Nate signing autographs at a Nets game I attended last March


Tonight's game against the Celtics features a reunion with Nate Robinson, and it will be strange. Nate never struck me as the most essential of Knicks, not if you wanted to think of the Knicks as a team -- he was too much of a free spirit, too much in his own world, an entertaining diversion at best and an annoying distraction at his worst. But he also provided many of the most electrifying moments in the shaky D'Antoni/Walsh build-strip salaries-strip more salaries-strip even more salaries era.  There isn't a question that on many dreary nights the Knicks showed up at MSG or road arenas in the dog days of the regular season, Nate's entry into the game immediately sent a buzz into the crowd and made people pay attention.

For all the aggravation Nate was capable of, I give credit to him for genuinely caring about playing well (at least as an individual) and working hard when the lulls in his play clearly impacted the team, such as when he experienced a horrible shooting slump early last season. And when he suffered the 14 game benching in December after finally pushing too many of the coach's buttons, he didn't give ammunition to the press -- he kept his mouth shut and behaved as professionally as a player could under the circumstances, letting his agents do the dirty work of complaining loudly in the media and taking shots at the coach and organization.

Statistically, Nate's always been one of the most productive players on the Knicks, and he had a wonderful stretch from mid-February to early March last season where he was one of the best scorers in the league, outshining the likes of Tony Parker and Dwyane Wade for significant stretches in head to head matchups. (never mind that the team lost 6 of 9 games during his most incandescent period of scoring).  Even when he's been off his game, the positive plays always project at a louder volume and overshadow the rough spots: you don't think of his grand total of 19 blocks for his career, just the spectacular blocks of Yao and Shaq circulating on Youtube.

It's hard, frankly, to talk about Nate without considering what he could have done to make himself a more essential part of the team, as well as what the Knicks could or couldn't have done to make the situation better. I can't really go along with Kelly Dwyer's stance at Ball Don't Lie that his benching was needless,  no matter how much respect I have for Kelly as one of the best basketball writers out there. I can question whether the punishment should have lasted as long as it did, or whether it could have been executed more tactically (with heavily reduced minutes) and less dramatically.

But the team's play largely improved (particularly on defense) with him on the bench, and say what you will about causation not equaling correlation, but the crisp play and opportunity to give more minutes to certain players and focus on defense yielded the best month of the season for the team. Further, Nate can't deny that the crippling slow start that doomed the Knicks' season from the beginning had a lot to do with his own desultory play the first few games, and a reversion to the mean of his numbers after a career season -- even as other factors ended up playing a greater role in torpedoing the season eventually.

It's hard to talk about all this because it's like watching the marriage of two close, likeable friends dissolve. No matter if you side with one friend more than the other, you don't like to speak poorly of either one, and you know they're better people than the conflict makes them seem.

So my most pointed observation is that Nate is a memorably explosive scorer, but not a great fit for a losing team -- he simply doesn't have the focus and discipline to stick with what the coaches are saying, or doing what he needs to do in a team-first manner when things aren't going well. He has that wonderful childlike enthusiasm and sense of theater that makes his highlights burn brighter, but the wavering focus means that small details necessary to keep a fragile team competitive at the margins (proper assignments on defense, finding shooters when your shots aren't there, even appearing to listen to the coaches when they're barking from the sidelines) get overlooked or brushed aside.

I think Nate tried very hard to make it work even after the relationship went south, tried harder to be a team player and better listener, as the Knicks continued to rebuild and harvest cap space. But he and his agents made the right call in determining that he would be better served on a winning team with less focus (fairly or not) on his shortcomings. Plus his brand equity from dunk contest wins and the sheer achievement of succeeding as a short, freakishly hyperathletic scorer was threatened by reduced playing time in the service of developing youth, and giving playing time to the latest rentals.

He should do very well as a bench scorer with the Celtics, and his playmaking may improve in more targeted bursts of play, surrounded by better players. His shooting with the Knicks this season has stayed with career norms (55% TS), though at some point after he got hurt against Miami last season, he started to go to the rim less and shoot more jumpers -- 60% of his shots were long two point jumpers or 3 pointers this year, vs 44% last year. His free throw rate has plunged as a result, and his steal and rebound rates are down slightly as well.

As a defender, Synergy Sports reports rated him "average" last season, based on points allowed per possession across a variety of plays (though help defense isn't measured tangibly in this metric), and Nate was average to below average in most situations. This year, his defense has been bipolar by the same metrics, ranking "Poor" on half the possessions he's defended (spot up jumpers and isolations) but above average to excellent on areas he's focused on improving -- pick and rolls and off screen scoring, where he's made more of an effort to manage the way he defends against screens. As a help defender, Nate still has the tendency to lose his assignment when the ball moves a lot, even though he's cut down on his gambling for steals.

Nate has the opportunity to magnify his strengths and have his weaknesses hidden playing with one of the best teams in the league, and unlike Marbury's odd stint with the Celtics last season, he'll remain fun to watch. He may go off for another 30 to 40 points tonight, because such an outburst would be true to his track record. What the Celtics need to watch for is minimizing the 2 for 10, 5 turnover performances after the big game, and improving his consistency and fit within the team concept. I wish Nate all the best in taking his talents to the next level, in what I genuinely hope is a better situation for him.

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Not really in the mood to say too much about Legends Night at the Garden last night against the Bucks, because...yeah, that was awful. Playing against the Bucks is always a root canal, the Knicks' worst matchup among all NBA teams in the last two years. Playing with a bunch of rental players that crashed after their adrenaline high the other night against the Thunder, the offense featured a lot of aimless dribbling around, quick contested jumpers, futile post-ups, and lots of blocked shots at the rim. The only thing that kept the Knicks in the game for three quarters was the frenzied activity on defense generating Buck turnovers (18 points on 18 Buck TOs), led by Sergio Rodriguez's 8 steals.

*  The 61-35 rebound advantage enjoyed by the Bucks represented the 5th time in the last 10 games the Knicks have been outrebounded by over 15 boards; prior to those 10 games, they hadn't been outrebounded this badly since just before Thanksiving, when they were outrebounded 60-36 by the Lakers.

*  Only 10 assists, the lowest assist total for the Knicks all season, and only the fifth time all year the team had more TOs than assists. Chris Duhon is likely to remain in the doghouse, but his cautious risk-averse play did produce good efficiency and numbers in the passing game; it's going to be a wilder ride with Sergio and T-Mac dominating the ball, and their teammates are probably going to suffer a few more nights like last night (fewer and less optimal shots) while the coaches struggle to bring some sort of cohesion to the new collection of parts.

*  For the second game in a row, the Bucks' Mbah a Moute effectively muzzled the Knicks' primary offensive option; last game it was David Lee, this game it was T-Mac. Among the league's less heralded players, I really wish the Knicks had a subtly disruptive force on defense like him.

*  Andrew Bogut is a very good player, even if he's bound to look supernatural exploiting a mismatch with Lee. The Knicks played into his hands a bit too much, especially with the way they attacked him on defense without considering secondary or tertiary options on the wing once they started their drives, but he is as much a Knick-killer as anyone in the league. All respect to him for being the only player on the floor to play a game worthy of the legends in the building.

*  I've tried to stay above the Brandon Jennings fray, but as much as I like the Bucks as a team that works hard and makes the most of its modest talent, I've grown tired of Jennings playing the lack of respect card in his non-drafting by the Knicks. If we're going to play the retrospective draft game, there are at least six rookies I'd rather have on this team and/or watch on League Pass than Jennings, who plays much too impulsively against the Knicks (he allowed Sergio to get into his head and the two of them jawed at each other at least twice), and his shot looks terribly broken. As with Nate, I look forward to his maturation and development into a quality point guard, but he'd be advised to dispense with the theatrics and cheap drama until his game is more capable of delivering.

*  I can't see tonight's game against the Celtics being much prettier than last night's game, being the second of a back to back and on the road, even with Paul Pierce sitting out or at limited effectiveness. If McGrady does get limited minutes because of his knee acting up, scoring is going to be especially hard to come by. A slapdash lineup going up against the Celtic debut of Nate, with Tommy Heinsohn awarding Tommy points left and right all night, may be difficult to endure -- and I'm rooting for Nate. Ah well.