The Senegalese Tease

I knew this deal was on the horizon, but yesterday afternoon the Knicks signed 7-1 Senegalese center Cheikh Samb, a former second round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers, to a 10-day contract. The addition of Samb gives the Knicks their first marginal-to-potentially good shot-blocking presence at center since Dikembe Mutombo, in 2004, believe it or not. Mind you, this says more about the so-called centers various Knicks teams have featured at the 5, though, than it does about Samb, who isn't exactly the second coming of Bill Russell, or even Samuel Dalmbert, for that matter. 

In fact, I doubt Samb'll even see extended minutes on the court, because, in 20 career games, his statistics have about as much bounce as a University of Delaware seismic station: 0.1 assists; 0.2 steals; 1.1 points; 1.5 rebounds. He also shot an embarrassingly horrendous 27 percent from the field, presumably, from about two feet away from the basket. 

So why am I even writing about his signing? With three open roster spots, it's in the Knicks' best interest to see if Samb, who did put up some promising numbers in the NBA's D-League, is up to snuff. And, as the Lakers, Pistons, Nuggets and Clippers figured before the Knicks, Samb's freakishly long arms should run into some shots, which, in turn, should turn into some easy baskets in transition. Who knows, if he shows D'Antoni and his staff something in practice, he might just be able to fit into the team's plans going forward, without screwing the pooch for 2010 and beyond. Although this is more than a little troubling. But that kind of thing happened to Patrick quite often. 

Knickerblogger sees it pretty much the same way, I think:

This is a good low risk-medium reward deal for the Knicks. It’s something that the team has been weak at considering the Roberson/Von Wafer mistake over the summer. If Samb can join the legion of NBDLers who have become solid NBA players he will give New York another cheap player to help the team win now. Additionally players like Samb could help New York field a competitive roster for 2011 without hurting them fiscally.

Worse case scenario, Samb is terrible, and is released before St. Patrick's Day. No harm, no foul. 

TrueHoops Nation

Henry Abbot's wonderful site TrueHoop, which is hosted by the worldwide leader, has brought into their influence an impressive cadre of previously established and independent basketball blogs from around the country to offer unique perspectives on every team in the National Basketball Association, from Toronto to Portland.  

The goal of the TrueHoop network, according to Abbot, is "to find and foster excellence in online basketball writing." I'm all for that, even if I wasn't invited to the party. 

Here's Abbot explaining how the network, which is basically an aggregated basketball blog, is going to work:

Put those talented new voices together with the stuff every sports fan wants to know about their team day in and day out, and I believe you have something that will prove to be must-read. To savvy fans in many markets, those kinds of blogs are already must-read. And they have tremendous promise to get even better over the following years.

[...] The nuts and bolts of the TrueHoop Network are quite simple. In a nutshell: Bloggers maintain their own sites, which they run as they see fit (even with their own ads they sell, if they'd like). They agree to carry some ESPN stuff on their blogs (like that video player), and to generally be responsible. And ESPN.com promotes the blogs' work and content.

The good folks over at Knickerblogger get the honor of covering the team for what I can only assume will be a much wider audience. I trust they'll continue to run their fantastic "7 Seconds or Mess" webisodes, which I steal from, both on the blog and in my personal life, all the time.