this season. Bargnani is driving to the basket with success as well as collecting an exceptional amount of rebounds. Aside from his offensive game, Bargnani has protected the rim with great success. He was able to hold Dwight Howard to five shot attempts in a close game against Houston last week. In addition, Andrea has shown off his stellar shot blocking ability. Without Bargnani’s production the Knicks could potentially be 1-8 right now.
He is not perfect, though, as he is poor at help defense often leaving a clear path to the basket for the opposition. If Bargnani can improve on his help defense he will only add to what has been an impressive season so far. It appears a change of scenery was what he needed.
Hey Joe, I’ve always been a Bargnani fan and was so happy when the Knicks got him. He is clearly a good compliment to Melo’s game and his range allows Melo is play down low like he did so well last year. If they can just stay afloat until chandler comes back I think the Knicks can certainly win the division. Another thought on the Knicks……what do you think of these minute restrictions on amare and Kmart? I don’t get why they don’t just let them play and if amazes knees give out then maybe he’ll retire early. Playing him 10 minutes a game isn’t helping anyone he can’t get into a rhythm.
I don’t understand the minutes restrictions either. At this point they might as well play them. Your not getting any good out of them on the bench and the way things are going there’s no reason to same them for playoffs because that’s not happening
Great insights Joe, I learned a lot. I hope Bargnani can improve his defense like you said, hopefully the Knicks will take it home this year!