I Remember You

If you had any doubt as to the direction the Knicks were taking during the off season I think you can rest assured. With the signing of Marcus Camby we seem to have a theme of "acquiring players who are inching ever closer to the 4 decade mark in age" going. Kidd at 39 and Camby at 38 are our two significant off season acquisitions; the rest of the Knicks' moves involve keeping guys like Lin and Novak, and most likely resigning JR Smith. The Knicks are looking at right now, not tomorrow. We already rebuilt, this is maintenance.....with pre-power tool technology.
Age matters in sports. I'm sure I've written that before in some dark, damp corner of the internet. In Mr. Camby we have a legitimate back up center with all the experience of 16 NBA seasons.  I highly doubt he's expected to play even 20 minutes a night, and if he does he will most likely break down at some point during the season. The same goes for Jason Kidd. Both need to be managed carefully lest coaches desire witnessing an imploding knee again. (Get better, Baron).
Camby played for the Knicks throughout the majority of my high school days. This was a time when classmates bashed the Knickerbockers because they were "boring" and had games which ended with final score lines in the 70's. Of course, they were all Lakers "fans" at the time. If you're too young to remember this epidemic just look at Heat "fans" of today. Marcus was acquired in 1998 through a trade with the Raptors who obtained Charles Oakley in return; Oakley was one of the last remnants of uber physical Knicks teams of past. The Knicks reached the finals in '98 becoming the first eighth seed to do so.
If my caffeine driven 10 minute reflection on the new New York Knicks revealed anything factual we are putting tough pieces around our pudgy, soft core.
A strategy is taking form. In my most humblest opinion we have entered the full blown era of Melo ball. Slow, physical, half court basketball, marked by two legitimate centers, an illegitimate center in Stoudemire, and Carmelo Anthony's sluggish, physical (overweight?), yet effective, self. We'll either be a top 5 rebounding team or we'll get run out of the gym by younger, faster units. This is built to be the anti-Heat team; no fast breaks, no ally oops, and hopefully disallowing the opposition these same gifts. Jason Kidd's role now seems to be that of teaching Jeremy Lin how to hold on to the ball while doing so himself when he comes off the bench. Keep those turnovers low and those rebounds high.
And to think, about 3 years ago former Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said we would be running opponents out of the gym. Anyway...
This has all the makings of either a torturous disaster or an era of sweet success. If anything, these moves have been polarizing. With guys this old a lot of things can go wrong, but, if they are kept healthy and play within their limits, this experiment can result in the production of that perfect concoction bringing together the young, the not so young, and the outright old.

- Alex