Raymond Felton talks Knicks, weight loss

The Knicks had a great season last year, nabbing the second seed in the east, and proved a lot of people wrong. Now, they are viewed as a team who made some head-scratching moves, and sat still while the rest of the East got better. Their point guard Raymond Felton says they will be better this year, because they’ll be getting…younger? Via the New York Post:

"“We’re a younger team this year,’’ Felton said at an Under Armour appearance at Macy’s in Herald Square. “Kurt Thomas, Rasheed, love them like brothers. [But] those guys were 38, 39, 40 years old. Once they got injuries, they’re out and it hurt us last year. We’ve added Metta [World Peace], [Andrea] Bargnani, Kenyon [Martin] and Amar’e [Stoudemire] are coming back.”"

I hate to break it to Felton, but the average age of those 4 guys is over 31. That’s not exactly young legs. The Knicks can be as good as they were last year, but let’s not say it’s because of age. I like the confidence he has, as if you don’t think you can win it all, don’t even lace them up.

Also, every year we have the “player x has lost y pounds and is in the best shape of his life” period of the off-season, where every player improved this, or focused on that, and added so much muscle. Felton is a regular on this off-season show, and this season is no different:

"Felton isn’t younger this year, but he certainly is lighter. He said he has lost between 10 and 15 pounds this summer. Since his ill-fated season in Portland two years ago, he has dropped more than 20 pounds, he said.“I feel I’m back to my old self when I was here the first time,’’ Felton said. “The way I’m moving on the court, giving me extra confidence in myself.’’"

Sound familiar? He told NJ.com this last season:

"But now that he’s back in New York, a slimmer Felton (he says he’s lost over 20 pounds since leaving the Blazers) is on a mission to show why he was the fifth-overall pick in the 2005 draft, saying his conditioning is supreme.“It’s a big difference. Last year I was out of shape and this year I’m in shape. My body is great, feels good,” Felton said, acknowledging he knew what was being said about him. “I was caught off guard [with the criticism] but I’m not going to make any excuses [because] plain and simple I was out of shape.”“I still averaged decent numbers [11.4 points, 6.5 assists, 1.3 steals] and didn’t shoot it that bad [.407 field goal percentage, .305 from 3, and .806 on free throws]. But just because I came into camp out of shape the one year out of the seven I had before, everyone wanted to talk about that.”"

So if you do the math he has lost 35 pounds in the last two off-seasons. We will probably start doing a Felton weight loss watch throughout the season, and see how he is coming along (no we won’t). Felton is a good starting point guard, and he is a huge part of the Knicks’ offense. He is great in pick and roll situations, and is a decent 3 point shooter at 36%. We will see how the season goes for the Knicks, but don’t worry, Felton has lost 15 pounds. Again.