Meaning they are getting a look at every player on the roster to see which players should be in the rotation

gunsnewing wrote:It's preseason

Meaning they are getting a look at every player on the roster to see which players should be in the rotation

I understand that--but I also have kept my eye on this league--teams have set rotations and are going well. Are we really starting Quincy Acy @ PF? The guy was a role player for a 25 win team.

It was not dependent on screens and setting picks as much as one player running past the player they passed to and circling back from the other side. Then that pivot player would pass it back and often step away and create another option to receive the ball. By the time the chasing defender catches up, there is often an open shot.

It is much more about motion off the ball and deception than blinding defenders with picks. The motion creates natural picks as defenders have to scramble to maintain coverage.

We've already seen more than we did with Woodson, so patience is in order.

P.S. I did not like the way Larkin just stands in the corner and watches when he gives up the ball. Kid still has a lot to learn. With his speed and youth he should be ready to move at all times.

newyorknewyork wrote:

Splat wrote:Tonight had some sweet stretches where we had not just ball rotation, but actual angular passing which is part of the attribute of triangulation.

In the past, it was great when guys whipped the ball around the perimeter and found an open corner three shot, but tonight we saw some real inside out ball whipping with bigs hitting cutters and the ball going inside, outside, inside, out and then an open shot.

I can see promise in tonight's good stretches. It was a step forward.

Its balance. You can't have one player expected to make everyone better on the team. Unless they are the most dominant physical species in basketball history(Shaq & Lebron). Its why pass first PGs being the best player on there team rarely win championships. You need multiple players creating shots for others from the post and perimeter, making the game easier for everyone involved usually creating a more efficient offense for everyone.

You're talking about what I've always wanted for this franchise, 2-way players. Otherwise, we get mired in these constant struggles to compensate for players who are kind of zeroes at one end of the court.

That doesn't mean you'll get a starting five that is equally facile on both ends of the court. I love dominant defensive centers who pass brilliantly for instance.

But, like you say, if you have a PG who is all about facilitation, you better have a companion guard who can light it up and another scoring stud on the frontline.

Anyway, in relation to other current posts, that is why I see a guy like Acy being a potential starter. They may contribute enough on both ends to add up positively. It is not like Oak was a great offensive player. He did his deeds and then stroked a few from 12 feet and got some putbacks. Same idea to some degree.

How this team balances out is what I see being assessed in pre-season and why I'm kind of engaged right now, because I finally feel like we may have a franchise with vision. That means some capacity to both assess current roster balance on O & D, but also the capacity to lay the groundwork for a team of many 2-way players being the norm in the future.

This is the reality of what Phil intended to bring to the franchise. Months from now we can hope they're executing at a very high level.

knicks1248 wrote:We had like 2 fast break points, thats crazy

I'm assuming uou watched the game. Though we didn't push it much, we got some great uncontested conversions in the paint due to our passing game. There were several awesome give and go sequences with our bigs hitting our guards for easy layups.

That's ultimately more valuable than pace alone since it is skill vs. speed. You can add speed later.

When you add in fast break opps from increased defensive pressure, you can break open games.

We didn't convert much, but we had more breaks than the stat line indicates.

BRIGGS wrote:

gunsnewing wrote:It's preseason

Meaning they are getting a look at every player on the roster to see which players should be in the rotation

I understand that--but I also have kept my eye on this league--teams have set rotations and are going well. Are we really starting Quincy Acy @ PF? The guy was a role player for a 25 win team.

Not sure where you are coming from with the Acy reference.

I think he's played very well the past few games and is a good fit with Shumpert & Dally as defensive minded players in the starting line-up.

Last night the Knicks ended the 1st quarter up 23-11 (and scored their most points in Q1 with Acy starting). He played 27 minutes and had 6 boards - what is the issue with that. You are understating the impact a solid role player can have in terms of making a group function well together.

History is littered with very good teams that have started non-scoring defensive minded - high energy PFs.

Acy is doing fine in my book - he isn't perfect but with that starting unit we basically have Melo doing most of the scoring and Calderon/Shump adding in where possible. We aren't going to win any games by out-scoring teams in the 1st quarter --- need to produce the whole game and balance/role players are part of the equation.

EnySpree wrote:So how do we fix it if we lack scoring so badly?

Change the offense back to hero ball?

Not sure I understand the concern. The scoring should increase as we play our core rotation players normal minutes. So far Fish has been doing a lot of experimenting and that should go away by the time we get to the regular season.