By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas. Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.
Timofey Mozgov is a 24 year old center signed as a international free agent by the New York Knicks for $10 million over the course of three years. Mozgov is a big boy at 7′1″ and 270 pounds, but he isn’t a stiff. Mozgov has bounce to his step, and he is pretty mobile for his size. Mozgov has spent the last four years playing for the Russian club Khimki Moscow Region.
Note: Mozgov wears #25 for his team, Khimki. You will recognize him in the clips by his high socks.
Strengths
He Can Run The Floor
Some Knicks fans are probably wondering why the Knicks signed a 270 pound big man to play in their run and gun style offense. Despite his size, Mozgov doesn’t lumber up and down the court:
Mozgov doesn’t get the ball on this fast break, but you can see he can keep up with his point guard in transition. He isn’t going to run by anybody on the break, but he can fill the lane in transition, making himself available to his PG in the middle of the paint on fast breaks.
After a ton of blowouts during the early portion of the Las Vegas Summer League, we are now getting our close games. In addition to the Wizards-Hornets game and the Cavs-Bulls game last night, we saw an overtime between the Wizards and the Knicks today. With just under ten seconds left, Tony Douglas was at the free throw line looking to expand the Knicks’ one point lead. Douglas ended up missed both of him, but he was still able to come away the hero:
Instead of pouting after the miss, Tony Douglas got back on defense and got himself in position to take the offensive foul. Was it a bit of a flop here? Sure, but credit to Douglas for reading Cartier Martin’s move and jumping into position to take the charge. Also, once Martin’s arm swings out when the contact is made, it’s foul no matter what.
Now, Sam Cassell was livid after the play, and it wasn’t with the officiating. According to the announcers calling the game, Cassell was giving it to Lester Hudson for not getting the ball and bringing it up. I get the logic, Martin isn’t a point guard while Hudson is. Hudson probably would have been more comfortable bringing the ball up late (Martin looked a little tentative then picked up the offensive foul). However, the way the situation transpired, Martin was the only option for the Wizards.
Sure, Hudson could have came down and me the ball, but he still would have been double teamed. Good work by the Knicks here, they identified the primary ball handler and made sure they didn’t let him catch the basketball. This is what allowed for Tony Douglas to take the offensive foul.
Against the Rockets (and some former Knicks), the Knicks ran out to a pretty big lead, but the Rockets were able to climb back in it. Part of it was because the Rockets are a pretty good team, but the Knicks helped out big time. The Knicks made a couple of mental errors that lead to easy baskets for the Rockets:
Poor Outlet Passing
On two separate occasions, the Knicks turned the ball over in the backcourt. The first comes after a Rockets three pointer:
Now, both J.R. Giddens and Chris Duhon are at fault here:
This is because Trevor Ariza is hanging around and it should have been noticed by either guy (or at least 1). This is something that a lot of teams do to get the ball out of the PGs hands, but it rarely turns into a steal. However, Giddens grabs the ball out of the net and just tosses to where Duhon is without looking. For his part, Duhon floats away from the basketball as it comes to him instead of meeting the ball and ensuring the catch. The Rockets went from being down 14 to being down 9 after this. This was a huge 5 point swing in this game as the Knicks went from pulling away to trying to hang on to the lead.
The title of this post isn’t a joke, as one would assume. The Knicks were up by 1 with the ball and about 20 seconds left, but they turned it over. The Hawks were now breaking down the court with the chance for a win. How did the Knicks stop them? Let’s look:
As Crawford brings it upcourt he uses a smooth behind the back move to put Toney Douglas on his hip, Crawford gets himself into the lane. Al Harrington (Al Horford’s man) steps up to greet him in the paint. Also arrowed is Wilson Chandler, the man who ends up making the block to save the game.
Ever since the return of Kevin Martin, the Kings record has taken a bit of a nose-dive. This has lead to many people to say that Evans & Martin will not be able to work together. I think that is crazy. You put a great shooter (Kevin Martin) with a guy who can get to the hoop (Tyreke Evans), and it should work. In the closing moments of the 4th quarter and the start of overtime, you started to see how these two playing together can work.
Tyreke Evans Dominates Late In The 4th
The biggest effect Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin being on the court at the same time has on opponents is on the defensive end. Defenses have to figure out how to cover both Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans. The Knicks really struggled with it last night. This is what allowed Evans to go off late in the game:
OK, no Morning Shootaround today (although I am going to be sticking with the format I used yesterday, I liked how it turned out) because the only game yesterday was Knicks-Bobcats. Because I live in the tri-state area, I couldn’t access the game via LPBroadband to get screenshots for a full game breakdown.
It was a real entertaining game though, and despite the Knicks turning the ball over at a comical rate in the 2nd half (including but not limited to throwing it to the wrong team, running into each other going for a pass, and throwing it to nobody out of bounds) they were able to pull out the win. Another funny thing about this game is that if you look at the numbers, you would think that the Bobcats won. Seriously, they hit the same number of 3s, went to the line more, had 11 fewer turnovers, 8 more steals, and had more offensive rebounds. The Knicks were a tad more efficient of the offensive end (better FG% and 3P%) and got easier shots (more points in the paint). That was enough to give them the slight edge.
As for the possession we are breaking down, it is the play with the Knicks up 1, around 1:30 left Danilo Gallinari hit a 3 after some nice ball-movement (we aren’t going to look at the 30 footer he drilled without hesitation). The Knicks and the Bobcats were exchanging deep shots, and the first team to miss was probably going to be the team that was going to lose. This three by Gallinari was basically the dagger.
The Knicks start the possession with a side pick and roll between David Lee and Chris Duhon. Lee doesn’t really get a good screen set, but he is so mobile, that the Bobcats have to worry about his roll, so that prevents the Bobcats from getting a good hedge/switch on Duhon.
Because of that, Duhon is able to get his defender on his hip, and that allows for him to get a lane. The Bobcats defender I underlined is in perfect help position. He is in the middle of the lane, preventing any lay-up and forcing a pass outwards.
The next step is getting the correct rotation. The Bobcats defender in the paint did his job and forced the pass out, the rest of the defense sort of fails on this possession. The Bobcats send two players at Wilson Chandler, who catches the ball on the wing. Only one player is supposed to run out on him,
The Bobcats defender who misrotated, realizes his mistake and tries to recover, but it is too late.
It’s funny, the mis-rotation by the Bobcats sets up the Knicks play even better. The two steps over the defender takes allows for Jarred Jeffries’ screen to catch the defender and make the close-out even harder.
Gallinari makes the catch with enough space to pull up and not be effected by the close-out. He hits the three, putting the Knicks up 4, and effectively winning the game.
