Uptown wrote:

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:

Uptown wrote:Nevermind the insane conspiracy theories....Lets get back to talking real basketball. Several things were highlighted last night thats been going on for a while that need to be cleaned up....

First, not sure why the Knicks have adapted the philosophy of doubling the post espoecially vs. teams tha lack interior threats. Case and point, last night the Knicks repeatedly doubled Lee and even doubled Ezeli in the post. Neither evokes memories of Moses Malone because they do not have a back to the basket game to speak of. So, we doubled them in the post, they swung it out, 2 passes later Klay Thompson one of the best shooters in the league has open 3's in the corner. That is an assinine game plan vs a team that rely's heavily on the perimeter Jay. You stay at home vs. a tream like that. We were defeated the moment that game plan was printed and handed out to the players.

Second, the idea of switch everything or allowing the players to call it is not a good idea. Woodson is a Bobby Knight disciple and Knights philosphy was to switch on picks while at Indy. Not a bad theory when you are coaching college kids who for the most part have similar skill sets and are of similar size. Cant do that in the NBA vs. elite players. How many times are we going to see Chandler stuck on an Island vs a pg? Or Felton stuck behind a big in the paint? Switching is good occasionally to catch the other team off guard but we cant use a steady diet of it. Every now and then, we will trap the high PNR but not enough. That is the best strategy to defend the PNR, imo and we've had success doing it. just need to do that more often.

Third, we are most effective on offense when we get dribble penetration. Felton is the key to our offense. He's most aggressive when Melo is out and he seems to take mor eonto his shoulders. He need s to maintain that same aggressievness. The same aggressiveness he had earlier in the year. He and JR are the only ones who can consistantly collapse the defense and kick or draw contact. We need to get back to that. We have a few sets that we run occasionally, like Horns, High PNR and that triple pick at the top of the key that we run when Novak is in, but we need a play that gets Melo on the move a little more. Maybe some flex cuts on back picks.

All in all, I Think we'll be okay, but I'm a little concerned about our health, lack of energy at times and the defensive lapses we have on more often than not. This road trip could plummet us back to the pack so we really need to pick it up before we return home.

Uptown nailed it.

I was going to post this after the Cleveland game where we got HAMMERED in the 1st half with nonsensical double teams but decided not to cuz I got lazy and because we won that game. I thought Woodson made adjustments and that problem was behind us.

Here are the pics from that game to illustrate it:

Kyrie passes to Luke Walton in transition.

Amare decides to help Shump, which KIND of makes sense because his man hasn't made it down court yet.
Raymond Felton also looking at Walton. Why? Beats me.

At this point, JR Smith decides to come down and help. Good thing Kyrie Irving didn't just destroy all comers in the 3 pt shootout right before this game. Because then it wouldn't be crazy to leave him and Alonzo Gee WIDE OPEN right?

Right?

At this point, every single Knicks player is either looking at or within arms reach of Luke Walton. This makes sense as the entire defensive game plan from Coach Mike Woodson surely centered on stopping Luke Walton at all costs.

The ball is passed to Gee, but the attention of all 5 Knick defenders has successfully confused Luke Walton to pass the ball to Gee instead of Irving. That Gee knocks the shot down is of no consequence. You don’t abandon a solid game plan just because it leads to 80% of the other team’s players being wide open. Stick with your principles.

Good use of Pics to illustrate some defensive flaws. I think the Knicks thought it was Bill and not Luke in the post. No need to help at all on Luke Walton in the post, let him and his 3 pts per prove that he can beat you before the whole team exerts their attention on him.

The general rule of man to man defense is if your are one pass way, your are in position to help your teammate and still be able to recover back to your man, two passes away sag into the lane towards the ball to help but never lose sight of your man. In those pics, clearly Stat lost complete sight of his man....JR should have been the one helping on Walton if thats what Woodson wanted because he was closer to the ball and his man was a straight line away from the ball (Walton) making it a difficult pass back out....

Dude there are so many more instances from that game that I have pics of.

Mike Woodson appears to be superior to MDA in terms of communicating with and relating to his players.

Defense:
I HATE that he seems to preach switching without even trying to fight over screens.
Not sure what's going on with the double teaming.
How much of that is the team simply being built with Melo, Amare, and JR Smith. These are all players who either have a bad rep as defenders and definitely have never been accused of studying film/leading their teams defensively.
It seemed like Woodson would have learned about defense under Larry Brown as part of that lockdown Pistons squad.

Offense:
Was really concerned with inability to even find a way to get the ball into Melo's hands during Celtics and Heat playoff series.
How much of that was a complete lack of a PG though?
With a Melo approved veteran PG in Felton that excuse is gone this season.

Is it roster? Is it coaching? Both? Could Larry Brown or say Jerry Sloan be getting this team to execute better on both ends? Would those coaches be feuding with Melo and JR?