Bandwagon Knick previews the upcoming season:

The strength of this year’s Knicks is its depth and the increased number of players who better fit D’Antoni’s system; in particular, a surplus of versatile wings and inside players who have experience playing the pick and roll on offense, who have played for running teams, and who can better protect the rim and guard more positions on defense. For the last two years, David Lee was the hub of the system, setting screens, diving to the basket, popping out for a jumper, or managing the offense from the top of the key and finding shooters. Lee had too many ball-dominant teammates, however, and those teammates were terrible defenders, with every defensive switch producing a freeway to the rim or a wide open jumper for the opposing team.

The Knicks’ depth at the swingman positions presents a good problem for the team. They can sustain injuries at those two positions, but the question is how to spread minutes around to several deserving players. Wilson Chandler seems set to play considerable time out of position at the two, while signee Roger Mason will slide in behind Chandler and Kelenna Azubuike. Landry Fields showed good stuff in Las Vegas, but there may be too many guards and small forwards to afford him decent minutes. What worries me is that while the Knicks have great depth at some spots, the front court is feeble. Amar’e Stoudemire, Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf, and Eddy Curry have all had well publicized injuries, and if one of the first three goes down, the Knicks will have some trouble.

Tom Haberstroh has listed (Insider req’d) the five worst players of each NBA franchise by PER. For the Knicks Bob Thornton, Mardy Collins, Larry Demic, Mike Farmer, and Malik Rose fill out the list. A better exercise might be to relate production to salary. I’m thinking Malik’s spot would be pretty safe.

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