MVM: Most Valuable Meme by Scott Leedy To try and force the “winner” of this award into such a simplistic, boring, uninventive internet word such as “meme” would be insulting to his craft. The man is the owner of the only twitter account that is mindboggling, hilarious, uncomfortable, genius, weird, and scary all at once. Its content impossibly absurd until you consider the source. The account is completely inexplicable, while also making total sense. That’s the beauty of JR Smith, he’s completely predictable in that you know he’s going to do something unexpected. There’s no rooting, watching, or analyzing JR Smith, he can only be experienced. Within that experience there’s a certain authenticity that’s both captivating and refreshing. Smith has little regard for rules, or team basketball, or really anything that lies beyond his tattooed exterior. On the court, JR leads the league in “what the hell was he thinking” shots (seriously, Synergy, HoopData, someone. Please start keeping track of these). Lucky (or unlucky) for us, twitter allows for a window into the sporadic mind of the explosive shooting guard. It’s times like these I wish I’d favorited some of the best JR tweets, but then I remember: All of JR’s tweets are his best tweets. He’ll let you know important facts about his cell phone etiquette: “Ten times out of ten if I tell you to delete my number I deleted urs! #justsayin”. He’s constantly “Vampin”. Oh and he offers sagely life advice : “It’s all fun an games till the truth comes out!! Sometimes he even kicks it all hash tag style: #LastNightWasMadReal #Tonightisgoingtobebetter. Notice the difference in the style of hash tags. Subtle, but brilliant. The best part of JR’s twitter is that it matches perfectly with his style of play. Smith fires off tweets like jump shots. Some are good, some are ill advised, some connect, and some aggravate. But there’s no denying the talent. No denying the fact that the complete and utter lack of filter is both damaging and compelling. Whether the Knicks are terrible, great, or anywhere in between JR will always deliver. Win or lose, we can expect JR to makes us laugh and throw our remote at the TV all in one play. JR Smith isn’t a meme, he’s just JR Smith. So in the words of JR, “you just HAVE to respect the swag”.
Doomsday Vs. Manna From Heaven by Jared Dubin Let’s get the worst out of the way first. In our doomsday scenario, Amar’e is done, both physically and as an emotional leader. His salary is a weight upon the franchise. Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby are washed up and over the hill, their three-year deals looking worse with each passing day. It turns out Ray Felton’s 2010 was the mirage, not the rest of his career. JR Smith continues chucking, his percentages don’t bounce back, and he doesn’t pick up the slack with improved defense. Ronnie Brewer’s injury lingers, and he doesn’t regain his Chicago form. Iman Shumpert has a setback and doesn’t return until late February. When he does, he struggles. Carmelo Anthony continually hijacks the offense and returns to his inefficient gunner-y ways. And Jeremy Lin leads Houston to a surprise playoff berth. The Knicks slump to an 8-seed, and are swept by the Heat in the 1st round. On the brighter side of things… Tyson Chandler once again leads the Knicks to a top-5 defense, helped by Woodson, Brewer, Camby, and the early January return of Shumpert. Felton and Kidd are a massive improvement on New York’s 2010-11 point guard situation, steadying the ship and leading the team to a top-10 offense. Carmelo finally finds his happy medium, getting his full complement of shots within the flow of the system rather than constantly slowing things down. Amar’e has a bounce-back year with the help of Hakeem Olajuwon, even playing passable defense occasionally. JR’s improved D sticks, and his shot returns to form. Novak is discount double-checking everywhere. With D-Rose out half the season, Boston a year older, Philly struggling with an identity transition, Indiana getting belatedly hit with the