O'quinn and noah should play about 18 mpg each off the bench with a few minutes here and there sharing the court to keep small ball on the court for close to half of the game.

Lance can start for now but a better forward is needed. PJ tucker would be perfect short term either at the deadline or as a free agent.

Draft could also bring a nice forward if we miss out on the PGs. Either Anunoby or Miles would be perfect long term.

It's really so simple.

Knixkik wrote:

magicTs wrote:Would also be great of we could play a short handed Bulls team game after game They look even more mediocre than us!

Agreed. It wasn't a special win or anything, but it showed us the obvious.

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

magicTs wrote:Would also be great of we could play a short handed Bulls team game after game They look even more mediocre than us!

Agreed. It wasn't a special win or anything, but it showed us the obvious.

And it was on the tail end of a back to back for the Knicks.

More important than the competition was the methodology. It was CRYSTAL CLEAR that the paint was wide open based on the way the Knicks spaced out. Ordinarily the Knicks played Packed in tight with each other and they would make predictable long passes and no real movement.

The difference tonight was that the guards started the offense much further back behind the 3pt line.
They had two guys in the corners and a WIDE OPEN PAINT. This exaggerated spacing made it impossible to give help. IF Jeff can help them keep this style of ball they will win games. Tomorrow I'm gonna do some breakdowns of what they changed. I just hope they keep playing this style.

The scored 104pts. They give up 109 on average. Their offense wasn't really good enough to win against a good shooting team. How many games have they lost 118-112 this year? The offense has not been the problem. The problem is the defense and allowing too many wide open corner threes. They won because the Bulls missed them. The Bulls shot 3/18 from three. How many times have the Knicks allowed their opposition to shoot 13/22 from 3 or something.

I think the OP was correct - Melo is really a four. Their defense moves better around the perimeter with Melo at the 4. The spacing is better on offense, too. We've known this for years, since 2012-3 season. But Melo has stubbornly insisted staying at the SF. He made the Knicks get Bargnani and ever since then we've been a mediocre team. Woodson figured out how to play with Melo four years ago. Melo is the guy who doesn't want to play the PF. To be fair he seems to get injured a lot more at that position.

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

magicTs wrote:Would also be great of we could play a short handed Bulls team game after game They look even more mediocre than us!

Agreed. It wasn't a special win or anything, but it showed us the obvious.

And it was on the tail end of a back to back for the Knicks.

More important than the competition was the methodology. It was CRYSTAL CLEAR that the paint was wide open based on the way the Knicks spaced out. Ordinarily the Knicks played Packed in tight with each other and they would make predictable long passes and no real movement.

The difference tonight was that the guards started the offense much further back behind the 3pt line.
They had two guys in the corners and a WIDE OPEN PAINT. This exaggerated spacing made it impossible to give help. IF Jeff can help them keep this style of ball they will win games. Tomorrow I'm gonna do some breakdowns of what they changed. I just hope they keep playing this style.

The scored 104pts. They give up 109 on average. Their offense wasn't really good enough to win against a good shooting team. How many games have they lost 118-112 this year? The offense has not been the problem. The problem is the defense and allowing too many wide open corner threes. They won because the Bulls missed them. The Bulls shot 3/18 from three. How many times have the Knicks allowed their opposition to shoot 13/22 from 3 or something.

I think the OP was correct - Melo is really a four. Their defense moves better around the perimeter with Melo at the 4. The spacing is better on offense, too. We've known this for years, since 2012-3 season. But Melo has stubbornly insisted staying at the SF. He made the Knicks get Bargnani and ever since then we've been a mediocre team. Woodson figured out how to play with Melo four years ago. Melo is the guy who doesn't want to play the PF. To be fair he seems to get injured a lot more at that position.

I agree - but do you really think it's Melo who doesn't want to play 4?

And if that is the case, then we have to find a player like a Draymond Green - a mobile strong defensive player that can play & guard either 3 or 4- so we can play Melo at the 4 and allow him to take the weaker of the 3/4 on the opponents.

And why the heck doesn't Kuzminskas get minutes every game? He is the only player on this squad that can hit the open 3 ptr every single time.

franco12 wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

magicTs wrote:Would also be great of we could play a short handed Bulls team game after game They look even more mediocre than us!

Agreed. It wasn't a special win or anything, but it showed us the obvious.

And it was on the tail end of a back to back for the Knicks.

More important than the competition was the methodology. It was CRYSTAL CLEAR that the paint was wide open based on the way the Knicks spaced out. Ordinarily the Knicks played Packed in tight with each other and they would make predictable long passes and no real movement.

The difference tonight was that the guards started the offense much further back behind the 3pt line.
They had two guys in the corners and a WIDE OPEN PAINT. This exaggerated spacing made it impossible to give help. IF Jeff can help them keep this style of ball they will win games. Tomorrow I'm gonna do some breakdowns of what they changed. I just hope they keep playing this style.

The scored 104pts. They give up 109 on average. Their offense wasn't really good enough to win against a good shooting team. How many games have they lost 118-112 this year? The offense has not been the problem. The problem is the defense and allowing too many wide open corner threes. They won because the Bulls missed them. The Bulls shot 3/18 from three. How many times have the Knicks allowed their opposition to shoot 13/22 from 3 or something.

I think the OP was correct - Melo is really a four. Their defense moves better around the perimeter with Melo at the 4. The spacing is better on offense, too. We've known this for years, since 2012-3 season. But Melo has stubbornly insisted staying at the SF. He made the Knicks get Bargnani and ever since then we've been a mediocre team. Woodson figured out how to play with Melo four years ago. Melo is the guy who doesn't want to play the PF. To be fair he seems to get injured a lot more at that position.

I agree - but do you really think it's Melo who doesn't want to play 4?

And if that is the case, then we have to find a player like a Draymond Green - a mobile strong defensive player that can play & guard either 3 or 4- so we can play Melo at the 4 and allow him to take the weaker of the 3/4 on the opponents.

And why the heck doesn't Kuzminskas get minutes every game? He is the only player on this squad that can hit the open 3 ptr every single time.

We can find that Draymond player you are describing. PJ tucker is a short term solution. OG Anunoby and miles bridges are late lottery/mid 1st round prospects who can do it long term. Bridges especially also has playmaking abilities. He's from mich st, could be the next Draymond. Long term, this is the answer. Melo can still be useful here as a stretch 4. Spacing would be amazing. Porzingis will eventually be a mismatch nightmare st the 5.

BRIGGS wrote:What did we learn?
That Kuz and oquinn deserve big roles
That we need a quality pro Sg or 2
That Courtney Lee is a bench player
That we need to let kp completely heal

Given the current record I'd like to see us ride more with the young guys. With KP out now is a perfect excuse to see what Kuz brings to the table.

franco12 wrote:

Welpee wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:What did we learn?
That Kuz and oquinn deserve big roles
That we need a quality pro Sg or 2
That Courtney Lee is a bench player
That we need to let kp completely heal

1) Totally agree, especially Kuz. I also think Willy and Holiday deserve more burn and Thomas deserves more bench time.
2) & 3)I don't care what the stats say, Lee hasn't been as lights out as his stats indicate. And his defense hasn't been as good as advertised. Yeah, it would be great if we had a better option and he came off the bench.
4) Maybe I missed it but have they actually performed an MRI on KP's achilles? I don't remember reading anything about an MRI and if they haven't isn't it about time?

Given the current record I'd like to see us ride more with the young guys. With KP out now is a perfect excuse to see what Kuz brings to the table.

If we had made no moves in the off season outside of maybe bringing in some of the guys that came free (Willy, Kuz) and went with Lopez and Calderon - would our record be much worse?

Everyone here justified the overpaying of Noah by saying we got Lee on a discount? Really?

Can folks man up at this point and basically admit to themselves that Noah and Lee are albatross contracts, and no amount of salary cap increase is ever going to erase the harm they are doing as far as trying to build in the future.

I agree about Noah even if I admit I had high hope he would anchor the defense far better than he is.
However Lee was an integral part of a nice team in Charlotte last year. He was considered a good (not great) 3 and d guy. I don't think he suddenly forgot to play as soon as he came in NY. You look better on defense when the whole lineup plays defense. Lee shares the floor with Melo and Rose.

franco12 wrote:

Welpee wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:What did we learn?
That Kuz and oquinn deserve big roles
That we need a quality pro Sg or 2
That Courtney Lee is a bench player
That we need to let kp completely heal

1) Totally agree, especially Kuz. I also think Willy and Holiday deserve more burn and Thomas deserves more bench time.
2) & 3)I don't care what the stats say, Lee hasn't been as lights out as his stats indicate. And his defense hasn't been as good as advertised. Yeah, it would be great if we had a better option and he came off the bench.
4) Maybe I missed it but have they actually performed an MRI on KP's achilles? I don't remember reading anything about an MRI and if they haven't isn't it about time?

Given the current record I'd like to see us ride more with the young guys. With KP out now is a perfect excuse to see what Kuz brings to the table.

If we had made no moves in the off season outside of maybe bringing in some of the guys that came free (Willy, Kuz) and went with Lopez and Calderon - would our record be much worse?

Everyone here justified the overpaying of Noah by saying we got Lee on a discount? Really?

Can folks man up at this point and basically admit to themselves that Noah and Lee are albatross contracts, and no amount of salary cap increase is ever going to erase the harm they are doing as far as trying to build in the future.