With Kidd and Prigioni, the Knicks have two rotation point guards. Once Shumpert returns, the team will have him and Smith – two shooting guards who can adequately handle the ball and spell the point guards. Anthony will be handling the ball most of the time anyway, so Woodson opting to play a five-man unit of Anthony, Smith, Ronnie Brewer, Steve Novak and Chandler – depending on the opposing matchup – isn’t something that can be discounted.
Obviously, the Knicks would prefer to have all of their players available and it’s quite amazing that, as the Knicks prepare for their 30th game of the NBA season, we still have no idea how good this team can be with all of its weapons available.
Fortunately for the Knicks, over the next four weeks they will play just 11 games, and five of those will come against teams without winning records as of today.
As for the two weeks after that, the Knicks play eight games. Again, five of them will come against teams on the wrong side of .500 as of today.
So right now, the worst-case scenario for Felton is missing 19 games, 10 against some of the league’s sub-par teams.
His loss hurts but it’s not insurmountable.
And if there is one thing we should have collectively learned about the Knicks over the team’s first 29 games, it is that there is a “no excuses” mentality.
No Stoudemire, no Shumpert and even no Anthony has been no problem.
There’s a new culture about the Knicks.
So even with no Felton, there is no reason to believe Woodson won’t continue to pull the best out of the pieces that he has available.
No doubt.
Moke Hamilton is a Senior NBA Columnist for SheridanHoops whose columns appear here on Fridays. Follow him on Twitter: @MokeHamilton.
Mark my words, Knicks won’t keep this up. Age will catch then and they’ll drop in the rankings fast. So fast Miami probably won’t even have to face them.