"The plight of the Knickerbockers..." (December 23, 1997)

With Ewing out, where does that leave the Knicks? They don't have a chance at the title this year, but they can make some noise. They look much smarter now for trading for Chris Dudley. Dudley can play defence and rebound. That should help. He's not Ewing, but he'll almost as good on the defensive end. Former young guns like Allan Houston and Larry Johnson will have to step it up. If L.J. and Houston don't, they the Knicks fans will realize the team blew their money in these two like Robert Downey at a coke dealer. The defence of L.J.'s relative offensive decline was that he is an inside player and that is Ewing's domain. Ewing plays down low that's it. He'll go as far as 15 feet but no further. The post is no place for two men, especially both who demand the ball. This is a lame excuse. L.J. acceded to Ewing. L.J. was supposed to be the man down low on the second unit. That never materialized. L.J. played with Alonzo Mourning. Zo plays very similar to Ewing. Both down low, both with good jump shots. L.J. and Zo both put up good numbers. With the Knicks, L.J. pretty much was average. Now it's put up or shut up for the $84 million man. He still has skills but he has to prove it. There is no other low post threat on the Knicks. He is now the man, offensively. They need him regain his lost game. They need him to score 22 a game and pull down over 10 boards. He needs to become the dominate force he once was. The Knicks and Ewing have destroyed other power forwards, turned small forwards. Charles Smith, formerly of the Clippers, was a 20 ppg, 8 board guy on the Clips. He was the bomb. He was Mr. Fluid. He had it all on L.A. Him and D.R.M. (call him Danny Manning) were like bread and butter, they were the Clips sustenance. They were great. Smith was traded to the Knicks. His offense took a back seat to Ewing. He was told to play small forward, a position he was uncomfortable and his game took a nose dive. It's hard to switch back and forth between 3 and 4, playing two different positions with two different guidelines. At 3, he was the third alternative behind Ewing and Starks and had to play deep on the wing. That wasn't his game. Then all of a sudden. He has to play at 4 for five minutes at a time after not playing there all game and then fed the ball down low by the back up point guard who he doesn't play with all that much. It's hard. He wasn't up to it. Either was Larry Johnson. It is the same thing with L.J. Neither could get into a rhythm because they were never given a chance to get that rhythm in the same place. They couldn't run the same play for either Smith or Johnson two or three times because there was Ewing on the court. Maybe now, L.J. can live up to his pre-New York hype.