When the New York Knicks signed Tyson Chandler to a four-year, $58 million contract, some folks raised their eyebrows with a skeptical mind.
Indeed, it was a rather handsome contract for a player that went through a variety of injuries, had a number of seasons consisting of inconsistent play and wasn’t recognized as a perennial double-double machine (sexy to the eyes of many owners). Even with his invaluable contributions as a starting center for a championship team in the Dallas Mavericks back in the 2010-2011 season, he was somewhat considered a one-year rental player – evidenced by Mark Cuban’s unwillingness to re-sign the big man in hopes of signing Dwight Howard and Deron Williams instead. The bottom line is, Chandler had plenty to prove and a lot of doubters to silence.
So he became a Knick and accomplished a few things, like winning the Defensive Player of the Year honors last season, finishing with the type of accuracy last witnessed when Wilt Chamberlain was still playing, and becoming an All-Star for the first time in his career this season. The emotional center has helped change the culture of the Knicks with his style of play, proving plenty of doubters wrong along the way.
This season, Chandler has arguably been even better than last season in terms of overall production. When we mention the Knicks center, you normally think of defense. Interestingly, though, it has been his offensive efficiency that deserves just as wide of a recognition, from Justin Havens of ESPN Stats and Information:
For the third time in the last three seasons, New York Knicks center Chandler is making a run at the record books. Chandler’s True Shooting Percentage – which takes into consideration 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws – is in rare territory once again, at 70.1 percent on the season. That is just fractionally behind his own record of last season (70.8).
Perhaps with this in mind, veteran point guard Jason Kidd had this to say about Chandler’s recent outburst of rebounding madness:
The Knicks will take 20 rebounds over 20 points from Chandler any day.