2007 – David Lee takes home MVP honors in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge in Las Vegas with a game-high 30 points (14-14 FG, 2-2 FT) and 11 rebounds in the Sophomores 155-114 victory.

Will Landry Fields make Knicks fans proud in this year’s T-Mobile Rookie Challenge?

Via NY Daily News:

Complete Knicks Schedule

Via Slam Online:

Anthony Randolph: Somehow lost in the hype surrounding the Amar’e-to-New York, LeBron-not-to-New York madness was the fact that the Knicks acquired three former Warriors (Randolph, Ronny Turiaf, and Kelenna Azubuike) in exchange for the contract of David Lee. Randolph was inconsistent in his two years under Don Nelson, but, with his combination of length and athleticism, he should thrive in Mike D’Antoni’s uptempo system. While opponents will likely divide their attention between the Felton/Amar’e pick-and-roll and Danilo Gallinari’s deadly three-point shot, Randolph may sneak up and finally match his long-awaited potential.

Honorable Mention: Danilo Gallinari

No pressure Anthony…

Via ESPN Inisider’s Offseason Survivors by John Hollinger:

New York Knicks

After two years of predicting Armageddon if they couldn’t land LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh, the Knicks missed out on all three of their top targets. But their offseason still worked out OK. After signing high-scoring Suns forward Amare Stoudemire, New York — among the league’s worst shot-blocking teams each of the past two seasons — was able to parlay David Lee into human fly-swatter Anthony Randolph and then sign Raymond Felton to a relative bargain deal. The inability to use all the cap space on superstars also had a silver lining: The Knicks were able to keep $854,000 bargain Bill Walker, who could emerge as a force next season on the wings.

Was it a perfect summer? Of course not. I’m not sure Felton, a mediocre pick-and-roll guard, will thrive in a Mike D’Antoni system, and the difference between Stoudemire and Lee at the offensive end is relatively minor. (As odd as this sounds, Stoudemire’s comparatively less-awful defense is his main advantage over Lee.)

But the Knicks will live to fight another day. The Lee deal brought in two potential expiring contracts, giving New York the flexibility to get well under the cap in 2011 … and again in 2012. They also have enough pieces to put together deals before then, beginning with their efforts to pry Chris Paul from New Orleans. For both the short and long term, the Knicks are better off than they were a year ago. That’s pretty good for Plan D.

W-I-N-N-E-R-S!!!

Never had a shot at The Three Little Pigs, and arguably tied with Bulls for 2nd best summer.  This article is ridiculous on many levels.  First, Bill Walker was never going anywhere, under any circumstance.  Second, Ray Felton was the best PG available and his deal was perfectly structured.  Third, the David Lee to GSW deal, while hard to swallow for some, netted the Knicks young, athletic players with very manageable contracts.  All these factors make the Knicks more than merely survivors, and that’s before even mentioning Amar’e Stoudemire’s larger-than-life personality reviving a dormant basketball city.

W-I-N-N-E-R-S!!!

This morning saw an Anthony Randolph love fest (Randolph loves Knicks / Knicks loves Randolph) in the papers. The Times, Wall Street Journal, Bergen Record and Post all featured stories on the huge opportunity and eagerness of Randolph in the D’Antoni system. Here are some of the highlights:

Via The NY Times:

Entering his third N.B.A. season, Anthony Randolph and the word potential are nearly synonymous.

From Randolph himself: “I think the roster looks good. We’ve got a lot of good pieces. When we come in for training camp, we’ve just got to put it together, build a chemistry, but I think that’ll be no problem.

I’m ready to play. I’m ready to get out there. I feel I’ve added some things in my game. I feel like my shot is a thousand times better. I’m just ready to get out there and show everybody all the hard work I’ve put in…”

Via The Bergen Record:

Now it’s Randolph’s task to exhibit that talent, to play up to that albatross of a word, potential, in coach Mike D’Antoni’s dramatically altered rotation.

“It’s all on me right now,” Randolph, who just turned 21, said Monday during a break from one of the Knicks’ summer camp sessions at Pace University. “If I don’t succeed, it’s my fault. It’s not on anybody else.

it’s Randolph’s task to exhibit that talent, to play up to that albatross of a word, potential, in coach Mike D’Antoni’s dramatically altered rotation.”It’s all on me right now,” Randolph, who just turned 21, said Monday during a break from one of the Knicks’ summer camp sessions at Pace University. “If I don’t succeed, it’s my fault. It’s not on anybody else.

Via The Wall Street Journal:

“I don’t know where his ceiling is as a player,” [Larry] Riley, [Warrior's GM] said. “It’s indefinite. It’s going to be proven over time.”

(and our favorite passage…as so much between these articles is the same.)

“I need to be able to bang down there with those guys,” Mr. Randolph said.

The emphasis has been on high-intensity, basketball-specific movements that are designed to make Mr. Randolph more explosive. For example, he might do a set of power lifts in the weight room and then head directly to the court to dunk a medicine ball five straight times.

“He’s feeling pretty good about himself,” Mr. Meadows said. “You’ll never see him with his shirt on. He’s really enjoying the delts and pecs and things.”

Via The New York Post:

“If you ask anybody that knows me, the night of the draft I was a little upset that I wasn’t drafted by them,” Randolph said. “I thought I was gonna be here. I thought this was the perfect place for me. But everything happens for a reason. God has a plan, and it worked out perfectly.”

“[D'Antoni] allows his players to play,” Randolph said. “In Golden State, it was kind of a situation where we want you rebound. That’s it. Don’t do nothing else [but] rebound. God’s given me a natural ability to handle the ball a little bit. I can move, and that allows you to be put in different positions, and I think I’ll be allowed to do that.”

Obviously someone on the Knicks PR team hit the papers hard. Nonetheless, it’s great to see this enthusiasm, eagerness and work ethnic out of Randolph. Whether he finally lives up to his potential as a Knick or ultimately helps them sell it to another team down the line for a certain player who shall not be mentioned (at least in this post), we look forward to seeing him in action.

Via ESPN Insider:

Miami Heat: Duh.

Chicago Bulls: They basically traded John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, a mid-first-round pick and a second-round pick for Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson.

Milwauke Bucks: Corey Maggette gives them the kind of shot-creating scorer that they desperately needed a year ago, and he cost them nothing.  Drew Gooden was another solid get. Jon Brockman was flat-out stolen from Sacramento for a second-round pick after leading the NBA in offensive rebound rate last year. Chris Douglas-Roberts also cost the Bucks a second-rounder, but fills a need by giving them another wing who can score. Keyon Dooling won’t replace what Luke Ridnour gave them a year ago, but that was the one sacrifice they had to make to pull off the other moves.

Golden State Warriors: Forget about anything that happened on the court. They’ve got new owners!  I don’t like the David Lee deal, but he’ll be a heck of a pick-and-roll partner with Stephen Curry.

San Antonio Spurs: I put the Spurs here because they got under the luxury tax while signing the best free-agent contract of the summer, Brazilian big man Tiago Splitter‘s three-year, $10 million deal.

Portland Trail Blazers: Portland ditched Martell Webster‘s contract and got three promising rookies out of draft day — most notably high-scoring forward Luke Babbitt, who is exactly the kind of floor-spacing 4 who Nate McMillan loves.

Is this serious?

Sure, the Knicks didn’t get LeBron, but no mention in the top 6 seems awfully strange, especially considering John Hollinger’s commentary.  For example, he didn’t like the David Lee trade for Golden State, which means it was presumably a good deal for the Knicks, but the Warriors make the list because they have new owners?

C’mon.

It still feels like there’s a huge anti-Knicks bias, but then again, maybe it is just better to go under the radar, if that is even possible in New York.

Just one day after Team USA learning it would not have Amar’e Stoudemire for the world championships due to a unsecured insurance policy by the Knicks, David Lee injures his right middle finger during the team’s very first practice.He will fly back to Oakland to be examined by the Warrior’s medical staff.

Via ESPN:

Lee said the injury occurred when he went up to block a shot and jammed his finger against the bottom of the backboard.

“I looked down and my finger was completely turned to the side,” Lee said. “It’s possibly a tendon or a dislocation of some sort. It’s something I’ve got to go have looked at either way.

“Hopefully it’s something I can splint up and play with. That’s up to the doctors to decide,” Lee said.

The losses of Stoudemire, Lee and Lopez left the U.S. team with just 19 healthy players heading into their second day of practice Wednesday.

This is a great story featured in the NY Times about the type of player and type of person the Knicks lost in David Lee. Regardless of what you make of the on-court perspective, David Lee was as dedicated to this team and the organization around him as they come. We wish him the best in his new home.

Via Harvey Araton:

When Marni Jaffer was about to deliver her husband’s eulogy to a crowd of 300-plus mourners, she noticed a familiar face rising above the others in the back of the funeral chapel. She had never met the man, but she recognized him from her television screen. It was David Lee.

The funeral for Scott Jaffer, a longtime N.B.A. security official whose primary post was Madison Square Garden, was held July 11. Lee had been in St. Louis, his hometown, after being dealt by the Knicks to the Golden State Warriors. Expected back in New York the next week for a basketball camp, Lee was stunned to hear that Jaffer, 63, had died.

“The guy took care of our security stuff, drug testing, things like that,” Lee said in a telephone interview. “He couldn’t do enough for us, joked with us every night, and it turned out he had cancer for three years and not one of us knew about it.”

After five years in New York, Lee had one final act of hustle on behalf of the Knicks, flying into town on Saturday night and getting in his car Sunday morning for a one-hour drive to Airmont, N.Y., from his apartment on Manhattan’s West Side.

Read the full story here.