The Tyson Chandler signing is official, and he he's ready to hit the ground running. The big man is looking forward to attacking the boards and anchoring the Knicks' sure-to-be revitalized defense.
The Knicks' new "Big Three" certainly has a nice balance of talent and skill to it. Chandler is going to specialize in enduring the bumps and bruises in the paint, fighting off opponents with his physical nature. The beautiful thing will be that he won't have to do much on the offensive end, which may help his transition into orange and blue. The fact of the matter is that the team is lacking talent (or was) in all of the major categories in which Chandler succeeds. He's a great fit. Furthermore, even though his point production won't be a necessity for the Knicks to succeed, his 10 points per game is still more than Knicks centers (not counting the out of position Amar'e Stoudemire or David Lee) have averaged in the past few seasons.
As balanced as the skill set of the "Big Three" may be, it will be interesting to see how well (and how quickly) they mesh. As previously noted, STAT only stands to benefit from the addition of Chandler. However, it will be Carmelo Anthony whom may lose out more so from the subtraction of Chauncey Billups, rather than benefit from the addition of Chandler.
In Mike D'Antoni's now slightly rearranged offense, Anthony will be required to handle the ball more. "Dominating" the ball, which Anthony has proved to do well (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because he is in fact a great scorer) is not the same as "handling" it. What I mean here is this: Anthony is great at creating his own shot, hitting a jumper or driving into the lane at will. But can he create offensive opportunities for his teammates? He is now expected to play as a point-forward, a la LeBron James and Scottie Pippen. Only time will tell if he is going to be up to the challenge. The first order of business, will likely be getting the "pick and roll" with Stoudemire down pat. The two seemed to lack a bit of chemistry last season, so hopefully that can be improved upon.
Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how the three adjust to sharing the court together.
In any event, the question of whom will play the actual point guard position for the Knicks (and take care of the ball when Melo is not), has been addressed by some of our friends. Take a look!
Does no Chauncey Billups ultimately leave a huge gap at point guard for the Knicks? Jared Zwerling attacks that question, examining the floor general rotation that will likely include new signee Mike Bibby, the confident Toney Douglas, rookie Imn Shumpert, and possibly others.
Seth from "Posting & Toasting" further expresses his feelings about Baron Davis possibly joining that point guard rotation in the highlighted post. Davis is known to love the bright lights of New York City. But will the Big Apple love him (and his bad back) just as much?
All of these questions and/or rumors regarding what's to come can be quite overwhelming. If you're getting into the holiday spirit and would like to convene with your fellow Knicks fans amongst all the mayhem, be sure to head down to New York City this Friday night, December 16th, for The Knicks Blog's (sure to be fun) gathering to kick off the season!
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